Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 123 and UFC Fight Night 50
Sep 10, 2014 - 11:50:58 AM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 123 and UFC Fight Night 50

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

The UFC and Bellator went head to head last Friday night with UFC Fight Night 50 on Fox Sports 1 and Bellator 123 on Spike TV. Let's break it down.


Bellator 123

GOOD: Cheick Kongo submits Lavar Johnson

Johnson almost knocked Kongo out, but Kongo was able to recover and get Johnson to the ground. Once that happened, the finish became a matter of when and not if. Johnson doesn't have much of a ground game compared to Kongo, and that's what sealed the deal here.

GOOD: Bobby Lashley submits Josh Burns

Lashley looked pretty good in this fight. Burns was a game competitor, though, and made Lashley work for it. Lashley got the second-round submission.

GREAT: Tamdan McCroy stops Brennan Ward

McCroy went in there and just took Ward apart with a series of big shots. Big time finish here, as it only took 22 seconds.

GOOD: King Mo stops Dustin Jacoby

Mo is just the better fighter. That's nothing against Jacoby, Mo is just one of the better fighters Bellator has in the light heavyweight division. Whether you like the guy or not, he's got talent, and he showed it here.

BAD: Bad pro wrestling antics

Stephen Bonnar is fighting Tito Ortiz. It seems that Bellator is smart enough to realize that very few people will care about that fight on its own, so they decided to try to manufacture some interest by running a pro wrestling-style angle with the announcement. I don't have a problem with that, I encourage the introduction of some showmanship. I don't like it in the vein of guys pretending to hate each other in the build-up of a fight only to hug like best buddies after the fight. I find that too disingenuous and counter-productive.

However, I'm all for guys showing some personality and being able to string together a few sentences without sounding like English is their ninth language. This, though, was bad. Bonnar unmasked his secret weapon, and he's such a good secret that even hardcore fight fans probably don't know who he is. It was Justin McCully, a former training partner of Ortiz, by the way.
The execution of this was just so sorely lacking that it's embarrassing. If Bellator is going to try to inject some pro wrestling into their product, they need to do a better job of it. I don't blame fighters for wanting to do this kind of stuff, they want to be bigger names and make money. This is where the head of the company, in this case, Scott Coker, needs to veto this. This isn't a huge deal, but it does give an air of desperation to the proceedings and serves to take away from the company.

GOOD: Patricio "Pitbull" Friere vs. Pat Curran

This fight started slowly, but built and built into a pretty exciting fight. Pitbull got himself going in the second round and looked to overwhelm Curran, but Curran battled back and showed some really good toughness. They kept going back and forth, with Pitbull getting the better of things, but Curran wouldn't go away. Pitbull won the decision and the Bellator Featherweight Championship. This was a pretty damn good fight.


UFC Fight Night 50

GOOD: Joe Lauzon stops Michael Chiesa

Lauzon opened up a huge cut on Chiesa, which lead to the doctor stoppage in the second round. It had been a damn entertaining fight up until that point as well, so the stoppage is a bit disappointing. At the same time, though, the cut was a direct result of Lauzon's relentless barrage so it's a satisfying ending in a way.

GOOD: Matt Mitrione stops Derrick Lewis

This only took about 41 seconds. There was some big power on display here. This ended pretty much the way you thought it would, or at least hoped it would.

GOOD: Ben Rothwell stops Alistair Overeem

This was a huge upset in name recognition, but most fans knew that Overeem wasn't nearly who he used to be. There might be a reason for that, but that's a topic for another day. This is likely to be the end of Overeem's stint in the UFC, and that might be a good thing for him. I don't know if he just couldn't handle the pressure or what, but he never came close to doing what was expected of him. As for Rothwell, this is his biggest win in the UFC and certainly something he can try to build on.

GOOD: Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza submits Gegard Mousasi

Jacare looked fantastic on the ground. Mousasi did pretty well on the mat with him, but Jacare is just too good there. I think there's no question that Jacare deserves the next title shot against UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman. Vitor Belfort will fight Weidman at UFC 181 so there's a chance that Jacare will have to fight again. I don't think he should have to, but the schedule may work out that way. It depends on how quickly the winner of Weidman-Belfort can get back to fighting. I think the UFC should wait until after that fight before deciding if Jacare will have to fight again.


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