UFC 79: Nemesis has come and gone, and overall I’d say it was a pretty good event. If it hadn’t been for the lackluster Eddie Sanchez and Sao Palelei fight, the event would’ve been an entire success. The event drew the largest gate for any North American MMA show at $4.9 million, and I’m sure it was also a huge pay-per-view success.  After the event was over, I had a chance to reflect on 5 things I learned from the event.

GSP is the best welterweight in the world.

And, he may be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He absolutely demolished Matt Hughes, and is on entirely different level than any fighter at 170lbs. He has proved that he is the total package, and I really feel sorry for Matt Serra. St. Pierre was able to outwrestle the wrestler. We saw it before in his fight with Koscheck, but I figured Hughes would give him a little bit more credit. He didn’t. St. Pierre was obviously the stronger of the two, and he was able to utilize his entire skill set to beat Hughes. He used his striking to setup his takedowns, and then he used his ground-and-pound to set up the submission victory.

St. Pierre can and will be a superstar in this sport. He has an amazing set of skills, and he is working harder than ever to improve. His wrestling has come a long way, and as long as he keeps improving his stand-up, he will be a force to reckon with for many years to come.

However, he can be beat. As dynamic as a fighter as he is; there are some holes in his game. First, his stand-up needs some work. He tends to throw very straight one-two combinations down the middle. He doesn’t use many hooks or uppercuts, but his kicks are good when he uses them. Sometimes he gets lazy with his jab, and he’s open for a counter left hook.  Also, his jiu-jitsu isn’t what it could be. He almost submitted Koscheck with a kimura, which seems to be a go to move for him, and he choked out Frank Trigg with a rear naked choke (who hasn’t?).

The type of fighter that can beat St. Pierre is a fighter with a good wrestling base, or great takedown defense, a good submission game, and good striking. As of right now, I think there are only two welterweight fighters in the UFC that present this problem: Jon Fitch and B.J. Penn. Fitch is a former Division I wrestler with decent striking and a good ground game. It would be a great fight, but I think GSP would still take it. Although B.J. Penn’s next fight is at lightweight, he has made it very clear that he wants to step up to welterweight and hold both belts at the same time. B.J. Penn and GSP have already battled once at UFC 59: USA vs. Canada. Many people (including myself) feel that B.J. won this fight, but St. Pierre was awarded a narrow split-decision victory. B.J. has the style to present problems to almost anyone. He has unbelievable dexterity, and can avoid takedowns because of it. We all know about his slick jiu-jitsu, but he also has good striking and heavy hands. He also has the ability to take a shot. I’m hoping that we get to see this rematch in the very near future.

Matt Hughes should hang them up after one more fight.

The end of the year extravaganza of events brought about a historic matchup that had been fantasized about by many mixed martial arts fans. Chuck Liddell fought Wanderlei Silva on Saturday evening to finally determine which of the two dominating strikers was better skilled in fight that was supposed to never go to a decision. Unfortunately for many fans, the fight didn't end in a catastrophic knockout that rocked the arena with a shockwave from the impact. Instead, we saw a fantastic display of determination and heart from both fighters.

Eventually, Liddell's reach advantage and better overall striking technique bested the looping mechanics of Silva's standup skills. Although Silva hung his head in shame, it was evident that his intense training regiment of a snorkel, closed off nostrils, and heavy circuit work had increased his abilities to recover and hardened his chin. Liddell even stated after the fight that he was surprised by Silva's chin. Both fighters exhibited improved skills and cardio, so to an extent, both fighters helped each other gain something from this fight. Where will these guys go next?

Liddell looking up to the top

Liddell showed us that he is still very dangerous at the ripe age of 38 years old. Many fans were giving up on Liddell's one-dimensional skillset, but he showed that he could at least show his wrestling skills in order to eat up time and lock in the win. His reach advantage was obviously a factor, but punching with straight loaded punches was the key to beating Silva's attempts to get inside with his looping haymakers. With the win, it seems that Liddell's popularity may propel him back to the top very quickly much. This may be much to the dismay to hardcore fans who have been waiting to see some of the current talent near the top get a title shot.

With that said, who's in the mix to face Liddell next? Let's go straight down the list of names. Griffin and Rampage are both facing each other in what was said at the UFC 79 post-event press conference as sometime in August. The most talked about names are “Shogun” Rua, Lyoto Machida, and some fans have even suggested Rashad Evans as a filler fight before a title shot. Interesting choices indeed.

Rua may have some significant problems against Liddell. Liddell's striking is very good, and Rua's power has never been enough to really knock anyone out with a solid punch. His power lies in his knees and clinch much like one of his former training partners, Wanderlei Silva. It is definitely a matchup that gives Liddell more boost in his ranking and definitely could legitimize a title fight. Shogun did after all beat Rampage in PRIDE.

Machida is an interesting fight that would be surprising for the UFC to make. If their intention is to build Liddell back up into a champion, Machida is not the type of fighter that you want to fight. His tactical strikes and counter striking skills would be frustrating for Liddell to deal with. Even more frustrating, Liddell is also a counter puncher. This could make for a very boring bout, or a bout that Liddell makes a big mistake getting caught up in the crowd's booing when Machida simply waits out Liddell. Machida doesn't budge and is patient. Liddell is definitely more likely to make the mistake.

Evans just defeated Michael Bisping, but it wasn't in any type of dominating fashion. We are all very used to seeing Rashad dance in the cage and win close decision battles, but that won't solidify him as a top fighter. Chuck may get an easy win fight in Rashad Evans, and that type of matchup doesn't present anything overly tough for Chuck to overcome. Does that matchup really have a chance of happening? Rua is a more likely opponent. Soukoudjou is always in the mix as well.

Silva is still dangerous

The UFC will most likely be looking to get Silva some wins and hopefully down the line promote a rematch of the two strikers. In the end, Liddell does seem to have the advantage, and it will be up to Silva to improve enough to defeat Liddell's reach and good striking. Who can the UFC put up against him to begin the trail back?

Will they relegate Jardine to taking on “The Axe Murderer”? It's always possible, but unlikely due to the fact that Jardine did just beat Liddell in his last fight. Rashad is more realistic of a matchup for Silva, but Soukoudjou is now in the mix and could provide an epic war of two more strikers. Does the UFC want to risk losing their investment on Silva? Its doubtful, but Joe Silva may feel that it is stylistically better for Wanderlei. Soukoudjou has longer reach however and some of the same type of striking as Liddell.

Silva vs. Thiago Silva? Two strikers. Silva vs. Houston Alexander? Two strikers. The UFC has a plethora of striking opponents that would be thrilled to face a top notch striker like Wanderlei Silva. Unfortunately for those fighters, Silva's cardio techniques seemed to have enabled him to recover from heavy blows very well. We could see a run through some opponents for Silva and if Liddell happens to be stopped on his way to the top, we could see a clash of the two legends again.

Outlook for Silva and Liddell

As dominant as Wanderlei Silva was in PRIDE at times, he has some problems. Technically speaking, his striking isn't exactly tactical or strategic in any way. He tries to capitalize on his opponent moving in and missing a strike or he moves in with such a quick pace that it surprises his opponent. The problem with that type of style is that it does open you up to the flash knockout and is more susceptible to leaving yourself open to defeat. He'll have to prove to us that he can really become surgical with those heavy looping punches.

Liddell, on the other hand, has a very good outlook. Rua is a matchup that should definitely benefit him if it happens, and there really isn't a battle near the upper-echelon that Liddell doesn't have a great chance at winning. Rampage is really his only huge obstacle. Look for Liddell to get another win and begin moving up the ladder again.

After the WEC 31 card last night, Versus aired a new episode of Unscripted with Dennis Miller. The show revolves around Miller interviewing guests and then spouting off monologues with his sense of humor that sometimes goes over the head of half of his own viewers. Although I understood all the small jokes, it was apparent that many of his guests didn't.

During the show, the topic of which sport had the toughest competitors competing in it was on the plate. Bill Romanowski, Jeremy Roenick, Larry Holmes, and Forrest Griffin were all part of the panel of people participating in the discussion. Before the actual panel however, Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin both sat down for a small group conversation about the sport. Unlike their previous interviews, one of them actually was fairly funny, charismatic, and didn't sound dull. Take a guess at who that was.... yeah, you guessed it, Forrest Griffin.

Eerily similar to the Ultimate Fight NIght 11 appearances by Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin during a segment of the night, Liddell looked like he hadn't slept in days at times. He gave the same cliche answers to nearly every question, and didn't seem to excited about trying to hype up the Wanderlei Silva war that was about to occur at the end of the month. Griffin, on the other hand, was actually comical in some of the answers he gave and did seem to give some unscripted answers to Miller's questions... A+ to Forrest Griffin. And people still wonder why this guy is suddenly getting marketed.

Stop using Chuck Liddell

Chuck is a staple in the UFC's business, but he is too dull and soft spoken to hype a fight correctly. Every time he does an interview, it's exactly the same. The similarities between this interview, the UFN 11 interview, an interview I heard while driving home from work on TheScore 670 AM from Chicago, and about 2-3 other interviews I've heard is absolutely astounding. Although some of the interviews had some fairly humorous questions, Chuck didn't go with the flow. He would rather give the safe answers to keep his stature as a UFC ambassador in check.

The fact is, Liddell's only means to hype a fight is his ability to knock people out. For anybody who remotely follows the UFC or has watched Sportscenter the day after the big UFC events, those people know that Chuck Liddell has been defeated twice in his two most recent fights. Hardcore fans obviously know, but casual fans are also realizing that he doesn't have the pull that he used to have when he stood atop the division and demolished anyone coming to challenge him.

I won't put the blame entirely on Liddell however. The UFC is simply putting him in bad situations to hype his fights as well. Versus after the WEC 31 card? He needs to put put out on national networks. The only problem with that is, people are going to find out even faster how boring he is to interview.

What can be done?

Many columnists, blogs, websites, you name it have suggested one savior that could hype up Liddell vs. Silva. Do a 24/7 Liddell vs. Silva. Did they think of that before hand? No, they didn't. HBO beat them to the punch with Hatton-Mayweather, and by seeing that type of pre-fight hype vehicle for the fight, we now crave that for one of the most highly anticipated bouts of the year. Let's face it, the Countdown shows are terrible. The WEC put on a better pre-fight show than the UFC did, and they are owned by the same company. The UFC should think about the All-Access show except in the context of preparing for a fight.

Now, let me bring up one point that has become relevant as of late. Maybe not a point, but a person. Tito Ortiz. After watching Chuck Liddell on Unscripted and seeing such poor promotional material that the UFC puts out, they are seriously making Tito Ortiz look like a damn marketing genius. Instead of saying cliche scripted answers to questions, he rolls with the punches. Instead of saying he respects his opponent before the fight, he puts down his opponent and waits until after the fight to respect him. Basically, the guy can hype his own fights better than champions and he's barely in the middle-echelon of fighters in the Light Heavyweight division.

The UFC should hire Tito as a marketing director as this rate.

What should we get!

For hardcore fans, we all know what type of backstory there is to this battle between Liddell vs. Silva. We understand that stylistically, both fighters match up well. We understand that this is a classic puncher vs. counterpuncher explosion about to be set off. The one thing we aren't getting is the visuals of the tension, the hunger, the desire to win this fight. We don't see the stress that both fighters must be feeling. Both fighters coming off 2 losses, devastating losses in their careers. We don't see any of that in a dramatic context.

Instead of spending money on Countdown shows that don't do most of the fights justice, put more money into a small series that not only PROMOTES fighters, but it also PROMOTES the fight itself. It also solves your problem of not getting the UFC personalities out to the public.

Joe Schmitt is a new contributing writer to MMA-Analyst.com in the capacity of some opinion writing that will hopefully spark some conversation from all of the readers. He touts his extensive UFC DVD collection, has awareness of the recent happenings within the MMA community, and loves to get down to the details regarding matchups within the UFC's ranks. Please join me in welcoming some of his thoughts that will hopefully get the masses thinking. 

As long as you haven’t been living under a rock the past few days, you’ll know that Matt Serra has pulled out of his very first title defense against former champion Matt Hughes. Serra suffered two herniated discs in his back while demonstrating a move in practice. How serious is the injury? It’s serious enough that the UFC has signed Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Hughes III for the interim welterweight title. 

A closer look at Serra’s injury

According to WebMD, the bones (vertebrae) that form the spine in your back are cushioned by small, spongy discs. When these discs are healthy, they act as shock absorbers for the spine and keep the spine flexible. But when a disc is damaged, it may bulge or break open. This is called a herniated disc. It may also be called a slipped or ruptured disc.

Usually a herniated disc will heal on its own over time. About half of people with a herniated disc get better within 1 month, and most are better after 6 months. Only about 1 person in 10 still has enough pain after 6 weeks to think about surgery.

The extent of Serra’s injury is still unknown and the timetable for his return is still very much in question. If it takes him 6 months to heal, I can’t imagine he’ll be in fighting shape for another 3 months after that. According to Matt Hughes’ blog, he has stated that if Serra cannot return after a year, the interim title becomes the real title.

The “TUF” effect

Before I get started, let me begin by saying that I understand the decision to put Hughes versus Serra as coaches on “The Ultimate Fighter” or as I like to call it, “The Ultimate Hype Machine.” What I don’t understand, is putting a division, arguably the deepest in MMA, on hold for a reality television show that draws below-average ratings. Furthermore, I don’t think the show is serving the purpose it once had, to draw new fans to the sport.  Plain and simple, the formula for the show is old and tired. The UFC should really be looking for the best fighters, and stop worrying about personalities that they think will make the show interesting. There are really only a handful of fighters that possess both the talent and charisma like a Quinton “Rampage” Jackson or a Forrest Griffin. The problem is, while some fans are attracted to the high charisma of Rampage, there are just as many who love Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Chuck Liddell and Fedor Emelianenko. None of which are highly charismatic, but they garner fans by winning fights in devastating fashion. The fact of the matter is, the UFC’s plan to use TUF as a marketing machine has failed them this time.

Will we still see Hughes vs. Serra? Probably. Will it mean as much? Probably not. We know Hughes and Serra have a general dislike for each other, that’s no secret. Did it have to take 12 weeks of them taking cheap shots at each other on television to get me excited for this fight? Not a chance. Everyone has gotten to see Serra’s personality, as he was a member of TUF Season 4: The Comeback. Hughes has made multiple appearances on TUF, most notably as he coached against former middleweight champion Rich Franklin in season 2. Serra is a loud, say-anything, type of guy from New Jersey. Hughes is a Midwestern farm boy with an arrogant disposition. The two styles clash, but to be honest, this season did absolutely nothing for me. I wasn’t any more or less excited about the fight than when it was announced. I was actually a little disappointed because of all the potential matches that could’ve been made during this time. Let’s take a look at UFC 78 for example. There was no real main event, and we could have witnessed Serra versus Hughes in Serra’s home state of New Jersey. Instead, we got Rashad Evans versus Michael Bisping, another product of TUF. The only way I can agree with the UFC using TUF like this again is if the champion is injured. Let’s say next season we see Rampage and Forrest as the coaches, with a title match at the end of the season. I like that idea because we aren’t going to get to see Rampage fight in the near future due to his hand injury.

Final thoughts

The Ultimate Fighter needs an overhaul, plain and simple. The show's formula has become bland, predictable, and even downright boring. On top of that, the fans don’t get rewarded for putting 12 weeks of their life into a show that was supposed to hype up Hughes versus Serra. Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather see St. Pierre and Hughes go at it, but as a fan, I feel that I kind of got cheated. Let this be a lesson to the UFC brass: No more title shots and holding a division stagnant for the sake of reality television. What do you think? Did this season get you more excited for the fight? Or, could you care less?

After a long weekend of uneventful MMA news, a log fell off the wagon that is the UFC. On Friday, Matt Serra was announced as sustaining a herniated disc injury that would keep him from defending his UFC welterweight title against Matt Hughes on December 29th. From an exclusive interview done by MMAWeekly, it was confirmed today that Serra did sustain two lower back herniated discs and will be out for quite some time with an injury of that magnitude.

With nearly every end of the year card comes the anticipation of a great night of great fights. This was definitely the matchup that many fans wanted to see and the UFC needed to repair the lost luster. Initial reports had Thiago Alves and Jon Fitch in the mix, but the spectacular announcement that Georges St. Pierre would take the bout created the rubber match that Hughes would eventually have to fight if he had retaken the belt. Without a doubt, this is also a fight that would line up St. Pierre for a title shot, but without the lengthy layoff that he had been anticipating.

A bit more backstory to the announcement revealed conflicting reports on how the matchup eventually happened. Hughes stated on his website that he requested Pierre because he wanted to avoid a matchup in front of Pierre's fanbase in Canada. Hughes will also have a training advantage in that Pierre has around 4-5 weeks to train, with a week of downtime toward the fight date. Dave Meltzer over at Yahoo! Sports stated that Pierre had initially called the UFC to stick his name into the mix of potential fighters. Fitch was the first to come up, but he had too much weight on at the moment to drop the weight before the bout. Fitch's camp suggested Koscheck, but the UFC skipped on that and decided to put Pierre back in the mix. Whether Pierre or Hughes convinced the UFC to create the matchup, it shortens the time considerable for a rubber match that many people felt would have happened anyway.

Interim Titles?

When the Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Hughes fight was announced on Saturday evening, the "interim" title was tagged onto the event and uproar ensued. Why is this an interim title fight? Is Matt Serra going to be out for that long? Is the injury so bad that it could stop him from fighting? The immediate possibilities coming out of the announcement were everywhere. The truth of the matter is much more beneficial to the fans that most people think.

What is one of the biggest things that we've seen coming from some of the recent main events in the UFC? Close decisions. Case in point, UFC 78 had the TUF Alumni matchup in Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping that needed to be longer in order to decide who clearly won the fight. My intuition makes me believe that Evans would have completely gassed with two more rounds declaring Bisping the winner if he worked any kind of boxing at all. These more lengthy bouts could cause many big name fights to avoid the dreaded draw or controversial decision. By the regulations of most commissions, non-championship bouts are required to not exceed more than 3 rounds. How can you solve that problem? Slap a "Interim Title" tag onto the fight and your problem has been solved. Tell the commission that Serra's back injury is too risky to keep the belt in limbo and create the interim bout. This will allow for the end of the year rubber match between Hughes and Pierre to be a 5 round battle.

To be honest, this is actually a good decision. Although I hate the interim title tag on this fight, I do agree that this fight needs to be 5 rounds. I also want to make the case that all main event fights should be five rounds, although that would take some dealing with the commissions to make happen. This is a chance to see an epic battle between two great competitors, and nobody should be mad about the title tag on the fight. Enjoy it because the UFC somehow managed to get us 2 extra rounds of action.

The Ever-Changing Welterweight Picture

With Serra possibly out for 3 or more months without training, we could see Serra out for about 6+ months if he can't do much for the first 3 months with the injury. Add in time for training to get his strength and technique back, and then add in the training for a matchup, it could be quite some time before we see the "Interim" champion against the "Real" champion. Who else is in the picture?

Certainly, all the names that were mentioned as replacements must be in the mix. Karo Parisyan is the one name not mentioned due to his recent victory over Ryo Chonan. Parisyan won the fight despite walking into the matchup with a broken hand. Parisyan has been waiting for a title shot since his title shot last November in which he got injured during training. He has since been sitting on the shelf awaiting his next chance at the title and it looks as if he may get it soon enough.

Other fighters in the mix are Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, and apparently Thiago Alves. Fitch has been on a tremendous tear, winning 14 straight fights with his most recent over Diego Sanchez. I think Fitch still needs another top contender fight and with Josh Koscheck on a recent loss to George St. Pierre, Fitch vs. Koscheck seems like a possibility as well. The UFC is rumored to have both fighters on the UFC 82 card, but against separate opponents. Thiago Alves's name came up as a late replacement as well, but he just recently defeated Chris Lytle in UFC 78 in a controversial fight that had many fans scratching their heads as to why the fight was stopped due to a cut that didn't appear to be that bad. Alves has been fairly impressive, but hasn't faced a top 5 contender yet. He will surely be tested in his next fight. The possibility that he may be one of the mystery opponents for UFC 82 is there as well.

Matt Serra should be back!

Let's be honest, if we polled the MMA community on the outcome of the upcoming card, the lopsidedness of the Serra vs. Hughes matchup would be fairly obvious. Many fans attribute Hughes's legendary status, wealth of experience, and overall brute strength as big keys to his success in the cage and to the success of a win over Matt Serra. I'm still not convinced that Serra is an easy matchup for Matt Hughes, and that was mainly the reason why I was a bit bummed to hear the Matt Serra had become injured.

The one reason I was giving Matt Serra a chance, and the one reason many people hate Matt Serra is because he's a fighter who can make the fight last. Many fans hate the fact that he can make fights lengthy, he can make fights stagnant, but he can also avoid being demolished by opponents that seem to have an overwhelming advantage over him. This was one distinct advantage I though Serra had, that he is tough to knockout and he would have made a go at taking the fight to the distance. Again, Hughes doesn't have terrible cardio and he's still a much more powerful fighter in my opinion. So how would have Serra mastered that aspect of Matt Hughes?

Add the fact that Serra's ju-jitsu skills have been known to be great at times, it makes for a lot of possibilities that fans may not be seeing. Case in point, Hughes has been susceptible to flexible ju-jitsu opponents on the ground. BJ Penn and Dennis Hallman are two names that come to mind immediately. Hughes seems to have a weakness for slick ju-jitsu games, and depending on which Matt Serra shows up, he could provide some tough technique to counter. Although I believe Hughes still wins that matchup by power, I think it would have been much closer than people would think. Either way, I think Serra will recover and be back to prove that he can hang with some of the best.

Final Thoughts

Regardless of what you thought about Matt Serra's TUF performance or his lackluster boring fights during his TUF stint, fact of the matter is, Matt Serra always has a chance to win if he can extend the length of a fight. His ju-jitsu and flexibility on the ground pose threats to someone like Matt Hughes who has been susceptible in the past to that type of fighter. Although I think Hughes wins it by pure strength, I think the fans are giving less credit to Serra than he deserves. Give the guy a chance, he did beat St. Pierre is a fight that was considered one of the most lopsided easy wins for Pierre and probably a gold mine fight for the UFC.

Don't complain about the interim title tag, embrace it! After all, it's giving us two extra rounds of fighting for essentially another name for a #1 contender tag. Whoever wins the fight is the #1 contender. If you can put up with casual fans saying Pierre or Hughes is the champion for a few months without really knowing what has been going on, then it's not a big deal. If you are the MMA elitist who MUST outknowledge every fan in your path, welcome to hell. Fact is, the UFC found a loophole to get a longer fight for the end of the year event, and it was a nice find indeed. It allows for the possibility of an epic bout between two great combatants.

Lastly, the UFC's welterweight divisions looks to be fairly healthy coming into the new year. With 3 or 4 up-and-coming fighters beginning to look in on the mix at the top, we have some potential matchups for the title shaping up as well as a plethora of possibilities for contendership bouts and bouts to determine who gets into the top-tier of the welterweight division. It's looking to be very healthy in the Welterweight division of the UFC.

MMA-Analyst.com had an illness this past weekend, a very horrible fever, that sidelined me from writing or responding to emails. I'm finally out of that horrendous ordeal and will be answering all of your emails and comments this week.