T-Dubb's UFC 105 Recap

This was an exciting fight card. We finally got to see some of the fighters of TUF 9 and everyone that I picked to win fought well, dominated their fights and won. I’ve recapped the fights that were shown on Spike TV. It definitely was a good night.


Andre Winner vs. Rolando Delgado
Quick win for Winner. He showed his confidence by dropping his hands to his side quite often, which lucky for him Delgado didn’t take advantage and sneak in some shots. There was a good exchange of punches and kicks by both fighters, but Winner was able show off the quickness of his hands by clocking Delgado and knocking him down. The last shot dropped Delgado like a tree and gave Winner the win by knock out.

Alexander Gustafsson vs. Jared Hamman

Thank goodness for DVR cause I blinked and missed the knock out. Gustafsson accidently poked Hamman in the eye so the ref stopped the fight briefly. Right after they touched gloves Gustafsson threw punch square in the face and finished Hamman for the win. Hamman obviously wasn’t ready. He should have taken an extra sec to recover and then come out ready to bob and weave, instead of standing there directly in front of Gustafsson with his hands open. This has to be knockout of the night.

Ross Pearson vs. Aaron Riley
The much awaited debut of Ross Pearson was better than expected. He looked so hot and delicious, I had to watch his fight 3 times because I couldn't stop drooling.

At the beginning of the first round Ross quickly found his flow, which allowed for him to dominate Riley immediately. Ross was relentless as he landed a constant stream of punches, knees and kicks on Riley. Round two was much of the same. At the beginning of the round it seemed that Riley was finally going to put on a show when he had Pearson against the fence, but Ross was able to push him away and land some punches and knees to get back into his dominate flow. As the round goes on, Ross catches Riley with a flying knee that smashes Riley's nose and causes the referee to stop the fight for a doctor to check him out. The cut is too severe for Riley to continue, so Ross earns his first official win in the UFC. Even if the fight continued to the end of the third round, Ross would have mostly like dominated throughout and won by unanimous decision.

This is my pick for fight of the night. Pearson showed that he will be a force to be reckoned with in the future and could possibly win a title one day if he keeps up the good work.

James Wilks vs. Matt Brown
First round begins and Matt starts off with a leg kick right away. Wilks attempts a rear naked choke but lets go and then attempts to take Brown down, but Matt defends the take down well. Wilks delivers a nice leg kick to Brown’s head. Forty seconds left and Brown has a guillotine hold but Wilks gets out of it. Second round starts with flying a knee which knocks Wilks to the ground, and Brown is all over him. Wilks locks a hold of Brown’s leg but Brown gets out of it and attempts another standing guillotine. Round 3 Brown is able to get out of a kimura attempt somehow, mounts Wilks and pounds him until the referee stops the fight for the TKO. I was surprised that Wilks did so well throughout the fight. He was obviously injured and slowed down a bit, but he didn’t let that stop him from challenging Brown every step of the way.

Michael Bisping vs. Denis Kang

I was most excited for this fight because this was great matchup and also because I LOVE Bisping. He's an amazing fighter and I can't get over how fine he looks. Did you see 105 Countdown? I did multiple times. Gotta love guys with accents.

To start Bisping gets rocked in the first minute and half of the fight, which is a heart stopper. For a split second I had a flash back to the Dan Henderson fight and hoped that this is not a repeat. All is good though as he defends himself on the ground against Kang, who spends most of the time trying to get a full mount. Not much else happens in round and then the bell rings. Second round begins and 2 mins in Bisping takes Kang down and relentlessly unleashes punches on Kangs face. Kang manages to get up but Bisping takes him down again. Kangs face is bloody from the ground and pound punishment but he manages to break away again, which is short lived. Bisping takes him down for the umpteenth time and is all over Kang. Finally the referee stops the fight. Bisping wins by TKO. I hope this win shuts up all of the haters that were at UFC 100 booing him. Bisping is a great fighter and he proved that with this fight. Things will only get better for him.

Mike Swick vs. Dan Hardy
For marjority of the first round the guys were up against the fence. Swick was attempting to take Hardy down to the ground but was unsuccessful. There was an exchange of knees by both, and a brief exchange of punches, one of which was a right hand that landed on Hardy pretty good. At the start of the 2nd round Hardy rocks Swick, but Swick was able to recover. Again they’re up against the fence and Hardy tries to take down Swick to no avail, Hardy does land a nice upper cut. Swick attempts a high kick and slips, but hardy doesn’t take advantage. There was back and forth exchange of punches and kicks for the rest of the round. The 3rd starts with the guys slugging away. Hardy rocks Swick again but Swick recovers and attempts a guillotine, which Hardy gets out of easily. There were a few times in this fight that Hardy could have taken advantage of Swick, but for some reason did not. Although Mike was injured and tired, he managed to stay in the fight and challenge Hardy to the end. Hardy wins by unanimous decision.

Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera

I watched this fight a few times to see what everyone was gripping about. Do people really think that Vera was robbed in some way? This was not a controversial win for Couture. Yes Brandon came out in first round kicking and swinging right away, but other than defending takes down and a few kicks and punches, Vera didn’t do much. I knew that this was not going to be much of a fight. I did think that Couture would dominate but was hoping for more some ground and pound. Couture fought smart. He knew that Brandon could do some damage if he allowed for distance to be between them, so he kept him close and against the fence. As boring as it was, Randy did what he needed to do to win, and Brandon couldn’t do anything about it. To me Vera didn’t do much to prevent Couture from getting him up against the fence, and Couture made sure he got some punches in while they were hugging. In the second round Vera had the opportunity to punish Couture when he had a brief explosion of kicks and punches, which eventually knocked Couture down, but you could tell that Vera was tired. His punches were lazy while in top mount and he pretty much just rested on Couture until they were stood up. Everyone was all excited, but Vera couldn’t deliver the finish. The 3rd starts Couture starts pushing forward to get in and clocks Vera a few times to get him up against the fence again. Randy just dominates Vera in the 3rd round. Vera was able to get in some kicks and gets Randy on the ground with a weak take down but again nothing happens. There was an exchange of blows at the end, but too little too late. Brandon just didn’t do enough of anything, if anything all, to even get a split decision. Couture won all 3 rounds convincingly. I didn’t think that this was a good matchup to begin with. Vera is a good fighter, but not a great fighter, and I don’t see him holding a belt anytime soon. Not light heavyweight anyway. We’ll have to see what he does in his next fight, to see if he has the potential to make to the level of Machida. Maybe he should fight Tito next. Then again, Tito might beat his ass, so that might not be a good idea.

Speaking of Tito, don’t forget his fight November 21st against Forrest Griffin. This is a tough call as to who will win. We haven’t seen Tito fight in forever, and Forrest in coming off an upsetting loss to Silva. I’m rooting for Forrest, but either way it will be exciting to watch.

Until next time...

T-Dubb