UFC 97: Twilight of the Gods
Published by Jim Genia on April 20th, 2009 in Current Events

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We will never know what it was like for the Greek god Zeus, the Norse Gods Odin and Thor, or the Egyptian god Ra when their followers no longer believed in them. Did they bemoan their fallen status? Did they cry out over dwindling tributes of faith? Or did they just fade into oblivion quietly, one moment all-powerful and the next simply no longer there? Sadly, we’ll never know what it was like for those deities of yore, but thanks to last night’s UFC 97: “Redemption” we can witness the process first-hand. The Lord of the Middleweights, Anderson Silva, is no longer capable of thrilling us, as evidenced by his five-round exercise in fistic futility with an opponent incapable of challenging him. Meanwhile, the Great Mohawked One, a.k.a. Chuck Liddell, once heralded as the premiere mixed martial artist amongst the light-heavyweights, was felled like a common journeyman, left to stumble and ask the referee “What happened?” when it was all over. We have entered into an age of change, an age heralding the twilight of our MMA gods. Will we mourn their passing?

When Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialist Thales Leites was given the green light as Silva’s opponent, none believed he could out-strike one of the most gifted strikers on the face of the Earth. No, if he could somehow secure a win it would be in the form of a submission, smooth and slick and lightning-quick. Never mind that Silva himself is a jiu-jitsu black belt, and that he’s dismantled and destroyed some of the best grapplers around. Leites had a chance – like Bellerphon had a chance when he rode Pegasus to challenge Mount Olympus – and UFC 97 would be when he “shocked the world”. Or not. For five rounds he went from cautious to desperate to laughable butt-flopper, unwilling to engage lest he be struck down. And Silva, once guaranteed to provide fans with the bolts of doom upon those who dared stand before him, was relegated to a showboating mortal throwing occasional side-kicks and punches as Leites fled. (Leites did manage to get Silva down once. It amounted to nothing.) The unanimous decision went to the Lord of Middleweights, but no one who’d witnessed the contest came away satisfied.

Going into his bout with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Liddell was painted as the fading star in need of a win in spectacular fashion or his days in the Octagon were done. Unfortunately, the Great Mohawked One – despite his work with American Top Team’s boxing coach and strong training camp – was felled by a lead left hook and a storm of hammerfists before four and half minutes had expired in the first round. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. In times past, Liddell’s granite chin would’ve enabled him to weather Shogun’s Muay Thai onslaught. But that chin is gone, and while Liddell’s wrestling and anti-grappling enabled him to avoid Rua’s lone attempt at taking it to the ground and sinking a leglock, the former Pride star’s kicks had Liddell on uneasy footing when the final sequence of leather landed. So endeth the reign of one of the Octagon’s greatest legends.

In the mere mortal portion of the card Canadian lightweight kickboxer Sam Stout was unjustly awarded the unanimous decision after a three-round battle with Matt Wiman. Sure, Stout was the more technical of the two and at one point dropped his opponent with a body blow, but Wiman fought at a relentless pace and scored with conviction. He should’ve gotten the nod. Heavyweight Cheick Kongo avoided Dutch kickboxer Antoni Hardonk’s best on the feet to pound on Hardonk on the ground, dropping enough fist and elbow from within the guard to earn the TKO midway through Round Two. TUF 8 alum Krzyszstof Soszynski had his way with former WEC 205-pound champ Brian Stann, taking the Marine Corps officer down and easily tapping him with a kimura before four minutes had transpired. In the pay-per-view broadcast’s opener, Brazilian mug-puncher Luiz Cane outworked WEC champ Steve Cantwell for all three rounds in a kickboxing contest that saw Cane rightfully garner the unanimous decision.

Zeus. Odin. Thor. Ra. Silva. Liddell. At one time mankind worshipped each and every one of them as gods. And now that time has gone.