Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC 160; plus, Forrest Griffin Retires
May 29, 2013 - 10:30:07 AM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC 160; plus, Forrest Griffin Retires

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

UFC 160 was a pretty good show all in all. There were some really good moments. Here's the event as I saw it.

GREAT - T.J. Grant wipes out Gray Maynard

This was the most shocking moment of the night, and that's pretty good considering what happened later. To see Gray Maynard reduced to a punching bag like that was pretty wild. Grant took him out by the bike racks and laid him out. Maynard didn't look like himself and I wouldn't be surprised to find out later that he had suffered an injury heading into the fight or something. That's not to diminish what Grant did, but this is unusual from Maynard.

After winning this fight, Grant now gets a shot at UFC Lightweight Champion Benson Henderson. Discussion about that fight can wait for another day. For now, Grant can revel in this great win as he just took Maynard apart with punches. The power he showed was quite impressive as he repeatedly dropped the hammer on Maynard's face.

GOOD - Cain Velasquez defends his title

Cain dismantled Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva with relative ease. Silva did stuff a few Cain takedown attempts, but it's not as though he were able to capitalize on that or anything. This fight played out almost exactly the way we all thought it would. There's not really a whole lot else to add. We all knew going in that Cain would, and he did. He also won in the fashion we thought he would, and he looked good doing it.

GOOD - Junior dos Santos wins via awesome

JDS was picked by many to beat Mark Hunt. However, I highly doubt anyone saw this coming. At the end of the third round JDS caught Hunt with this spinning back kick that ended the fight. It was just nuts to see a heavyweight do that. It's true that JDS isn't your typical flabby heavyweight, but still, big dudes are not supposed to be able to do this. Mark Hunt is not some Glass Joe from Punchout! type guy so knocking him out is damn impressive.

GOOD - Glover Teixeira wins again

It may not have been against elite competition, but Glover submitted James Te Huna. He beat who was in front of him, and did so in a good way. There's not a whole lot else to add here. I think Glover deserves a step up in competition, let's see what he can do.

GOOD - Khabib Nurmagomedov sets a record

Khabib set a UFC record with 21 takedowns on 27 attempts. That's the all-time record...including five round fights...he did this in three rounds. The fight itself (against Abel Trujillo) was pretty tame, but that's a damn amazing stat there. 21 takedowns in three rounds is just absurd.

ALL OF THE ABOVE - Cain vs. JDS 3

The rubber match is good, bad, and ugly. It's good because it has the potential to be a good fight. It's bad because the second fight, the one where Cain dominated JDS, just happened not too long ago. It's ugly because it really shows the shallowness of the heavyweight division. It's double ugly because no matter the outcome things get really bad. I take that back, if JDS wins by a dominating decision, things are ok for a while.

In that instance, Cain vs. JDS 4 is ok because they would each have had a dominating decision over the other, which would make the JDS knockout win over Cain in the first fight look more flukey than anything else. However, if Cain wins in dominant fashion again he's left with no real challengers. If JDS knocks out Cain again it makes his loss to Cain look like he overtrained for that fight. The UFC better hope someone pops up real quick to become a title challenger, or things are going to get really ugly really quickly.

*************

Forrest Griffin has retired. Forrest was a lot of things, some good and some bad. I want to focus on something right now that I think defines him more than anything, his epic first fight with Stephan Bonnar at The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale. This was the fight that really helped catapult the UFC to great heights. This was the ultimate casual fan fight, both guys standing in front of each other giving it their all. This was the fight that I used to get all my friends into watching MMA. I would show them this fight and they would be hooked instantly.

Josh Koscheck and Chris Leben had a feud on the The Ultimate Fighter 1 that drew people in and generated excitement, but the finale fight between Griffin and Bonnar would be what everyone remembers. These two guys are forever tied to each other because of this fight. His fights with Bonnar, and winning the UFC Light Heavyweight title, make up Forrest's legacy. He had other highlights, he had lowlights, but Griffin vs. Bonnar 1 is the first thing you think of when you hear his name. I think that's pretty cool, and I hope he's proud of that.


Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank