Author: Steve Cofield

How can Randy Couture still be excited to train and learn at 46-years-old? It’s obviously been a challenge for Chuck Liddell, one of his contemporaries. Variety is the spice of life for the older Couture. His breath of fresh air came in grappling coach Neil Melanson. Clearly, it worked in preparation for the Mark Coleman fight as Couture went out and smashed "The Hammer" inside of seven minutes. 

As a grappler and mauler, Couture looks better than ever so Melanson can’t understand why Dana White is being ripped for claiming that his guy is top five at light heavyweight (6:15 mark).

"Randy is definitely a top five fighter," Melanson told Cagewriter. "Randy can compete with any of them. And now that he’s looking for submissions, he can stop that fight."

Melanson was quick to add that title fights are the true test of one’s stamina and willingness to fight through adversity. 

"If you want to talk about title contention, Randy is the ultimate five-round fighter. He is, period. For most fighters they’re not five-round fighters. They’ve got 25 minutes with Couture."

Melanson gave lots of credit to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Brandon Vera for being more than a handful for Couture. The crew of Melanson devotees continues to grow. Chael Sonnen, who only worked with Melanson for a few days before UFC 109, swore by him. Melanson’s strong suit is working from the bottom but if the fighter is on the top the goal is to get your opponent to turtle. Sonnen did exactly that with Marquardt and administered a beating. Melanson’s philosophies have Couture working harder than ever. The coach also pointed out that Couture lost a lot more often than he won during grappling sessions in the lead up to UFC 109.

Check out the rest of the interview where Melanson describes why his knowledge of offense from the bottom serves as grappler’s antidote against submission fighters. The big guy’s base comes from working out of Gokor Chivichyan’s gym in Southern California. Melanson called it a leg breaker’s gym, where on more than one occasion Karo Parisyan brutalized him. 

Martin Kampmann was looking forward to getting back in the title chase with another win at UFC 111 against Ben Saunders in March. That won’t happen because apparently someone took a hatchet to his eyebrow (photo after the jump). It has to be one of the nastiest cuts  we’ve ever seen.

Here’s hoping for a quick recovery and that Martin didn’t try another one of his home stitch jobs (pictured on the right). Kampmann stitched up a cut around the same eye back in 2008. That time it was just above the eyelid.

Jake Ellenberger steps up now to face Saunders.

The man is persistent. James Toney crashed the postfight press conference after UFC 108 to get some face time and force a sit down with Dana White. Apparently White wasn’t willing to open the vault for a guy who holds the prestigious "IBA" boxing heavyweight title.

Toney to the UFC is dead, right? Not quite. Toney jumped on Versus’ "Sports Soup" and mumbled his way through a verbal beatdown/request of White to get him into the UFC.

The lines we could decifer included:

"All the UFC fans out there, I love y’all. If you hate me, [expletive] y’all!"

"This is a goon service announcement towards Dana White. Dana White [expletive] you, [expletive] you, [expletive] you"

"Put down the candy and let the little girls go and come see me." 

"Oh Chuck Liddell, Daddy’s girl. That’s Dana White’s No. 1 sweetheart."

Toney did give respect to Randy Couture but also called Kimbo Slice, "Simba Spice." Great stuff, but Toney isn’t worth bringing into MMA at any price. 

Tip from reader Jason

If fans weren’t wowed by UFC 108 and UFC 109 because of a lack of heat between the fighters, get ready for the spring and summer. MTV’s "Yo Momma" is going to look weak compared to some of the smack talk before upcoming UFC events. Brock Lesnar’s next fight against Shane Carwin or Frank Mir, John Howard-Anthony Johnson, Tito Ortiz-Chuck Liddell are going to all feature fighters spitting fire. But the best of the best has to be Josh Koscheck against Paul Daley. Daley has already started lobbing bombs and Koscheck sat down with ESPNRadio1100 in Las Vegas to give his first comments about their fight at UFC 113 in early May (6:50 mark).

"Paul Daley is talking a lot," said Koscheck. "Paul is going to get his mouth shut. I’ve been in this game for a long time and yeah I talk a lot of trash but guess what, I back it up at the end of the day. If Paul Daley’s going to talk, is he going to come into the cage on May 8 and back it up? I can guarantee I am."

Koscheck said he’s back in training after dealing with some minor injuries and he wants to make sure Daley won’t speak before fights in the future.

"I plan on rearranging them teeth in his mouth. He already has those braces and those  messed up teeth. So maybe we’ll put some railroad spikes in there."

Daley is a standup specialist while Koscheck features nasty ground and pound. It’s a stylistic matchup that Koscheck is looking forward to.

"Don’t be afraid to talk a little bit to entice me to stand. Because I have good standup and I have a good chin. I have a lot of power. and if I put my right hand on your chin, you’re going to go to sleep."

Is Koscheck biting off more than he can chew? Martin Kampmann thought his chin would hold up against Daley and so did Dustin Hazelett.

Koscheck also spoke about Tito Ortiz calling Chuck Liddell an alcoholic. His response wasn’t very pro-Tito.     

Why I’ve chosen mixed martial arts as a sport to specialize on? That’s often a question thrown my way when speaking to buddies around the country who work in sportsradio.

You get that sideways look. "Really you like that more than NBA, NFL or baseball?" They just don’t get it and still look at the UFC, and other promotions as a circus, and one that only a small crew of fans follow. I know they’re wrong. You know they’re wrong but it’s not always easy to convince the non-believers.

Andrew Sharp, an editor from SB Nation, attended his first UFC card this weekend and put into words nicely some of the things that make MMA so infectious. 

Screw the primal nature of fights and the blood, the first thing I mention is the melding of fight specialties and strategy. 

Differentiating between the styles—knowing which armbar comes from Brazlian Jiu
Jitsu, or which defensive move comes from Wrestling—is beyond my purview, but
theoretically, it makes for a chess match between fighters that’s impossibly
intricate, and highly intellectual," wrote Sharp. "A chess match, with chilling violence that will get your pulse racing and drain
you of every last ounce of adrenalin after 20 minutes. So… Basically, the
coolest chess match ever. That’s Mixed Martial Arts."

MMA is a culture. The fans are like no other sport. 

Sharp says, "It’s why the UFC can realistically launch a "nationwide network of gyms" to train people, and it’s a pretty
emphatic example of the dedication that MMA fans have shown in recent years. Not
only does the sport gain more fans every day, but they’re fans that become
deeply invested in the sport. It’s not a casual hobby; people don’t like it,
they love it. It’s pretty impressive. I love the NBA, but I will gladly
concede that most basketball fans are only casually invested in the regular
season, and that’s being generous. With MMA and the UFC, it’s different."

There’s also the stories surrounding the fighters. They’re not just imaginary characters slugging it out for money. That’s why guys, with their careers on the line like Mark Coleman and Frank Trigg, were so intriguing to follow at UFC 109.

Sharp said he sat right near Rob Emerson’s mother at UFC 109, "It was a good reminder, too. These fighters are human, with real families and
real bones that break. That seems obvious, but it’s easy to fall prey to the
idea that all of these fighters are sociopaths, weaned on steroids and fighting,
and robbed of any of the qualities we’d associate with "normal" human beings."

Then there’s that moment on each card, and there may be several of them, that you’ll be talking about for weeks if not months after the fight. Sharp mentioned Chael Sonnen’s upset win over Nate Marquardt as the battle that made the biggest impression. 

"It feels weird to describe a bloody, vicious fight as beautiful, but it sort
of was. The determination of both fighters was just unbelievable, and neither
one ever quit. Not Marquardt when he was being repeatedly bludgeoned in the
second, and not Sonnen, when he turned purple and probably should have passed
out. Somehow, both men kept killing themselves, and it showed. Strange as it
sounds, there’s something beautiful about that. It was a fight I’ll never
forget. Something to tell my friends about."

MMA isn’t for everyone but it’s amazing what happens when you come to the event with an open mind. Somehow Sharp, from cheap seats, picked up on all the cool things. Yet so many veteran newspaper reporters and columnists can’t. Too often traditional media members walk away calling the fans morons, claiming they only feed off blood, muscles and violence. Maybe it’s a generational thing or maybe it’s the media who are the simple-minded knuckleheads.

Women’s fighting is still battling a severe uphill climb. It’s tough to find places to train. Once you’re there most of the guys are too big or shy away from sparring or rolling with the girls. No one knows that better than Erin Toughill.

She’s overcome much of the negative stigma about female fighters to the point where some guys actually seek her out to train. When Cagewriter hit Xtreme Couture on Tuesday, Ryan Couture was hitting the mits. Son of Randy Couture, Ryan is an aspiring amateur who fights down at 155 pounds. On this day, holding the mits for Couture was the much bigger and more experienced Toughill.

"I’ve been training a long time. I still have things to work on," Toughill said. "I definitely give these guys a run for their money. I hit very hard. Ray [Sefo] is one of my coaches and he says ‘Oh my god, you hit harder than 80 percent of the guys in here.’" 

Not only does Toughill hit hard but she looks intimidating. She’s 5-foot-11, 175 pounds and for any woman fighting down at 145, Toughill looks like a handful.

The big question: Can she make the weight to set up a showdown against the freight train that is, Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos?

"I’ve made the weight before, it’s not the easiest thing. The biggest thing is doing it properly and then once I acclimate at a lower weight, it’ll make it easier to get to 145. But it’s not easy, especially for women. One forty-five is a strange weight."

Toughill, 32, says she’s the best in the world and now just needs the opportunity. After finishing a three-fight deal with Palace Fighting Championships, Toughill signed a long deal with Strikeforce. The goal is Cyborg, who just so happened to be at UFC 109, where Toughill was watching her husband Neil Melanson, work with Randy Couture.

"I ran into her on Saturday and I’m actually a lot bigger than her. We caught eyes," Toughill said. "She just kept walking. I would have definitely talked to her. She didn’t look that big to me."

Cyborg physically overwhelmed her last two opponents Gina Carano and Marloes Coenen. Toughill thinks a bigger, more technical fighter is going to give Cyborg trouble and that the Strikeforce champ hasn’t really been hit in a fight. Toughill wants a warmup fight with Strikeforce in April or May and then hopes to get Cyborg during the fall. 

Damn you Chuck Liddell! We’re all going to start siding with Tito Ortiz. Just kidding.

Liddell makes the common man weep about their own existence when he sees him doing photo shoots like the one he did with Anna Trebunskaya, his partner from Dancing with the Stars. It’s just Chuck being Chuck. 

When commenting on allegations of Liddell being an alcoholic, Dana White put it perfectly.

"I think Chuck Liddell is a rich guy with a lot of time on his hands," said White. "He’s single. He likes to go out and meet girls. Do what most guys like to do. He’s a little old to be doing it but that’s what he likes to do."

Tip via Middleeasy.com

Gray Maynard is a pretty grounded and patient dude. That’s why it was shocking to see him lose his cool and throw his gameplan out the window at Ultimate Fight Night 20 against Nate Diaz. With an impressive win, Maynard was in line to get the next shot at B.J. Penn’s UFC lightweight title. It was pretty clear during the postfight that Maynard and his camp — Randy Couture and Gil Martinez — knew he had fallen behind Frank Edgar in the pecking order to land the Penn fight. Maynard was calm that night and again when Cagewriter tracked him down a few weeks later before Strikeforce: Miami.

Maynard said the timing just wasn’t right.

"We can’t just jump in there [and say] ‘it’s mine, let’s do this.’ It would’ve been tough to jump right into camp again."

His win over Diaz came on Jan. 11, which means he have roughly two weeks before going into another eight week training camp. Keep in mind, Maynard face got peppered pretty good by Diaz. He also said he’s got some nagging injuries he’d like to heal up. Maynard said in the end, the decision is made by Couture and Martinez. His job is to say yes sir, no sir. 

There’s also the issue of taking a fight 6,000 miles from his hometown of Las Vegas. Sounds like a lot of excuses but the bottomline is the time wasn’t right for Maynard to take on the fight of his life.

Make sure you watch the end of the interview where Maynard talks about some of the NFL players, Patrick Willis and Calvin Pace, who came into Xtreme Couture just before and during the early part of the NFL season. 

Now that Matt Serra is back on the winning track, he’s ready to take some time off. When asked about who and when he wanted to fight next, Serra was non-committal on the topic saying whenever Joe Silva calls. If it fits in his schedule, he’ll be ready to go.

His first order of business is to take in the Matt Hughes-Renzo Gracie at UFC 112 in early April. Serra said he’d love for the UFC to bring him over to Abu Dhabi in a promotional role so he could see the fight in person. Hughes has a rivalry with Serra from their appearances on Season 4 and 6 of "The Ultimate Fighter." Along with MMA trainer Marc Laimon, Hughes poked fun at Gracie jiu-jitsu. Hughes beat Royce at UFC 63 and Serra at UFC 98. Serra is a Gracie disciple.

Cagewriter asked Hughes at Strikeforce: Miami about why he took the Gracie fight (0:22 mark on video below). He joked, "’cause he’s older than I am to be honest."

Serra was surprised by that answer.

"Maybe he’s joking around that guy. He’s doing that thinking Renzo’s an easy fight. He’s in for a rude awakening."

When asked about a rematch down the road, Serra said he doubts it’ll happen and that Hughes wouldn’t want it. If Hughes gets by the 42-year-old Gracie, let’s hope there’s a push for Hughes-Serra II. 

Chael Sonnen has been on fire the last week. First with his dominant win over top five middleweight Nate Marquardt. He also sizzled in front of microphones and cameras. As if the bevy of fighters he tore apart wasn’t enough he even shredded Showtime on Saturday night.

"At the end of the day, if you want to get to the top of the card in the UFC, you gotta fight tough guys," Sonnen said during the UFC 109 postfight press conference (2:01 mark). "If you want to be a fighter and get in the cage and be a big deal at your local strip club, go to Showtime. If you want to fight real guys this is the place to be."

Sonnen was referencing Strikeforce, where its top middleweights include Dan Henderson, Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, Nick Diaz, Tim Kennedy, Frank Shamrock, Scott Smith, "Jacare" Souza and his own teammate Matt Lindland.  

Sonnen is now in line for a shot at the UFC middleweight title. Anderson Silva defends his belt on April 10 against Vitor Belfort. Sonnen said he hopes Silva wins so he avoids the tougher fighter.   

Randy Couture is now 2-0 in his latest return to the light heavyweight division. After wins over Brandon Vera at UFC 105 and Mark Coleman at UFC 109, he appears to be in line for a potential title shot. The 46-year-old Couture just finished his third fight in less than five and half months. He may want a break but he joked that if UFC president Dana White called him to fight next week he may take it.

"The training camps have been good. We shortened the camps because of the quicker turnarounds," Couture said during the UFC 109 postfight press conference. "Which I now see as a real positive. I like the shorter camps."

Couture said he likes being so active. This is the first time he’s fought this often since 2003. He’s also been wise with his conditioning between fights hovering around 217 pounds. But after staying so busy recently, Couture may be in store for a long break. He’s stuck in 205-pound limbo while the other top fighters return from injury and making movies.

Couture said he wasn’t very interested in going back up to heavyweight because the size and skill of the top fighters has improved so much. But White indicated later that he wasn’t ruling out Couture back at heavyweight (video below 0:20 mark).

White scoffed at the notion that Couture may not return until August but that looks like the most realistic timeline unless he’s a fill-in for an injured fighter. At 205, the title is up for grabs between Mauricio Rua and Lyoto Machida on May 8 and Rashad Evans meets Quinton Jackson on May 29. Is there another 205er worth pitting against Couture? And more importantly, one that he’d be interested in fighting? One possible scenario is an injury to Forrest Griffin before his May 8 fight, where Couture could fill in against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

At heavyweight, the top four guys behind Brock Lesnar are fighting on Feb. 21 and Mar. 27. Even if one of the fighters got injured, there wouldn’t be enough time for Couture to get ready for the fight unless Frank Mir or Shane Carwin were dropped from UFC 111 in the next week or so.

White said repeatedly before and after the fight that he thinks Couture
is top five in the world at 205. Is that inaccurate? Are the
USAToday/Bloody Elbow rankings correct in slotting Couture at No. 11 behind guys
like Griffin, Nogueira, Rich Franklin and Thiago Silva? Who else are we missing? Who could Couture fight instead of waiting for Evans, Rua, Machida or Jackson?  

Mark Coleman was trying to remake his career with a win over Randy Couture. The 45-year-old Coleman just didn’t have enough to knock off his fellow legend losing via rear-naked choke. As main events go, it wasn’t the worst show at UFC 109. Coleman, who was defended vehemently by UFC president Dana White before the event, probably did enough to earn another fight, right? Wrong. White told the media at the UFC 109 postfight presser that it was the end of the road for Coleman.

"I think tonight was probably Coleman’s last fight in the UFC," said White. "I just think he’ll have a hard time competing with the guys at the top of the level. Age is a factor with him."

White said even a heated promotion involving Coleman and Tito Ortiz didn’t interest him.

"Tito’s a lot younger than him."

Ortiz set off Coleman during his postfight speech in the cage with Joe Rogan. Ortiz cursed out Coleman while walking by the Octagon and his girlfriend Jenna Jameson flipped him off.

White didn’t even understand what was going on.

"Tito’s talking [expletive] to Coleman after Coleman just lost this fight that he’s wanted his whole life? Tito’s fighting Chuck [Liddell]. I’m not even thinking Tito-Coleman." 

The decision to cut Coleman seems a bit odd considering it was just two days ago White was chastising fans/media for saying Coleman was too old to be in the main event of a UFC card. Two days later White’s saying age is a factor. Huh?  

The last UFC main event fight who wasn’t brought back for another fight was Tim Sylvia, who chose to sign a big deal with Affliction and fight Fedor Emelianenko. Who was the last UFC main eventer immediately cut because the promotion didn’t think he could fight anymore? 

Victory in hand at UFC 109, Chael Sonnen wasn’t about to miss an opportunity to fan the early flames before his UFC middleweight title shot. Dana White was asked if Sonnen would indeed be getting a fight against Anderson Silva before the moved out of the division to 205 pounds. White said that would happen and Sonnen, a good wrestler and takedown specialist, would be an interesting matchup for Silva. Sonnen was stoked.

"I hope Anderson wins because I think Vitor [Belfort] is a lot tougher fighter. If I had to choose the low road and take the easier opponent in getting to the championship."

Sonnen said he thinks Belfort is the better fighter stating that he’s never really lost a fight on the feet. This was a continuation of what Sonnen said during the prefight about Silva and his No. 1 pound-for-pound ranking by many.

"That guy’s no more the top fighter out there than Bigfoot is roaming the woods," Sonnen told MMAWeekly Radio.
"That is an absolute myth, and all these guys can buy into it, but there’s a
young man out in Portland, Ore., that is not signing up on that bandwagon…If
Anderson ever signed to fight me, which is highly unlikely, he’ll be getting a
verbal beating like you’ve never seen."

Sonnen beat Nate Marquardt to steal away a title shot that was guaranteed by White during Thursday’s UFC 109 press conference. Silva and Belfort meet in early April at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi. 

If you didn’t like the technical nuances of the Randy Couture-Mark Coleman fight, maybe the verbal sparring between Coleman and Tito Ortiz is more your cup of tea.

Coleman lost via choke in the second round of his main-event fight at UFC 109. As Coleman was speaking to UFC color commentator Joe Rogan, Tito Ortiz walked by outside the cage.

Ortiz yelled at Coleman.

"Payback’s a bitch mother[expletive]."

At the same time, his girlfriend and former porn queen, Jenna Jameson, gave Coleman the middle finger. Coleman motioned like he was going to exit the Octagon to chase down Ortiz. That’s when Rogan stepped in and said not to bother. Coleman grabbed the microphone.

"[Expletive] you, Tito. Any [expletive] time Tito. Anytime douchebag."

The crowd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center seemed to side with Coleman in the tiff, launching into a "[expletive] you, Tito" chant. The Coleman-Ortiz squabble started before UFC 106.

Their scheduled fight in November went by the wayside when Coleman got injured. Ortiz then called him a "sissy" via Twitter. Coleman’s buddy and business partner, Michael DiSabato, responded by trashing Jameson.

"The only thing Coleman is afraid of when it comes to Tito is
contracting swine flu from that dirty ass d-bag. We all know where he lays his
head down at night. Tito wants to get personal with a legend? OK, let’s get
personal – we can all go to our porn collections and watch what Tito sleeps with
night after night."

A Coleman-Ortiz fight couldn’t happen until the end of 2010. Ortiz is locked into fighting Chuck Liddell at UFC 115 in June. Liddell ripped Ortiz via Twitter for his attack on Coleman.

Ortiz and Liddell, the coaches on the "The Ultimate Fighter," are currently taping Season 11. 

Tip on Ortiz quote via Ariel Helwani, AOL FanHouse

In the battle of the old guys — Randy Couture and Mark Coleman —
the older dude was better. Couture looked faster, more crisp and full
of more energy as the 46-year-old set the tone early, bouncing jabs off of
the 45-year-old’s face.

Then Couture employed his bread and butter, using the
clinch against the cage and dirty boxing. Coleman looked beat at the
end of the first round. He fell victim to an easy takedown in the
second round as Couture almost immediately scored the mount. Couture
rained down punches and Coleman gave up his back. It was just a matter
of time before Couture locked on a rear-naked choke to finish it at
1:09 of the second round.  

Couture is old in number but looks like he’s adding new elements to his game each time out.

"It
seems to be par for the course," joked Couture about being called old.
"I’m having a blast. I feel like I’m improving every time out. [I’m] 46
years young!"

Couture said he’d been working on chokes before the fight. 

"I’ve been working on it, the chokes, rear naked choke and side choke," Couture told Joe Rogan.
"I felt if I got him on the ground, I wanted to headhunt. I got him on the
ground and sometimes it works out."

Coleman seemed shellshocked by Couture. 

"Wow. The guy’s tough. He’s really tough. He’s a great fighter. He beat me to the punch. I was a little slow tonight."

This fight was 12 years in the making. The fighters were supposed to meet back at UFC 17 but it never materialized.

Coleman looked dejected but wants to keep fighting. 

"I don’t know what the hell
happened. Disappointed. Think that I can do better. I won’t quit. I’ll be back."

Chael Sonnen is in the top five in MMA. That’s just with his ability to trash talk. Now he’s backing it up with his fighting.

Sonnen, one of the best wrestling fighters in MMA, physically mauled the very powerful Nate Marquardt on his way to a huge upset in the co-main event at UFC 109. Sonnen ate some big shots to score takedown after takedown and then brutalized Marquardt on the ground with elbows and punches to take a unanimous decision, 30-27 on all cards.

A humble Sonnen said he was hurt early and he was in survival mode for much of the fight. 

"It was horrible. He hurt me very early. I was hurt from the first round. I just had to hang in there."

It didn’t appear Sonnen was the one in trouble. Marquardt took roughly 12 minutes of abuse on his back. Sonnen’s gas tank was excellent. He only ran into real trouble in the final two minutes of the fight, when Marquardt caught his head and slapped on a tight guillotine choke at the 1:55 mark. Sonnen has fallen victim to some bad submission losses in the past, but he wasn’t about blow this one.

"It was very tight. I was counting the seconds down in my head hoping he’d let me go."

Sonnen freed his head after 22 seconds in Marquardt’s grip and made it to the end of the fight.

If UFC president Dana White honors his prefight words, Sonnen gets the winner of the UFC 112 tilt between middleweight champ Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort. Sonnen has been hunting Silva verbally for two years now. If he gets Silva, the trash talk before the fight could be of epic proportions. Sonnen has said repeatedly that Silva, ranked No. 1 in the Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound poll, is overrated.

Sonnen (25-10, 3-3 UFC) is now 10-2 at middleweight. Marquardt, who’s been waiting since UFC 73 for another shot at Anderson Silva’s title, has to hope someone knocks him off in his next two fights or that the champ leaves the division and jumps to 205 pounds. Otherwise, he may be two years away from a shot.

Paulo Thiago keeps dogging American Kickboxing Academy fighters. He screwed up Josh Koscheck’s 2009 welterweight title hopes with an upset at UFC 95, and now he’s done it to Koscheck’s AKA teammate Mike Swick.

Thiago’s standing defense looked terrible in his UFC debut against Koscheck, but he still knocked him out with a huge uppercut. His defense was a 100 percent better Saturday, and it seemed to throw Swick’s rythym off.

Swick, who is always a relentless guy on the feet, finally landed a good straight right early in the second roun and he tried to unload on Thiago. However, the Brazilian backed up and countered with a huge left. Swick went down and before he was able to scramble, Thiago locked on a d’arce choke. It took just seconds to put Swick to sleep.

Referee Herb Dean stepped in at 1:54 of the second round, giving Thiago the win.

Swick (14-4, 9-3 UFC) was a minus-200 favorite. Thiago (13-1, 3-1 UFC) is now 2-1 against AKA’s trio of welterweights. Thiago earned the knockout of the night bonus against Koscheck, and he looks like a lock for submission of the night again. 

Matt Serra is definitely New York through and through. His video blogs this week were filled with hilarious back and forth banter with his trainer Ray Longo. He even joked that they may be bound for Season 2 of "Jersey Shore." That’s perfect.

A jiu-jitsu ace, Serra definitely knows how to use his fists. Frank Trigg chose to duke it out with the diminutiive Serra and paid the price just over two minutes into the fight. Trigg threw a sloppy left hand, left it out there for way too long and got crushed by a Serra right-hand counter. Trigg fell to his back, where Serra bounced his head off the canvas three times before the referee stopped it.

Serra opened the UFC 109 pay-per-view with a win at 2:23 of the first round.

"Frank is such a stud wrester, I really have a lot of respect for him," said Serra. "He does well with jiu-jitsu guys because of his ground-and-pound. I believe in my standup. I’m not the prettiest guy on the pads, but when I land it hurts."

Shortly after the stoppage, Trigg could be seen asking "What happened" and once he got to his feet, he was yelling, "That’s [expletive]." But he came to his senses quickly and admitted the stoppage was proper. 

Serra wanted to test Trigg’s boxing and stand-up defense.

"I think the power comes from being so stocky, you thought I would say short," joked the 5-foot-6 Serra. "I wanted to work a lot on the body and work my way up."

Serra (10-6, 7-6 UFC) was the more aggressive and crisp striker throughout. He also seemed to throw his punches with a lot more conviction. He snapped a two-fight losing streak with the victory. Serra, a former UFC welterweight champ, probably won’t get another shot at Georges St. Pierre. His loss at UFC 98 to Matt Hughes was close and he does deserve that rematch. It would certainly be a sellable fight and one that would motivate Hughes. First Hughes has to get by Renzo Gracie at UFC 112 in early April. 

This was the second straight quick KO loss for Trigg (19-8, 2-5 UFC) in his second go round with the promotion. At 37 years old, this may have been his last fight in the UFC. He certainly has the name and drawing power to fight for smaller promotions.

Speaking to Cagewriter before this fight, it sounded like Trigg was ready to jump full-time into sports broadcasting if he lost to Serra. Trigg was the color voice for PRIDE before it was purchased by the UFC. 

Mac Danzig certainly wasn’t treated with kid gloves once he won "The Ultimate Fighter" title on Season 6. He’s been handed tough opponent after tough opponent. He had lost three difficult fights in a row and decided to take some time off.

Justin Buchholz doesn’t have the reputation of previous opponents like Jim Miller, Josh Neer or Clay Guida, but he gave Danzig a good fight before falling via unanimous decision, 29-28 on all cards, in the final undercard fight before the pay-per-view portion of UFC 109.

Danzig is now 3-3 in the UFC and survives another day. Danzig, a good submission artist with a well-rounded game, proves the depth of the promotion’s lightweight division.

"He’s a great fighter. I do my best not to underestimate anyone I face. This depth in this division is so steep. I don’t think people understand what it’s like to fight in this division. Even the guys at the bottom of the rankings at 155 are world class."

The UFC decided to jump on prospect Phil Davis early, and it looks like they made a good decision.

Fresh off winning an NCAA wrestling title in 2008, Davis, 25, took on veteran Brian Stann, and he made Stann look like an amateur on the ground. Stann couldn’t extricate himself from Davis’ clutches and spent most of the fight trying to defend himself in the mount. Davis rolled to a unanimous decision win, 30-27 on all cards, to record his first UFC win.

It was hard to tell how far Davis needs to go with his standup game. He didn’t look all that comfortable, but he was actually better off missing with wild rights so he could charge forward and plant Stann on his back via takedowns.

Davis still needs to add submissions to his game as well. He had several opportunities to work a rear-naked choke and arm-triangle chokes, but he was more interested in maintaining position. Any criticism has to be tempered by repeating that this was his fifth career fight. 

Stann is a nice fighter for the promotion. A Marine Corps veteran and former football player in Annapolis, Stann has solid standup. However, his ground game just isn’t good enough to compete with the top 20 light heavyweights.

NOVER TURNS IN ANOTHER LACKLUSTER FIGHT, LOSES TO EMERSON

It’s become clear that the 155-pound class on Season 8 of "The Ultimate Fighter" just wasn’t that good. Phillipe Nover destroyed the field on his way to the final before losing to Efrain Escudero. Along the way he was dubbed "The next Anderson Silva" by UFC president Dana White.

It hasn’t worked out in his post-show fights.

He was finished quickly by Kyle Bradley at UFC 98, and Saturday he couldn’t deal with the power of Rob Emerson. Emerson, a kickboxer by trade, actually outworked Nover by using takedowns and ground control. Emerson (9-8, 3-2 UFC) pulled off the upset via unanimous decision. Nover (6-3, 0-3 UFC) was a minus-160 favorite.

Emerson was part of TUF 5, a season that produced lightweights Nate Diaz, Gray Maynard, Matt Wiman, Joe Lauzon, Corey Hill, Manny Gamburyan and Cole Miller.