UFC 112 "Invincible" Re-Cap

UFC 112: Invincible
Yas Island
Abu Dhabi
April 10, 2010

This show is highlighted by two of the top Pound for Pound fighters, Anderson Silva and B.J. Penn, defending their titles. Demian Maia and Frankie Edgar have a shot tonight to shock the world with major upsets. Matt Hughes takes on Renzo Gracie in the other feature fight on this show. As always Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan are your announcers for the show. At the outset of the show Rogan calls Anderson Silva the greatest fighter to ever fight in MMA and BJ Penn the greatest lightweight to ever walk the face of the earth. This show is outdoors!

Middleweight Fight- Kendall Grove (13-6) vs. Mark Munoz (7-1)

Grove has won 3 of his last 4 and had an impressive submission victory over Jake Rosholt at UFC 106. Munoz is still very young in this sport but was in WEC before he entered the octagon. Munoz was welcomed to the UFC by a Matt Hamill head kick but since has rallied to win two in a row. Munoz is considered the betting favorite in this fight. Grove has a 6″ height and 8″ reach advantage. I would be surprised if Munoz wasn’t significantly stronger.

R1- Munoz got a quick take down about half way through the round but Grove was able to get back to his feet. Grove caught Munoz coming in with a right and briefly floored him. Munoz clamped onto a leg to recover and Grove landed some strikes. Munoz went for a take down and Grove sprawled and briefly got a choke but lost it. Munoz landed a couple of strikes but then got taken down in a guillotine attempt and Munoz slipped out. Grove grabbed another guillotine towards the end of the round but couldn’t hold it. Good first round. Grove 10-9.

R2- Munoz ate a knee coming in for a take down and Kendall tried to get an arm bar but Munoz slipped out and took top position. Munoz lands some good strikes from the guard. Munoz opened up with a barrage of Ground and Pound strikes on Grove and got the ref stoppage. Really good come back by Munoz.

Winner: Mark Munoz by TKO (Strikes) R2 2:50

Lightweight Fight- Terry Etim (14-2) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (13-4)

Etim is on a 4-fight win streak but doesn’t have any wins that really stand out. dos Anjos is on a 2-fight win streak and also doesn’t have any big wins that stand out. The winner of this will be looking at a big step up in competition for their next fight. dos Anjos lost to Tyson Griffin and Jeremy Stephens when he stepped up in competition and since then has 2 decision victories over lesser opponents. Etim has finished 3 of his last 4 fights. Terry Etim is the favorite to win this fight. Etim has a 4″ height and 2″ reach advantage.

R1- Etim grabbed a guillotine and pulled guard on a take down attempt. Etim kept the move on for about two minutes but dos Anjos was able to get out of the submission. The referee warns dos Anjos for striking Etim in the spine and stands them up. Etim 10-9.

R2- Etim caught dos Anjos with a knee but dos Anjos got a quick take down. dos Anjos just controlled this round from the top position. dos Anjos worked hard and got an arm bar submission to win the fight. Good finish and win for dos Anjos.

Winner: Rafael dos Anjos by Submission (Arm Bar) R2 4:30

Phil Davis vs. Alexander Gustafsson

This is from the pre-show. Davis is wearing some sweet neon pink trunks. Rogan says Davis looks like “a giant GSP”.

R1- Lots of grappling in this first round. Davis finally got a take down with about a minute left in the round and dropped some elbows. Davis was able to grab a choke and finished the fight as the first round was coming to an end. Nice showing by Davis.

Winner: Phil Davis by Submission (Anaconda Choke) R1 4:55

Georges St-Pierre is at the show tonight and Rogan says GSP has an interesting eye on the Main Event because Anderson Silva has talked about dropping down to 170.

Welterweight Fight- Matt Hughes (44-7) vs. Renzo Gracie (13-6-1)

Hughes was last in the octagon in May of 2009 and struggled to a decision victory over Matt Serra. Before that he posted back-to-back losses to GSP and Thiago Alves but those are 2 of the top 3 guys in the division and Hughes took the Alves fight despite Alves missing weight by a wide margin. The last I saw of Renzo Gracie was a DQ victory against Frank Shamrock in a controversial fight.

R1- Renzo landed some strikes early. Surprising first round, not a ton of action and the entire round was spend standing. I’d give that round to Renzo 10-9.

R2- Hughes got double under hooks and tried a take down but Renzo denied it. Hughes is finding a home for some leg kicks. Hughes was more aggressive in this round and finished strong. After two rounds I’ve got the fight scored 19-19.

R3- Hughes grabbed Renzo in a Muay Thai clinch and then released and landed some good shots. Hughes backed off but when they came back together he landed some more shots that wobbled Renzo. Hughes kicks Renzo’s leg out from under him twice. Hughes is continuing to pepper the leg and lands a couple good strikes as well and then floors Renzo with another strike. Hughes just goes to town on Renzo at the end of the round and finishes the fight. Renzo showed heart but he was just no match for Hughes once the fight got into the final round.

Winner: Matt Hughes by TKO (Strikes) R3 4:40

UFC Lightweight Championship Fight: B.J. Penn (c) (15-5-1) vs. Frankie Edgar (11-1)

B.J. Penn recently dispatched of the #2 guy in the division (Kenny Florian) and also decimated Diego Sanchez in short order. Edgar’s signature win was over former champion Sean Sherk. His last win was over Matt Veach. Penn has a 3″ height advantage and Edgar has a 2″ reach advantage.

R1- Edgar is doing a good job moving around early. Edgar went for a take down and ate a couple of strikes. BJ started to find the range towards the end of the round. Fairly even first round. I’ve got Penn 10-9. Edgar opened a small cut under one of BJ’s eyes.

R2- Edgar continued to bounce around the cage as Penn took the middle. Edgar was able to get Penn to the ground for like half a second before Penn got up. Close round but Penn seemed to have landed more strikes. I’ve got Penn 20-18 but both have been close rounds.

R3- Penn landed a good combination early in the round when Edgar came in for a strike. Edgar still bouncing around just as much as he did in the first round. Really close round. I’ve got Penn up 30-27 but by the slimmest of margins. Penn’s corner tells him it’s “about 2 to 1″.

R4- Edgar pushed Penn back to the cage and landed a couple of strikes toward the end of the round. Another difficult round to score for the judges. This was probably Edgar’s best round as Penn looks to be tiring a bit. I’ve got it 39-37 Penn through 4 rounds. I wish the UFC used CompuStrike for fights like this that look so close.

R5- Edgar got a take down in the first thirty seconds of the round but Penn got up very quickly. Penn had not been taken down at Lightweight in over 6 years before that. Frankie landed a good right half way through the round. Penn stuffed a couple of take down attempts. Frankie’s cardio really helping him out in this round as he’s still bouncing around Penn. BJ came on with some strikes at the end of the fight. Good fight but neither guy came close to finishing. I’ve got Penn taking the fight in a close one 48 to 47. Really impressive performance by Frankie Edgar as he did much better than anybody anticipated.

Judges score cards: 50-45, 48-47 and 49-46 in favor of Frankie Edgar

Wow! Now that was a shocking decision. But I guess that’s why you don’t leave it in the judges hands. I’m partial to the saying “you have to beat the man to be the man” so on razor close rounds I tend to favor the champion. I guess these judges didn’t see it that way. 50-45 is more than a little shocking of a score card. Congrats to Frankie Edgar he definitely defied the odds. Now that B.J. is not the champ anymore I bet Gray Maynard starts campaigning for a title fight.

Winner and new champion: Frankie Edgar by Decision (Unanimous)

UFC Middleweight Championship Fight: Anderson Silva (c) (25-4) vs. Demian Maia (12-1)

Anderson Silva has certainly not wowed anybody with his last two title fights (Thales Leites and Patrick Cote) but he was amazing in his last fight against Forrest Griffin. Despite posting a record of 6-1 inside the Octagon there is no question that Demian Maia backed his way into this title fight. Maia is one of the best submission fighters on the planet but his stand-up game was brutally exposed when he lost to Nate Marquardt in 21 seconds in UFC 102 and his wrestling is nowhere near the level of his jiu jitsu. Maia is only getting this title fight because Marquardt was manhandled by Chael Sonnen (although Maia did easily beat Sonnen) at UFC 109 and Vitor Belfort is on the shelf recovering from an injury. Rogan says Anderson Silva was wearing a shirt today that said “Trust Me, I’m a Jedi”. Silva has a 2″ height and 5.5″ reach advantage. They show GSP while Silva is being introduced and he waves to the camera.

R1- Anderson just dancing around and throwing a strike here or there and basically daring Maia to come at him. Anderson is just playing with Maia and clowning with him. Anderson lands a flying knee and Maia stays on his back for a while. Anderson 10-9. It really seemed like Maia only survived that round because Anderson wanted him to.

R2- Anderson is coming at Maia with some crazy stances. Maia tries for a few take downs and gets swatted off. Anderson stands in the middle of the ring half way through the round and motions for Maia to “bring it”. Anderson looks like he is getting mad and talking trash to Maia. Anderson is landing strikes at will when he wants to. Anderson 20-18.

“This must be terrifying for Demian Maia”- Joe Rogan

R3- Maia’s face is busted up going into the round. Not much going on in this round. Anderson has one sequence where he really went after Maia. Other than that it was a bunch of leg kicks and Anderson waiting for Maia to engage. Anderson 30-27.

R4- The crowd is growing a little restless of Anderson’s antics as they have a small “Maia” chant and a bigger “GSP” chant. Anderson doing a lot of dancing around and landing an occasional strike. Big chant for “Maia” towards the end of the round. Maia holds up his hands questioning Silva at the end of the round. Rogan points out that Dana White walked up to Silva’s manager at the end of this round “upset”. Rogan laso points out that Maia’s left eye is almost completely shut. He says sometimes this can happen if you have a broken nose and you blow your nose. Interesting. Anderson 40-36.

“This is the kind of stuff that drives Dana White nuts”- Joe Rogan

R5- Maia came in and threw some strikes and got a huge pop from the crowd. Maia is swinging for the fences. Crowd is chanting “Maia”. Maia grabbed a hold of Anderson up against the cage but couldn’t hold onto him when he tried to get him to the mat. Dan Mirgliatta calls time and tells Anderson Silva that if he keeps running around that he will take a point away from him. Fans boo after the bell rings. Maia might have taken that round but it’s a no brainer as to who won the fight. The fans turned on Anderson in this fight and even chanted “Maia” after the fight. That’s one of the strangest fights you will see.

Judges score card: scores are not announced but it is announced as a unanimous decision for Anderson Silva.