Miscellaneous Evidential Debris from UFC 112

On this morning after an eve of oddities, I bring you a diverse ensemble of detritus that is currently hurtling throughout the interwebs.

I wanted to begin with the video of Dana White posted above, because I think this shows a different side of the normally ironshod businessman.  Dana is a hard-ass; a cold, calculating hustler who slaves away at his craft tirelessly.  The video shows a softer side of Dana White, unfortunately because he's beyond exhaustion, both physically and mentally, after the freakish happenings of UFC 112, specifically the controversy over Anderson Silva's performance.

As he's interviewed by the polite yet incisive Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting, I felt like I was getting to know the man behind the machine, as White seems to shed his coolly composed exterior, and it's clear that deep down he's a huge fan of the sport, and pours his heart and soul into his work.  It's not that this was some sort of hidden mystery; it's just nice to see him drop his guard and outwardly display the strong dedication and emotions that are clearly driving him.

We have more post-event videos from the press conference, the FightMetric results of the Penn/Edgar fight that favor Penn's striking, a study in the accuracy of Ed Soares' translations of Anderson Silva's comments, and the mysteriously excluded judges scores from the Silva/Maia fight after the jump.

FightMetric has published their findings on the punching stats from last night's lightweight title fight.  These numbers are always interesting, because in a pure striking match like Penn/Edgar unfolded to be, the number one scoring credential is:  "Effective striking is judged by determining the number of legal strikes landed by a contestant and the significance of such legal strikes."

 The report indicates that Penn out-struck Edgar by a margin of 72-63 overall, and 71 versus 61 for "Hi-Per" strikes.  Although some feel this meant "that technically [Edgar] should have lost," I believe the sub-categories of aggression, octagon control, and defense were strongly in Edgar's favor and outweigh the slightly higher quantity of strikes that Penn landed according to the numbers.

One of the more knowledgeable MMA fans I've encountered has a fan-post up on Bloody Elbow that compares Ed Soares' translations with Anderson Silva's actual words.  There was a little excitement that Soares might be fluffing up Silva's dialogue with a promoter's filter--but really, I just see this as innocent paraphrasing that doesn't equate with exact accuracy and not malicious or intentionally skewing the translation.

For whatever it may be worth, since the judges tabulations were mysteriously exempt from the announcement of the victor in the Maia/Silva scrap, Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com has issued the actual scores:  50-45, 50-45, and 49-46, meaning only one judge gave a single round to Maia.  I don't know if I have the intestinal fortitude and discipline to re-watch the fight and break each round down, but I had a lurking suspicion that Maia could have rightfully won a round or two based on Silva's idle production and basic noninvolvement, and that perhaps punishing Silva with a point deduction for timidity, as referee "Big" Dan Miragliotta thankfully threatened to do, might have made the score cards closer than it seemed. 

Finally, I'll bombard you with a host of post-event videos from many of the participating fighters. 

Anderson Silva discusses the myriad criticism surrounding the strategy he enforced against Demian Maia, and why he feels Maia disrespected him; which he takes great issue with.

Dana White cites embarrassment to the fans, the UFC, the Fertitta's, and the sport in general as his overwhelming emotion pertaining to Silva's unusual antics in the main-event.  Also noteworthy is his statement that Silva "ran around like a jackass for five rounds" and no longer deserves to fight welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre.

Renzo Gracie shares his emotions after losing to Matt Hughes in Gracie's UFC debut, says he is the happiest man in the world despite the result, and predicts a better performance in the future with more vigorous preparation.

Matt Hughes speaks on his win over Renzo, how fighting outside was an advantage, and how the crowd booing at the weigh-ins fueled him to a strong showing.

A fighter rapidly growing in popularity, Phil Davis comments on his submission win over Gustaffson, explains his pink shorts and mouthguard, and calls out ring girl Chandella Powell for not taking note of his wonderfulness.

You'd think the man of the hour would be Frankie Edgar, who unseated one of the two champions previously thought to be invincible.  Edgar deserves all the credit in the world for his unwavering determination and spartan work-ethic earning him the championship gold.

All of the videos above are from the fine staff at MMAFighting.com.