What's the word?

I’ve been MIA this month, with way too many things going on, but I am still alive.

I’m back with an entry about the UFC card that went down last weekend in my birth town of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  UFC 97 didn’t really have a lot of fights that I was interested to see.  As you know I’m not a big fan of Chuck Liddell’s and I knew that Anderson Silva was going to handle Thales Leites.

It is apparent that after his knockout loss to Mauricio Rua, Chuck is probably at the end of his fighting journey.  He’s had a great career, held the championship belt and even beat the hell out of Tito Ortiz… What more can you ask for?  He seemed gun-shy in his fight and couldn’t get off with his punches, although I think he should have been trying to kick more.  Although Rua beat Chuck, I’m still not overly impressed with either.  It should be interesting to see him fight younger, skilled talent like Evans, Machida and even crazy Quinton Jackson.

The main event of Silva vs. Leites was truly a letdown. Leites was outclassed in the octagon and had no idea how to handle Anderson "The Spider" Silva.  Silva was too fast, too crafty and too accurate for Leites and really anyone else in that division for now.  I feel bad for Anderson, because he always wants to put on a good show for the fans and this was surely not it, as the crowd was booing more than cheering the entire 5 round decision.

With UFC 97 done, I’m looking forward to UFC 98 on May 23, 2009. Predictions of the main fights go like this:

Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida – Evans by 3rd round knockout.
Matt Hughes vs Matt Serra – Hughes by 2 round knockout (earlier I hope though, cause I can’t stand Matt Serra!)

With several decent fights on the undercard, UFC 98 looks and should be a better event than UFC 97!