Tito Forgets to Fight, Cain Velasquez Makes History: UFC 121

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Written by John Alvarez

Wednesday, 27 October 2010 05:36

In what could be dubbed, an upset to southern California, UFC 121 took place this past Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Filled with a lot of potentially great fights this card proved a few things in MMA that you don’t see in boxing these days. There are such things as knockouts. That’s right, as you know Brock Lesnar got knocked out, ortiz forgot to fight and should have been knocked out, and Jake Shields.. well.. read on..

First let’s discuss Tito Ortiz. While still a crowd drawer and local hero of sorts, it was obvious that nobody in the arena really cared for him. I mean, everybody loves Matt Hamill, whom by the way has won 5 of his last 5 fights. But the fact that the Tito fans were dwarfed 1 to 5 of Matt Hamill’s fans was a bit crazy for a local show. However i think the fight sort of showed why people are over Tito. Tito isn’t the same guy he was more than 5 years ago. Something should be said about Tito though. Sure he might have lost his last 5 fights (and only might fight once a year now), but as he explained in a non-excuse sort of way in the post-fight press conference, not many people would have continued to fight after back and neck surgery. That’s all fine and dandy, but if you’re feeling great and 100% ready to fight, what’s the point if you’re afraid to take a chance in the ring?

Tito however wasn’t the only one that got boos, Josh Koscheck, though a bad ass with bragging rights, apparently not that much of a fan base as the crowd would boo anytime they saw him. Koscheck went on TMZ on Monday saying he was “up there yelling” at Tito “get your old ass out of the octagon”. Later in the night Josh looked like he wasn’t very happy... Wonder why?

Local fighter Mike Guymon also fought that night, though it was a non-televised fight against Daniel Roberts who submitted Guymon in the first round. Mike has won one of his last three fights in the UFC.

Diego Sanchez…While he might have lost the first round, the next two were a bit different. After Diego woke up and pushed the pace by being more aggressive and agile fighter. Sadly though he won by decision and not by a knockout or submission, like we are used to seeing with this Ultimate Fighter Season 1 Middleweight winner from New Mexico. Diego contributed to making Paulo Thiago 0/2 fighter while also showing weakness in Thiago’s fight, cardio.

Jake Shields had a less than impressive win over Martin Kampmann for his UFC debut. Sure he did enough just to win but we surely didn’t see the Jake Shields of Strikeforce and EliteXC that we are used to. Most of his last 10 or so fights have ended fast and quickly with either a submission or a TKO. I am not the only one who saw it as boos could be heard from the crowd throughout the fight. Rumor has it however that Jake’s problems stem from cutting weight and not being on his a game. Sorry buddy, this is the UFC... Time to step up to the plate.

Brock Lesnar came out surprisingly strong and fast against Cain Velasquez, but still didn’t really stand a chance against the Latino whom had the entire audience cheering him on. At first brock seemed to be doing good with an early takedown and pushing the pace, but Velasquez was ready and met with aggression that stunned the ex WWE fighter a few times till he eventually knocked out Lesnar in the first round. Cain Velasquez is now the UFC heavyweight champion, the first Latino to ever hold the title.

The crowd however couldn’t be happier for Cain Velasquez, but for some reason they didn’t stick around afterword’s. 5 minutes after the fight the stadium was almost empty and jokes were on twitter about INS showing up at the stadium. I don’t get it?

The crowd was filled with stars like Hugh Grant, Sugar Ray Leonard, Ed Soares, Ian Mccall, MC Hammer, Ian MCCall, Kevin James, Ryan Bader, Michael Bisping, and The Undertaker and of as we mentioned earlier, Josh Koscheck.

Regarding The Undertaker’s stare down of Brock Lesnar, he says that though they have “history”, he still wanted Lesnar to win the fight. Dana White however pointed out that Brock is under contract and cannot fight for the WWE anytime soon.