UFC 116 Post-Fight Thoughts

UFC 116 was, quite simply, one of the most exciting MMA Pay-Per-Views of all time. From the prelims to the main card, nearly every fight provided great finishes, exciting back-and-forth action or fantastic comebacks. Here are some of my post-fight notes.

• Brendan Schaub has the hands and the power to reach the middle of the UFC’s heavyweight division. His quick 1st round KO of Chris Tuchscherer was impressive. He’s still young enough and talented enough to improve on his ground game, which is something he’ll have to do to ever compete with the best heavyweights in the world.
• George Sotiropolous is definitely closing in on a lightweight title shot. He controlled much of the first two rounds against Kurt Pellegrino, and showed improved striking. His ground game is still one of the best in the UFC’s lightweight division, though his takedown defense still needs work. He’s probably one more win away from being in the title shot conversation after improving his UFC record to 6-0 with the unanimous decision win.
• The Stephan Bonnar/Krzysztof Soszynski fight was far from pretty, but was extremely entertaining. Bonnar got a much needed win. No one ever doubted his guts, and he showed a ton of them on Saturday night.
• Chris Lytle likes to downplay his ground credentials, but he used them to notch a submission win over Matt Brown. The armbar was probably headed to submission of the night status, until the next two fights happened anyway.
• What can you really say about Chris Leben? Not only did he take the fight against a really tough opponent in Yoshihiro Akiyama on very short notice only 2 weeks after his last fight, but he was the one who was able to dig down deep to latch onto a triangle only seconds before the bell. Leben combines one of the toughest chins in all of MMA with an obvious abundance of heart and has now won two fights in two weeks. Akiyama, meanwhile, needs to get his conditioning up to par.  He looks like a more natural welterweight in the Octagon, and that is where his future may be.
• Shane Carwin impressed me in the first round. His all-out blitz of Brock Lesnar was a little shocking to witness, but proved that what everyone said about his power was true. However, that was all completely undone as he was unable to finish a clearly hurt Lesnar, and came out in the second round completely gassed. His cardio had been a question coming in, and remains one after the fight.
• Brock Lesnar proved that he can take punishment from one of the biggest and hardest hitters in all of MMA, and still had the heart to fight on. His cardio was impressive, as he came out in the 2nd round much fresher than Carwin. He was able to get the takedown, and patiently worked for the submission. Lesnar had already proven that he was the most dominant heavyweight in the UFC, but this victory answered many questions that people had about him, namely his ability to recover from adversity during a fight.  

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Filed Under: Recaps

Tags: Brendan Schaub • Brock Lesnar • Chris Leben • Chris Lytle • George Sotiropoulos • Krzysztof Soszynski • Kurt Pellegrino • Matt Brown • Shane Carwin • Stephan Bonnar • UFC 116 • Yoshihiro Akiyama