Matt Serra/Matt Hughes Head Cheese: A contrarian view of UFC 98

The UFC 98 promo clip of the Matt Hughes Matt Serra fight is a few fries short of a WWE happy meal. This frothy hype has little place in an organization that aspires to be worlds removed from the infantile shennanigans of  Vince McMahon’s traveling circus.

Going to the Matt in UFC 98 - Matt Serra (left) and Matt Hughes (right):The so-called war of words gets sillier with UFC enshrining them in breathless pre-fight promo. Oi vei!

That Matt Serra (15-5-0) doesn’t care for Matt Hughes (43-7-0) shouldn’t come as any news to anybody  (a lot of people don’t like Matt Hughes) but elevating this  aspect to the defining significance of the fight  not only degrades the de rigeur sportsmanship but the  I.Q. of  UFC fans which is supposed to be  above that of WWE hordes.

Matt Hughes, like Dana White, is a certifiable dick  and Matt  Serra, for better or worse wears his heart on his sleeve. We here at Cyberaxis call the fight for Nick Serra in the  second or third round.

Rashad Evans versus Lyoto  Machida:

Rashad Evans (13-0-1) is a gladiator  from the Quinton Jackson school of hard knocks.  He has youth on his side and is fearless. But he will not win today against Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida(14-0-0) today because his discipline and skill regimen  has not risen to the level of Lyoto Machida .  Both have a thing or two to prove, so the fight will not come down to a decision. Cyberaxis calls it for Machida by a knockout.

Update – 05/24/09: Matt  Serra versus Matt Hughes turned out to be a lackluster event with a questionable decision going to Matt Hughes after three rounds. Matt  Serra has nothing to be ashamed off and Hughes has nothing to preen about.  He came across as a one trick pony with little or no  stand-up game.

The little  hugging and “pillow-talk” at the end of that fight just proved how nonsensical that pre-fight spittle ‘n booger flicking was all about. Our point, as mede earlier,  is that the UFC didn’t have to amplify it in their pre-fight promo.  Nuff of that.

Machida versus Evans did not disappoint.  The denouement came down just like we predicted. More on this in an upcoming Machida feature.

But the mini-minute thriller of the night came from the Drew McFedries(7-5-0) against Frenchman Xavier Foupa-Pokam figh(20-10-0). While the fighters had similar win/loss percentages, Foupa-Pokam clearly had more fights under his belt – besides being a more  colorful a fighter. Like fellow compatriot Cheick Kongo, Foupa-Pokam who goes by the nickname Professor X, cuts an impressive physical specimen.  But that did not save him from being knocked down like a rag doll 30 seconds into the fight by a pumped up Drew McFedries. Seven seconds later it was all over  for the  Muay Thai operative. Professor X did not have a chance to deploy any of his formidable weapons;  kicks and knees.  We wish him well  next time.  He has lost all of his UFC fights to date. The first one went to Dennis Kang by a decision in round three on 4/18/09.