Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC Fight Night 45 and 46, plus White on Weidman-Belfort in Brazil
Jul 23, 2014 - 12:10:48 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC Fight Night 45 and 46, plus White on Weidman-Belfort in Brazil

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

The UFC ran two Fight Night events this past week. Let's get right to it.

UFC Fight Night 45

GOOD: Lucas Martins stops Alex White

This was a pretty wild fight, and it was very entertaining. It wasn't the most technical, but there was good action throughout. White took some massive shots and kept coming. He took the second round after Martins blitzed him in the first. Martins gassed in that second round, but was somehow able to get a second wind and finish things in the third. Very nice fight. Martins now has a win in three different UFC divisions.

GREAT: John Lineker stops Alptekin Ozkilic

This fight was awesome. Lineker was winning without question as he pummeled Ozkilic with some huge punches. Ozkilic was getting his shots in as well, but it was Lineker who was getting the more consistent and damaging blows. Ozkilic showed bigtime toughness of his own in this fight, but Lineker was just too much. He took the first two rounds and was about to take the third round when he dropped Ozkilic with only like ten seconds to go. Instead of standing back and letting the round end, Lineker jumps in and finishes Ozkilic. He didn't need to, but he did it anyway. I love that killer instinct. That elevates the fight for me a bit because it shows that he's ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

GREAT/UGLY: Joe Proctor stops Justin Salas

I'll start with the UGLY. The fight itself was GREAT. Both guys went at it from the start. This was damn entertaining. The UGLY comes from the second head that Proctor started growing from his left temple. Holy crap, that thing was nasty. If you haven't seen the hematoma that Proctor had, go check it out and save the picture to gross your friends out with. This elevated the fight to GREAT status because of the fact that Proctor went for, and got, the finish with that huge thing growing from his head. That was awesome. There were sloppy moments, no doubt, but the volume these guys threw was great.

GOOD: Rick Story submits Leonardo Mafra

Mafra hurt Story early with punches, but then Story took him down and that was basically the fight right there. Story worked to grind Mafra down and control him in the first. In the second round, Story again took Mafra down and worked towards the submission. Nothing against Mafra, he had some good moments, but this was just a matter of time. Story was too good at what he does in this fight.

GOOD: Edson Barboza stops Evan Dunham

Very tentative early, then Barboza turned it on and nailed Dunham with a kick to the body that essentially finished things. Not much to it other than the finish. It's a nice win for Barboza.

GOOD: Leslie Smith stops Jessamyn Duke

This was a prelim fight, but definitely worth showing here. Smith tore into Duke like a bag of chips. The finish was particularly cool as Smith unloaded on Duke as she was on the cage. That'll be on the highlight reel for best knockouts for sure.

GREAT: Donald Cerrone stops Jim Miller

Miller stood with Cerrone and that probably wasn't the best idea. It did make for a great fight, though. These guys were battling, with Cerrone getting the better of it. Soon, that snowballed and Cerrone was in total control. Cerrone had the fight won a little earlier than he got credit for, but referee Dan Miragliotta blew the call. It turned out to be no big deal, luckily.

Cerrone is the first guy to finish Miller with strikes, that's a pretty big deal. Cerrone is on a big roll and he just might be able to work his way to a title shot. He has to raise his ceiling past what we've ever seen before, but he does seem up to it. This was a great way to cap a fantastic night of fights. This was the card of the year so far.


UFC Fight Night 46

GOOD: Norman Parke stops Naoyuki Kotani

Kotani offered up very little in this fight, but I have to go GOOD because of the finish. This just wasn't much of anything, to be quite honest.

GOOD/BAD: Ian McCall vs. Brad Pickett

Honestly, I was disappointed in this fight. There wasn't a whole lot to this. Pickett would come forward and McCall would back up and circle around. I'm trying to be fair here because it wasn't really a BAD fight. It was frustrating to watch, but it was a smart gameplan from McCall. It's certainly not anything that would make you want to give the guy a title shot, though. The best I can say is that the gameplan was GOOD, but the fight was BAD at times.

BAD/GOOD: Gunnar Nelson submits Zak Cummings

Nelson had a great finishing sequence as he worked for the submission, but the nine minutes or so prior to that kind of sucked. There wasn't much going on. The submission was cool, as was the work leading up to it, but the earlier stuff just left a bad taste in my mouth.

GOOD: Conor McGregor stops Diego Brandao

McGregor is a good fighter, but he's nowhere near as good as he thinks he is. He talked before this fight that a win here would give him a title shot. That's absolutely laughable because there's no way he's jumping Cub Swanson, Frankie Edgar, Chan Sung Jung, Ricardo Lamas, and Dustin Poirier. I might even be leaving some guys out that are well above McGregor at this point.
I like McGregor as a fighter, but some of the things he says are just so ridiculous that it's hard to take anything he says seriously at times. He could be champion within a year, he could also be out of a job in the UFC just as easily. The time to start talking yourself up is when you're close to a title shot, not when you've just arrived. The guys at the top of the division are in a different league right now. McGregor may very well knock that door down and start kicking ass and taking names, but until he does he would be better served to keep a lower profile.

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

While talking with the media the other day, Dana White discussed Vitor Belfort and the possibility of him receiving a title shot against UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman. That's fine, even though Belfort has to meet with the Nevada Athletic Commission as they try to determine whether to license him or not. However, there was something that White said that is just so incredibly dumb that it defies belief.

"That's the fight that we want to do, and that's the fight that Chris Weidman wants. I love this kid calling out Vitor...it doesn't have to take place in Nevada. That fight would be big in Brazil. I would do it in Brazil. As long as the commission clears him, yeah."- Dana White

Say what? This is asinine. I can't believe that Dana White would hang Weidman out to dry like this. Why in the world should Belfort get to fight in Brazil? Is there any proof that the commission there would test Belfort as strictly as they would (hopefully) test him in Nevada?

I just don't understand this. In one move, Dana White has switched the narrative from "Weidman wants Belfort" to "Weidman to fight Belfort in Brazil" and he's put Weidman in a bad spot. Weidman likely won't want to fight Belfort in Brazil, and why the hell should he? Belfort has tested positive for PEDs on more than one occasion. Weidman is the UFC Middleweight Champion, he's got a lot to lose in this scenario so he needs to make sure that the deck isn't stacked against him. However, if he refuses to fight Belfort in Brazil then that makes the champion look weak.

There's also perhaps the biggest reason for not doing this fight in Brazil, and that is Weidman's title. Why should the champion go to the challenger's home country to fight him? That doesn't make any sense either. Why should Weidman have to fight in Brazil? Why should this even be an issue? Oh, that's right, because one of the heads of the company that Chris Weidman represents as champion thought it would be a good idea to suggest such a thing. The fact that he did so without provocation is just a cherry on the turd sundae that White just handed Weidman.


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