They did note Anderson Silva and Stephan Bonnar.

They showed Chuck, and mentioned him, too. Clay Guida and Tito Ortiz were on camera a few times each, with no mention that I noticed.

I was out for dinner tonight with a large group of guys. One of the people we were out with works for Versus. It was very interesting to talk to someone who works for the company who could explain just how huge this show was for the network.

I had to watch via a Tivo delay when I got home. But still…was very informative to talk to someone from the TV station about how important they viewed it as being.

I’m overwhelmed. Between UFC 84 and the two title fights on WEC, I’ve been pretty spoiled with quality MMA programming (how about we pretend EXC never happened?). I absolutely love Miguel Torres and that fight was purely amazing to watch, even if it was wild eyed and lacking technical proficiency for large portions of the first two rounds. Torres always shows up ready to hurt someone, while most champs are overly cautious and protective. Hell, if Arlovski had that mentality, maybe he’d still be the UFC HW champ. Too bad for the eye swelling and hopefully those two can tangle again in the future (Maeda sneaks into my circle of favorite fighters to watch, too). Same goes for Pulver and Faber. I’ve never been his biggest fan, but Jens is always gracious in defeat. Those five rounds were enthralling. No easy task for a title fight that goes the distance. Even the fifth round, arguably the worst of the fight, had a tension all it’s own as the fight wound down and you had to wonder if Jens had anything left in the tank to swing out the final moments. Faber is quickly becoming one of the five most exciting fighters in the world to watch. Torres could be in that conversation as well. The WEC has two guys that are guaranteed to give you a great show. The WEC has a very bright future.. Maybe if EXC stopped concerning themselves with gaudy production, dancing girls & sideshow slugfests and spent more time finding international or little own up-and-coming fighters like those in the WEC, we wouldn’t have had to suffer through that painful excuse for a mixed martial arts show.

Here’s hoping that 85 is better than the sum of it’s parts.

The Torres/Maeda fight was probably one of the most exciting fights I’ve ever witnessed. I was honestly yelling colorful expletives at the TV…it was that exciting. Esp when they both had each other in foot locks, considering how much they were willing to give in the standup war I though sure as shit someone’s foot was going to come off.
I was honestly hoping Pulver would win, not that I don’t like Faber but I guess I was rooting for the underdog. There were a few times in the fight where I wondered why Pulver didn’t push Faber a little harder. Perhaps Faber was just “playing possum” but to me he looked like he was hurt and if Pulver pushed him it might have ended differently.
Either way I was glad I watched the fights, made the “sunday night blues” non-existant which is a nice thing for those of us hating the idea of going back to work on Monday.

The person who I was actually shocked to see there was Scott Smith, cornering for Tim McKenzie. He must have taken the red eye home from Jersey!