The following is a detailed recap of the UFC 51: Super Saturday PPV from Las Vegas, Nevada written by Matt Boone of MMANews.com.

Quick-Match Results:

-Nick Diaz def. Drew Fickett via TKO (ref stoppage) in Round 1.
-Karo Parisyan def. Chris Lytle via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) after 3 rounds.
-David Loiseau def. Gideon Ray via TKO (cut stoppage) after Round 1.
-Mike Kyle def. James Irvin via KO (punch) in Round 1.
-Paul Buentello def. Justin Eilers via KO (punch) in Round 1.
-Evan Tanner def. David Terrell via TKO (ref stoppage) in Round 1 to become the new Middleweight champion.
-Andrei Arlovski def. Tim Sylvia via Submission (ankle lock) in Round 1 to become the interim Heavyweight champion.
-Pete Sell def. Phil Baroni via Submission (guillotine choke) in Round 3.
-Tito Ortiz def. Vitor Belfort via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) after 3 rounds.


Detailed Breakdown:

NOTE: Of the prelim fights (the first four listed in the quick match results above), only one aired on the PPV, however highlights of the others aired at the end. Based on those highlights, I'll break down those fights. These were quick highlights, so I won't be able to describe much of anything. Get the DVD to see them whenever it comes out.

Nick Diaz def. Drew Fickett via TKO (ref stoppage) in Round 1.

Breakdown: According to the highlights shown and the announcers description, Diaz dominated the fight. They showed him on his back working for an armbar to no avail, and the fight was finished with him on the top position grounding and pounding away until the referee jumped in to call a hault to the action. Diaz is your winner by GnP stoppage in round one.


Karo Parisyan def. Chris Lytle via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) after 3 rounds.

Breakdown: According to highlights and announcers description, Parisyan dominated this one. They showed Lytle going for a leg submission, Parisyan getting takedowns, and looking for submission attempts from the top and bottom positions. According to the judges cards I read online, Parisyan won every round 10 to 9, so it had to be a pretty clear cut victory for the Judo technician. Parisyan is your winner via unanimous decision after three rounds of action.


David Loiseau def. Gideon Ray via TKO (cut stoppage) after Round 1.

Breakdown: Was said to be a great fight, highlights definitely backed that up. Loiseau looked very aggressive and was blasting Ray standing and with ground and pound on top on the ground. A big knee standing and I guess an elbow or punch that followed on the ground opened up a disgusting cut on the side of Ray's head, which resulted in him not being able to answer the bell after round one, due to doctor stoppage. It was in a similar spot that Rivera had a bad cut in the Loiseau fight, in "The Crow's" second UFC bout. Loiseau also has the famous win over Frkylund from a nasty blood-gushing cut as well, so winning by doctor or referee stoppage from a cut is nothing new to the Canadian striking phenom David Loiseau. Loiseau is your winner via doctor stoppage after one round of action.


Mike Kyle def. James Irvin via KO (punch) in Round 1.

Breakdown: This was the preliminary fight that made the pay-per view telecast, so I'm not going by announcers or highlights here. Irvin came in incredibly cocky, leaving his hands down and showing no respect for Kyle's standing ability. However, at the beginning he landed a shot and was taken down, as he predicted, by Kyle. The fight stayed on the floor for just a minute before the referee stood the action up for stalling. Again, Irvin kept his hands down and ignored Kyle's striking ability on the feet, only to eat a devastating punch (I believe it was a right hand) from Kyle that sent Irvin to "sleepy town." Kyle came down with a punch that missed following the knockdown, before the referee jumped in to save a clearly rocked and daised James Irvin. Mike Kyle is your winner by knockout a minute or so into the first round.


Paul Buentello def. Justin Eilers via KO (punch) in Round 1.

Breakdown: This was one of the most exciting fights of the night, which is saying something because every fight shown, with the exception of maybe the Baroni/Sell fight was incredibly action-packed. Buentello looked very impressive in his UFC debut, exploding with a very wide variety of punch combinations. I see now why he's called "The Head Hunter", because he hunts his prey down, focusing on the grill, and looks to knock you out with every punch he touches you with. He did just that against Eilers, knocking him completely out leaving Eilers falling face-first onto the canvas, and being saved by the referee. Eilers recovered quickly, so I wanted it to continue, but he was clearly knocked out and Buentello definitely won. I simply wanted to see more because it was that exciting a fight. Very good performance by Buentello, and we definitely have a new exciting fighter in the UFC heavyweight division. Paul Buentello is your winner via knockout in round one.


Evan Tanner def. David Terrell via TKO (ref stoppage) in Round 1 to become the new Middleweight champion.

Breakdown: This was another very exciting fight. Terrell definitely deserved the hype he received from his twenty-four seconds of history in the octagon, one fight, against Matt Lindland. No, it wasn't a lucky punch that dropped Lindland back at UFC 49 in August. Terrell has some very impressive stand up skills. You can question his heart or durability or whatever because when the pressure was put on him, he had no ground skills other than covering up and hoping punches and elbows would stop hitting him in the face, but his talent can't be denied. I was very impressed with "The Soul Assassin." On the flip-side of the coin, Tanner deserves his props as well, but it's not like anything he did surprised or filled mysterious expectations for him, as everything he did we knew he could do, and damn well. He did show incredible heart and tremendous comeback ability, as the early portion of the fight made it look as though he was going to fall victim to losing his second of only two title opportunities in his UFC career. Terrell opened the fight looking for a high kick, that Tanner blocked. It came with tremendous power and speed though, something I totally didn't expect. He had the jumping punch ala Ortiz/Shamrock and Thomson/Franca that he tried a few times. He had good leg and body kicks, and some good punches, which we've seen before in his only previous octagon appearance. After all of that, he sunk in a deep guillotine choke on Tanner, and despite Tanner having one arm through to generate some space to avoid going to sleep like Baroni would later in the evening, it looked as though the choke was going to finish the fight. He was stuck in it, we're talking Hughes/Charuto and Trigg/Charuto style, and much like his wrestling buddies, he was able to survive it and come out victorious. Terrell started the choke standing and after it looked like Tanner wasn't able to get out, Terrell jumped into guard standing to look for the finish. Tanner eventually went down on top, Terrell giving up position thinking that was going to be the end of the fight, but Tanner showed his heart and comeback abilities, similar to the first Baroni fight, and managed to get out of the choke. From there, it was Tanner viciously throwing down elbows and punches for a good minute or two and managed to get the referee stoppage with only twenty or thirty seconds remaining in the first round. Terrell was doing nothing at all but taking shots and hoping they would end, so it was a legitimate stoppage. No controversy here, Evan Tanner is your new Middleweight champion via referee stoppage in round one.


Andrei Arlovski def. Tim Sylvia via Submission (ankle lock) in Round 1 to become the interim Heavyweight champion.

Breakdown: Following the theme of the night, this was another great fight, albeit a very short one. The fight started with Arlovski using his speed to land some stiff leg kicks only to pop right out of striking range from the lanky limbed Tim Sylvia and avoid his punches. Arlovski then landed a crushing right hook that messed up Sylvia's eye pretty good, and dropped him on his back. Arlovski came raging in with ground and pound, none of which really did anything to Sylvia, so Arlovski, being as well-rounded as he is, quickly grabbed a leg and sat back looking for the submission. He didn't get a heel hook like he seemed to first be going for, he then tweaked the knee to the side which looked pretty nasty in slow motion, but that also didn't finish Sylvia. From there, I'm not really sure what he got, it looked like he just pulled the foot backwards and Sylvia tapped to give Arlovski the submission victory and the interim Heavyweight title. No replays really clearly depicted what the submission was, but it was referred to by "the voice of the octagon" Bruce Buffer as simply an "ankle lock." So, that's what we'll call it. Either way, Sylvia tapped to avoid another broken bone and several months out of action and training, proving already with the Frank Mir fight that he has heart and simply did the smart thing. Andrei Arlovski is now your interim Heavyweight champion via submission early into round one by ankle lock.


Pete Sell def. Phil Baroni via Submission (guillotine choke) in Round 3.

Breakdown: Well, it's official - something is wrong with Phil Baroni. He just did not look like himself, didn't fight like himself, and didn't talk like himself before, during, or after the fight. I really don't know what's going on there, and hope the brain injury or whatever it was effecting him before isn't still there and he's just fighting anyways, because that's pretty dangerous. Not making excuses though, Sell got the victory in round three via choke out. Baroni seemed unconscious, but wasn't, and was forced to tap to get out of a choke that he sat in for quite a bit. Rounds one and two were his, with him landing some good shots standing and getting takedowns almost at will. The first round was spent mostly with Baroni on his back. This is what I thought was weird. In round one Baroni was on his back holding on clearly looking for a stand up, and Sell doing pretty much nothing. However, when Baroni got takedowns and was doing some light ground and pound, nothing major but certainly more than Sell was doing in round one, two or three times Mario Yamasaki stood the fight back up for stalling. The conspiracy by some is Baroni gets favortism by referees and blah blah blah, but this one was back-asswards. Another weird thing, Baroni, in my opinion at least, looked like a few times could have gotten a knockout if he followed up the couple of times he stunned Sell standing with punches. Clearly, Baroni was fighting for a decision. He wasn't fighting to win, he was fighting not to lose. Nothing wrong with that considering rumors of him maybe being done in UFC if he lost to a more established fighter in his original opponent Robbie Lawler, so you would assume a loss to a newcomer on short notice like Sell could mean the same thing. Baroni was instructed to land a punch and take Sell down over and over, a gameplan used either to fight for a decision victory, or to save his gas, something he ran out of anyways. Pete Sell is your victor via guillotine choke in round three.


Tito Ortiz def. Vitor Belfort via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) after 3 rounds.

Breakdown: Another great fight. That's right, no boring decision, this one was fun to watch. Maybe because it was two stars of the sport, maybe because the crowd made it feel important, or maybe because it was just an action fight. I'll be watching the tape on mute to figure that out later. Round one saw Ortiz struggle with taking Belfort down several times. At one point, Belfort opened up with a big flurry of punches, all of which except two were blocked by Ortiz. Around this time Ortiz suffered what appeared to be a broken nose. You got the feeling it was the old Belfort there, and that he was about to knock Ortiz out. Ortiz stayed game, fought threw it, and eventually got a takedown. He landed some good elbows to finish out the round. Pretty close round in my opinion, but I gave it to Ortiz. The second round saw Ortiz again struggle with taking Belfort down. Belfort had a guillotine choke in once, which resulted in Ortiz giving up position and taking the back-to-the-ground position to get out of the choke. From there, Belfort, again looking like his "old self" exploded with elbows. I had the feeling, maybe it was just me, that Belfort was about to get a win during all of that. I thought for sure Belfort was going to be tackled by "Big" John McCarthy and given a TKO victory right there. However, he didn't, and not only that, but after being stood back up, was taken down by Ortiz. Ortiz worked some mean ass ground and pound here landing some very clean precise elbow shots that opened up a little cut under Belfort's eye, and really seemed to take the last few ounces of gas out of the Brazilian's tank, and much like Ortiz predicted, broke him mentally. I would have given that round a draw, but if it's a ten-point must system, as it clearly is stated it is before every UFC, then I guess Belfort gets it 10-9. I would have definitely called that round even though. Round three was owned by Ortiz, takedowns at will, and mean ground and pound all the way through. Could have been 10-8 as Belfort did nothing but hang on to the end, and Ortiz was driven and looked like his old self here. Tito clearly wins round three, and definitely won it on all three scorecards. Two judges had it two rounds to one, 29-28 for Ortiz (likely rounds one and three), while one judge had it two rounds to one, 29-28 for Belfort (probably rounds one and two). After the fight, before even being declared the victor, Tito threw his "send home our troops" t-shirt on, grabbed his multi-flag, and proceeded to jump into the crowd and go all the way to the top of the arena. He raised his hands, made his way back to the octagon, and was awarded the split decision victory. No arguments or complaints for Belfort, who clearly looked like a beaten man, while Ortiz was brimming with confidence, knowing he was about to be called the winner. Tito Ortiz is your winner via split decision after three rounds of good action. The old Tito is back, but now with no contract with UFC, is he going to remain back or head to Hollywood for good? We'll see, we'll see.

Post-Fight:

After the Ortiz/Belfort decision was announced, Ortiz was interviewed by the interview girl (just let Rogan handle double duties, she doesn't really fit, despite looking scrumptious) and lots of fireworks went off here. First, the interview girl asked who he wanted to win between Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell in the rematch scheduled for UFC 52 which was made official tonight, to which Ortiz stated he wanted Liddell to win so he could kick his ass in a rematch of their fight from last year, a fight that Ortiz lost by knockout. A seemingly drunk Liddell, or just a Liddell trying to impress pop singer girlfriend Willa Ford, who was in attendance, stormed to the octagon, pushing past Dana White, who attempted to stop him from entering, and jumped on the microphone claiming Ortiz knew he honestly wants no part of a rematch with him. Ortiz claimed he did, to which Liddell promised another knockout. Then, it was time for the customary Ken Shamrock bashing. Ortiz, probably just trying to garner interest in a rematch with Shamrock, hoping to build public anticipation to give him more leverage in the negotiation room for contract renewal, called out "Kenny Slam-cock". Ken Shamrock then decided to do what Liddell did, and that's leave his ringside seat and hop into the octagon. Shamrock, unlike Liddell, didn't feel like talking, well, yet. He tried to bum-rush Ortiz, and we had ourselves a little pull-apart. Kenny made his way back to his seat, standing and challenging Ortiz to come get him. The interview girl made her way over to Shamrock, and asked him to speak. He did, telling Ortiz to quit talking, which he claimed was all Ortiz could do, and sign to take the rematch with him. Ortiz jibber-jabbered back to him from the octagon without a microphone, doing the hand gesture for "yadda-yadda, keep talking" (even though it was Ortiz who started this verbal war). Ken Shamrock had some classic lines during all this, telling Ortiz in response to Ortiz saying he didn't want to fight him again, that he's already signed the contract for the rematch and it was Tito who was simply playing the talking game. He told him he better not go to the message boards on the internet and talk trash again, unless he's willing to fight. He told him to put the pen in his hand and sign the dotted line, and to quit talking about it. Clearly, Ortiz is using Shamrock to make a few extra bucks if he does indeed decide to re-sign with the UFC.

From here, they showed the prelim highlights. It seemed like they were on their way to wrapping up the show, when the PPV just froze. Maybe it's because I ordered it on satelitte, and I'm hoping so, because I hope I didn't miss anything. But it remained frozen for about ten minutes and then just went off to the regular PPV channel advertisements.

I promised to deliver a "must see", "worth watching", or "don't waste your money" description of the show to those who weren't planning on ordering it live and was curious as to whether or not to purchase the replay. Well, that one is easy. "must see." Buy the show, you won't be disappointed. Incredible show from beginning to end, worth every last penny spent.

Make sure to tune into UFC's reality show "The Ultimate Fighter" every week on SpikeTV at 11:07PM EST., immediately following WWE RAW! For those unaware, each show from this point out will conclude with a real UFC fight in the octagon to find out who gets eliminated from the show, and who continues.

The following is a detailed recap of episode two of "The Ultimate Fighter", the UFC reality show on SpikeTV every Monday night at 11:07PM EST, from the official website of the show - TheUltimateFighter.tv:

Episode 2 - Team Challenges
Air date: 1/24/2005

We first recap the events from episode one -- Arrivals, choosing teams, training, etc. In the morning, Randy Couture’s team trains first at the gym. He pushes them hard. All the guys are all working together and helping each other make it through the workout. Randy talks us through his different fighters and outlines their strengths and weaknesses. Chris Leben is a strong striker, Mike Swick is small but tough and Chris Sanford is plagued by nagging injuries. Jason Thacker shares his feelings that he may be in over his head. Back at the house, Stephan had Diego get into an argument over Diego’s bathing habits. Stephan is upset that Diego first takes a bath and then walks to the shower. In the process the floor gets completely wet. Stephan tells him to be more considerate of others and Diego blows him off.

At the gym with Team Liddell, Chuck is taking his guys through the workout. He talks us through his fighters and their strengths and weaknesses. Forrest is strong and Bobby is out of shape.

After their workout, and back at the house for lunch, Stephan and Diego get into it again, this time over the fact that Diego cut off all the asparagus tips for his veggie drink. Stephan tells him that he’s being inconsiderate, and Diego blows him off – again.

Both teams are driven out to Lake Mead for their first Light Heavyweight challenge. Nobody has any idea what to expect. When they arrive, Willa tells the group that they will be carrying their coach, who is sitting in a lazy boy chair, on top of a platform through a course first on land and then wading into the lake. During the event, they have to lift the platform above and below a series of obstacles. Chuck Liddell’s team is able to cut off Couture’s guys and they take the lead.

Since Randy’s guys are smaller and Chuck’s team was able to execute the cut off, the race is lopsided. Team Liddell has a generous lead. Randy’s guys are struggling with the platform in the water and lose their grip. They drop the platform and the chair soaks up a ton of water. Chuck’s team easily finishes first as Randy’s guys struggle to complete the course. Willa tells Randy that he has 24 hours to select one member to be eliminated.

The teams go back to the house and the liquor starts flowing. Chris Leben and Mike Swick argue about their previous fight against each other and we watch highlights from their fight earlier in the year. Leben is instigating conflict with his own team members. Lodune Sincaid is also drunk (again) and prances around the house in “man panties.” The rest of the fighters don’t know what to make of his odd behavior and speculate about his sexual preference. The group speculates who is going to go home.

All the light heavies from Randy’s team pack their bags and head to the elimination. Once there, Chuck makes his decision. He keeps Stephan Bonner, then Mike Swick leaving Lodune Sincaid and Jason Thacker on the chopping block. Both guys plead their case to Randy. Jason is selected to go home and he bids a tearful goodbye to everyone. Jason appears on camera in a post elimination interview and he apologizes to Randy for not coming more prepared.

Back at the house, some guys miss Jason while others are cold and hard about the fact that his skills were sub-par and that he deserved to be sent home.

After a hard day of training, Leben and Diego share some wine. Diego does a funny posedown with baby oil for the guys. The animosity grows when the drunk Leben again taunts Mike Swick about their previous match, prior to the show, where Leben knocked him out with a major blow to the head. Swick is tired of hearing about it and wants a rematch. Heavily intoxicated, Leben can’t handle the constraints of being sequestered in a house with no phones, so he jumps the fence in search of a pay phone. Bobby Southworth chastises Lodune for encouraging Leben during the Swick confrontation. Lodune feels bad about being a drunk idiot and has a moment of clarity. He pours out his last forty ounces of beer and vows not to drink anymore.

The next day at the Ultimate Training Center, Randy Couture reprimands some of his teammates for their negative energy. Chris Leben is singled out for his behavior and drunkenness. Leben apologizes and vows not to drink for the rest of the show. Lodune also steps up and agrees to stay on the straight and narrow for the rest of the show. The teams are driving out into the desert for their next challenge. They will have to haul a log 100 yards, cut it into sections, then haul it another 100 yards, and put it back to together with bolts, and then finally haul it together as a team over the finish line. Team Liddell wins by a healthy margin. Randy Couture once again has to eliminate one of his team members.

The Green team is at home and talking about who will be eliminated. Nobody thinks it could be them, but the other fighters think it could be Chris L because of his attitude. The fighters from Team Couture back their bags and head to the elimination.

At the Ultimate Training Center Randy has a difficult time choosing between Chris Leben and Chris Sanford. Leben hasn’t given him a good reason to keep him on the team with his behavior, but Sanford is really out of shape, and Randy, wanting to put the best fighter on the mat, decides to eliminate Chris Sanford.