Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 138 and UFC Fight Night 69
Jun 24, 2015 - 12:25:47 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 138 and UFC Fight Night 69

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

Bellator 138 and UFC Fight Night 69 both took place this past weekend. Let's get right to the rundown.

Bellator 138

GOOD: Michael Chandler submits Derek Campos

Not much to this fight, as Chandler is much better than Campos. Nothing against Campos, but Chandler is one of the better lightweights in the world. He dropped Campos, then quickly submitted him. The best this could be for Chandler is a confidence-booster.


BAD/GOOD: Daniel Straus submits Henry Corrales

Straus really should have finished this sooner, but the submission he did lock on was nice. Again, this was another fight between two mismatched guys that doesn't really tell you much about the winner. These are fine fights, but on a card like this, they need to be impressive blowouts. Chandler got his, but Straus let his guy hang around for too long. I have to add the GOOD at the end because anytime a guy gets a finish it should be considered GOOD.


BAD/GOOD: Bobby Lashley stops Dan Charles

Yet another squash fight. I want to go straight BAD on this one because it almost went two full rounds (like the Straus fight), but Charles made things last longer by grabbing the cage a hundred times. That really killed any enjoyment I got from the fight. I'll add the GOOD at the end, though, for the finish, though it really wasn't anything all that good. Charles just gave up and forced the ref to step in.


BAD/GOOD: Patricio "Pitbull" Freire stops Daniel Weichel

There was a lot of inaction in the first round until the end, when Weichel dropped Pitbull. Weichel probably would have won but Pitbull was saved by the bell. Early in the second round, Pitbull knocked Weichel smooth out. That was really nice. The final thirty or forty seconds was really good, but the previous five minutes sucked. There just wasn't much going on. It was just kind of there.


GOOD/BAD/UGLY: Kimbo Slice stops Ken Shamrock

The fight went about as well as Bellator could have hoped. It only went about two and a half minutes so it didn't drag on. That's the GOOD. The BAD comes from this fight being the main event, but I've covered that before so I won't harp on it too much. I will repeat, though, that this sends a horrible message to fans to have this over a title fight. The UGLY comes from how bad each guy looked. I don't see how Shamrock didn't finish Kimbo with that rear-naked choke. The fact that he couldn't generate the power to do so shows you how far he's fallen. He was able to take Kimbo down basically whenever he wanted, though, which makes Kimbo look like crap. I don't know where Bellator goes from here, but I guess they could put Kimbo against some other guy he can beat. Maybe they can call up that guy who lost to Mickey Rourke the other month?


UGLY: Show pacing

I don't know who was in charge of the pacing for this event, but they should never do it again. This was a horribly paced show, full of lulls and extremely long stretches between the fights. This was as bad as anything I've ever seen. I think there was literally forty minutes in between the Pitbull-Weichel fight and Kimbo-Shamrock. That's so incredibly dumb. I know they block the shows based on how long each fight could potentially last, but that still only accounts for twenty-five minutes or so. Were they seriously planning on having fifteen minutes in between the co-main event and the main event? I'm sure this contributed to my overall feelings on the show. There were just so many times that I felt restless watching this, it's hard to like a show that makes you feel that way. Some of the best things shown during the event were commercials for television shows and movies. I can get that stuff on Youtube if I want without having to sit through a bunch of meaningless blabbering from the announcers.


UFC Fight Night 69

GOOD/BAD: Nick Hein vs. Lukasz Sajewski

This fight was fairly uneventful. Hein played it safe, to ensure the decision win. He was the better fighter and was able to do whatever he wanted, basically. It was solid, it was fine, but I do have to tack on the BAD at the end for playing it so safe.


GOOD: Peter Sobotta submits Steve Kennedy

Not a whole lot to this, as Sobotta just took it to Kennedy and decimated him. Once he got Kennedy on the ground, things were pretty much over. He worked for, and got, the tap. Nice work from Sobotta.


BAD: Dennis Siver vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri

This was just about the definition of false movement. Both guys seemed to be doing stuff, but they actually weren't. It's like when a guy at the crosswalk moves his arms as if he were running when he's actually still walking. It makes you think something is going on when it actually isn't. That was this fight. Kawajiri won the decision in an instantly forgettable fight.


GREAT: Joanna Jedrzejczyk stops Jessica Penne

Penne was tough, but Jedrzejczyk took her apart to successfully defend her UFC Women's Strawweight Title. She started a bit slow in the first round, but then really got going in the second. Jedrzejczyk ripped Penne open with a nasty elbow and then proceeded to pepper her with an almost unbelievable amount of punches. Honestly, the fight should have been stopped in the second round, but it finally was in the third. Don't get me wrong, it was a good stoppage in the third, but it would have been a great stoppage in the second. After she got gashed, she had nothing left.

People have taken to calling her Joanna Champion. I like that quite a bit. Jedrzejczyk has really been on a roll and she's been beating some very tough women. More than that, she's been dominating them. I don't know how long her reign lasts, but it's going to take a supreme effort from a challenger to beat her. I'm fully on board the hype train and I could easily see her reign being measured in years instead of months. Sports is an ever-changing world, but it's hard to imagine anyone beating Joanna Champion when she looks this good. Her striking is so devastating and on-point that this performance had to send chills down the spines of everyone else in the division.


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