Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC Fight Night 62
Mar 27, 2015 - 12:30:24 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC Fight Night 62

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

UFC Fight Night 62 took place last weekend. Let's get right to the rundown.

UGLY: Referee incompetence

There were actually two extremely bad cases of ref incompetence during the night, and they both involved referee Eduardo Herdy. The first was during an undercard fight between Christos Giagos and Jorge de Oliveira. Giagos slapped on a choke and de Oliveira tapped, but Herdy didn't step in right away. Instead, he opted to wait until de Oliveira tapped again. That's bad because that's kind of the whole job of a referee, to stop the fight at the appropriate time.

The second case is way worse, though a lot less dangerous. It occurred during the undercard fight between Leandro Silva and Drew Dober. Silva was going for a choke and Dober put his hand on the ground to try to post up and Herdy called for the stoppage. That's just absolutely inexcusable. In what universe could anyone think that was a tap? He might have been a little more trigger-happy on the stoppage than usual (that's obvious from his actions earlier in the night) but that still doesn't explain this. This is a whole other level of wrong. There's no explanation that can be given to justify this stoppage. Silva might have won the fight anyway, it's hard to tell for sure as this happened in the second round, but I can't fathom what was going through Herdy's head with this call. This is one of the worst calls in UFC history. I'd have to think long and hard for any other contenders. Thankfully the commission came around and has reversed it to a "no contest." Anyhow, let's get to the main card.

GOOD: Godofredo "Pepey" Castro submits Andre Fili

Pepey is really making a name for himself with these finishes lately. Fili defended well for a while, but Pepey was too focused, and he eventually got the tap by triangle choke not quite four minutes into the first round. Good stuff.

GOOD: Gilbert Burns submits Alex Oliveira

Oliveira looked really good in the first two rounds, while Burns looked really bad. Things changed in the third, though, and Burns got the comeback submission win. Oliveira was a short notice replacement but he almost pulled off the upset. Burns got the win, but he also got a reminder of the things he has to work on if he wants to improve his game.

GOOD: Amanda Nunes stops Shayna Baszler

Nunes is just the better fighter. Baszler looked completely out of her element here. Nunes landed some strikes after the ref jumped in, which is a bad look. You never want to see something like that, and the UFC should fine her for doing that. I'm not saying fine her a lot, but you can't let that stuff go. As for Baszler, she can stick around as a gatekeeper of sorts, but retirement might be an option as well. It just depends on how she wants to approach things. I can't imagine she likes the idea of more losses like this one, but she's still capable of beating other fighters.

BAD/GOOD: Leonardo Santos submits Tony Martin

The fight was fairly dull until Santos got the submission halfway through the second round. Not a whole lot to say here, honestly.

GOOD: Erick Silva submits Josh Koscheck

Koscheck has now lost five fights in a row. It's getting to be about that time for him to seriously consider retirement. There's not many guys that he's going to be able to beat. He's had a good run, now it's probably time to call it a day. If he chooses to keep fighting, you start entering that dangerous territory where people are afraid to watch him fight. No one wants to watch someone get seriously hurt, and that's a real possibility with guys who have hung on too long. Silva doesn't gain anything from this, and neither does any future opponent Koscheck would lose to.

BAD/UGLY: Demian Maia vs. Ryan LaFlare

Maia won the clear decision, as I would expect most predicted. The first four rounds weren't too bad, though they were pretty dull at times. The fifth round, however, took things to a level you don't often see in professional sports. Maia had the decision clearly wrapped up, as there was no doubt that he won the first four rounds. Maia was exhausted, though, and that gave LaFlare a chance in the fifth. Maia couldn't do anything, so he resorted to flopping onto his back to try to get LaFlare to engage on the ground. This was like Fabricio Werdum vs. Alistair Overeem from Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum in 2011, it was that bad. I was glad to see the ref take a point from Maia after he did it for umpteenth time, but the UFC should fine him for this. Again, they don't have to fine a him a lot, but they can't let this stuff happen without penalty. The flopping deserves it's own UGLY, that's for sure. It's ridiculous and really makes the sport look bad.

All in all, this was a better event than I thought it would be, but I also had extremely low expectations going in. What was weird is that almost everything was either GOOD or UGLY, with just a little BAD sprinkled in there in places. The good news is that we're about to start a tremendous stretch for the UFC, with plenty of big fights upcoming. It's a good time to be a fight fan.


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