Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 135 and WSOF 19
Apr 1, 2015 - 2:00:19 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 135 and WSOF 19

DISCUSS ALL THIS IN OUR NEW MMATORCH FORUM

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

By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

Bellator 135 and WSOF 19 both took place this past weekend, and they both featured "Fight of the Year" candidates. Let's get to the rundown.

Bellator 135

GOOD: Ryan Couture submits Dakota Cochrane

Not much to this. They started really slowly and then Cochrane went for a takedown, which lead to Couture taking his back and getting the submission. Cochrane made some big mistakes and Couture capitalized on them.

BAD: Guilherme Viana vs. Francis Carmont

This was a very dull fight where both guys looked like they were fighting underwater. Things seemed to be moving in slow motion for pretty much the entire fight, and you could tell that it was going to decision, and that Carmont would win that decision. Carmont did win the decision, though Viana rallied some and took the third round. At that point, it didn't matter, though.

GREAT: LC Davis vs. Hideo Tokoro

This was one of the best fights I've seen period, and definitely the best three round fight in Bellator history. This was so crazy and so epic that hearing someone describe it doesn't do it justice. This is one of those fights that it's best to see for yourself. These guys were going back and forth and the action was constant. There were several times where you thought it was about to be over, but it kept going. Whether it was submission attempts or near-knockouts, there was almost a constant feel that the fight would end at any second. Davis ended up winning a split decision. This was so close and so awesome that you would love to have seen them go for another two rounds. I don't know if they could have kept the pace up for two more rounds, but I wish we had seen them try. Just an amazing fight.

GOOD: Marcos Galvao submits Joe Warren

Warren was defending his Bellator Bantamweight Championship, and he took the first round. It was close, though, to be clear. However, in the second round, Galvao got a kneebar on and cranked it, causing Warren to scream out in pain. Referee John McCarthy immediately stepped in and stopped the fight, awarding the victory to Galvao. Number one, that's the right call. Screaming out in pain is a verbal submission. After the fight, Warren vehemently protested that he didn't tap and just generally acted like an ass. After a day or so, Warren apologized on Twitter, so I think he deserves a pass on this. You often say or do dumb things in the heat of the moment.

Warren has done other reprehensible things in the past, specifically calling out Eduardo Dantas and saying he was ducking him when Dantas had a concussion, but in this case I think Warren should get a pass. He had just lost the belt and probably was very upset that he had got caught.

One thing I want to make sure to note is that Galvao showed tremendous restraint with the kneebar. As I was watching the finish it looked extremely tight and that Warren had no chance of escape. You could see Galvao look at Warren as if to say "You better tap," but Warren didn't. That's when Galvao wrenched it and caused Warren to scream in pain. Then he let it go and Warren was able to leave the cage under his own power. If that had been someone like WSOF Welterweight Champion Rousimar Palhares, Warren would have been in a world of pain and looking at a long recovery. There's a chance he would have never been the same again. Galvao could have easily destroyed Warren's knee, and I'm glad we didn't see that. There's talk of a rubber match between Galvao and Warren (Warren won the first fight by controversial decision) and I'd be good with that. They could also go another direction, though, if they want. There's lots of possibilities here.


WSOF 19

GOOD: Clifford Starks submits Jake Heun

The rating is more for Starks, who was supposed to fight at middleweight Saturday night before the lineup was shuffled due to Matt Hamill's illness. He ended up fighting a guy at light heavyweight, and though the fight itself was just all right, Starks showed good skill in beating the larger man.

GOOD: Timur Valiev stops Ed West

Valiev laid it on West here, and finished things early in the first round. It was a nice win. That's about all you can say as this looked like a mismatch.

GOOD: Teddy Holder stops Thiago Silva

I'll refrain from saying too much about Silva, but I really don't like the guy. As a fighter, he's ok, but I don't have any respect for him as a man, as a person. What he did last year was so horrendously wrong that WSOF should be ashamed for having him on the roster. As for this fight, Silva rocked him, but Holder ended up knocking the piss out of Silva and getting the stoppage. Nice comeback from Holder.

GREAT: Justin Gaethje stops Luis Palomino

Gaethje was defending his WSOF Lightweight Title here, and it was simply an excellent fight. Gaethje is really good, but he needs to work on his defense as he takes a lot of punishment. He delivers more than he takes, but you still have to be careful. Gaethje just completely brutalized Palomino with leg kicks, and attack that paid huge dividends later in the fight, as he started dropping Palomino with those kicks. It was hard to watch, and I was surprised the referee didn't step in to stop it earlier. Palomino was done, those leg kicks wrecked him. He wasn't going to come back. It didn't really matter much, though, because Gaethje is so aggressive that he flew in and started dropping bombs on Palomino to force the stoppage.

This was a damn good fight, and a great way to end the evening. Both Bellator and WSOF had standout fights that should be on the short list for Fight of the Year. This was an excellent weekend for MMA fans, and it should only get better as the UFC starts into their packed lineup of events.

Granted, the schedule is a bit weaker than it was supposed to be as UFC Bantamweight Champion T.J. Dillashaw injured himself and had to withdraw from his fight with Renan Barao at UFC 186. That sucks because I was really looking forward to that fight. UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson defends against Kyoji Horiguchi at that card, though, so that's cool. I like Johnson, but it would have been even better to have his fight and Dillashaw-Barao 2 on the card. I'll keep my fingers crossed for no more big injuries in all the promotions.

I want to see where the Davis-Tokoro and Gaethje-Palomino fights end up on the Best of 2015 lists. It'll take a lot to beat them, but it's possible on paper.


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