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Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC 172, plus thoughts on Renan Barao's contract
Apr 30, 2014 - 1:35:24 PM
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC 172, plus thoughts on Renan Barao's contract
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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

UFC 172 hit Baltimore this past weekend on pay-per-view. Let's get right to it.

UFC 172

GOOD: Danny Castillo stops Charlie Brenneman

Brenneman likely took the first round with his wrestling, but Castillo stoned him with a power shot. I do wonder how much longer Brenneman will fight, he's taken a lot of abuse in his career. He's a tough guy, but still, it makes you wonder.

GOOD: Jessamyn Duke vs. Bethe Correia and Takanori Gomi vs. Isaac Vallie-Flagg

Correia won the decision over Duke by being more active throughout the fight, and Gomi won his decision in a sloppy affair. Both fights were fairly good. Not great by any means, but good enough.

GREAT: Joseph Benavidez submits Tim Elliot

This was fantastic. Elliot was really strong in the beginning of the fight, but Benavidez came back huge. He locked on his "Joa Constrictor" submission to get the tapout win late in the first round. It was a great win for Benavidez, as Elliot is a tough guy.

GREAT: Chris Beal stops Patrick Williams

Beal landed a great flying knee to get the quick knockout. Not much to the fight, but what an amazing finish.

GOOD: Max Holloway submits Andre Fili

This was a really good fight. Fili took the first, but Holloway battled back in the second. In the third round, Holloway was able to lock in the choke and get the submission win in the latter part of the round.

GREAT: Jim Miller submits Yancy Medeiros

Miller looked great as he quickly got the submission win over Medeiros. One of the better performances from Miller I've ever seen.

GREAT: Luke Rockhold submits Tim Boetsch

Rockhold tore through Boetsch and quickly got the kimura submission win. One-sided, but fun. I'm not sure where Rockhold goes from here, but he could find himself in title contention with a few more big wins.

GOOD: Anthony "Rumble" Johnson vs. Phil Davis

Rumble controlled and dominated the entire fight. All the trash-talking Davis was doing before this fight about how he crushes guys and stuff must have gotten him completely sidetracked. He didn't look very good in this fight at all. As for Rumble, he shoots himself up the division with this win. He absolutely deserves another top level opponent to prove what he can do. I'd think about giving him a fight against the winner of Daniel Cormier-Dan Henderson next month, with the winner of that getting a title shot.

GOOD: Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixiera

Jones got the one-sided decision win here. He dominated Teixiera here. The UFC looks really stupid here for all that talk about Teixiera being the toughest test Jones has ever faced. You don't sell a Jon Jones fight with hyperbole, because you don't need to. Jones is widely considered the best fighter in the world right now, I think that's more than enough of a sell right there. As for the fight itself, Jones was tenacious and Teixiera just had no answers. He caught Jones a few times with some nice power shots, but Jones took them and kept right on coming. He poured it on and it's a testament to how tough Teixiera is that he wasn't finished. This, of course, sets up the highly anticipated rematch between Jones and Alexander Gustafsson that should be spectacular.

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

UFC Bantamweight Champion Renan Barao recently made some comments about how he wants to renegotiate his contract as he feels he isn't paid as well as he should be. He mentioned how his opponents make more money than he does. Barao deserves to be paid much better, and it's totally the UFC's fault that he's not an enormous star.

The Brazilian lost his very first fight. Since then, he has won 32 fights in a row, with a No Contest mixed in there. 32 wins in a row. There's guys in MMA who don't even fight 32 times in their entire career. Barao has fought seven times in the UFC. He has three wins by decision, two by submission, and two by knockout. He also has two submission wins in the WEC so it's not like he's some boring guy who is a tough sell.

He's also not fighting bums. Barao has beaten Urijah Faber twice, as well as Michael McDonald, Scott Jorgensen, and Eddie Wineland. Barao has been the UFC Bantamweight Champion for almost two years. Barao hasn't lost in nine years. It's practically a crime that he's not a much bigger name.

Renan Barao should be a huge star. His win streak should be the stuff of legend by now. It should be mythologized by the UFC to the point that people compare it to Fedor Emelianenko's and Anderson Silva's streaks. What Barao has accomplished so far is absolutely amazing. The fact that he's still only twenty-seven years old is astonishing. There's no reason that Barao shouldn't be as big of a star as Jon Jones is. There's no doubt that the UFC has dropped the ball to an extraordinary degree here. In a time where they need big names as much as they ever have, they've failed to showcase one who is as ready made as it gets.


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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