Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC 185 "Pettis vs. Dos Anjos"
Mar 18, 2015 - 12:30:26 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC 185 "Pettis vs. Dos Anjos"

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

UFC 185 took place last weekend, with two title upsets capping off the night. Here's my rundown of the show.

UFC 185

GOOD/BAD: Chris Cariaso vs. Henry Cejudo

Cejudo won this by decision, but it was disappointing because he never seemed to go to that next level. He was in total control throughout, yet never went for the finish. He seemed content to control Cariaso rather than try to stop him. We know he's capable of more, so it'd be nice if he showed it.


BAD/GOOD: Alistair Overeem vs. Roy Nelson

Overeem looked a lot better than I thought he would in winning the decision, but that's because I have such low expectations of Overeem that him not getting knocked out makes him look better to me. He actually could have been knocked out in this fight a few times, but Nelson never pressed forward like he should have. Overeem talked last week about a title shot being in sight, but I can't imagine that being possible. Even with the shallowness of the heavyweight division, it's hard to believe that Overeem will ever get close to a title shot. It'd be a hell of a story if he did, though.


BAD: Johny Hendricks vs. Matt Brown

This fight sucked. It was horribly dull and boring, as Hendricks laid on top of Brown for the entirety of the fight. I didn't expect them to go full-on Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots, but I also wasn't expecting Hendricks to go straight lay-and-pray, either. There's a wide middle ground there, but Hendricks didn't seem interested in exploring it. I hope Hendricks doesn't have any thoughts of getting a title shot anytime soon, because he should be two good wins away from getting another one after that performance. Fights like this do nothing to help his case for a title shot, because no one will pay money to see that. I would never expect Hendricks to finish Brown, that's asking way too much. However, I don't think it's asking too much for him to actively try to win.


GOOD: Joanna Jedrzejczyk stops Carla Esparza

Esparza was the UFC Women's Strawweight Champion heading into this fight, but Jedrzejczyk took her apart. I thought Esparza would drag Jedrzejczyk into the championship rounds and finish her there, but it didn't even come close to getting that far. Jedrzejczyk did whatever she wanted to, and Esparza was helpless to stop her. This was a huge win, and Jedrzejczyk looks like she's going to be extremely tough to beat.


GREAT: Rafael dos Anjos vs. Anthony Pettis

This was total domination. I thought Pettis would win because of his dynamic striking, but dos Anjos never let him get truly comfortable. Pettis had some moments, but he didn't look like himself in this fight, and dos Anjos negated him at every turn. He took the fight to Pettis and just plain beat him. This was incredibly impressive. One of the things I loved about this fight the most was that the pace stayed quick throughout. Neither guy gassed, this was two elite fighters putting on a hell of a show. I underestimated dos Anjos; I thought the striking of Pettis would cause him problems. I didn't meant that as a slight to dos Anjos, just that Pettis causes problems for a lot of guys. That obviously wasn't the case here, though.

The UFC has two choices here. They can either go ahead with the winner of the fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Donald Cerrone at UFC 187 in May getting the next title shot, or give Pettis an immediate rematch. Pettis doesn't have a long line of title defenses on his side or anything so it's unlikely they go that route, but it's not inconceivable.

With dos Anjos being injured, the UFC might opt to wait and see what happens with the Nurmagomedov-Cerrone fight before deciding which way to go. If Nurmagomedov wins a boring decision, I would fully expect the UFC to go with Pettis getting an immediate rematch with dos Anjos. Actually, a boring win for either man would likely lead to Pettis getting the next shot. We have a few months to wait until then, though. Given his performance in this fight, I would have to favor dos Anjos over any of the contenders in the division.

It's very rare to see two new champions crowned in the same night. It's also very rare to see them do so in such convincing fashion. The UFC is just getting started with their great string of pay-per-view events, let's hope the rest of them are as noteworthy as this one was.


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