Machida and Evans sorta went exactly like I thought it would. Both fighters were waiting on the other to make the first move. Rashad ended up making the first move and it ended up being his last. The one thing that did shock me a bit though…when Rashad got hit he tried to punch his way out of it, he threw punches to try and get a lucky one in and end the fight. I’m shocked he didn’t grab Machida in the clinch and try his best to recover. I’m also shocked that Rashad let him go so many times when he did get him in the clinch. Machida has not been tested much in the clinch, and I think Rashad letting him out was a big hole in his game plan.

Sera and Hughes solved nothing in my eyes. There were very few questions answered about who was actually the better fight. Sera let it get to the judges scorecards and thus deserves his fate. I think the allure of Matt Hughes won him in the match on the cards more than the actual fight itself.

Good on Frankie Edgar with his big win over Sean Sherk. Edgar had struggled in the past against strong wrestlers, but Sherk came in with a totally bone-headed strategy. Sherk made his money with strong wrestling and ground and pound. We saw neither in this fight. He stood still, took predictable angles, and barely even tried a take down. He has a long way to go before he’s ready for a title shot again, and I’m still uncomfortable with the whole banned substance thing, the guy looks totally jacked up and I haven’t seen any body change since his first bust for an illegal substance. This leads me to believe he’s still on something.

Finally shout out goes to Drew McFedries. This guy is hilarious to watch in a fight. He’s either going to knock someone out in a minute, or get knocked out himself. He reminds me of when Forrest Griffin first started fighting, they were always the most entertaining fight. I read an article on UFC.com suggesting that Anderson Silva should fight Drew just to put some spice back into the Silva brand of fighting. You know Drew would come out throwing.

PS: First off on the Machida fight, I agree. Rashad had some serious holes in gameplan, not the least of which was to try and out wait Machida. The other was the lack of any clinch game; and he made some bad decisions on top of that. I will credit him in the fact that he has a chin though! Again, agree 100% on the Hughes/Serra front. Nothing was solved! Matt Hughes is a Hall of Famer and got the decision on the back of that. Sherk, well, both you and Darren are on the same page, and you guys are both absoloutely correct. Plus, even when he DID try and shoot in this fight, he wasn’t very effective. At 35 years of age, you wonder how much more he’s got left, especially if he’s continually cutting 20 to 25 pounds per fight. McFedries is awesome. I remember when he fought Patrick Cote…it was the perfect main event, because you knew exactly what you were going to get! 2 guys who were going to come out swinging. He’s the type of guy that is never going to be at the top end of his weight class (he’s 8-5), but the UFC will keep him around because you know you’ll always get entertaining finishes out of him; regardless of if they go against him or for him.

However, I wasn’t as impressed with Edgar’s win over Sherk. To me, Sherk is done because he is a plodding, straight-ahead type fighter who can’t seem to move his head while coming in. His face told the story. I refuse to use Sherk as a measuring stick for Edgar. He’s going to have to fight someone else before I’ll give him some credit.

PS: On the Sherk front, I think you make a good point. He hasn’t showed any head movement in his last 3 fights, when he has gone 1-2. The BJ Penn fight was very similar, as he could not seem to move his head out of the way while throwing a punch and was continually peppered by the jab of Penn. However, what I did like was Edgar’s ability to not only out-strike Sherk, but to also do a fairly good job in neutralizing his wrestling and ground-and-pound game, so I give him a lot of credit for that.

PS: And from what I’ve seen of the conditioning from the guy, he’s about as focused a fighter as there is right now.