UFC Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights Review - Disc 2, Part 2

And here we go, finishing up the second part of Disc 2 of the UFC Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights box set. You can find my reviews of Disc 1 here and here, while Part 1 of Disc 2 is here.

79. UFC 69: Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre: No video packages for this one but the back story, of course, is that Serra was the welterweight winner of that season's The Ultimate Fighter show, which promised a title shot to each of the winners of the show in the 170 and 185 lbs. weight classes.

The hopefuls that season were guys who had previous UFC experience under their belts but for one reason or another never really broke through to become superstars. It was an interesting concept, but it made for a terrible season of TV - instead of the usual wackiness and hijinx that make TUF so entertaining, we got a house full of professional fighters who just wanted to train. As a result, it was the only season of TUF that I actually quit watching before it was over.

So, at any rate, Serra is the designated lamb to the slaughter here, as GSP destro- ... oh, wait, that's right. Serra forgot about that part and won the welterweight title in about 3 minutes. I'm trying to think of a bigger championship upset in UFC history and drawing a blank. Well, as Mike Goldberg said, give the man his moment of glory. He beat GSP fair and square.

78. UFC 76: Keith Jardine vs. Chuck Liddell: YACLF (Yet Another Chuck Liddell Fight) and it's an interesting one, as Jardine is one of these guys who is either going to surprise you by overperforming against a guy to whom he's supposed to lose and beat him, or underperform and lose to a guy he's in there to beat. Guess which one this is? Jardine, it must be said, fights like he's auditioning for the role of Frankenstein's monster. The first round is all Chuck, as he just beats the heck out of Jardine.

Round two, however, is all Jardine, as Chuck shows nothing and Jardine manages to figure out Chuck's rather one-dimensional fighting style. (Indeed, how did it take UFC fighters so long to figure out that every Chuck Liddell fight is exactly the same and that Chuck basically has one game plan and that's to hit the one-punch knockout, and if you can take him off that game plan, he's useless.)

Round 3 is more of the same, as Chuck stands there and gets hit by Jardine. After spending most of Round 3 dancing around the subject, Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan are forced to admit that maybe, just maybe, Jardine won the fight on points. Gee, you think? Yet, amazingly, it's a split decision, as one judge actually declared that Liddell won 2 rounds. Nonetheless, Jardine gets the well-deserved split decision victory, and Liddell's career continues its decline.

77. Silva vs. Irvin: Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin: This fight saw middleweight champion Anderson Silva move up to light heavyweight for the fun of it, really. And he just destroys Irvin in, like, a minute. It probably took me longer to type this. Highlight of the short match is Mike Goldberg declaring that Silva's "precision is really precise." Uh-huh.

76. UFC 42: Matt Hughes vs. Sean Sherk: UFC includes a loooong video package, which basically boils down to Sherk bragging that he's undefeated, and Hughes shrugging and saying he's beaten a lot of undefeated guys. This is for Matt's welterweight title. Your commentators are Joe Rogan and ... Phil Baroni? I'm not sure, but it's someone who is obsessed with Matt Lindland, and Lindland's fight record and timeline would suggest Baroni. Hughes wins a comfortable 5-round decision. Post-fight is notable for the fact that Dana White has hair, instead of his usual shaved head.

75. UFC 1: Royce Gracie vs. Gerard Gordeau: And we go right back to the first UFC for the final match of their tournament. There are about 17 people in the announcers booth for some reason. Gracie chokes Gordeau out in under 2 minutes. He wins $50,000. A historic fight for all sorts of reasons. Post-fight, Gracie says his strategy is not to get hit because he doesn't like to get hit. Indeed. Good strategy, that.

74. UFC 58: Rich Franklin vs. David Loiseau: This is an amazing fight for several reasons. First, it's the fight that broke David Loiseau as a fighter. He was never the same after this. Second, it's as dominant a one-sided beating as you're ever going to see in a five-round fight. And finally, Franklin fought the final three rounds with a broken left hand, and still, Loiseau only got about a minute of total offence in the entire fight. It's almost unbelievable how ridiculously outclassed Loiseau was in this fight. Goldberg and Rogan kept calling Loiseau a "warrior" because he never quit. Well, he never actually started fighting, either, nevermind quitting. Franklin won by scores of 50-43, 50-42, 50-42. More like 50-0, really.

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