UFC 183 Post-Mortem: A Forgotten Man

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Thiago Alves on July 11, 2009 went five rounds with Georges St. Pierre for the Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight title. He has fought just seven times in the six years that have passed since, as injuries and the resulting inactivity robbed him of momentum and left him in the shadows of many of his contemporaries.

Alves reminded everyone of his considerable abilities at UFC 183 on Saturday, as he brought down Jordan Mein with a second-round body kick and follow-up punches at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The 31-year-old American Top Team representative weathered a serious storm in the first round, as he was outstruck by a 37-15 margin in the significant-strike department, according to FightMetric data. Alves never wilted.

“It feels great,” he said at the post-fight press conference. “The first round: It took me a little bit to get warmed up. In the second round, my coach told me, ‘Just go out there, and you’re going to have to make it a dirty fight. You’ve got to take the fight to him.’ That’s what I did.”

Mein was in complete control, until the Brazilian scrambled his insides less than a minute into round two. The promising 25-year-old Canadian fired away with looping power punches, leg kicks and wicked standing elbows, as he had Alves on his heels for much of the first five minutes. After a right uppercut stunned the Brazilian and backed him towards the cage, Mein dialed up a series of standing elbows at close range. Alves’ chin kept him upright and gave him the chance to see a second round, where the fight turned on a dime.

Still in his competitive prime, Alves has recorded back-to-back wins for the first time since he defeated John Alessio, Tony DeSouza, Kuniyoshi Hironaka, Chris Lytle, Karo Parisyan, Matt Hughes and Josh Koscheck in succession between Oct. 10, 2006 and Oct. 25, 2008.

“I just focus on the moment,” he said. “I know what I want, and I keep working hard and just focus on what I want to accomplish. There’s not much you can do. Unfortunately in the fight business, you’re [only] as good as your last fight, so you’ve always got to try to be your best every day and perform at your best, and that’s what I did tonight.”

MISCELLANEOUS DEBRIS

Former middleweight champion Anderson Silva returned from a career-threatening leg injury to defeat Nick Diaz by unanimous decision in the UFC 183 headliner. “What he went through -- that injury -- and coming back over a year [later], you knew you weren’t going to see the Anderson we remember, but getting five rounds in, getting a little more confident in the leg and all the other things ... We’ll be able to tell by his next performance; we’ll know whether he’s there,” UFC President Dana White said. “You know how I feel about that stuff; I’ve said it a million times. You’re 39 years old, you’re 38 years old, you’re out there looking like a world-beater and then one day, Father Time kicks you in the ass and you come out and fight and look like it’s over. You can’t judge Anderson off this performance because I think there were a lot of other issues, but I think he physically looked good. He physically looked strong. He was in great shape, made weight easy and you saw little hints of the old Anderson when he would start to move. It was almost like he was tentative tonight. It wasn’t that he didn’t have it; it was that he was tentative.” Silva and Diaz combined to land only 188 total strikes in the five-round main event, as the barnburner some anticipated never materialized. “I wasn’t in there fighting,” White said, “but I expected a lot more output” ... Al Iaquinta figured he was a shoo-in for one of the $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonuses after he wrecked Joe Lauzon with second-round punches. However, the Serra-Longo Fight Team rep was passed over in favor of Thales Leites, who was awarded two of the four post-fight bonuses handed out. “I don’t know what I’ve got to do to get a bonus around here, but I’ll keep doing it. I’ll keep training hard. I’m the hardest-training guy in this division. I’m going to keep whoopin’ ass, and I’ll eventually get that bonus,” Iaquinta said ... Jackson-Wink MMA export Derek Brunson has quietly compiled a 4-1 record since arriving in the UFC in 2012 ... Ian McCall’s last four losses have come to John Lineker, Joseph Benavidez, Demetrious Johnson and Dominick Cruz -- fighters with 87 victories between them.

ETC.

UFC 183 “Silva vs. Diaz” drew an announced crowd of 13,114 to the MGM Grand Garden Arena for a live gate of $4.5 million.