Legacy of Matt Serra
Date: 2010-02-07 00:00:00
Source: http://www.411mania.com/MMA/columns/129218/MMA-Leg...
Submitted By: Fight Videos
MMA Legacy is back this week examining the career of one of the most underrated fighters in MMA, Matt 'The Terra' Serra! From his early performances in the UFC, to winning the Ultimate Fighter and defeating GSP, to his most recent victory over Frank Trigg, join us as we examine the career of one of the great MMA fighters competing today! Plus UFC 109 Analysis with fight clips! Each and every week MMA Legacy shines the spotlight on a MMA legend. The legends may be retired or may be still actively competing. The column will begin with a bio on the selected legend following his career throughout its highs and lows. This week we focus on a fighter who has really made a name for himself in the last couple years, Matt "The Terra" Serra! From his early days in the UFC, to defeated GSP to win the welterweight championship, to his most recent TKO victory over Frank Trigg, join us as we relive the amazing career of Matt Serra! Matt Serra was born on June 2, 1974 (making him 35 years old today) in East Meadow, New York. Growing up he loved the grappling aspect of fighting, and began training in BJJ. His major accomplishments include a first place in the Pan American games in 1999 as well as a third place finish at the World Championships that year as a brown belt. Matt began competing in MMA on August 21, 1999, when he took on Graham Lewis at Vengeance at the Vanderbilt 6. It took Serra 1:04 to submit Lewis by armbar and gain his first MMA victory. Matt would follow this up with submission victories over Jeff Telvi and Greg Melisi at Vengeance at the Vanderbilt 7 and Vengeance at the Vanderbilt 11 respectively, by armbar and guillotine choke to put his record at 3-0. After his impressive victories all coming in the first round by submission, Matt got a call by the UFC and was set to compete at UFC 31: Locked and Loaded against Shonie Carter. Serra controlled the first round scoring takedowns and attempting submissions on Carter, but to his credit Carter was able to survive and then hit a spinning elbow to drop Serra near the end of the round. In the second and third round Serra was looking more and more tired in the fight, but still utilizing his takedowns and attempting submissions until Carter again caught Serra with a spinning back fist, this time putting him out, and giving him his first loss of his career. Serra would bounce back at UFC 33: Victory in Vegas when he defeated Yves Edwards by unanimous decision, by utilizing his takedowns and numerous submission attempts. Serra would take on Kell Dullanty next at UFC 36: World's Collide. In the fight Serra would truly show off his world class submission skills on the ground by transitioning from submission hold to submission hold, before finally putting Dullanty away with a triangle, to bring his MMA record to 5-1. Serra would be entered into the UFC tournament to determine the Lightweight champion and in his fight round matchup would face off against current champion BJ Penn In the fight Serra would continually attempt the takedown, however due to Penn's amazing balance, he was unable to get Penn down very often. Both fighters did little damage but Serra was the aggressor and continually tried to take the fight to the ground where as all Penn did was block the takedowns all fight. The fight would go to a decision and the judge's unfortunately would give the decision to BJ Penn. Serra would next face Din Thomas at UFC 41: Onslaught, in which he would ultimately lose a competitive, close split decision. At UFC 46: Supernatural Serra would win a unanimous decision against Jeff Curran and follow that up with a victory over Ivan Menjivar at UFC 48: Payback. In the fight Serra used his ground skills to win another unanimous decision and even executed a german suplex on Menjivar, bringing his MMA record to 7-3. Serra would get another tough test at UFC 53: Heavy Hitters, when he faced off against Karo Parisyan. Serra would catch Karo at the start of the fight with a huge right hand putting him down. Serra would move to mount and continue to unload of Parisyan, but somehow Karo would survive. In the second and third round Parisyan seemed like the fresher fighter (possibly due to the difference in size), and controlled the fight taking down Serra and punishing him with elbows that would eventually earn him the unanimous decision victory. After the defeat Serra competed on season 4 of the Ultimate Fighter Reality show, titled the Comeback, in which former UFC competitors competed on the show, with the winner earning a UFC contract as well as getting a title shot. In the competition, Serra would defeat both Pete Spratt by submission due to strikes, and then would later defeat Shonie Carter by unanimous decision to advance to the finals on the tournament. The finals would take place at The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale, with Serra taking on Chris Lytle. In the fight both guys were extremely defensive, not wanting to make a mistake, which made the fight less then thrilling. The judges would eventually give Serra the split decision victory, but he was in no way the clear cut winner, and the decision could have gone the other way with no objections. Matt Serra would get his title shot at UFC 69: Shootout against welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre. In what was probably one of the biggest upsets in MMA history, Matt Serra would catch GSP with a right handed stumbling him, eventually knocking him down, getting mount and pounding him out for the shocking victory! The crowd was electric and in total shock of the newly crowned champion! After the title victory Serra was set for a title defense against Matt Hughes at UFC 79, and both Matt Serra and Matt Hughes served as coaches on the sixth season of the Ultimate Fighter Reality Show to gain momentum for their anticipated matchup. However leading up to the event Serra injured his back and was unable to compete. Hughes instead fought GSP for the interim title, with GSP winning, which set up another meeting with Matt Serra and GSP to take place at UFC 83: Serra vs. St. Pierre 2. In the fight GSP would mix thing up perfectly changing from striking to takedowns, never allowing Serra to get comfortable and tiring Serra out. In the second round GSP would unload with knees to the body of Serra, which would cause the end to the fight giving GSP the title. Following the defeat, Serra would finally get the fight with Matt Hughes, which took place at UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida. In the first round, the two would clash heads, which Serra would follow up with a right hand to the back of Hughes head rocking Hughes. Hughes would recover and for the remainder of the round as well as for the entire second round, Hughes would get the takedowns and have top position but do no real damage. In the third round Hughes again would get the takedowns but not do any damage. In the closing minutes of round 3, after a failed takedown attempt by Hughes, Serra would reverse positions throwing Hughes to the ground and ending up in side control. From here Serra would rain down punches, however time would expire in the fight. Although Serra did more damage in the brief time he had Hughes down, then Hughes did the whole fight, the judges gave the fight to Hughes. Following the disappointing loss to Matt Hughes, Matt Serra took on Frank Trigg at UFC 109: Relentless this past Saturday. In a fight that was mostly controlled by Serra, he was able to catch Trigg with the overhand right, knocking him down, and pounding him out for the impressive TKO victory in round 1. Matt Serra has and an up and down career, but he has really seen a resurgence thanks to his time on the Ultimate Fighter as well as his shocking victory over GSP. He has a great personality and always seems to put on exciting fights. While Serra's career is on the tail end, he still has some great fight left in him, and I look forward to seeing some exciting matchups in both the welterweight and lightweight divisions (perhaps a long awaited rematch with BJ Penn?). UFC 109: Relentless Analysis Frank Trigg vs. Matt Serra Trigg tries to counter strike Serra, which makes Serra happy to stay on his feet and have a striking battle. Serra effectively ends the career of Frank Trigg when he connects with an overhand right putting him down and popped off 3 strikes to Trigg on the ground for the TKO victory. Impressive performance for Serra tonight. Fight Enjoyment: *** Demian Maia vs. Dan Miller This fight really showed the evolution of Maia's overall MMA game. His standup looked much impoved, and Maia actually won the fight on his feet. While Miller is not the KO artist that some other fighters in the Middleweight division are, Maia continues to impress and improve his complete MMA game, making him an even more dangerous fighter. Fight Enjoymeny: *1/2* Phil Davies vs. Brian Stann Having not seen Davies in action before, I went with the veteran Stann in this fight. But Phil Davies is a beast! He simply dominated Stann with his wrestling getting takedowns at will, and mixing up his striking with his takedowns. Now Davies is still very green as he was in mount for the majority of the fight and could not finish Stann, he has tons of room and potential for growth. It will be interesting to see where they go with Davies from here and who they give him as his next opponent. Fight Enjoyment: *** Paulo Thiago vs. Mike Swick Paulo Thiago puts together another impressive performance by submitting Mike Swick. Swick appeared to rock Thiago, and tried to capatilize, but Thiago countered with a left hook that put Swick down. Thiago jumped on him and locked in a Dars choke to put Swick to sleep, causing Herb Dean to stop the fight. Thiago always seems outmatched in fights, but somehow he pulls off the impressive victory! Fight Enjoyment: *** Nate Marquardt vs. Chael Sonnen Chael Sonnen really came into his own in this fight, as he completely dominated Nate Marquardt. Sonnen just continually took Marquardt down, and beat him up. Marquardt had no answer off his back and simply tried to hold on. Marquardt drops back down the rankings a bit with the loss, and Sonnen should be line in for the title shot (should be in line the key words as who knows what the UFC will do, as they gave Belfort a title shot without ever competing in the weight class in the UFC). Fight Enjoyment: ***1/2* Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman What was Mark Coleman thinking? He did nothing of note in this fight, except stand there and get punched by Couture. He didn't try for a takedown, didn't throw any strikes of significance, and basically looked like a amateur in there. Couture finally got the takedown and ended it with the rear naked choke. Coleman showed more life after the fight, getting into it with Tito Ortiz then he did in the entire fight. Fight Enjoyment: ** All in all it was an enjoyable, but not spectacular UFC event. Well that does it for another week of MMA Legacy, I hope everyone enjoyed UFC 109 and the SuperBowl!
