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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor
Bellator 137 and UFC Fight Night 66 were both this past weekend. Let's get straight to the rundown.
Bellator 137
UGLY: Rafael Silva vs. Darrion Caldwell
This was so excruciatingly boring that you could feel the air leaving the room, as this fight was a total vacuum. This was one of those Dyson fights, where the sucking never lost power and was constant throughout. Caldwell won the decision.
GOOD/BAD: Fernando Gonzalez submits Curtis Millender
This fight wasn't very good, it was okay at best. Both of these guys have to improve if they hope to move up in the division. Millender controlled the whole fight until about halfway through the third, when Gonzalez caught him with a guillotine for the submission win.
UGLY: Eduardo Dantas vs. Mike Richman
This fight sucked even more than Silva-Caldwell because I expected more from these guys. Richman gets an extra UGLY for missing weight. This was one of those horrible times where you tell your casual MMA friends that this should be a fairly good fight but then it turns into a turd that sullies the name of MMA. Dantas won the decision, for those who care.
GOOD: Brandon Halsey stops Kendall Grove
Halsey didn't make weight for his fight, either, so he lost his belt before the fight even began. Grove would have won the title if he had won, but Halsey is just too good. He took Grove apart anyway he wanted to. Grove tried hard, and had some moments, but Halsey was just too much. I'll give Grove credit for lasting as long as he did. The Bellator Middleweight Title is now vacated.
UFC Fight Night 66
UGLY: Mark Eddiva vs. Levan Makashvili
Another garbage fight. There was so little going on that it made you wonder if they turned the gravity up in the building. Both guys seemed content to do as little as possible, at times I thought they had paused the feed. Makashvili won the decision.
BAD: Phillipe Nover vs. Yoi Chul Nam
It's a little strong to give this a BAD, but it definitely wasn't GOOD. Both fighters tried harder than the previous fight, but that's like saying you'd rather be punched than kicked. It's better, but not by much. Nover wins the decision.
GOOD: Neil Magny stops Hyun Gyu Lim
Magny is on an impressive win streak (seven in a row), but Lim had him hurt in the first round. That Magny was able to battle back from that shows his heart. Lim won the first round, but in the second Magny said 'to hell with the standup' and slammed Lim to the ground. He then poured on the strikes and forced the ref to step in. Good win for Magny.
UGLY: Incompetent directors
During the first round of the Magny-Lim fight, FOX Sports 1 cut to a commercial mid-round. That's pretty bad and should never happen. Of course, accidents do happen sometimes. Maybe someone's finger slipped and pressed the wrong button? Okay, you live with that and just try to do better. They did come back from commercial fairly quickly, so it's all good, right? Nope, because they cut to commercial again, this time for longer. How in the hell does that happen? Once is a mistake, twice is incompetence. Was the technical crew so surprised to see good action in a fight that they lost their heads momentarily? Definitely not a good moment for these guys.
GOOD: Mark Munoz vs. Luke Barnatt
It's a stretch to call the fight GOOD, but it's the circumstances surrounding it that elevates it. One, this was Munoz's last fight. Two, the crowd here in the Philippines was raucously cheering for their home country hero. Three, Munoz fed off the crowd and summoned up the magic one final time to get the decision win. The fight itself wasn't all that great, but those three things really boosted it.
I always love the moments where the fading veteran is able to turn back the clock one more time to go out on a good note. It's a movie type moment and one you don't see often enough. So, when you do see it, it's very cool. I also love the roars of the crowd in big time moments like this. That definitely helps.
GOOD/BAD: Gegard Mousasi vs. Costas Philippou
This fight was dull, there wasn't much to it, and it damn sure wasn't what I was expecting. At the same time, though, Mousasi was doing what he could, it's just that Philippou was too good defensively to stop. The fight wasn't very good, but that's more because Philippou was countering and battling and doing everything he could to stymie Mousasi. These kinds of fights largely suck to watch, but I don't expect Mousasi to take crazy chances to try to be as exciting as possible. Philippou was too good to finish, so we end up with a dull fight. It sucks, but it happens sometimes.
GOOD: Frankie Edgar vs. Urijah Faber
This was a good, close fight. I thought Faber would win, but I knew it would be a close fight. Both of these guys are just way too good to get trucked by the other. Edgar won all five rounds on every judge's scorecard, but you could easily make a case for Faber in a few of those rounds. There's no question that Edgar won, but the fight was a lot closer than the scorecards would indicate.
Edgar says he expects a featherweight title shot next, which he absolutely deserves, but he also said that he won't wait around on it. That's awesome. First, Edgar most certainly deserves the next title shot. His track record speaks for itself. I love, though, the mentality that he doesn't want to sit on the sidelines for months and months waiting for it. The only way that Edgar doesn't get the next Featherweight Title shot is if Conor McGregor beats UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo. I don't think that will happen, but anything is possible. Aldo has held the belt for so long, and made so many title defenses, that he would get an immediate rematch if he lost. If that happens, obviously Edgar won't get the next title shot.
Even if Edgar wanted to wait for a title shot, I would be more okay with it than in other cases. I'm generally against guys waiting for title shots. I think it hurts the division as well as the fighters themselves. However, Edgar just beat Cub Swanson and Urijah Faber back to back. That's pretty damn good. I wouldn't be thrilled if Edgar waited, but it's not like he has anything else left to prove that he deserves the next title shot. I think that, if Edgar has to fight again, he should fight a guy who's in the top 10, but maybe not in the top 5. I should admit, though, that I'm an Edgar fan, so perhaps I'm a bit biased. The only reason I picked him to lose to Faber is because I'm an even bigger Faber fan.
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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