Tim Sylvia UFC defends heavyweight title against challenger Jeff Monson

Neil Davidson, Canadian Press
Published: Sunday, November 19, 2006

SACRAMENTO, Calif (CP) - UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia defeated Jeff (The Snowman) Monson via an uninspiring unanimous decision Saturday night at UFC 65: Bad Intentions.

The Arco Arena crowd booed as the 50-47, 49-46, 49-46 decision was announced, a comment on the mixed martial arts fight itself rather than the judging.

Sylvia raised his record to 25-2 while Monson slipped to 24-6 and saw his 16-bout win streak stopped.

The Sylvia-Monson fight was the co-main event of the evening, setting up the welterweight title contest between veteran champion Matt Hughes and Montreal's Georges St. Pierre.

Hughes defeated a 23-year-old St. Pierre in October 2004, submitting him via armbar with one second remaining in the first round at UFC 50: The War of 04.

The heavyweight title fight matched the six-foot-eight, 262-pound champion against the five-foot-nine, 240-pound challenger - a towering striker against a fireplug grappler with serious jiu-jitsu skills.

The difference in size and styles did not make for a good fight, other than the third round, and the arena rang several times with boos.

Sylvia defended Monson's early takedown attempts but failed to do any damage to the challenger, who landed a couple of blows despite his reach disadvantage.

Monson finally took him down early in the third round, turning up the excitement as the challenger looked for submissions. But Sylvia survived and Monson was cut near an eye during one of their exchanges on the ground.

There was more action on the ground in the fourth round, with Monson - his face looking the worse for wear - looking for a way past Sylvia's guard.

In the fifth and final round, referee (Big) John McCarthy stopped the bout to urge both fighters to get busy.

Monson, a deep thinker with serious political views, walked into the ring to John Lennon's "Imagine" - a change from the UFC's normal headbanging anthems.

In earlier fights Saturday, rising heavyweight star Brandon (The Truth) Vera demolished Frank Mir, using knees and punches to carve open the face of the former heavyweight champion before the referee stopped the contest at 1:09 of the first round.

The win raised Vera's record to 8-0-0 and probably moved him to the front of the line of heavyweight contenders. The fact that it took just 69 seconds may not have been such good news for Ozzy's Plumbing, one of the sponsors stitched on Vera's shorts.

Mir's future is cloudy after losing two of three fights in his comeback from a bad motorcycle accident.

Light-heavyweight Drew McFedries, a late addition to the card as an injury replacement, made the most of his opportunity by beating Alessio Sakara after the Italian ate an uppercut and toppled to the canvas at 4:07 of a first round that saw some hard shots from both fighters.

Lightweight Joe (Daddy) Stevenson made short work of Japan's Dokonjonosuke Mishima, winning via guillotine choke at 2:07 of the first round. The Japanese fighter had more fun making his way to the ring than fighting in it, sporting a devil mask and holding a stuffed Snoopy as he walked in the arena.

n other undercard action, local light-heavyweight James (The Sandman) Irvin lived up to his nickname by stopping Hector (Sick Dog) Ramirez with a wicked right for a TKO at 2:36 of the second round of a barnburner of a bout. Ramirez had been getting the best of things up till then but was felled by the sledgehammer right.

Welterweight Nick Diaz overcame a sluggish start for a TKO over Graison Tibau at 2:27 of the second round, hammering the prone Brazilian's head repeatedly to force the stoppage.

In other heavyweight action, Dutch kickboxer Antoni Hardonk scored a TKO by cutting down Sherman (The Tank) Pendergarst with a nasty kick to the thigh at 3:15 of the first round and (Irish) Jake O'Brien won a dull decision over Josh (The War Hammer) Shockman.

Names in attendance included light-heavyweight champion Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell and NBA stars Tim Duncan and Mike Bibby.
© The Canadian Press 2006

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Out of ring, Monson sits for anarchy

November 17, 2006
Anarchy wouldn't literally rule the Ultimate Fighting Championships, but Jeff Monson would have a larger platform to espouse his controversial political viewpoints by capturing the promotion's heavyweight title.

Set to face defending champion Tim Sylvia on Saturday night's UFC 65: Bad Intentions pay-per-view show emanating from Las Vegas, Monson earned his title shot by compiling a 24-5 mixed martial arts record.

Monson also has gained attention for being an anarchist and is even dotted with a series of tattoos that stand as universal symbols of the belief. Monson told the Groundnpound.com Web site that he would "like to do away with all class hierarchy in society and the institutions that promote this inequality."

Elaborating further during a recent telephone interview, Monson said, "We can do without police and people telling us what to do. That's how we grew up, going little by little toward obeying orders and following directions. We don't know how to make roads, hospitals or schools for ourselves. We need someone else to do it or else we'll never do it. That's where I think we fall short. We can govern ourselves."

Monson, 33, said his beliefs were formed while pursuing a bachelor's degree in psychology at the University of Illinois. Monson later worked as a health, crisis and family/child counselor in Olympia, Wash., after earning a master's degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Monson missed the athletic competition from his days as a top amateur wrestler and began training in judo and a grappling-based form of MMA fighting called pankration. Victories in two of the world-class Abu Dhabi submission wrestling tournaments in Saudi Arabia catapulted Monson to a burgeoning MMA career.

But as he prepared for his biggest bout yet, Monson said he actually has more interest in becoming politically active than pursuing a long- term MMA career because "I'm not going to fight forever." Monson already has participated in a sit-down demonstration in Olympia as a protest to military involvement in Iraq.

"I want to send a positive message and not say, 'I hate (President) Bush and this and that,' " Monson said. "I want to push us coming together and stopping the war and bringing the troops home so we can focus on how we're cutting the education budget and pressure people who are officially in charge of that."

Monson enters Saturday's fight against Sylvia as an underdog because the latter has an 11-inch height and significant reach advantage. The 5-foot-9-inch, 240-pound Monson said the way to compensate against the 6-foot-8-inch, 265-pound Sylvia is to "put the fight where I want to fight."

"I need to get inside on him and hope I can get him to the mat or tie him up against the fence so he can't use his reach over me," Monson said.

Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre for UFC's welterweight title is the show's other co-main event. For more information, visit www.ufc.tv.


More of the Monson interview can be found at www.wrestlingobserver.com. Questions can be sent to Alex Marvez c/o the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 33301, or e-mailed to amarvez@sun-sentinel.com.

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