Pictured: Ken Shamrock blocks an advancing Pedro Rizzo, along with advancing age, during last night’s listless encounter in Sydney.

Any card featuring Ken Shamrock, Paul Daley’s first fight (since his UFC firing) and names like Murilo Rua, Denis Kang and Paulo Filho is enough to at least grab the attention of most MMA fans.

On paper, this past Saturday’s Impact FC 2 in Sydney, Australia had some potentially great fights. But, fights happen in a cage, not on paper. Although the fights were not completely disappointing, neither did the initial promise of the card produce any lasting memories.

It could be that the main event just sullied my opinion of the whole event.

Ken Shamrock v Pedro Rizzo should simply never have happened.

This isn’t an anti-Ken Shamrock crusade. On the contrary, the man is an MMA legend. But, when he weighs in at 212 pounds for a fight with a 265-pound weight limit, it’s nonsense.

His performance against Rizzo was all-around poor. He offered so very little, Rizzo must have woken up this morning with barely a scratch on his body. Shamrock landed no good shots, didn’t attempt a takedown when the stand-up wasn’t working, and was beaten with relative ease.

He wasn’t outclassed by a masterful performance from Rizzo. His opponent did exactly what was required, without ever looking very dangerous himself, save for some debilitating leg-kicks, which he was allowed to land repeatedly given Shamrock’s lack of movement.

With 2:22 left in round 1, Rizzo landed a huge leg kick, and from then onwards Shamrock looked like he just wanted it to be over. He had no answer for anything Rizzo threw at him. Legend or not, when he loses heart half-way through the first round of a fight, it’s time to retire permanently.

Paul Daley v Daniel Acacio was a far better fight, but if Daley truly does have ambitions of forcing Dana White into re-hiring him, he will need to improve greatly on this performance.

The classic Paul Daley traits were on show- stinging leg kicks aplenty, the jab was working, the left hook was connecting and he always looked likely to finish the fight with one monstrous shot, like he eventually did with a vicious head-splitting elbow in the third round.

Sadly, the other classic Paul Daley trait was also on show- his takedown defense left much to be desired. Acacio isn’t anywhere near the standard of Josh Koscheck’s takedown offense, but he still grounded Daley repeatedly, and for fairly long sections of this fight. Daley’s leg-kicks, while powerful when they land, were caught by Acacio on several occasions.

Much like the Koscheck fight, Daley was more than capable of preventing his opponent from damaging him on the ground, but it doesn’t stop the fact that he struggled to defend takedowns. That being said, it was still a comfortable performance where he didn’t look in trouble at any point, that will springboard him onto bigger and better fights.

Daley dominated, but the fight wasn’t as one-sided as Brad Morris v Soa Palelei. Palelei looked fairly impressive, stuffing attempts by Morris to press him against the cage and take him down for the first few minutes. Several monster knees from Soa was enough to put Morris down, and Palelei went straight to side control to finish the fight with a tight keylock.

My fight of the night, despite it only lasting one round, was Murilo Rua v Jeremy May. May started off at a relentless pace, connecting with shots to Rua and pursuing him looking for the finish. May looked in control, dominating the action and landing blows at every turn. He rocked Rua several times, before Rua fought back, landing a huge slam as he turned the tide against May. Rua then caught May in a standing gullotine, and expertly dropped to the mat, sinking in the submission deep, and forcing May to tap.

While the Rua fight lived up to expectations, Paulo Filho v Dennis Kang was a disappointment, at least until the third round. The first round was spent largely on the ground with Kang on top, and the second reversed the positions with Filho on top. A fight on the ground can be very exciting, when both guys are looking to ground and pound, trying to steal a submission and always looking to improve their position. But when one guy retains top position without doing much, essentially lay and praying, it gets dull. Filho and Kang did land some good shots, mostly elbows, but they were so infrequent it became a dull fight to watch. Although, the third round did much to rectify my disappointment. It showed what an exciting grounded fight can look like. Both fighters did everything they could to finish, constantly seeking submissions and trying ti improve their position. In the end, a split draw wasn’t a terrible decision. How one judge scored the fight 30-27 in favour of Kang is impossible to say.

Other fights on the card:

Veteran Murile Bustamante lost to Jesse Taylor via verbal submission, in a very strange ending where Bustamante seemed to lose awareness of where he was.

Jim York beat Peter Graham via a rear naked choke

Glover Teixeira defeated Marko peseli via TKO due to strikes

Glenn Taylor-Smith lost to Richard Vaculik via rear naked choke

Manuel Rodriguez beat Shane Nix with a North-South choke