Fight Critic, Mixed Martial Arts Commentary and News

Matt Serra knocks out Georges St. Pierre in the first round to win the UFC Welterweight title, and the fight never even goes to the ground? Are you kidding? Who would have predicted such a thing??? This fight was short but was absolutely electrifying to watch.

The fight went the complete opposite of the way pretty much everybody, with the possible exception of Matt Serra’s camp, expected it would go. Let’s look at what happened:

• St. Pierre was not aggressive. He is usually pretty aggressive with his striking. Look at how he dismantled Matt Hughes in their last fight; that did not happen because St. Pierre was standing back and just throwing his leg out. Georges looked stiff and never let himself go; he just was not mentally ready to defend a title he had been hunting for such a long time.
• Serra did not hesitate to engage St. Pierre on his feet. Most people expected that Serra would make every effort to take this fight to the ground as soon as possible because that was where his advantage was.
• Serra was effective striking against St. Pierre, a much larger opponent. This fight was eerily similar to the Randy Couture vs Tim Sylvia Heavyweight title fight at UFC 68 in that, a smaller fighter known more for things other than striking, was able to out-strike his taller, rangier striker opponent. But even Serra, respectable fighter as he is, would agree that he is not (yet) a Hall of Fame caliber fighter like Randy. So as few people that thought Couture could beat Sylvia, even fewer expected Serra to win here.

I doubt that Serra and his camp expected St. Pierre to be so passive. But Serra adjusted perfectly to it, and took the fight to St. Pierre who again, similar to Sylvia, was trying to not lose his title rather than trying to win the fight. After Serra rocked St. Pierre with the initial right-left combination, I was impressed with his patience and smart pursuit strategy. He did not run after St. Pierre with reckless abandon but instead took his time, waited for a dazed St. Pierre to leave himself open, and rocked him with two more solid rights to the head. St. Pierre went down, Serra mounted him, and pounded it out until Big John stopped the fight.

Serra’s win, along with the other welterweight fights last night, raises all kinds of questions about the state of the welterweight division in the UFC. The UFC is in danger of playing a game of hot potato with the Welterweight title. St. Pierre definitively beat Hughes, Serra amazing as it seems definitively beat St. Pierre. After the fight Hughes could be seen laughing. That’s code for him licking his chops in anticipation of, what I am sure he feels is, an easy route back to the championship through Matt Serra. What we, and UFC management, don’t want to see is the title rotating between two or three guys constantly. Champions who defend the title multiple times are great for business; see Matt Hughes a year ago or Chuck Lidell today.

Who should get the next title shot at Serra? The UFC welterweight fighters are all very closely stacked near the top of the division. Here is how I think the fighters rank:

UFC Welterweight Division - Fighter Rankings

1. Matt Serra
2. Georges St. Pierre
3. BJ Penn
4. Matt Hughes
5. Josh Koschek
6. Karo Parisyan
7. Jon Fitch
8. Diego Sanchez

Serra/Penn, Serra/Parisyan, and Hughes/Penn would be exciting rematches. Every one of these fighters usually puts on an excellent show, with the notable exception of the overhyped Sanchez/Koschek fight at UFC 69. Here’s to an exciting year of fights in the UFC’s welterweight division, and our new champion, Matt ‘The Terror’ Serra.