Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC Fight Night 67
Jun 3, 2015 - 3:15:54 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC Fight Night 67

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

UFC Fight Night 67 was this past weekend and it had a little bit of everything. Let's get to the rundown.

UFC Fight Night 67

BAD/GOOD: Darren Till stops Wendell Oliveira

The first round was horrible, due to the lack of action. There wasn't much going on, and what did happen wasn't very good. The second round flipped the script, though, as the fighters engaged on the ground and on their feet. Till landed some nasty elbows on the ground and Oliveira was knocked out cold. Yikes.


GOOD: Norman Parke vs. Francisco Trinaldo

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't really feeling this fight all that much. It was fine, it was okay, but it didn't connect with me. I can't go BAD for it, though, as it wasn't a bad fight. It was just kind of there. Trinaldo won the split decision.


UGLY: Francimar Barraso vs. Ryan Jimmo

This fight sucked. It was one of the worst things I've seen lately in sports. This was so dull and boring that a freeze-frame of the "action" would have been just as interesting. I can't believe the UFC would put this on the main card. If you ever feel like your day is passing by too quickly, watch this fight and you will believe that time can stand still. This three round, fifteen minute fight felt like it took two hours. Barraso won the decision, by the way.


GOOD: Alex Oliveira submits K.J. Noons

There wasn't a whole lot to this, as Oliveira took Noons down a few times and locked on the choke. At this stage of his career, Noons isn't a very good fighter, but he's still a veteran and Oliveira submitted him quickly and easily. That's impressive.


GREAT: Charles Oliveira submits Nik Lentz

Now, this was a fight. These guys went back and forth. A lot of it was on the feet, but they also did plenty of great ground work. Oliveira was just so smooth and slick with his ground game, but so was Lentz. There were all sorts of counters and escapes, punches and elbows thrown from the feet and on the ground, and their cardio was really good. The pace was quick and relentless. They gassed, but what do you expect from a pace like this? About a minute into the third round Oliveira ended things with a great choke. This was a tremendous fight. It makes up for the crapfest that was Barraso-Jimmo.


GREAT/UGLY: Carlos Condit stops Thiago Alves

Alves likely won the first round by being patient and working his gameplan. He was lighting up Condit with leg kicks, and also showed good power. Then the second round started and Condit kicked everything up a notch. He started laying waste to Alves as he pummeled him with strikes. Condit dropped Alves and went full-on tornado on him. Condit absolutely destroyed the nose of Alves with elbows and punches. I don't know how Alves survived that to keep fighting, that shows a hell of a lot of toughness. To top it off, when he got up, Alves grabbed a standing guillotine. Condit escaped and got a takedown, but still, that was damn impressive for Alves to do that. Condit was all over Alves like a cheap suit as he kept landing strike after strike.

Alves somehow made it to the end of the round, but the cageside doc called an end to the fight as he saw what was left of Alves' nose. It was pretty nasty, as it got reshaped by strikes from Condit. The GREAT comes from Condit returning like this from a blown out knee. It's impressive that he was able to return at such a high level. It also comes from the striking display Condit put on, and the incredible toughness of Alves to absorb that and keep coming. The UGLY comes from the amount of blood Alves lost, as well as what happened to his nose. It was nasty. Condit definitely lived up to his "Natural Born Killer" nickname, that's for sure. What a way to end the evening.

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We're right in the middle of a great stretch for the UFC and other MMA companies. On June 13 UFC 188 brings us Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum unifying the UFC Heavyweight Title as well as a fight between Eddie Alvarez and Gilbert Melendez. I really want to see Velasquez-Werdum so I hope Velasquez doesn't hurt himself again before the fight, and Alvarez-Melendez speaks for itself in terms of why you should be excited for it.

June 19 brings Bellator 138 and a title fight between Patrico Friere and Daniel Weichel. June 20 brings UFC Fight Night 69, where UFC Women's Strawweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk defends her title against Jessica Penne in what's a highly anticipated fight for me. July 11 brings UFC 189 with UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo defending against Conor McGregor and UFC Welterweight Champion Robbie Lawler defending against Rory MacDonald. Aldo-McGregor is the big draw, but Lawler-MacDonald should be a good fight as well.

July 25 brings UFC on Fox 16 with UFC Bantamweight Champion T.J. Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao and Meisha Tate vs. Jessica Eye. Dillashaw-Barao 2 should be a tremendous fight and a fitting main event on a Fox card.

August 1 brings UFC 190 and UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey vs. Bethe Correia, as well as WSOF 22 where WSOF Welterweight Champion Rousimar Palhares defends against Jake Shields as their big headliner, along with two other title fights. After comments Correia has made about Rousey and the psychopathic tendencies Palhares displays, both of these fights are must-see TV.

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