Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 105, UFC Fight Night 30, and World Series of Fighting 6
Oct 30, 2013 - 12:15:08 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 105, UFC Fight Night 30, and World Series of Fighting 6

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Contributor

Bellator 105, UFC Fight Night 30, and World Series of Fighting 6 all took place this past weekend. Let's get into it.

Bellator 105

BAD: Eugene Fadiora stops Keith Berry

This was just a lop-sided mismatch. Berry was just out of his element here. This was almost more like a sparring match.

UGLY: Mighty Mo submits Ron Sparks

Sparks attempted what I imagine to be a takedown. This was just awful. Not a good way to start the show, guys.

GOOD: Alexander Sarnavskiy submits Ricardo Tirloni

Now, this is more like it. Sarnavskiy was impressive, nailing a spinning back fist and following that with some good ground work, finishing with a very nice triangle.

GOOD: Des Green vs. Angelo Sanchez

I'm being generous here because of the UGLY cut Sanchez suffered, leading to the Green win by doctor stoppage. That cut was pretty gnarly.

BAD: Will Brooks vs. Saad Awad

Brooks took this with his takedowns and not much else. He also took my interest as I almost fell asleep watching this. You can insert your own "watching paint dry" joke here.


UFC Fight Night 30

GOOD: John Lineker stops Phil Harris

Lineker is a good fighter, and he looked sharp here. The major problem, though, is his inability to make weight. The UFC needs to tell this guy, no more flyweight fights, you're a bantamweight from now on. How many times are they going to let him miss weight? There's no way they're going to put him in a title fight. Lineker gets a major BAD for missing weight again.

GOOD: Nicholas Musoke submits Alessio Sakara

The submission was very impressive, and Musoke makes his UFC debut a successful one. A really good showing from Musoke. Let's see if he can build on this.

GOOD: Norman Parke outworks John Tuck

This wasn't the greatest fight in the world, but Parke showed he's a worker. Tuck was definitely game, but he couldn't find the answer for Parke's striking.

GOOD: Jimi Manuwa stops Ryan Jimmo

Manuwa controlled the fight and dictated where it went. He started hurting Jimmo when Jimmo went down with a leg injury. It looked like a hamstring injury the way he was acting. Manuwa showed that he needs a bit more work before he steps it up in opponents. Maybe just a bit more seasoning would help.

BAD: Melvin Guillard vs. Ross Peason

The fight itself wasn't bad, but the finish was. Pearson went down from a Guillard takedown. As he was getting up Melvin smashed him with a knee, which he followed with another knee. The problem was that Pearson had some fingers on the mat. That made the knee illegal and since Pearson was unable to continue the fight was ruled a No Contest. I liked the fight up until this (very early) point. Both guys were going for it, and it just sucks that it had to end this way.

GOOD: Lyoto Machida knocks out Mark Munoz

This fight showcased the good and bad of Machida. The bad was the beginning of the fight, where literally nothing was happening. I'll be honest, at this point I almost turned the channel to something else, anything else, because I'd seen this before. All of a sudden, though, Machida actually started fighting. He landed a beautiful head kick that stoned Munoz cold. That finish was awesome, the fight itself sucked.


World Series of Fighting 6

GOOD: Justin Gaethje dominates Dan Lauzon

This shouldn't have gone past the first round, to be honest. Gaethje absolutely destroyed Lauzon's leg with kicks. He couldn't even stand for a while there. The referee really should have stepped in and stopped it there. The fight went to the second round, and Gaethje ended it with a vicious hook then uppercut combo.

BAD: Jon Fitch vs. Marcelo Alfaya

I'm probably being a little hard on this fight here, but I just wasn't very impressed. I thought Fitch struggled a lot more than you would think to get this decision. It wasn't exactly a shining moment, and you could make the argument that Alfaya should have won. The fight wasn't BAD, but it wasn't GOOD either. In this case, I round down.

GOOD: Marlon Moraes knocks out Carson Beebe

It'll probably take me longer to write all this than the actual fight took. Moraes was very impressive as he just took Beebe out. He was just better.

GOOD: Steve Carl submits Josh Burkman

The first two rounds were quite bad, but then it caught fire and got great in a hurry. That third round was pretty spectacular, and the fourth round was good while it lasted. Carl got the win by triangle choke in the fourth to capture the WSOF Welterweight Title. Rounds one and two were BAD, rounds three and four were GREAT. To average it out you get a GOOD rating. The way Burkman was able to scramble out of the submission attempts was sweet, there were a couple of times I thought he was done.


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