You’d think the critics would know by now.
After a string of injuries forced a number of changes at the top of the UFC 153 fight card, all those who know better than everyone else questioned the new line-up. They complained about a last minute opportunity to watch Anderson Silva complete again, and were underwhelmed by the remainder of the fight card.
As is too often the case, the show was written off as being not quite good enough before the first fight of the night was even remotely close to setting foot in the cage.
And then another raucous crowd crammed themselves into the HSBC Arena, filled with national pride and musical chants that can’t be translated for public consumption, seemingly pushing the fighters to put forth their best efforts, and that’s exactly what happened.
From the opening bout of the evening between Reza Madadi and Cristiano Marcello through Silva’s main event performance against Stephan Bonnar, UFC 153 turned into one of the most entertaining events in recent memory, proving once again that you can’t judge a fight card by the way it looks on paper.
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In 13 of his previous 15 fights, Silva earned a finish. In most of those, it was a dominant, memorable, “did you see what he did there?” type of display that cements his standing as the greatest fighter in the history of the sport. Why anyone thought he would do something different Saturday night in front of a crazy Brazilian crowd is beyond me.
As much as Bonnar was over-matched on paper and in the cage, he too did exactly what you would have expected of him in advance too. He charged across the cage and attempted to take the fight to “The Spider,” and even when it was clear that they were in different leagues, he still pressed forward.
Just as he’d done last August, “Minotauro” Nogueira made the one mile commute from his gym to thrill the crowd with another finish, coming back from the broken arm he suffered in December to teach Dave Herman that jiu-jitsu works on everyone, including lanky, dopey heavyweights who say otherwise. Although it was a late addition to the card, this looked like an entertaining fight waiting to happen on paper, yet it came with very little buzz.
The hype for Glover Teixeira has been tremendous since his long-awaited arrival in the UFC, but when Quinton ”Rampage” Jackson fell apart, the critics who have been raving about him as a potential title contender somehow stopped being interested in seeing him step into the cage. After waiting years for him to finally set foot in the Octagon, one appearance was all it took before who he was competing against became equally as important as seeing him compete.
Lost in the middle of the line-up was a tremendous welterweight bout between former title contender Jon Fitch and promising upstart Erick Silva. While “exciting” and “Fitch” had infrequently been in the same sentence, Silva had run roughshod over all three of his previous opponents, and a pairing with the durable veteran and the young prospect would surely answer the numerous questions that hovered over each man heading into the bout.
This time last year, people were talking about Phil Davis as the man to potentially unseat – or at least challenge – Jon Jones in the light heavyweight division. A loss and an unfortunate eye poke later, and the bandwagon was all but empty, as if losing to a former champion like Rashad Evans is a sign that multiple time National champion wrestlers who won five fights in 13 months to start his UFC career are incapable of getting better.
And I haven’t even mentioned Demian Maia.
While no one could have expected him to squeeze Rick Story’s head so tightly that it caused blood to shoot from this nose, his welterweight debut against Dong Hyun Kim showed signs that the hyper-aggressive submission hunter who debuted in the middleweight division was set to return. For an audience that craves finishes, the potential return of one of the most technical and precise submission fighters on the planet should have been a selling point, not a reason to pass on the card.
Throw in explosive former TUF winner Diego Brandao (fighting at home in Brazil and in serious need of a win), the usually solid Gleison Tibau taking on another hulking lightweight in Francisco D/Trinaldo, and a “now that the jitters are gone let’s see what this kid’s all about” opportunity for TUF: Brazil winner Rony Jason, and you had a solid slate of preliminary card fights to enjoy for free too.
And yet the pre-fight commentary was that this card wasn’t good enough. The fights didn’t carry enough divisional relevance, there weren’t enough big names or marquee match-ups, and it was bound to be a mediocre collection of contests.
It’d be a C+ show; B- at best.
Saturday night was an A+ event, and those who sold it short before last week simply didn’t do a good enough job of looking at the line-up and envisioning the potential this event carried.
Before anyone tries to say that all this is easy to say in hindsight, please stop. I was saying all this before Saturday’s event, and the opportunity for this card to deliver the way it did was readily apparent to anyone who was willing to stop criticizing the UFC long enough to try and see it.
Teixeira didn’t suddenly become less of a terrifying figure inside the cage because he was fighting Fabio Maldonado instead of “Rampage,” and the Fitch/Silva clash was the kind of “veteran versus prospect” clash that we crave for emerging fighters like the young Brazilian. Save for a couple anomalies over the course of his previous 15 fights, Silva can always be counted on to deliver a memorable performance.
Hell, even a couple of his abnormal outings were highly memorable.
As I’ve said time and again here, people have just become too critical of fighters and fight cards, and too confident and unwavering when it comes to their abilities to predict the future. They get lost over-analyzing fight cards and trying to break down how important each fight is to its respective division, forgetting that great fights don’t have to have title implications, household names, or three months of endless promotion behind them.
Maybe it’s a self-preservation thing, but it seems like there are hoards of people who would rather set their expectations just north of “nothing to write home about” and be pleasantly surprised by an event than see the potential a card like this possesses and risk being let down. It’s like they’ve been burned too many times in the past to possibly believe that an event could deliver.
As such, the critics slag on an event before it’s even taken place, and then role out the “Huh, what a pleasant surprise” routine when their unnecessarily low expectations are exceeded.
I’m tired of that routine. I’m tired of the cool kids telling everyone that the next fight card is lame, you’re dumb if you think otherwise, and oh by the way, that band you like sucks too.
I like fights – big names, little names, and every name in between.
I like fights I get to watch for free, fights I have to pay for, and fights on choppy Internet streams on raining Friday nights.
Even if I think I know how an event is going to play out, I’m still going to watch it, because I could just as easily be wrong. And even if I’m right, they’re still fights, and I love watching fights.
What I don’t like is critics who think they know everything about everything, always and forever.
Guess what critics? You got this one all kinds of wrong. Now stop acting like you’ve got it all figured out all the time, kick back, and enjoy some fights.
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