lets see if this works
I was there, and enjoyed the card tremendously, and that's coming from someone who has seen more than 10 UFC shows live. The main event, with Nick Serra vs. Carlos Nieves had all you could want to see in a championship match with neither asking for or giving quarter.
Nieves came out like the explosive puncher he's known to be, throwing a ton and lefts and rights from the very start of the first round bell- stunning Serra a number of times, either knocking him down clean, or forcing him into guard position. The crowd which had a ton of both Nieves and Serra supporters took turns in the ebb and flow of the fight, expressing their excitement and fears with cheers, grows and yells of their favorite's name to try to inspire him to come back or finish off a disadvantaged opponent. While Nieves hit Serra with a dozzen or more shots in the first round, anyone of which should have stopped a normal man, Matt Serra's baby brother continued with his game plan of trying to work his Renzo Gracie black belt jiu jitsu skills, and towards the end of the first round, there was a sign of what was to come.
In the last minute or so of that first round, Serra held Nieves in a reverse triangle and was able to do some dammage of his own, striking from the bottom guard position with lefts and rights into Nieves face- but Nieves showed no sign of wanting to quit and the bell ended the round just as Serra looked to be trying to change his hold into the conventional triangle. But inspite of those closing round moments and shift of momentum to Serra, Nieves had so dominated the first part of the round, that the judges would have had to give it to him.
Nieves wanted that momentum back, and started round two much as he had round one, with Nieves throwing bomb after bomb, and although he and Serra were slightly slower now after the pace of the first round,Nieves punches punches seemed just as potentially lethel and Serra's face showed signs of the continued abuse, although his heart and game plan apparently were still very much in tact.
Well into the round again, Nieves either knocked Serra down with a hard punch or at least forced him on to his back. And probably feeling the time was now for him to finish it, Nieves dove into Serra's guard and tried to throw the big punch from there that would end it all for Serra and give Nieves the championship belt he's been craving for so long.
But the guard is where Serra lives.
That's his briar patch, or in "Mad Monkey" parlez, you might call them his monkey bars, and be ware anyone that enters.
Serra deflected the punch and slapped on a conventional triangle, and there was no way out of there for Nieves, not until the ref made Serra open up and leave sleeping on the mat.
It was a hell of a fight!
holy crap. gollum, that's the most i've ever seen you write. is that chapter one of a book you're authoring?