UFC 112: How we did

Okay, let's get right to the big news: Frankie Edgar beat BJ Penn. Holy shit. More below, but, wow.

Now, to our regularly scheduled program. First, the undercard.

Jon Madsen vs. Mostapha Al Turk

We didn't get to see this fight, but Madsen won by decision, as we both expected. Go, us!

Paul Kelly vs. Matt Veach

Another fight we didn't see. We both chose Veach to win, and we were both wrong. Kelly submitted him. Bummer for us.

DaMarques Johnson vs. Brad Blackburn

And another fight we didn't see. Kyle went for Blackburn by striking. I chose Johnson. Johnson indeed won by TKO; I'm now up one in our competition.

Nick Osipczak vs. Rick Story

The last fight that the crowd saw that we didn't. Kyle picked Osipczak to out-work Story; I went the other way and said Story would carry the day. It was a split decision, but it went for Story. I'm now up two in our competition.

Paul Taylor vs. John Gunderson

No one saw this fight, because the UFC canceled it when Taylor couldn't get medical clearance to fight. I still don't know what happened to Taylor, whom we both picked. Because the fight didn't occur, however, I believe it comes off the list and does not count in our total.

Alexander Gustafsson vs. Phil Davis

This is the one fight from the undercard that the UFC showed during the PPV, and it went our way, with Davis slapping an anaconda choke on a very game Gustafsson. Davis has the potential to be scarily good.

So, as the main card began, I was 4-1, and Kyle was 2-3.

Kendall Grove vs. Mark Munoz

For a while in the first round, it looked like Grove was going to choke out Munoz and give me another victory, but Grove couldn't do it. Partway through the second round, Munoz got on top of Grove and beat him enough that the ref awarded Munoz the TKO victory.

I was then only one up on Kyle.

Terry Etim vs. Rafael Dos Anjos

As we predicted, Dos Anjos won, and he did it convincingly.

Matt Hughes vs. Renzo Gracie

Matt Hughes wasn't impressive, but he was more than good enough to punish Gracie for three rounds and win via TKO with 20 seconds left in the third. We called it right, but I sure wish Hughes had looked sharper.

BJ Penn vs. Frankie Edgar

We both called this wrong, as did the rest of the world, which Edgar stunned with a unanimous decision victory. As all the fight metrics reports will tell you, Penn really out-scored Edgar, but in this case I have to agree with the judges: Edgar appeared to be the winner.

Penn had loser face and spent much of the fight looking bewildered by Edgar's speed and movement. His corner told him to take down Edgar, but he never even tried.

Edgar, by contrast, had winner face, never slowed down, and just jabbed with Penn all night. More impressively, he took Penn down at least twice, something no one has done in a very long time.

I don't feel bad about calling this one wrong. Edgar sure was impressive.

Anderson Silva vs. Demian Maia

In what was easily one of the weirder fights in a while, Silva dominated Maia for about two rounds, lost interest, and then clowned around for the rest of the fight. That he was light-years better than Maia was evident, but Silva again appeared lost. As Kyle and I were discussing in email, Silva is the best counter-puncher the UFC has ever seen, but when his opponent refuses to be lured into his trap, he gets lost.

I hope Dana White finds a way to motivate Silva again.




When all the dust settled, I beat Kyle, though only by one. Still, I'll take it.

As always, don't use us for betting advice.