Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 130 and UFC 179
Oct 29, 2014 - 12:30:11 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 130 and UFC 179

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

Both Bellator 130 and UFC 179 took place this past weekend. Here's my rundown of those shows.

Bellator 130

BAD: Dave Jansen vs. Rick Hawn

This was a pretty dull fight. It was almost all on the feet, which is usually a good thing, but not in this case. Jansen won the decision. A win's a win, I guess.

GOOD: Marloes Coenen submits Annalisa Bucci

It was expected that Coenen would win. It took until the third round before she finished Bucci, but this was a solid win for Coenen. She was rusty from the layoff, as she hadn't fought in a while, but she's also got a lot of miles on those tires. Nevertheless, this was a good win for for the former Strikeforce Champ.

GOOD: Bobby Lashley stops Karl Etherington

Lashley dominated this from the start, jumping all over Etherington and pounding out the win. Etherington turtled up and tapped out as Lashley was raining down strikes on him. It sounds like Lashley is likely to get a title shot at Bellator Heavyweight Champion Vitaly Minakov next. I don't know if he can win that, but Bellator doesn't have a ton of options in that division.

GOOD: Emmanuel Newton submits Linton Vassell

Newton was defending his Bellator Light Heavyweight Championship in this fight. Vassell controlled things early, but gassed, and Newton took over in the third round. Newton submitted Vassell in the fifth round. This was a big win for Newton, as he had to battle back. Vassell damn near submitted him a few different times. Then, after Vassell gassed, Newton started taking Vassell down, but that also opened him up to possibly being submitted. It was unlikely as the fight wore on, and Vassell got more and more tired, but still possible. I'm not sure where Bellator goes from here in terms of the next challenger to Newton. No one has really stood out, so they might go with anybody available.


UFC 179

BAD: Carlos Diego Ferriera vs. Beneil Dariush

There wasn't much to this fight, it was pretty boring. Dariush got the decision win.

UGLY: Lucas Martins vs. Darren Elkins

Three words sum up why this sucked as much as it did: wall and stall. That's all Elkins did the entire damn fight. This was just absolutely horrendous. Elkins won a split decision.

BAD: Fabio Maldonaldo stops Hans Stringer

The finish was okay, though Stringer did just basically stop fighting. Up until that, though, the fight sucked. There was very little action. Normally I try to go GOOD with fights that end in a finish, but this fight was just so dull I can't do that here.

UGLY: Phil Davis vs. Glover Teixiera

Another garbage, boring as hell fight. Davis clung to Teixiera like a wet blanket and didn't let him do anything. Teixiera is more hurt by this fight because of his inability to stop Davis from smothering him, but Davis is also hurt by this because he didn't really do any damage. He just stuck to him like glue and outpointed him. This was such a horrible fight.

GOOD: Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes

Aldo was defending his UFC Featherweight Championship, and he did so successfully as he picked up the solid decision win. Mendes was good in this fight, but Aldo was just better. Mendes came out very strongly in the fourth round, but he couldn't do enough damage to finish Aldo. They went back and forth the whole fight, with Aldo showing why he's one of the best. This was a hell of a fight, and it's a shame that it was stuck on such a crappy card. There was more excitement in one round of Aldo vs. Mendes than the entirety of the other four fights combined. Hell, there was more excitement in one minute of Aldo vs. Mendes than the entirety of the other four fights combined.

This was a good way to end a bad show. Mendes has a long road ahead of him in the division as long as Aldo is still champion. He's more than capable of coming back, though, and I bet he comes back stronger than ever. If he ever gets a third fight with Aldo, I think he could beat him. I'd still bet on Aldo, but with guys this good, all it takes is one second to win or lose a fight.


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