Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from WSOF 15, Bellator 131, and UFC 180
Nov 19, 2014 - 1:25:42 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from WSOF 15, Bellator 131, and UFC 180

DISCUSS ALL THIS IN OUR NEW MMATORCH FORUM

...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!

By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

WSOF 15, Bellator 131, and UFC 180 all took place on Saturday night. Here's my rundown of the shows.

World Series of Fighting 15

BAD/GOOD: Jorge Patino vs. Eric Reynolds

Patino won the clear decision, he's just the better fighter. Patino beat up on Reynolds all three rounds and made him a bloody mess. The BAD stems from the fact that this was a pretty uncompetitive fight. The GOOD is because Patino stayed busy and was trying, he just couldn't get the finish.

BAD: Jessica Aguilar vs. Kalindra Faria

Aguilar successfully defended her WSOF Women's Strawweight Championship in a dull affair. Aguilar controlled Faria throughout the fight and it wasn't until the fifth round before Faria was able to get anything going, and the main reason for that was Aguilar got super tentative and tried to avoid any engagement.

GOOD: Justin Gaethje vs. Melvin Guillard

This wasn't a title fight, as it was supposed to be, because Guillard came in four pounds overweight. Gaethje kept chopping the lead leg of Guillard to the point that Guillard couldn't put any weight on that leg at the end of the fight. Gaethje won the split decision. This card was dragging, though, because of all the yapping and commercial breaks.

UGLY: Dave Branch stops Yushin Okami

This fight sucked. It was so devoid of entertainment that it should be used as a sleep-aid. This was a bad way to end a pretty bad night for WSOF. Branch retained his WSOF Middleweight Championship in this fight.


Bellator 131

BAD/GOOD: Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal stops Joe Vedepo

This was BAD because it was a total mismatch. Vedepo had nothing to offer King Mo. It was GOOD because Vedepo tried and I can always root for the underdog.

GOOD: Mike Richman stops Nam Phan

Richman just whooped Phan and got the stoppage win. Not much to this.

GOOD: Joe Schilling stops Melvin Manhoef

There was some very good striking on display here. Manhoef chose to stand and trade with Schilling and he paid the price for it. This was an extremely entertaining fight, though. I loved watching these guys go at it. Schilling got the knockout in the second round.

GOOD: Will Brooks stops Michael Chandler

The fight started pretty slow, but it heated up and Brooks showed how good he is. I'm a believer in Brooks, he's really been impressive in these two wins over Chandler. He took Chandler down often, he showed good striking, he was just the better fighter. This wasn't the best fight ever, but it was good. Brooks retained his Bellator Lightweight Championship with this win.

BAD/UGLY: Tito Ortiz vs. Stephen Bonnar

This piece of crap fight shouldn't have been the main event. The King Mo bout and Will Brooks title defense should have been the main and co-main events, not this fight between guys who were names back in the day, but are now just relics from a different era. Though they received record ratings for the event, it's a shame because Bellator has some talented guys that can get the job done, they just need more promotion. For those that care, Ortiz won the split decision.


UFC 180

GOOD: Hector Urbina submits Edgar Garcia

There wasn't a whole lot to this, but Urbina got the submission in the first round. Nice win for Urbina.

BAD/GOOD: Augusto Montano stops Chris Heatherly

This wasn't very good until the finish. Montano landed some big knees that lead to the finish.

GREAT: Ricardo Lamas submits Dennis Bermudez

Lamas did some fantastic work in this fight. The finish saw Lamas drop Bermudez, pounce, and lock on the guillotine choke for the win. Great stuff from Lamas in beating a very tough opponent. Lamas made it look easy, but Bermudez is a good fighter.

GOOD: Kelvin Gastelum submits Jake Ellenberger

I'm tempted to go GREAT here, but I'll stick with GOOD because Ellenberger was fighting pretty well before Gastelum worked for, and got, the slick submission. This is a huge win for Gastelum. It's going to give him a lot of confidence, and that could be bad for other fighters in the welterweight division.

GOOD/GREAT: Fabricio Werdum stops Mark Hunt

This was for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Championship, and it delivered. Hunt probably won the first round as he started to impose his will. However, in the second round, Werdum came out and dropped Hunt with a beautiful flying knee, and then pounded him out for the big win. The only negative to me was that referee Herb Dean let Hunt absorb way, way, way too much damage before finally stepping in. I don't care that Hunt is a super tough guy, Dean should have stepped in a lot sooner.

Other than that, though, this was a very good fight with a GREAT finish. To stop Mark Hunt with strikes is a huge deal. I know it's happened a few times before (Junior dos Santos and Melvin Manhoef did it as well), but it's still a big deal considering how tough Hunt is. This was a great win for Werdum, and now he can look forward to fighting UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez to unify the titles soon.


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