Fronted by Kid Nate

"Live from Omaha, Nebraska . . . "

I have to admit that I never thought I'd see the day where the UFC would come calling in Omaha, Nebraska.  There's a decent "local" scene, with events like Ring Wars and Victory Fighting Championship, and there's a good number of local gyms that do MMA training.  There have been a handful of local guys who've made it to the bigger promos -- Houston, Ryan "Tap-Out" Jensen, Jake Ellenberger (Bodog/IFL), etc.  But to see Dana White, Joe Silva, Arianny Celeste, Rogan, Goldberg, and the rest of the UFC gang come to Omaha was just more than I could have expected.  But last night, here they were.

The crowd:

I was praying all night that the crowd would do Omaha proud.  Show up.  Be loud.  Be respectful. Be knowledgeable.  Make an impression that might bring this or a bigger event back here in the future. 

For the most part, I was pleased with the crowd.  The place was really loud on a number of occasions, even during the prelims (the roof about came off for Jason Brilz).  A few unfortunate (and all too common during events of late) boos here and there for "inaction" or a non-local fighter.  But for the most part that was clearly outweighed by a really great atmosphere all night.  Eric Shafer got the biggest boos of the night, during his intro and immediately after he tapped Houston out.  But by the time he was leaving the cage, he got an ovation too.  I probably went a little further than common sense would have dictated in yelling at a couple of meatheads near me who wearing Husker jerseys that they needed to give Shafer his due because he came in and did exactly what he wanted and needed to do to put on a good performance and win with a great choke.

Nothing out of hand was seen all night.  No fights in the crowd or afterward.  Everyone was pretty pumped as they walked in, and even more so as they walked out.  The only real negative I can think of is that it was a little slow to fill up, but that's got to be expected on a Wednesday afternoon.  By about 5:00 or so it was pretty full, and it looked pretty good on t.v. when I skimmed through a bit of it after getting home.

The Fights:

The tickets all indicated that doors opened at 3:45 and the first fight started at 4:45.  At 4:30 they dimmed the lights and Dan Miller and Rob Kimmons were in the ring ready to go. That fight and the McFedries/Massenzio fight were both OVER by about 4:45 and several people who walked in close to 4:45 were confused and disappointed that two fights were over already before the stated starting time.  I figured they should have been there early for an event like this anyway, but can't blame them for being a bit upset -- how often does anything in this world start *early*?

Dan Miller v. Rob Kimmons:  Kimmons got a pretty good ovation, but he was just overwhelmed in this fight.  Miller got his back in the first 20 seconds and locked in a great rear-naked choke and there was absolutely no way Kimmons was getting out of it.  First fight time:  roughly 1:30.

Drew McFedries v. Mike Massenzio:  McFedries looked really ready in this fight.  He appeared focused.  He had a lot of support because he trains over in Iowa. But he wasn't able to land a big shot quickly, the fight went to the ground almost immediately, and then it was just a matter of Massenzio working until he got a kimura.  It was a beautiful kimura, and the replays in the arena made it look like he was about to break McFedries arm off.  Another quick tap:  roughly 1:30 again. I saw McFedries later signing autographs and shaking hands and posing for pictures with the crowd, which was cool after what had to be a pretty disappointing loss.

Jason Brilz v. Brad Morris: THIS was a great introduction to the UFC for Brilz. Local guy, huge crowd, extremely loud in his favor (it was nearly as loud for Brilz in this prelim as it was for the televised fights).  And he absolutely dominated every minute of the fight.  His wrestling is superb, and he just took Morris down and threw him around for the entire first round. His submission attempts didn't look very good, but he had such dominant position that he was able to control Morris and work on him the entire round with submission attempts and ground and pound.  Couldn't finish in the first, but totally dominated.  Mid-way through the second he got Morris down and finished him with strikes for the first tko of the night.  And another HUGE ovation.

Joe Lauzon v. Kyle Bradley: I was a little surprised that J-Lau was buried so far down the prelim card, but he got a pretty big reception from the fans.  Bradley looked pretty sharp with his striking in the first round -- landing sharp jabs almost at will.  Everyone I was with scored the first round 10-9 for Bradley.  But Lauzon was too much for him in the second round and earned another stoppage by strikes/tko. Lauzon came back out later for photos, autographs, shaking hands of fans, etc.

Wilson Gouveia v. Ryan Jensen:  Jensen got a much bigger reception for the fight than he did for the weigh-ins the day before.  I've heard a lot of negative things about the guy, so I'm not a fan.  The guy in front me was a fan.  I think a lot of the rest of the people were cheering for him as the local guy trying to make good.  I have to admit that, even though I'm not a fan, Jensen was impressive in this fight.  He controlled much of the first round, his takedowns were extremely good (and I've never seem him do that at all in the UFC), and he even mixed in some high kicks.  I had him winning the first round pretty convincingly.  Still, you really had a feeling that when he couldn't finish Gouveia in the first round he was likely going to get caught with something eventually, and he did. He controlled the second round the same way he did the first, until he stuck his arm out and Gouveia grabbed a great arm bar and started to flip Jensen with the arm bar locked in -- Jensen was tapping before the flip even started.  Much better performance for Jensen, but same result -- tap out.  I have to think he won't get the call back again anytime soon, unless it's a situational thing where he's an easy get on short notice (which is what happened this time, actually).

Alessio Sakara v. Joe Vedepo:  I saw a lot of people in the crowd wearing red t-shirts. On the front the shirt said, "The Joe Show" and on the back it said, "PhD in GNP."  Suffice it to say that Joe did not get a chance to show off his "PhD" in this fight.  Sakara caught him with a perfect head kick, square on the side of the head.  Vedepo stepped back, paused, staggered, and crashed to the mat.  Sakara and the ref both moved toward Vedepo at the same time, but Sakara got in one clean shot to the unconscious Vedepo before the ref could get in the middle of them.  It was the only true knockout of the night, and it was pretty spectacular to see a head-kick knockout in person.  I would guess it was enough to give Sakara some more time in the UFC.  The only thing that might have spoiled it for him is that he was featured in all of Houston Alexander's promos later in the night, on the receiving end of a knockout.

Houston Alexander v. Eric Schafer: This was absolutely Houston's crowd.  It was so loud for this fight that you could not hear yourself screaming to the guy next to you.  Repeated chants of "HOUSTON, HOUSTON, HOUSTON" filled the arena.  Lots of red everywhere (partly because Nebraska fans wear Husker gear to EVERYTHING, but also partly because Houston was calling for a "red-out" for his fight).  And Houston looked good for the first 2 minutes or so.  He came out aggressive, striking, and he managed to stuff the first few takedown attempts.  But as soon as he went to the mat, all of my friends and I knew it was over for him. When Schafer passed to side control with absolutely no attempt at resistance it was apparent that Houston trained on stuffing the takedown, but did nothing to put himself in position to do anything defensively once on the mat. I actually thought it might get stopped sooner when Schafer was teeing off on Houston and Houston was doing nothing to defend himself except roll right into the ground and pound.  It was almost eery to see Schafer lock in that arm triangle choke, because it looked exactly like the one they kept showing repeatedly in all the clips of Schafer before the fight.  I thought maybe Houston would manage to hold on and lay there for another 10 seconds, risking passing out instead of tapping in front of 8,000 fans.  But he didn't quite make it.  He still got a huge ovation leaving the octagon, and the fans came around and gave Schafer his due, too.  It was nice seeing Houston in the UFC, but I don't expect to see him back there anytime soon, and frankly it may be too late in his career for him to actually work his way back.

At this point in the night, only two fights had managed to get out of the first round.  With almost two hours left to fill and only three fights left, we expected lots and lots of downtime in the arena.  Fortunately, the last three fights changed the trend.

Ed Herman v. Alan Belcher:  This was a really good fight from start to finish, and it was the first decision of the night.  The crowd was very much a pro-Herman crowd.  But the two exchanged momentum and control repeatedly throughout the fight.  I thought the fight was pretty even going into the last round.  Belcher landed some big strikes and controlled the first half of the last round, but Herman got a big takedown and was teeing off on Belcher as the bell rang.  I figured it was going to be a 29-28 and probably a split decision, but I had Herman pulling out the last round and taking the decision.  The crowd was not pleased when Belcher was announced as the winner, but gave both fighters a good ovation as they left the cage.

Clay Guida v. Mac Danzig:  Clay Guida's reception rivaled that of Houston Alexander, frankly.  It was crazy loud for Guida.  Chants of  "GUIDA, GUIDA, GUIDA" in the arena.  During the introductions Danzig got a reception that was bigger than any of the other non-local guys, but he was fighting the one other non-local with more support.  The first round was pretty close, and Danzig looked good throughout, but he just seemed slightly off -- just barely unable to really accomplish much.  He had a couple of big takedowns, but Guida had more.  He had a couple of submission attempts, but Guida was never in trouble.  He had some moments of crisp striking, but they were overshadowed by Guida's slams.  All in all a very entertaining fight, and a pretty clear decision victory for Guida.  On a side note, Guida was all over the place around here this past week.  Last weekend there was a local kickboxing/Muay Thai event called Ring Wars and Guida was in the crowd watching.  He had appearances at a local casino doing autographs.  He was very popular around here this week.

Nate Diaz v. Josh Neer:  This fight was awesome.  This was the only fight they actually showed the "walk to the cage" on the monitors and played the intro music for both fighters.  The crowd was very pumped up.  A lot of Josh Neer fans in these parts, a lot of Diaz haters, and surprisingly also a lot of Diaz fans.  The fight itself was great.  Diaz did more in the first round, Neer did more in the second, and it came down to the third round again.  In the third round Diaz was the aggressor, had a huge slam, and generally controlled Neer for the entire 5 minutes.  It was a pretty easy decision, really, although a great fight from start to finish.  Diaz really impressed me with his complete lack of being in trouble.  Neer kept going for armbars and even tried a triangle a couple of times, and Diaz just calmly spun out of them and improved his own position.  He had a couple of reverses during this fight that were just beautiful to watch.  And his striking was more than good enough to keep Neer at bay.  In the pre-fight interviews Neer made a point of saying that everyone else has tried to take Diaz down, so that was definitely not what he wanted to do .... but then the first thing he did was try to take Diaz down.  I think his mistake was actually being willing to spend this fight on the canvas, but Diaz' striking was pretty good this time out, too.

The Event

All in all, this was a fabulous event for the fans in Omaha.  It gave Omaha some exposure, it showed that people here will come out in huge crowds to watch and support the UFC, and the fans represented themselves pretty well.

I had a blast going to the weigh-ins, seeing the fighters around, and just taking in the live experience for the first time.  As a fan in the arena I wish some things could have been better.  When Rogan interviewed the fighters after each fight you could hear Rogan's questions very clearly, but you couldn't hear a word any of the fighters said.  They didn't highlight or show any of the other entrances on the big screens except for the main event -- it would have been more electric to go ahead and do the entrances for at least all of the televised card, and it would not have been much of a time issue.  More Arianny would have been nice, of course.  But all in all I loved it and it was a great first live experience.

I haven't had time to watch all of it on my dvr yet to see how well it looked on tv, but in person it was great.