UFC 69 - Did I See History?

On Saturday the 7th I was one of the the lucky 15,269 MMA fans that was was able to attend UFC 69. Unfortunately I am not loaded, so I was in the 50 buck seats where the fighters look like GI Joes but honestly I can't complain...The Toyota Center has a pretty good view from almost anywhere. Plus we were just behind and to the right of one of the giant 75' projection screens so we got to see the action pretty close(but backwards) when we could no longer depend on our bare eyes. Plus, it was well worth the money just to do get this sweet picture you see here. Yeah, that's me & Forrest Griffin, winner of season one of the "The Ultimate Fighter" and winner of one of the best slug-fests in UFC history. Nice guy.

Speaking of history...this brings me to the real subject of this entry: Matt Serra vs. George St. Pierre. After the fight it was almost immediately mentioned that this could go down as one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. Personally, I feel it's no contest. It is not only the most unexpected, but also the most exciting upsets in the UFC, possibly in all of MMA. Not only did Matt Serra definatively beat the most dominant striker in the weight class, but he pretty much knocked him out (ref stoppage due to strikes). Even the people who thaught Serra stood a small chance said he would have to do it via submission. I don't know ANYONE, online or in real life who truly thaught Serra would win. It's the most exciting because GSP had just beaten Matt Hughes off of his 6 fight thrown, and also because Matt Serra has basically just become a real life Rocky Balboa.

Commentary after the fight compared this upset to that of Randy Couture over Tim Sylvia....WHY? Cause Tim's 6'8" and Randy's 43? If that's the closest upset they can come up with it's done. That wasn't even an upset. They call that an upset because they like to build hype about certain fighers. The fact is Tim "Split Decision" Sylvia (Nicknamed after the IHOP breakfast plate he most resembles) was an underserving champion and everyone knew it. Randy Couture is a true champion and one of the most determined athletes in all of MMA. He's probably about to be knocked off of his thrown too by either Mirko "Cro-Cop" or Nogueira, but the point is that's why Randy chose the heavyweight belt to come out of retirement for... he knew it was weak. That's the whole reason the UFC is bringing in these ringers from Pride.

Anyway... I'm no expert, I've only been following MMA for about 2 years now, but the next closest upsets I can think of aren't even in the UFC. Wanderlei Silva losing to Dan Henderson at pride 33 was quite a shock to me, but I'm a pretty big "Wandy" fan and truthfully he hadn't been doing his best lately.

So, other than that I'd love to hear of any fights that readers might consider a great(er) upset.