The co-main events were good, but not great. Georges St. Pierre defeated Dan Hardy by unanimous decision. GSP clearly dominated the fight, yet Hardy was impressive in defeat by absorbing a lot of punishment and lasting 5 rounds with the champ. Hardy’s lack of an effective takedown defense was exposed as GSP took him down at will.
The Mir vs. Carwin battle did not last one round as Shane Carwin delivered a devastating barrage of punches that KO’d Mir. The extra weight and muscle that Mir put on did not appear to help him. If anything, Mir looked slower and less agile than he did when he weighed around 240 lbs. Moreover, Mir did not look significantly stronger as Carwin was able to push him up against the fence and control Mir with relative ease. Although I picked Mir to win I did note that Carwin could end the fight quickly with his KO power and that is indeed what happened.
Unfortunately, I missed the Jon Fitch’s victory over Ben Saunders, but the scores indicate he dominated that fight. I think he is deserving of a rematch with GSP at this point.
gmf journal 