UFC Live 4 Recap

It was the best of times it was the worst of time.  That famous opening from Charles Dickens’ classic novel A Tale of Two Cities probably accurately summarized Dana White and the UFC’s management feelings regarding the UFC Live 4 event from Pittsburgh, PA last night.  Just hours before the scheduled event it probably felt like the worst of times as the headlining fight of the event, a welterweight fight between Rick “The Horror” Story and Nate “The Great” Marquardt had to be scrapped when it was announced that Marquardt had failed to meet the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission medical requirements and could not fight.  This sent the UFC scrambling to find a replacement for Marquardt, which they did in Pennsylvania native Charlie Brenneman, and to shift the focus of the event to the fight they were now billing as the main event, a heavyweight showdown between Cheick Kong and Pat “HD” Barry.  After the outcome of the new main event between Kongo and Barry, which we will cover in great detail later, I’m sure Dana and the UFC felt like it was the best of times.  Your resident handicapping guru also went through a similar roller coaster of emotions from the best of times to the worst of times to miraculously back to the best of times finishing the night with a winning record. 

The first fight between Matt “Meathead” Mitrione and Christian Morecraft was one of the few fights that went as expected last night.  Morecraft gave Mitrione an intense stare down before the fight but that was the highlight of the night for him.  Mitrione rocked him badly towards the end of the 1^st round and despite appearing to be out on his back, Morecraft managed to survive to the bell and make it to the 2^nd round.  It was academic in the 2^nd round as Mitrione hit the overmatched Morecraft with an excellent combination that sent his opponent’s mouthpiece flying across the ring and leaving Morecraft out for the count.  Another solid win for the fast improving Mitrione but he really needs to take a step up in competition and test his skills in his next fight.  The win by Mitrione started my handicapping night off in an excellent fashion as it got me off and running out of the gates with a 1-0 record. 

The next fight was a welterweight fight between journeyman Matt “The Immortal” Brown and John “Doomsday” Howard.  Howard started off the 1^st round by landing several kicks to Brown’s lead left leg but as it turned out that was as good as it would get for Howard in the fight.  He abandoned that strategy and repeatedly tried to take Brown to the ground, which I wrote in my preview column would be a good idea given Brown’s propensity for being submitted, but he tried to muscle the single leg take down attempts rather than setting them up with his striking and it exhausted him.  Howard fought Brown’s fight by making the fight a slow grind in close quarters rather than using his superior skill to pick Brown apart and then attempt his take downs.  Brown as able to reverse Howard on a few occasions and once Howard ran out of gas in the 2^nd round it allowed Brown to generally win the position battles and land enough jabs to outwork Howard.  The result was a fight that could be used to cure insomnia.  It was one round a piece heading into the 3^rd round and neither fighter did much of anything in that round but the judges saw fit to award the decision victory to Brown 29-28 unanimously.  I really liked Howard at -270 in this fight and this saw my chance for a perfect night go down the drain and sent my picks into an apparent tailspin. 

Rock “The Horror” Story had by far the worst night of anyone, with maybe the exception of the fans that had to sit through the Brown/Howard fight, when he took on late replacement Charlie Brenneman.  The line in Vegas quickly installed Story as a -600 favorite in this fight after his huge upset win over Thiago Alves last month.  I wrote in my preview article that fighting again so quickly for most fighters is a dangerous task but if anyone could pull it off it would probably be Story.  Whether it was the 4 week turnaround time between fights or the last minute change of opponent or a combination of the two, the fight quickly turned into a nightmare for “The Horror”.  Brenneman came out with a nothing to lose attitude and was a ball of energy from the opening bell and consistently put Rick Story on his back during the first two rounds.  It’s not a position Story finds himself very often with his excellent wrestling and he spent more time on his back in this fight then I saw in all his previous seven fights in the UFC put together.  Brenneman was able to keep top position and not let Story scramble to his feet and decidedly won the first two rounds.  Midway through the 2^nd round you could see the concern on Story’s face as he knew that all the momentum he gained from the Alves fight and a potential title shot if he won this fight was quickly slipping away.  He knew he needed a stoppage in the 3^rd round to win and almost accomplished it with several submission attempts including an excellent triangle attempt but to Brenneman’s credit he fought all of them off and finished the fight strong.  An inspired performance from Brenneman in the huge upset win and an incredibly deflating loss for the rising welterweight star in Rick Story.  It will be very interesting to see if Brenneman can build off this win and how Story will react to his first loss since 2009 when he next steps into the octagon. 

Now for the main event of the night between Cheick Kongo and Pat “HD” Barry which will go down as one of the most remarkable fights in the history of the sport.  We all knew it would be a wildly entertaining fight between two excellent kickboxers with one of the two fighters probably getting brutally knocked out by nobody expected what we saw.  The two fighters circled each other for roughly the first two minutes of the fight and exchanged a few brutal leg kicks until Barry stunned Kongo with a hard overhand strike.  Kongo hit the mat and Barry moved in for the kill and was standing over Kongo reigning down shots that couldn’t hit the mark but still caused referee Dan Miragliotta to come so close to stopping the fight that he actually made contact with Barry preparing to pull him off Kongo before deciding against it and letting the fight continue.  Kongo scrambled back to his feet only to be dropped right back down to the canvas by a Barry left hand nearly causing Miragliotta to stop the fight again but once again Kongo grabbed hold of Barry and managed to stumble to his feet.   Kongo was out on his feet as he stumbled back into the cage but as Barry moved in for what looked like the kill, Kongo hit him with a right hook that knocked Barry off balance and over to the his right side.  Kongo quickly reloaded that right hand and hit Barry with a flush 45 degree upper cut that put Barry to sleep.  Barry slumped over backwards and hit the mat knocked completely senseless as Kongo fell on top of him and landed another shot which brought the fight to an end 2:39 into the 1^st round.  It was the most exciting 45 seconds of not only MMA action but of any sporting event in recent memory and replaced the Pete Sell/Scott Smith fight as the single greatest comeback in UFC history.  This fight being broadcast live on Versus and having been moved to the main event certainly helped take the bad taste out of everyone’s mouth stemming from the Marquardt incident and I’m sure made Dana White feel as if it was the best of times. 

I too went through a sickening feeling during the Kongo/Barry fight as my play of the night was Kongo at -250 and as I watched Barry repeatedly knock him senseless around the ring I resigned myself to going 1-2 for my picks on the night and suffering a 2^nd straight losing card so it was certainly the worst of times.  But then like a thunderbolt out of the sky came that Kongo right upper cut to save my night in the most dramatic fashion and give me that same best of times feeling that the UFC was experiencing as I finished a respectable 2-1.  My record for the year now stands at 33-14-1 (69%) and there is no rest for the weary with UFC 132 quickly approaching this coming Saturday night so look for my picks column for that event this week.