Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 139 and UFC Fight Night 70
Jul 1, 2015 - 1:55:14 PM HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 139 and UFC Fight Night 70

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

Both Bellator 139 and UFC Fight Night 70 took place this past weekend. Let's get right to the rundown.

Bellator 139

GOOD/BAD: Pat Curran vs. Emmanuel Sanchez

This was a mixed bag. There was some good stuff here from Curran, as he largely stayed active. There was also some dull parts where neither guy could do much because they were negating each other. Curran won the decision, and it's a nice win for him. It's nothing fancy, but he got the win.


BAD/GREAT: Hisaki Kato stops Joe Schilling

The first round of this fight was terrible. Schilling hurt Kato with some body shots and then Kato proceeded to keep the fight on the ground as much as he could for the rest of the round. It was a boring first round. However, the second round saw Kato knock Schilling out with a powerful left Superman punch. That was awesome. Great punch there.


GOOD/UGLY: David Rickels vs. John Alessio

Rickels was all over Alessio and was just about to get the stoppage win when he hit Alessio with a knee to the head when Alessio was on the ground. Not a smart move there. The fight was ruled a No Contest because Alessio couldn't continue. Rickels looked really good, but that knee was such a dumb move. Alessio wasn't kind of/sort of on the ground, it was as plain as day. Just a dumb move that robbed him of the stoppage victory he was seconds away from.


UGLY: Cheick Kongo vs. Alexander Volkov

This fight sucked. Kongo kept Volkov down basically the entire time. Volkov showed how one-dimensional he is because he couldn't do jack off his back. As for Kongo, he was smart to keep the fight on the ground. In no way am I saying that Kongo should have stood with Volkov and engaged in a firefight. However, he fought an incredibly lazy fight as he was content to just lay there on top of Volkov. There were a few times where Kongo busted up and cut Volkov, but instead of pressing that advantage he would revert back to laying on top doing very little. Kongo could have finished the fight if he had wanted to, but he was fine with grinding out the decision. That's just lazy. Even if you can't get the finish, at least try for it.


UFC Fight Night 70

UGLY: Hacran Dias vs. Levan Makashvili

This fight sucked. There was very little action, and it never seemed to get started. Dias won a split decision, but it doesn't really matter because the fans lost.


GREAT: Thiago Santos stops Steve Bosse

Santos landed a devastating head kick on Bosse for the knockout not quite thirty seconds in. That was a crazy knockout. Highlight reel stuff here.


GOOD: Antonio Carlos Junior submits Eddie Gordon

Carlos Junior controlled the fight from the start and pretty clearly won the first two rounds. Instead of coasting, though, Carlos Junior kept working for the finish. He got it, too, with a nice choke. I appreciate the hard work. He could have been content to get the decision, but he kept trying and got the finish.


GOOD: Lorenz Larkin stops Santiago Ponzinibbio

Larkin continues to impress at welterweight, which really seems to be his best division. His striking was on point and he took Ponzinibbio apart on the feet. That might be a bit of an overstatement, though, as Ponzinibbio had some good striking displays of his own. Larkin was able to avoid major damage, though, and ended up getting the TKO stoppage in the second round. Nice work, and he should get an upper mid-level guy in his next fight.


GOOD: Yoel Romero stops Lyoto Machida

The fight was very tentative in the first two rounds, then Romero kicked it into Ultimate Beast Mode. He got Machida down, then unleashed hell with a series of elbows that stopped the fight. This definitely puts Romero in a position to fight for a title shot in his next fight. That is, if the UFC decides to go that route. Right now, UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman is to fight Luke Rockhold, with Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza likely to get the next title shot. The UFC could have Romero fight Jacare, with the winner getting the next title shot, or they might decide to put Jacare and Romero against different opponents in the hopes of keeping both as viable contenders.

I think they go with the former option, though, just because they don't want to get caught up in the whole title shot line thing. They could go with Jacare and Romero fighting separate opponents, but I think they'll just go with a straight #1 contenders fight. After the fight, Romero went off on some stupid rant that he immediately backtracked from which shows, once again, how hard it can be to compose yourself immediately after a huge win/fight. It's an art, and one you have to work on. Guys like Conor McGregor and Chael Sonnen didn't roll out of bed cutting promos, they had to work hard at it. Romero's fighting is pretty on point, his promo skills....not so much, both topic and execution.


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