Georges St. Pierre got his revenge on Matt Serra‘s upset victory last year by defeating him in the rematch by TKO in round 2 at UFC 83 tonight. GSP controlled the entire fight, opting to use his quick takedowns and wrestling to keep the fight on the ground and pound Matt Serra out. The final blows were some nasty looking knees to Matt Serra’s ribcage, and the referee stopped the fight because Serra quit defending.

The co-main event of the night was Rich Franklin vs. Travis Lutter. I was hoping for Lutter to win this fight, but evidently he has problems finishing armbars, because he had Franklin in what looked like a good armbar, but lost it. Travis Lutter just completely ran out of gas, and Franklin went to work, scoring a TKO victory in round 2.

Charles McCarthy vs. Michael Bisping went the way most people expected it to, with Bisping striking his way to victory. He looked really quick with his strikes, and McCarthy seemed to just cover up with his arms and wait for Bisping to quit striking, in return, I think McCarthy forearm got trashed. He was unable to continue after the completion of round 1.

The other main-card results were:

Mac Danzig def. Mark Bocek by submission (RNC) – Round 2
MIchael Bisping def. Charles McCarthy by TKO (injured arm) – Round 1
Nathan Quarry def. Kalib Starnes by Unanimous Decision – Round 3
Rich Franklin def. Travis Lutter by TKO (strikes) – Round 2
Georges St. Pierre def. Matt Serra by TKO (strikes) – Round 2

Here are the results from the UFC 83 Preliminary Fights:

 Jason MacDonald def. Joe Doerksen by TKO (strikes) – Round 2
 Jason Day def. Alan Belcher by TKO (strikes) – Round 1
 Demian Maia def. Ed Herman by submission (triangle) – Round 2
 Rich Clementi def. Sam Stout by split decision
 Cain Valesquez def. Brad Morris by TKO (strikes) – Round 1
 Jonathan Goulet def. Kuniyoshi Hironaka by TKO (strikes) – Round 2

Chuck Liddell

1. I hate their ring announcer. He sucks.

2. The cage is kinda cool.

3. Ricco Rodriguez is still fat.

4. Robert DeNiro was at Oleg Taktarov’s wedding.

5. I still hate the ring announcer. Somebody should choke him out.

6. Oleg by Kneebar.

7. Don’t fall down Butterbean!

8. I’m starting to kinda like the ring announcer.

Oleg Taktarov defeated Mark Kerr via KNEEBAR, round 1 at tonights YAMMA Pit Fighting debut event.

I can’t help it. It’s not UFC, most of the fighters might not be “top contenders” these days, and maybe it’s just a bit cheesy, but I am super excited about tonights YAMMA Pit Fighting debut. They’ve done a super job at making two “superfights” that I am anxious to see. I never thought I’d get to see Pat Smith and Eric “Butterbean” Esch fight. They really are two of my favorite fighters to watch, ever. I remember Pat Smith from the early UFC days when he would start a fight off by running across the cage and front-kicking some dude backwards, and of course I think most people remember his laying some vicious elbows across the face of a ninja by the name of Scott Morris.

Butterbean is just Butterbean. He will knock you the hell out.

The other “Superfight” is a match between Mark Kerr and Oleg Taktarov. I just saw Oleg recently in that movie Rockaway. For some reason, I’m thinking Oleg is going to win this just because I imagine he’s stayed in better shape over the years.

The rest of the event features a Heavyweight tournament. The fight card is as follows:

George Bush vs. Ricco Rodriguez
Marcelo Pereira vs. Travis Wiuff
Tony Sylvester vs. Chris Tuscherer
Alexey Oleinik vs. Sherman Pendergarst

Husband, father, and MMA Fighter Sam Vasquez passed away on November 30th 2007, after being hospitalized since an October 20th fight at a Renegades Extreme Fighting event.

It was widely speculated that Sammy had sustained a massive brain injury that occurred during the fight, and according to Steve Sievert at the Houston Chronicle, it has now been confirmed that Sam Vasquez is the first mixed martial arts fighter to die from injuries sustained in a sanctioned MMA match.

According to Steve Sievert’s article:

The official ruling from the medical examiner’s office stated that Vasquez died of “complications from blunt trauma to the head with subdural hemorrhage.”

A subdural hemorrhage occurs when a blood vessel bursts and blood builds up between the brain and its outer lining, which exerts pressure on the brain.

Most subdural hemorrhages are triggered by impact to the head, resulting from a car accident or severe fall. It’s an injury rarely seen in mixed martial arts.

R.I.P Sammy Vasquez.

Seriously, whenever I heard that Fedor was a free agent after splitting with M-1 Global, my first thought was that we’ll see Fedor fight Tim Sylvia or Kimbo Slice long before we ever see Fedor vs. Randy Couture.

As much as I would like to see Tim Sylvia win this, it’s not going to happen. In my opinion, Tim Sylvia is the perfect armbar victim for Fedor. I think Tim Sylvia can beat Fedor striking, but there is little doubt that Fedor will be able to take him down, and once big Tim Sylvia hits the mat, the fight will soon be over. Fighting Tim Sylvia still won’t really answer anything as to where Fedor ranks in the worlds top pound-for-pound mixed martial artists.

Regardless, I’m super excited for the fight. I’m just happy Fedor is fighting a top heavyweight contender again.

UFC Fight Night, which I had to record and watch after the event aired.

Houston Alexander was victim of a quick knockout at the hands of James Irvin. In the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Houston says he was conscious the whole time, and said he gets hit harder by his children. Poor Houston Alexander, he needs to stick to teaching kids about “Hip-Hop culture” and trying to convince people it’s a “charitable” deed.

Nate Diaz kept his composure even as he was getting drilled upside his orbital bone by Kurt Pellegrino, and managed to survive round one. In round two, he scored a triangle choke and forced Pellegrino to tap. Joe Rogan was exactly right when he said it was the “most entertaining” triangle of the year (or something like that). Diaz gave a double-bird and flexed while Pellegrino was tapping.

I figured Matt Hamill vs. Tim Boetsch would be a messy fight, knowing Hamill likes the ground-n-pound and is very good at it. They both ended up getting their faces thrashed a bit. Matt Hamill’s bottom lip is sliced into two pieces. Hamill won the fight by TKO after pressing Boetsch against the cage and hammering his head around, finally holding his neck down and punching his face. I’m just wondering how the general public will react to Joe Rogan using the term “Rape choke.”

Karo Parisyan complained about an early stoppage, he was more vocal about it that Houston Alexander was, but in Karo’s defense, I couldn’t actually tell if he was knocked out or not, whereas there is no doubt Houston Alexander was unconscious and not defending himself for a couple of seconds, even though he says otherwise.

Tommy Speer is indeed a robot. The dude has a hard noggin on him, but I guess even robots can be destroyed after being hammered repeatedly. Anthony Johnson just owned him with kicks and punches. Tommy Speer stayed standing for like 20 or 30 seconds, taking more punishment and trying to fight back, but the striked had him moving slower and slower. Anthony Johnson finally nailed him and left him asleep leaning against the cage.

Kinda surprised to hear Joe Rogan mention Shinya Aoki and JZ Cavalcante during the Frankie Edgar/Gray Maynard fight.

Kenny Florian vs. Joe Lauzon was a great fight. For the most part, Florian dominated. The fight ended with Florian having mount, and pounding away on Lauzon. Joe Lauzon did a good job defending his face, but was unable to escape.

Houston “I’m Alright” Alexander. Sadly, he is not a force in the UFC’s Light Heavyweight division. Anyway, thanks James Irvin for winning me some quick money (real quick– I think they said his knockout of Houston Alexander was one of the fastest in UFC history. Now I have to leave the house for awhile and will record the rest of the show to watch later.