Sylvia and Ortiz win and Silva signed to UFC
If you turned your eyes away from either one of their first two fights against each other you could have missed it, but in their third go at it, observers needed to carefully count punches in order to determing who won the 5-round war between Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia.
The fight was almost exclusively a kick-boxing match as the pair traded blows, never once going to the ground and rarely even in the clinch, for 5 grueling rounds. In the end Tim Sylvia retained his title by unanimous decision, but it was far from a blow out.
In fact, the judges’ scorecards show that if Arlovski could have won the 5th round in the eyes of at least two of the three judges, he would have won a majority decision. After four rounds, two judges had it scored even, Sylvia having won the second and fourth rounds and Arlovski having won the first and third rounds. The other judge had Arlovski down three rounds to one, so it would have been impossible to win it for Arlovski on that card, but unanimity is not needed and if Arlovski could have out pointed Sylvia in the 5th in the eyes of at least those two judges who had it even after four, he would have regained the title on a majority decision.
Many were suprised that Arlovski’s expected speed advantage over Sylvia didn’t seem to last throughout the fight, and also that he did not attempt any takedowns or throw many leg kicks, which he has used with brutal effectiveneses throughout his career.
A partial explanation may be an injury to Arlovski’s knee that his camp is reporting occured in the first round.
Although it is unclear to what extent Arlovski’s knee may have been damaged, he did have to go to the hospital after the fight. If Arlovski did indeed suffer a serious knee injury in the first round the fact that he and Sylvia went all 5 rounds would be even more impressive.
Although the fight went the distance it was not for lack of knockout power punches being landed. Both men repeatedly connected with power on each other’s chins, Sylvia with a few uppercuts and straight crosses, and Arlovski with several over hand rights to the jaw of Sylvia.
Yet each man, though stunned at times, withstood the other’s punishment, and niether appeared to get winded, even in the later rounds. In the end, an increasingly impressive Tim Sylvia out pointed Arlovski, who at fight’s end was bleeding under his right eye and on the lieft side of his face.
Sylvia’s hand speed looked improved, especially his jab which he brought back crisply throughout the fight, instead of letting it drop as he has done in the past.
Especially in the later rounds, Sylvia was effective at not letting Arlovski get free hits as he countered many of the former champ’s power shots, and he also deftly faded away from quite a few of Arlovski’s big swings in the last two rounds.
Sylvia’s strategy combined effective coutnering and persistant stalking of Arlovski with quick lead shots landed at opportune, if sparse, moments.
Arlovski, the crowd and odds favorite now looks to find a place slightly below the top of a heavyweight division most expected him to dominate. And Sylvia likely looks forward to Jeff Monson, the rightful number one contender in the division.
In the co-main event, Tito Ortiz elbowed his way to a referee stoppage against Ken Shamrock in 1:18 of the first round.
Immediately after referee Herb Dean stepped in and called the fight Shamrock popped up to his feet and began to protest the quick call.
At first glance, especially from ringside, the stoppage looked early, but slow motion replays showed the extent of the punishment Shamrock was taking from Ortiz’ elbows. In Shamrock’s full guard after having taken him down, Ortiz positioned Shamrock against the cage and began to land elbows to his head.
Ortiz’ attack was almost a perfect storm as he threw 5-6 solid elbows to Shamrock’s head entirely uncontested.
Amidst boos from the fickle sell-out crowd of 12,400 in the Mandaly Bay Events Center, Ortiz defended the stoppage and his win.
“I was just doing my job and hitting him with elbows. I hit him with some really good ones, and on the first he went limp and wasn’t responding. The referee did his job. That’s the rule of the UFC. If Shamrock wants to do it again we can do it again, it’s no problem” said Ortiz.
While Shamrock’s protest can surely be understood considering that he wasn’t unconscious or cut, and that not much time had elapsed, referee Herb Dean has a track record of having incredible perception and solid judgement with regards to precaution in the ring, and he obviously didn’t like what he was seeing happening to Shamrock and probably made the right, if cautious, call.
With a booing crowd after the Shamrock stoppage, UFC president Dana White’s momentus announcement came at just the right time. White called a visiting Wanderlei Silva to the Octagon who announced why he was there that night.
“My job is to fight with the best fighters in the world, and that’s why I’m here tonight. I want to fight with Chuck here. Come Chuck!” the Pride middleweight (205lbs) champion announced, calling out Chuck Liddell the UFC’s 205lbs division champion.
The “Ice Man” was of course in the house and it didn’t take him long to saunter on in to the Octagon himself. He and Silva squared up with each other and locked eyes in an excitingly tense moment.
White said that should Liddell beat Renato “Babalu” Sobral in their title bout in August, Liddel and Silva will fight in November.
