Undercard fighters deliver big action and upsets at UFC 100
Published by Zach Arnold on July 13th, 2009 in Current Events

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There were a ton of great undercard fights booked at UFC 100 and the majority of them delivered big.

In going through all of the various interviews and hype sessions being done to push the main card, the undercard was largely and unfortunately ignored. In the end, it was the undercard that provided some big upsets during the show while the favorites largely won on the PPV telecast.

Shannon Gugerty kicked things off with an impressive win over Matt Grice. Not many people picked Gugerty to pull off the win, but he won in quick fashion by submission.

“This whole game plan was to strike and stay on the outside with him, but honest, I don’t even know how the opportunity comes, that’s just kind of how my fights go, they just you know like it’s just like a big blur and all of a sudden we were on the ground,” stated Gugerty in an UFC official post-fight interview. “I knew I had top position and you know being a jiu-jitsu brown belt under Dean Lister like anybody like his calibur he’s a great wrestler and I took him down so already he was a dead fish out of water or whatever, so, you know I don’t know it just came about the guillotine was there and I heard my coach say you know, “See-saw it in” and I worked it in and he let up and then somehow it was in even tighter and then went to sleep.”

Grice, the favorite going into the fight, was very upset backstage after the loss. He had a unique exchange with an interviewer.

“I’m fine. I’m fine… Except for being a fucking dumbass, that’s about it. I swear to fucking God. Fuck!”

“I made a stupid mistake. That’s about it. Shannon’s the better man tonight.. My fault. I train every day, I never get caught in any of those you know I made a stupid mistake you know it’s my fault and you know, I don’t know man, I don’t know what else to say.”

Gugerty said that he had a very positive feeling going into his fight against Grice.

“I thought this was the most calmest before any fighter I’ve ever had. Last night I had a dream that I was going to guillotine to him, I swear to God, like it’s the weirdest thing. It just happened, it was crazy so everything ran so perfectly smooth. Being the first fight I hope I’m the first fight on every single UFC card because it’s just working good for me right now.”

The night of upsets on the undercard continued when Tom Lawlor, who got very little publicity going into his fight against the favored CB Dollaway, choked out Dollaway and got the biggest MMA win of his early career.

“To be 100% truthful right now this is the best I’ve ever felt in my life,” he exclaimed in a post-fight UFC official media interview. “I’ve got a lot of guys supporting me. I’ve got a great group of guys that are training with me at the Jungle MMA (in Orlando) and you know I’m just never felt better. Everything’s coming along together nicely. I’m still you know I’m still kind of a neophyte in this sport, I’ve only been fighting professionally for a little bit over two years and I probably took some fights a little bit quicker than I should have. Right now is you know you’re going to see me keep progressing and keep getting better and better and you know the sky’s the limit from here.”

Backstage, Dollaway was frustrated and talking with his trainers about what had happened. He was replaying the fight through his mind and in demonstration mode when he coaches were telling him about how he shot right in and instead of driving forward, just stalled and allowed Lawlor to choke him out. Even Lawlor seemed surprised by it.

“On the way back I was asking my cornerman I was asking how come he shot in because I remember he hit me real good with the first punch, very first punch he threw hit me square in the face. I must have hit him after that and he shot in. When he shot in he didn’t go ahead and keep driving, he shot in I was able to stuff him a little bit with my hips and instead of either cutting the corner or continually driving through me trying to take me down I was you know he kinda stopped his momentum stopped and I was able to go ahead and lock that up.”

The upsets ended when Dong Hyun Kim of South Korea had his way with Canadian TJ Grant. Grant, who suddenly became a last-minute favorite amongst hardcore MMA fans online and bettors because of his growing underdog status on the sportsbooks, got throughly dominated by the South Korean judoka. In comments made to a UFC interviewer after the fight, Kim expressed sentiments about his future in the company.

“Nothing really changed for me because I’m a well-rounded fighter. I prepare for basically every situation so it really didn’t change much. I’m still a rookie in the UFC and I’ll keep working on every skill, every skill I can. I’ll keep growing, I’ll keep progressing and everything. Watch out for me.”

The most amusing media-related fight on the card was Jim Miller vs. Mac Danzig. Miller, who went into the fight as a favorite around -200, was getting repeated disrespected by Steve Cofield on both Yahoo and also in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Cofield was heavily pushing Danzig as the best underdog pick on the undercard at +150. On the other end of the spectrum was Jordan Breen of Sherdog who predicted that Miller would have little trouble handling Danzig and beating him.

Miller managed to cut Danzig, make him bleed, and win by decision. He told UFC reporters after the fight that the amount of blood on Danzig was making it hard to do much in the fight technique-wise.

“When somebody gets that bloody it makes it a real pain in the butt to, especially on bottom you know, you know if you’re the guy on bottom and if you’re bleeding or the guy on top of you’s bleeding it’s really hard to do anything off your back. He did a really good job of still moving when you know we were all slippery and stuff like that.”

To be fair to Steve Cofield, Miller was coming off a bad loss to Gray Maynard. Then again, Maynard is a quality Lightweight who should be in the Top 10 of online rankings soon. Maynard has also received such high praise in media circles from boxing writer Franklin McNeil. Nevertheless, Miller was getting passed over by media types who should have known better.

“I made a few mistakes you know with the Gray (Maynard) fight. I got lazy with my takedowns, I was just in a weird place with my stand-up so I really wasn’t blocking any of his punches, I was watching him hit me so you know I really made an effort to get back to my old ways of you know really pairing punches and counter and stuff like that and in the room if I was in on someone’s leg I was putting them on the mat, I just made myself do it.”

Danzig ended gettng stitched up backstage in the locker room. While Danzig was assessing himself medically, Miller was assessing his fight style.

“I just kept going forward, which you know that’s the way I want to fight. You know it’s like in baseball you know I’d rather lose you know going down swinging than like watching three strikes go by you know and losing the fight where I just sat there and threw jabs, so I was happy that I kept moving forward. I got a little tired towards the end there but, you know, that happens.”

After Miller beat Danzig, the fight scheduled between Jon Fitch and Paulo Thiago didn’t happen. The PPV telecast began and we saw Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Alan Belcher. Therefore, Fitch vs. Thiago was set to take place after the main event of Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir. That’s a really tough position to be in, but Fitch made the best of it by winning a unanimous decision.
“I mean the biggest thing was having to sit and wait an extra hour,” said Fitch in an official UFC post-fight interview. “It kind of threw me off a little bit because I was all set my hands were looking my stand-up was looking fantastic back here, it was looking fantastic, I was ready to go and I think just the down time waiting made me second-guess it and then I just fell right into wrestling ground game again, which was fine but I was really would have liked those bonuses.”

Fitch’s slotting on the card as the last fight brought flashbacks to Kenny Florian vs. Alvin Robinson from a couple of years ago when their fight was rushed into the cage. At least Fitch can say he headlined UFC 100.

“I mean I kinda was the main event, main event of UFC 100… unofficially, but you know it was an awesome experience just to get to be here. It sucked a little bit because I’ve been waiting I think some people left so I didn’t get the full energy but it was still crazy energy and it was a good feeling to be here, getting to watch some of the fights with Henderson and Coleman fight tonight that was you know my old heroes pretty cool to be in the same locker room with Dan Henderson so I mean it was just all around a great event.”