Campos did really well in the first round, but then Pitbull dropped him in the second and stayed all over him. It was just a matter of time from there. Pitbull was looking pretty good in this fight.
GOOD/BAD: Karl Amoussou vs. David Gomez
The fight itself was OK. It's hard to call it bad, but it definitely wasn't that good. I'll go GOOD because both guys were trying. The BAD comes from Gomez hitting Amoussou low a few times. That's never a good thing. Amoussou won the decision.
GOOD: Marcin Held submits Derek Anderson
Both guys were working hard in this one, Held is just the better fighter on the ground. It was an interesting battle between the two. It was fun to see them rolling around. Held got the submission win in the second round.
GOOD: Douglas Lima stops Rick Hawn
Lima kept landing these brutal leg kicks. Hawn's corner had to throw the towel in because he was getting demolished out there. His leg was just being destroyed. I applaud Hawn's corner for stopping it instead of being obstinate about it. It's not like they had much choice about it, though, but it's good to see them step in for their fighter. Could they have stopped it sooner? Sure, but it wasn't a huge deal. Lima is definitely sending a message to the other fighters with those kicks. He'll chop you down if you don't stop him.
UFC on Fox 11
I'll be perfectly honest, I didn't watch the prelims. I got caught up watching the Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers with some crap refereeing and the beginning of the Atlanta Hawks beating the no-show Indiana Pacers in the NBA Playoffs. I did watch the main card, though, as a friend reminded me. To be blunt, I should have just kept watching basketball. Here's the rundown of the main card, though.
BAD/GOOD: Yoel Romero vs. Brad Tavares
Romero showed some very good striking, but was also far too lackadaisical. He rarely brought it out of first gear. It didn't help that Joe Rogan said some of the stupidest stuff I've heard him say in a while when he started talking about Romero fighting UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman. Rogan will get his own section later in the list, including hyperbole that would make Tony Schiavone blush, but the fight itself was just OK.
GREAT: Donald Cerrone submits Edson Barboza
This was outstanding. Barboza started as he usually does, peppering Cerrone with shots and just generally looking like he was going to run through him. Then, Cerrone caught Barboza with a left hand that dropped him. From there he rushed in and immediately took Barboza's back and pulled off the slick submission. Those words don't even do that justice. It was incredible how quickly Cerrone pulled that off. He dropped him and boom, took his back before you could blink and it was over. Very impressive.
BAD/GOOD: Miesha Tate vs. Liz Carmouche
The BAD is for Carmouche taking Tate down in the first and second rounds and not doing anything. She literally didn't do a damn thing after she took Tate to the ground. Tate battled back in the second round, but I was convinced that Carmouche won the second round, at least in the eyes of the judges. I'm glad I was wrong because Tate came out in the third round and dominated. She took Carmouche down and worked for submissions. She almost had her with the choke, but Carmouche wouldn't tap.
I was so happy when the scores were read and Tate won. Carmouche didn't deserve to win because she didn't do anything to try to win. She had Tate down and didn't work for submissions, didn't work for a better position or try to ground-and-pound. Instead, she just smothered her like a blanket. Tate gets the GOOD because she worked hard and earned the victory. She deserved it.
GOOD/UGLY: Fabricio Werdum vs. Travis Browne
Let's get the GOOD out of the way first. Werdum looked great on the feet. He outstruck Browne in every second of the fight. I can't remember a single exchange where Browne did better. The UGLY is for a few things. Browne's cardio was typically horrible. This fight was your typical crappy heavyweight fight, and is a prime example why heavyweight fights should never be five rounds outside of title fights. These guys just don't have the cardio and conditioning for it. Browne was blown up after like two minutes. That just sucks. It's true that Werdum had much better cardio, but he also didn't have the output that he should have.
That's the second reason for the UGLY. Werdum should have finished Browne in the third round at the latest. At that point in the fight, Browne was standing there with his hands down, mouth open, and chest heaving as he tried to suck in oxygen. Why Werdum didn't push in and finish things is beyond me. Browne had nothing left at that point. Of course it's possible that Brown knocks out Werdum, but that would only happen if Werdum made a series of mistakes so egregious that only the greenest of rookies would commit. By not finishing Browne, Werdum was sending UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez a message: "Hey, you don't have to worry too much about me because I don't push advantages so feel free to be as aggressive as you want." That's not a message you want to send to the champion before you fight him. I was very impressed with Werdum's striking, just not with his lack of aggression.
UGLY: Joe Rogan's hyperbolic statements
It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Joe Rogan. I find him tedious at best. However, he said some things during this card that were almost beyond belief. I already mentioned the Yoel Romero stuff, but I'll say it again. Rogan kept talking about Romero being a challenger to UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman. They even had a graphic made up about this so I suppose I shouldn't put all the blame on Rogan. I don't know who is in his ear telling him to say this crap, or if he just says it on his own, but he needs to tone it down.
First off, there's the logistics problem. Lyoto Machida has the next title shot, coming up in a few months. Then Vitor Belfort has the shot after that. That takes us to 2015, and that's assuming there's no immediate rematch or injury delays or anything of that nature. Yeah, Romero has won four in a row, but you don't give title shots to guys just for winning four in a row. If the UFC wants to push this guy to the moon, they better put him in there against higher-ranked opponents.
This brings me to the worst of what Rogan had to say Saturday night. I understand the UFC wants to position Glover Teixeira as a legit threat to UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones. There's business there, they have to make Teixiera look good. That's fine, I'm OK with that. Then I see this commercial for the fight where Joe Rogan says that Teixiera is the toughest challenge that Jones has ever faced. Words almost fail to properly describe how stupid that sounds. The guy who has beaten Rashad Evans, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Lyoto Machida, and Vitor Belfort is going to be more challenged by a guy who barely beat Rampage by decision sixteen months after Jones submitted him? That's just... worthy of a Tommy Lee Jones-level implied facepalm.
I didn't even mention the guy who last fought Jones, the one that you could make a very strong case for being the toughest challenge Jones has ever faced. I'm talking about Alexander Gustafsson, of course. The guy who went to decision against Jones, he's not the toughest challenge?
The commercial also tried to further the idea that most everyone thinks Teixiera is going to win. I would imagine that most people think that Jones is going to walk through Teixiera on his way to a rematch with Gustafsson. Again, I understand they want to hype up this fight, but there's ways to do that without throwing your credibility out the window. I just wish they would employ these ways instead of insulting the intelligence of their viewers.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank
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