UFC 168 Aftermath: Broken Legs, Armbars and Elbows

UFC 168 went down last night, at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas and delivered an exciting night of action. The card was very highly anticipated due to the Middleweight title rematch between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman; a bout that had a rather unsavoury ending, but overall I enjoyed the event.

With such a monumental, year ending card there is always going to be points of contention; which brings me to my first point:

Spider’s leg is a bad ending to the greatest career

What happened last night in the main event was nothing short of horrific; Anderson Silva snapped his leg in the second round of his title shot, ending his hopes for title glory and possibly his career. This was a bad end to the event, and 2013 for the UFC for a few key reasons.

Firstly, Silva is/was a huge draw for the UFC. The amount of Brazilian’s at last night’s event tells a story in itself, but also PPV buys are often sky rocketing when Silva fights. So the promotion has lost two marquee fighters in two months, and Silva’s injury couldn’t have come at a worse time.

On the very same evening that the UFC announces it’s latest product ‘Fight Pass’, a digital subscription service, their biggest remaining attraction snaps his leg. Not only was this a gruesome insight in to the reality of MMA, but it also makes for bad press on such a huge evening. This changing of the guard in MMA could be great for new fighters, but who will step in to truly replace Silva and GSP as big draws? The two legends were mainstays for the promotion for the last seven years, and that is a big gap to fill.

2013 may have been a great year for MMA action, but I bet Dana White wished UFC 168’s main event could have finished differently.

Travis Browne is a nasty, elbowing, scary heavyweight

There was a lot of talk in the lead up to Browne and Barnett’s HW battle last night, and a lot of it was focused on ‘Warmaster’ having more experience and being the better wrestler; none of which came in to play at 168. The younger, hungrier lion just proved too much for JB, who was dispatched in just one minute.

Browne stalked Barnett with quick hooks, stuffing all takedown attempts and eventually landing in a clinch against the cage. In a carbon copy of his fight against Gabriel Gonzaga, Browne spread against the cage as Barnett shot in and just unleashed the fury on ‘Warmaster’. Five flush elbows to the temple later, and Barnett is sleeping. Fabricio Werdum is in trouble in my opinion anyway.

Ronda Rousey is just that good

The fan storm that swirled around Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate was a new high for Women’s MMA. It likely helped draw a ton of attention to the division and it also displayed just how good WMMA can be. Another point I’d make is that a lot of people doubted Rousey ahead of this fight, and she kicked some ass.

People were talking about Tate being as good in the grappling, a better striker and better wrestler. As it turned out, Rousey is just a lot better than Tate. There is no doubt in my mind that Rousey has a chance at retiring unbeaten. Don’t get me wrong, it was a back and forth fight last night-but also won that Rousey won, by arm bar, again. JUST AS I PREDICTED, well kinda.

A few musing points; Uriah Hall is just too nice! He apologized after beating Chris Leben in to submission, quite unnecessarily, and proved once again that he is the nicest guy on the world that could cuit your head off with his leg. Props to Dustin Poirer for beating up that fat guy, to Michael Johnson for most improved fighter, and to John Howard and Siyar Bahadurzada for reminding us what a fight between two pensioners at a swap-meet is like.