Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from WSOF 20, Bellator 136, and UFC Fight Night 64
Apr 15, 2015 - 12:30:57 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from WSOF 20, Bellator 136, and UFC Fight Night 64

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

It was a busy weekend for MMA fans this past week, with WSOF 20, Bellator 136, and UFC Fight Night 64 all taking place. Let's get to the rundown. Spoiler alert, it was busy, but also incredibly bad for the most part.

WSOF 20

BAD/GOOD: Ozzy Dugulubgov vs. Lucas Montoya

Dugulubgov won by injury stoppage as Montoya broke his arm. You never like seeing an injury stop a fight, but this was fairly good up until then.

BAD/GOOD: Steve Mocco stops Juliano Cutinho

The stoppage was nice, but the four minutes or so before it wasn't very good. There was a few moments where it was okay, but it was largely dull and boring.

BAD: Ben Fodor vs. Emmanuel Walo

This wasn't good at all. I give them both credit for trying (for the most part), but this was really bad. It was sloppy, boring, uninspired, etc. Just a totally forgettable fight.

BAD/GOOD: Nick Newell vs. Joe Condon

You can't help but be impressed by Newell, but this wasn't a very good fight. There were some GOOD moments, but then also moments where it was dreadful. This was a disappointing fight.

BAD/UGLY/GOOD: Dave Branch submits Jesse McElligott

The BAD is because this was a bad fight. Branch is so much better than McElligott that he should have whipped him in the first round. The fact that it took him until the second round to finally finish him is pretty bad, considering that McElligott offered little to no resistance the whole time.

The UGLY comes from McElligott basically impersonating a dead fish. He just laid there and let Branch do whatever he wanted.

The GOOD comes from Branch with a nice submission. I know I'm reaching here, but I was just glad the fight was over. All in all, this event sucked and was a big disappointment.


Bellator 136

UGLY: Alexander Volkov vs. Tony Johnson

I'm so sick of these crap fights. This fight was unbelievably bad. This was a steaming pile of garbage that was dumped into a heated septic tank and left in the Arizona sun for a year.

BAD/GOOD: Marcin Held submits Alexander "Tiger" Sarnavskiy

Most of the fight wasn't good at all. It was dull and boring and very methodical. However, the finish was excellent with Held getting a kneebar on Sarnavskiy. That's the submission that always makes me cringe the most. I've had knee problems and the kneebar always sends shivers down my spine.

BAD: Joe Schilling vs. Rafael Carvalho

I don't understand what Schilling was doing in the fight. He rocked Carvalho a few different times yet never followed up on it. Instead, he seemed content to get involved in a ground battle with Carvalho. Because of that, Carvalho won a split decision. Just a bad fight all in all, despite a few nice moments.

GOOD: Will Brooks vs. Dave Jansen

Truth be told, I didn't really care much for this fight. It was pretty good, but the crap that preceded it really soured me. I was hoping for a really badass fight but I didn't get it. This fight was fairly good but the only thing that can wash away the taste of shitty fights for me is some of the old ultraviolence. I didn't get that here so I was disappointed. That's not fair, though, because Brooks showed some good stuff throughout the fight. Well, actually, the fifth round sucked, but I can't hold that against him too much. Brooks won the clear decision so at least we've got one good fight so far this weekend.


UFC Fight Night 64

GOOD: Maryna Moroz submits Joanne Calderwood

This is considered an upset, but Moroz was undefeated going into this fight as well (Moroz was 5-0 while Calderwood was 9-0 before tonight). Moroz came out and took it to Calderwood. She dropped her and then followed up with a nice armbar submission. Very impressive to finish Calderwood in about a minute and a half.

UGLY: Pawel Pawlak vs. Sheldon Westcott

Another garbage fight. Westcott tried to lay-and-pray but Pawlak did just enough to stop it. Luckily, the judges recognized that and gave Pawlak the win. This was still a crap fight, though.

UGLY: Jimi Manuwa vs. Jan Blachowicz

There must be something in the air, because this was yet another garbage fight. This is the worst part of MMA, the overabundance of shitty fights. There's way too many of them. No one is going to want to watch this crap.

UGLY/GOOD: Mirko Cro Cop stops Gabriel Gonzaga

The BAD comes from Cro Cop not doing anything for most of the fight. He just let Gonzaga do whatever he wanted. The UGLY comes from this being yet another crap fight. The only reason I'm giving a GOOD is because I'm a Cro Cop fanboy so I loved seeing him stop Gonzaga. I have no idea why it took eleven or twelve minutes for him to wake up and start fighting, but that sums up this weekend.

All in all, this is probably the worst weekend in the history of MMA on television. There were five fights on WSOF 20, four of them were bad fights and the fifth ended early due to injury. There were four fights on Bellator 136, two bad fights and an absolute shit fight with the main event being pretty good. There were four fights on UFC Fight Night 64, three of them were shitty fights with one really good (but short) fight. That's a historic kind of bad. The only thing worse than WSOF and Bellator putting on crap fights is the UFC putting so many of them on as well.

WSOF and Bellator have a lot more time in between cards to schedule better fights. However, they also don't have as much talent to choose from. This in no way excuses the bad fights, but it does explain it a bit.

On the other hand, the UFC is where everyone wants to be at. The fact that the UFC puts on so many crappy fights should be their first clue that they've diluting their product too much and to cut back on the number of events. When you don't have enough quality fighters to put on good shows, you've got a problem. I understand that the UFC can't guarantee good fights, but they can at least try to put better fighters on the card.

Anyhow, I'm just salty because of all the garbage I had to watch this weekend. I just hope that this convergence of crap never happens again. Fingers crossed.

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