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The prelims to UFC 157 were arguably the best action of the night, as Dana White declared Bermudez vs Grist as the “Fight of the Night”. Right off the bat Grist had a great pace, and a nasty stiff jab that was keeping Dennis Bermudez off balance. These two exchanges bombs in this back and forth battle. However, in the third round Bermudez connects hard, and continues to connect. Grist takes some serious punishment, but show incredible hard and somehow manages to hold on.They again exchange punches back and forth. Herb Dean refuses to step in even when its looks like it’s over for Grist. Grist holds on showing his tenacity and heart, but Bermudez gets a well earned a split decision. Brendan Schuab vs Lavar Johsnon was a difrerent story. Snoozefest from the jump. It was very obvious that Brendan Schuab had a tremendous amount of respect for Lavar Johnson’s power. From the beginning he rushed to take Johnson down and control him from the ground. I don’t know what was more painful, watching Schaub do absolutely no damage from the top, or watching Johnson’s inability to escape from the ground. In the end, Schaub got the unanimous decision in this very non-entertaining match up.
I was excited to see Robbie Lawlers return to the UFC, and he did not disappoint. The fight started out with Koshcheck doing exactly what he should have been doing, getting Lawler to the ground, However, Lawler overcame an early first round takedown, got it standing, and then landed a shot that put Koshcheck on the canvas. From there, he quickly rained down a string of punches on Koshcheck before referee Herb Dean stepped in and ended the bout. Afterwards, Joe Rogan said he didn’t agree with Dean’s stoppage, but obviously Rogan did not see that Koshchecks eyes looked like a broken slot machine. Lawler wins by TKO
Urijah Faber had his back to the wall a bit coming into his UFC 157 bout with Ivan Menjivar. Dana White had all but said that Faber could be in hot water if he had a sub par performance. Faber took that to heart, and showed everyone a Urijah Faber that we hadn’t seen in a little while. The California Kid submitted Menjivar with a standing rear naked choke late in the first round. He climbed Menjivar’s back, did some adjusting, and sunk the choke. The finish came with 26 seconds left in the first.
Lyoto Machida and Dan Henderson ended up be not as exciting as everyone anticipated. The elusive Machida going up against a Dan Henderson that resorted to leg kicks, and his patented H-Bomb, proved to be a formula for mediocrity. Henderson spent a lot of the fight trying to chase Machida down and land the H-Bomb, but Machida used his style and countering to land shots on Henderson as he advanced. In the end, it could have went either way, due to no one really dominating at any given time during the fight. However, Machida had the edge in the significant strike department, and the judges awarded Machida the split decision victory. The scores were 29-28, 28-29, and 29-28.
Court McGee came out throwing punches in bunches, and he never stopped. The usually slow starting McGee came out the complete opposite, and showed UFC fans that he had a new found energy as a welterweight. He had Josh Neer badly hurt in the first round, but wasn’t able to put him away. Neer showed some signs hope after he weathered the first round, and started countering in the second. Nevertheless, McGee’s constant pressure throughout the fight proved to be to much for Neer in this lopsided match up. All three judges had it 30-27.
The Ronda Rousey- Liz Carmouche fight proved to be all that it was billed up to be. Many people frowned at the fact that a female fight was the headliner, especially with to greats like Hendo and Machida squaring up on the card. However, the girls proved to the world that they belonged right in that headliner spot. The fight was surprisingly much more competitive than anyone anticipatonstantly trying to find her armbar while simultaneously avoiding putting herself in a position to get submitted by the crafty Carmouche.Just when everyone thought Carmouche was going to be the first opponent to push Rousey into the second round. Rousey worked her position and found her armbar she had been frantically trying to land throughout the first round. The finish came with 11 seconds left in round one.