Ennis' Take
ENNIS: Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down for UFC 141 - Alistair Overeem's smarts, Brock Lesnar, Revisionist History, and more
Jan 1, 2012 - 12:05:48 PM ENNIS: Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down for UFC 141 - Alistair Overeem's smarts, Brock Lesnar, Revisionist History, and more

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By: Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist

With UFC 141 in the books, let's take a look at the good and the bad from an eventful night of fights.

Thumbs Up: to Alistair Overeem's smarts. Everyone knew what the strategy was going to be coming into the fight: keep it on the feet. It's hard to be surprised by what happened since the fight remained on the feet for as long as it lasted, but it's still worth praising "The Reem" for paying attention.  After crumpling Lesnar with that crippling liver kick, he swarmed Lesnar, who immediately covered up to avoid damage. So in order to get the stoppage, Overeem went to the body. Once. And that was the end of the fight.
   
Thumbs Down: to anticlimactic main events.  It wasn't exactly disappointing as much as it was underwhelming.  Again, we knew what the possibilities were going in. But it never felt like Overeem was in any danger, and that's the fun of watching Lesnar fight. There's always the possibility of some sudden and brutal violence.  After he missed on the single leg takedown, Lesnar was done and it showed.
   
Thumbs Up: to Brock Lesnar, for knowing when to hang them up.  I've talked before about how it's hard to go out on top, and this is certainly not the top for Lesnar, but it's absolutely the right time to retire.  If Lesnar isn't in the title chase and main eventing pay-per-view cards, there's nothing for him to do. He's an attraction. No one wants to see Brock Lesnar fighting prospects. If Lesnar isn't the guy people are shooting for, he shouldn't be around.  He knows it, the UFC knows it, and he made the right call.
   
Thumbs Down: to revisionist history. As it always happens when someone loses, people took to Twitter or just started yelling at the local chicken wingery about how Lesnar sucks, Lesnar was never any good, on and on.  This is just dumb.  I could do a full-length column about why it's dumb, but let's just be succinct:  Lesnar had his first UFC fight when he was 30 years old (the second fight of his MMA career). He had been training in every non-wrestling aspect of MMA for fewer than two years. In the almost four years since, he went 4-3 in the UFC, capturing the heavyweight title and defending it twice (which, by the way, ties him with the most times that anyone has ever defended it) and only fought one opponent outside the top ten (Heath Herring).  Not bad.
   
Thumbs Up: to Nate Diaz and the grudge match.  I love grudge matches.  The more birds flipped, the better. I thought Donald Cerrone was going to run through Diaz, and I couldn't have been more wrong.  Diaz was precise and ruthless in dominating Cerrone completely.  Could it be the year of the Diaz?  I think if you put Nate in with someone like the winner of Pettis-Lauzon or Guillard-Miller and he wins, a title shot would be quite justified.  If the timing is right, in fact, he might not even need another fight. Without the results of those two fights, he's probably the most deserving lightweight right now.
   
Thumbs Down: to Donald Cerrone.  I had the same criticism of Takanori Gomi after he fought Diaz. Has he ever seen Nate Diaz fight?  You can't come in wild expecting to knock out a Diaz.  It's just not going to happen.  If you're going to beat those guys, you have to control them. By the time Cerrone was able to even try that, his sloppiness cost him his gas tank and there was no way he could employ the most effective strategy.  Cerrone is going to win a bunch more fights, but if he's going to get where he wants to go, he needs to fight smarter.
   
Thumbs Up: to Johny Hendricks, his punching power, and his beard.  It took Hendricks all of 12 seconds to do something that no one has ever done – knock out Jon Fitch with a punch.  Fitch has been in there with some heavy hitters, and he's taken some clean shots, but Hendricks only needed to land one.  The ref wisely didn't jump in immediately to ensure it wasn't a flash knockout, and it definitely wasn't. Hendricks is not to be trifled with, and I'd be shocked if he doesn't end up fighting the winner of Diaz-Condit.  The next best thing would be to pull Mike Pierce from the fight with Josh Koscheck on the same card, but there's no time for that.
   
Thumbs Down: to more revisionist history.  Some people complained immediately after the fight that Fitch should have already been granted a title shot before tonight, and now it's ruined.  Here's the thing:  between the first fight with GSP and now, Jon Fitch didn't do one thing to make anyone believe that things would go differently than they did in '08.  It's not as if he went on a reign of terror and mowed down everyone in his path.  He did post-GSP exactly what he had done pre-GSP, except in less impressive fashion.  And still with a win here, he likely would have gotten the shot at the Diaz-Condit winner.
   
Thumbs Up: to the up and comers.  Alexander Gustafsson has been laying low for a while, picking up increasingly more impressive wins since his loss to Phil Davis in April of last year (with four straight stoppages). The low profile will probably end now.  I wouldn't be surprised to see him get the winner of Rampage-Bader.  Jimy Hettes also had a coming out party, and in the relatively new featherweight division, the rise to the top could be a lot quicker than in other weight classes.  He should get a nice fight next time out.
   
Thumbs Down: to my predictions.  I got lit up on those, my friends.  Some were partially right, but most were completely wrong.  Guess we'll see how I do next time.
   
Thumbs Up: to Ross Pearson.  I continue to be more impressed with him each time out.  Junior Assuncao is better than he gets credit for, which makes me think that Pearson could really make some noise.
   
Thumbs Up: a bonus thumbs up to the preliminary fight situation.  Thumbs up first of all to the UFC for putting prelims on Facebook for as long as they have, and thumbs up higher to the fact that they'll be televised from here on out.  It's been great having access to all the fights, but it'll be better having access to them on my DVR so that I don't have to neglect my kids at 7:30 to watch them.