Billy's Take On UFC 126

Remember last night when Forrest Griffin worked his way tooth and nail past former middleweight champion Rich Franklin after a 14 month layoff? How about when Jake Ellenberger almost got the brakes put on his run to a welterweight contendership spot by an up in coming fighter no one gave half a chance to leading up to the fight, including Ellenberger? Of course you recall sharing that sense of surprise and overcoming excitement with Light heavyweight prodigy Jon Jones when Joe Rogan announced, unannounced to 99.999% of the onlookers, including Jones, that he would replace his training partner Rashad Evans as the number 1 contender set to face Shogun in under 2 months. How could you forget? These events ranked anywhere from curiously amusing to monumental as they are still fresh in our mind's, yet what do you think will be the one thing we will all collectively pull away from UFC 126 and remember with such "where were you when..." vigor, in years to come? How about the biggest middle weight fight ever in the UFC and possibly the biggest fight in all of Brazil ending with such quick, unbalking violence from, wait for it...a theep. The equivalent of smashing the game 7 world series winning homerun off of C.C. Sabathia with a perfect bunting technique. A big part of the game but certainly the acquired results were unexpected.

The "Theep" or "Push/Front Kick" can be described as a foot-thrust weapon and is executed by bending at the knee, then quickly extending your leg to use foot or heel to attack the target. In Muay Thai "Theeps" are different from any other attacks becuase of their objective. Foot-thrust will be mainly used as offensive technique to block the opponent's attack. The foot-thrust also use for make the opponent off balance and take a chance to attack. These kicks are typically aimed at targets below the chest: abdomen, thighs, knees or lower. In Kung Fu, a front kick to the face is a sign a disrespect as would be a slap in the face. Now, Anderson Silva seemed to mean no disrespect when crushing Belfort's mug with the base of his foot but what an embarrassing way to go for the former Heavy and Lightheavyweight champion.

So what's next? My guess is some sort of foot stomp, shoulder attack, or heel kick to the kidney while in your opponent's guard KO. If we wait patiently though I could see Koji Oishi's technique of blocking his opponent's punches with his own fists lead to some devastating highlight reels very shortly. What ever it is, we will always remember UFC 126 not for the first 5 hours but the last 5 minutes.