Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC Fight Night 43 and 44
Jul 2, 2014 - 2:10:23 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC Fight Night 43 and 44

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

The UFC pulled another double header last weekend with Fight Nights 43 and 44. Let's get right to it.

UFC Fight Night 43

GOOD: Robert Whittaker vs. Mike Rhodes

It wasn't a great fight by any means, but it was fairly good. That might be an overstatement, though, as I don't really remember that much of it. What I do remember was pretty good, though.

GOOD/GREAT: Charles Oliveira submits Hatsu Hioki

The fight itself was GOOD, the submission that Oliveira pulled off was GREAT. It was like this weird combo of an Anaconda Choke with a Peruvian Necktie. I'm hearing some people call it the Bronx Necktie so that sounds good to me. This is definitely the front-runner for submission of the year, no doubt.

UGLY: Jared Rosholt vs. Soa Palelei

This fight sucked, and is the epitome of a s***** heavyweight fight. The less said, the better. Rosholt won the decision.

GREAT: Nate Marquardt submits James Te Huna

Marquardt stunned Te Huna with a knee early, then jumped on him and finished him with a nice armbar. I'm not saying Marquardt will make a title run, but he looked very good in this fight. I think he can be a good gatekeeper for the middleweight division.


UFC Fight Night 44

GOOD: Ricardo Lamas vs. Hacran Dias

This was a very close fight, and could easily have gone either way. I think Lamas did a bit more, but I wouldn't have argued with Dias getting the decision win. Lamas walks away the victor, but Dias looked good enough that he's not hurt too much by this loss.

GOOD: Cezar Ferreira vs. Andrew Craig and Kelvin Gastelum vs. Nicholas Musoke

These fights were fine, but at this point I was ready for the night to be over. It was way too late, and I was far too tired to care much. They were both pretty good fights, not great, but good. By the time they were on, though, I was ready for more excitement. Ferriera and Gastleum both won the decisions.

GOOD: Cub Swanson vs. Jeremy Stephens

I didn't want to lump this in with those other fights because this was more exciting. It also had title implications. With Swanson's win, it's very possible that he gets a Featherweight Title shot after Chad Mendes challenges UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo. There were some real bombs bring thrown in this fight, and it was pretty exciting even though it went all five rounds.

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

Well, the UFC and FOX have fired Chael Sonnen for failing another drug test. He tested positive for HGH and EPO, which is a first in the MMA community. To be honest, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Sonnen is back in the UFC before the end of the year. I think they'll let the heat die down a bit, and slowly bring him back. Dana White is good friends with Sonnen, so I think this is very likely. If I had to guess, I'd say his firing Sonnen was a directive from Fox. I don't think the UFC would have gotten rid of him otherwise.

Also in the news, Vitor Belfort has said he took a whole week's dose of testosterone the day before his random drug test back in February. I'm not sure if he thinks that's supposed to exonerate him or something, but that's admitting to taking an improper dosage. He said he usually takes the dosage throughout the week, but this time he took it all in one day. I'm sure that's completely true and there's no way he's lying. He even said he's always been clean. I blame the media for picking on poor Belfort. Yeah, it's true he's failed multiple drug tests, but haven't we all?

Ok, enough sarcasm, but this is just ridiculous. He admitted to taking a 7-day dose of testosterone in one day. That makes it easy to believe that he would take another 7-day dose a few days after that. Does anyone believe that this was an isolated incident? Is anyone that naive?


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