Vassell was able to basically take Sokoudjou down whenever he wanted. He wasn't able to get the submission, but he worked hard and got the ground-and-pound finish in the second round. Again, this was a nice win. It's nothing great, but it's something to build on.
GOOD: Paul Daley vs. Andres Santos
I'm feeling generous so I'll go with a straight GOOD here. The fight itself was more ok than good, but both guys tried hard for the most part, and it was fairly entertaining. Daley won the decision, and it was pretty clean-cut to me.
BAD/GOOD: Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal vs. Cheick Kongo
This fight was pretty BAD in some areas, but it had some GOOD moments as well. One of the things that made the fight drag at times was there were a lot of takedowns and clinch work going on. That's not a bad thing in and of itself, but it tends to be not so fun to watch when there's not much more with it. King Mo won the split decision. I question the judge who gave the fight to Kongo, but Mo won so I won't harp too much on it. I thought it was pretty clear that Mo won, but maybe the judge saw something I didn't?
GOOD: Emanuel Newton vs. Liam McGeary
McGeary started strong with repeated submission attempts. Newton did well to defend. That was basically the story of the fight, McGeary applying pressure and Newton trying to avoid and defend. It wasn't all submissions, as McGeary was throwing strikes as well, but the theme of the fight was pressure. Newton was defending his Bellator Light Heavyweight Championship in the fight, but McGeary took it from him with his constant pressure. McGeary won the decision in a hotly contested fight. No doubt that McGeary won, but Newton did well. McGeary was just better Friday night, thus becoming the new Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion.
UFC 184
GOOD: Tony Ferguson submits Gleison Tibau
Ferguson hurt Tibau with a power shot and worked for the submission win. A very good performance from Ferguson as he's on a nice roll. If he keeps this up, he'll start to make some waves in the division.
GOOD: Alan Jouban stops Richard Walsh
It started even, but then Jouban caught Walsh with some nice strikes and got the stoppage. He caught Walsh clean with an elbow and that was the beginning of the end.
BAD/GOOD: Jake Ellenberger submits Josh Koscheck
The GOOD is for the submission finish. Ellenberger secured a really nice choke. The BAD is for the fight up until that point. It was just a bad fight until the finish. This makes you think that Koscheck is done, but maybe he wants to stick around for a while longer? As for Ellenberger, it's a long stretch to think that he'll work his way into title contention, but I guess you never truly know.
GOOD/BAD: Holly Holm vs. Raquel Pennington
This wasn't a bad fight necessarily, but it wasn't as good as would be expected. Pennington didn't do much at all for a lot of the fight. I expected nerves to be a factor for Holm, and she fought tentatively throughout. Holm took the decision. This wasn't a bad fight, it just wasn't as good as it could have been.
GREAT: Ronda Rousey submits Cat Zingano
This was amazing. Zingano rushed at Rousey, who immediately took her down and submitted her with an armbar. "Holy shit!" was about the only thing any of us watching could spit out. It was unbelievable. Yeah, I think Zingano made a mistake by rushing in, but you wouldn't expect her to get submitted after that. It took fourteen seconds for Rousey to get the submission. Fourteen seconds. I've heard guys burp longer than that. Over Rousey's last two title defenses she has spent a combined thirty seconds in the cage. You could knock someone out in thirty seconds and people's jaws will hit the floor, yet Rousey has finished two opponents in that time. It's unbelievable. And these aren't cans who come in off the street to take a dive for you, these are elite athletes. It's impossible to put into words how impressive this is. Rousey has finished two opponents in less time then it takes for her to walk to the cage. It's just crazy.
*************
I want to take a quick moment to talk about Cris Cyborg dispatching of Charmaine Tweet at Invicta FC 11 this past weekend as well. It was a dominant performance from Cyborg, one you expect, but it also feels somewhat hollow. Cyborg keeps calling out UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey but it's basically a Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao situation, where it doesn't mean nearly as much as it once would have because of the time that's passed. Mayweather-Pacquiao will still be huge, but it's lost some of its luster because of Pacquiao losing twice in 2012. Of course, it'll blow anything the UFC does out of the water in terms of pay-per-view buyrates, but that speaks more to the engrained history of boxing in the world versus MMA.
Anyhow, Rousey-Cyborg would be a big fight, but it's lost a lot of its luster because of the way that Rousey has improved her overall game, specifically her striking. A few years ago, you could have argued that Cyborg has the advantage on the feet and could beat Rousey if she were able to keep the fight standing. Now, I don't think you can say that. I think Rousey is just as good a striker as Cyborg, or maybe just a tiny bit worse. Once upon a time, I might have picked Cyborg to win, but now... there's no way in hell I can pick against Rousey.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank
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