Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 132, WSOF 17, and UFC Fight Night 59
Jan 21, 2015 - 1:00:56 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 132, WSOF 17, and UFC Fight Night 59

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

It was a triple header of major MMA action this past weekend with Bellator 132, World Series of Fighting 17, and UFC Fight Night 59 all on cable. Let's get right to it.


Bellator 132

GOOD/BAD: Fernando Gonzalez vs. Marius Zaromskis

This wasn't a great fight by any means, but it was fairly good. It had some decent action in it at times. At other times it was a bit dry, but I'd give it a thumbs up. Gonzalez won the decision.

GOOD/BAD: Houston Alexander vs. Virgil Zwiker

Again, this was another fight that had good action at times, but at other times was dull. I guess I'm just in a good mood because normally I would be harder on fights like this. Zwiker won the split decision.

GOOD: Georgi Karakhanyan submits Bubba Jenkins

Karakhanyan dominated Jenkins, as was to be expected. He choked him out pretty quick. However...

UGLY: Herb Dean goes blind for a moment

Dean was the referee in this fight and Karakhanyan had to repeatedly yell that Jenkins was out to get Dean to stop the fight. Herb Dean is a good ref, but that was bad. And...

UGLY: Karakhanyan doesn't pull a Pettis

By Karakhanyan's own words, Jenkins was out for about ten seconds. He should have released the choke in at least half that time. If a guy is choked unconscious, he's not going to magically snap back into consciousness just because you stop choking him. It's far too dangerous to keep the submission on that long.

There's a school of thought that you don't let go until the ref pulls you off. That's such bogus BS. If a guy taps, if a guys goes unconscious, you let go. It's that simple. We're now in the year 2015, I think we can use video replay to determine if a guy tapped or went unconscious. No one is going to try to con their way into a victory by claiming his opponent tapped or went unconscious, that's just a strawman. This is like those people who don't want replay used in baseball because of "tradition." That's such a flawed argument that it borders on ridiculous. Just because you've always done something a certain way doesn't mean that you should always do it that way, especially if something better comes along. You don't go to the doctor and get bled for a cold, do you?

Bottom-line, not releasing a submission after a guy goes out or taps is almost as bad as holding the submission even after the ref starts pulling at you. UFC Lightweight Champion Anthony Pettis once released a submission on Benson Henderson before the ref noticed and things turned out fine there. If the MMA world wants to avoid potential tragedies, they should start training fighters to release holds as soon the guy taps or goes out. There's always a handful of cameras trained on these guys at all times, very little is going to go unnoticed.

GOOD/UGLY: Patricio "Pitbull" Friere submits Daniel Straus

The GOOD is for the win, as a finish over Straus is a nice win for Pitbull. The UGLY is for the numerous fouls. I lost track of how many times a guy got hit low. There was also an eyepoke and a headbutt. If I remember right, the ref only deducted a point one time, which is insane. Referees need to be a lot more forceful about deducting points. You get one accident, then a point is deducted each time you commit a foul. Even if it's a different type of foul, you still lose a point. With the win, Pitbull defends his Bellator Featherweight Championship. This fight had some good action, but all the fouls dropped it in my eyes.


World Series of Fighting 17

BAD: Danny Davis Jr. vs. Adam Cella

The fight was just bad. The only moment of note was when Davis Jr. went Lionel Messi on Cella and soccer-kicked him for some unknown reason. That was just a bizarre moment. Davis Jr. won the decision.

GOOD/BAD: Bryson Hansen vs. Rudy Morales

Hansen started off extremely well and ripped Morales up with elbows to start the wetworks. After that, he faded more and more until the third round, where he basically did nothing but blanket him. GOOD start, BAD finish. Hansen won the decision.

BAD: Brendan Kornberger vs. Krasimir Mladenov

Mladenov took Kornberger down, Kornberger got back up. Mladenov took Kornberger down, Kornberger got back up. Just put that on Repeat and that was the entire fight. The only reason I'm not going UGLY on this is because Mladenov showed good takedowns. The fight was incredibly boring, though.

GOOD: Joe Condon submits Johnny Nunez

Nunez controlled the entirety of the fight, but Condon was able to lock on the submission in the final minute of the third round and get the comeback upset win. He was nearly finished himself early in the fight, but Condon battled back and got the win. Not a super eventful fight, but the comeback was very cool.

GOOD: Jake Shields submits Brian Foster

Foster was doing well on the feet, but once Shields got him down it was over. Shields can be a very boring fighter, but the dude's got talent. This win sets up a title fight between Shields and WSOF Welterweight Champion Rousimar Palhares. I'm not a fan of either guy (for different reasons), but this is a fight that I'm extremely intrigued by. Both guys are incredibly dangerous on the ground. Right now I would give the edge to Shields mostly based on his past opponents; I just think that Shields has fought the better competition. I don't want to diminish what Palhares has done, but I don't think it's quite as good as what Shields has done. Either way, though, this should be an interesting fight.


UFC Fight Night 59

BAD: Norman Parke vs. Gleison Tibau

This was a pretty boring fight. Not much to it. Tibau won the split decision. Moving on...

GOOD: Uriah Hall stops Ron Stallings

Stallings took the fight on late notice, and it showed. I give him credit for trying. Hall just obliterated his face with strikes and the doctors stopped it. This is the Uriah Hall we all want to see. If he can do this more often, he can go somewhere in the division. He's got the ability, he just needs the drive.

GOOD: Benson Henderson vs. Donald Cerrone

You can make a stronger argument for Henderson winning this fight than Cerrone, but Cerrone took the decision. How appropriate that Henderson is on the receiving end of a bad decision when he's usually on the other end. He usually gets the lucky judging so I can't feel bad for him. The fight itself was actually just fine, no one is going to rush out to try to find a replay of the fight if they hadn't seen it. It wasn't bad or anything, it just wasn't all that great. Of course, Cerrone had just fought not even two weeks ago, so you can't expect greatness on such short notice.

GOOD: Conor McGregor stops Dennis Siver

This was what it was expected to be. McGregor kicked Siver's ass. McGregor certainly doesn't have claim to a title shot on merit alone, but he brings some eyeballs to things so I'm fine with it... I don't think McGregor will beat UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo. I base that off of the fact that Aldo has fought, and beaten, the best guys in the world. McGregor obviously hasn't fought guys on the level that Aldo has. Of course, the same was true for UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman before he beat Anderson Silva, so I guess we'll see. Aldo vs. McGregor is a fight I want to see, even if it's not my first choice, just based on the entertainment value of it. It's a fight that should primarily be fought on the feet so I'm absolutely looking forward to it.

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