by Jim Markley

Created on: March 05, 2007   Last Updated: April 27, 2007

For those unfamiliar, U.F.C. stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship. It is a combination of boxing, wrestling and martial arts and is rapidly overtaking professional boxing in popularity. The spectacle Saturday night can only add to this growing sport's momentum.
The card featured two ex-world champions, plus a five round battle for the heavyweight championship of the world. The preliminaries were exciting as well with several tension packed matches on tap prior to the marquee match ups.

The first feature saw Chris Lytle run head first into a grappling buzz saw in the person of ex-world champion Matt Hughes. This was the least entertaining of the three features due mainly to Lytle's apparent contentment with simply not being forced to submit. Hughes was dominant throughout and the result was never in serious doubt.
Next up was another former champ, Rich Franklin, versus Jason McDonald. On paper, this appeared to be the most intriguing match-up of the night. Franklin was coming back after a poor performance in a knockout loss to Anderson Silva while McDonald had been impressive in his last two bouts against young upcoming talent.
Sometimes things don't work in real life the way they should on paper... Rich Franklin was absolutely overpowering. He used his superior upper body strength to keep McDonald, and his dangerous submissions, at bay until he could find the range with his fists. Once he did, a knockout was inevitable. McDonald barely survived the second round only to see his corner throw in the throw prior to round three.
At this point, a very exciting and successful pay-for-view experience was lifted into the realm of legend. The final match was between Heavyweight World Champion Tim "The Beast" Silvia and Randy "The Natural" Couture. Silvia is 30 years old, 6 foot 8 and 268 lbs, Couture is 43 years old, 6 foot 2 and 220 lbs. Obviously, "The tale of the tape" was ALL Silvia. Someone forgot to tell Randy...it took Couture all of ten seconds to deposit the much larger Silvia on his backside with a powerhouse right hook. From that point on Couture dominated the champion with a combination of take-downs and superior boxing. Silvia was clearly frustrated and confused by what this "old man" was doing to him. By the end of the fifth round, Silvia could not see out of his left eye and was clearly exhausted. The fight ended with the crowd chanting "Randy, Randy" and a unanimous decision for Couture.
Events like this one will continue to raise the bar for the UFC as they build the brand and steal fans from boxing and professional wrestling. Let there be no doubt, this is neither staged nonsense like wrestling, nor boring jab-fests like pro boxing. The athletes are real, well-rounded and explosive. They are deadly serious about beating each other in order to move up the ladder and score a slot in a main event. For my money, the talent, diversity and excitement shown in the UFC makes it the "one to watch".

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