This was a very dull fight, as not much happened before the submission late in the second round. I don't know why, but both guys were seemingly exhausted before the fight even began. It was so boring that you were grateful for the finish.
GOOD: Emmanuel Sanchez vs. Henry Corrales
I'm really stretching here to call this GOOD, but both guys were trying hard. The fight was just sloppy that Sanchez won 30-27 and 29-28 on the two of the scorecards but lost 27-30 on the other scorecard. Just a very weird fight that wasn't all that good, but the effort was there so that's appreciated.
BAD/GOOD: Kendall Grove stops Joey Beltran
The first two rounds sucked. In the third round, Grove came to life and put Beltran out with a nice finishing sequence. That was cool, but overall, the fight was boring and listless. You could edit that down and come up with a good highlight reel, but for those of us who watched it live, it was pretty damn boring.
UGLY: Joe Warren vs. L.C. Davis
The only good thing I can say about this fight is that I'm glad it wasn't five rounds. This was lay-and-pray at its worst. Warren took Davis down and laid atop him and did nothing. There were stretches where Warren literally did nothing but lay on Davis. There's no denying that Davis deserves boos for his part in the fight, as he had no response to Warren's top game, but Warren deserves the most derision. There are ways to try to win a fight without placing yourself in tremendous danger, but Warren refused to do any of that.
This was the worst of MMA, and it hurts the sport. If there was somebody flipping channels and turned to this dreck they would change the channel and never look back. Other MMA fighters should be upset about this. Bellator should be upset about this. The UFC should be upset about this. This kind of fight actively turns people away from the sport. I don't know what Warren gets from the decision win here, but it's not fans.
UFC Fight Night 75
GOOD/BAD: Mizuto Hirota vs. Teruto Ishihara
This was a bad fight. It was the finals of "Road to UFC: Japan" and it ended in a draw. There were moments where this fight was pretty good, and then other moments where it was pretty bad. I didn't care much for the fight myself, but I suppose others could like it.
GOOD: Diego Brandao stops Katsunori Kikuno
Brandao dropped Kikuno early and stayed on him for the lightning quick finish. I think the fight last maybe thirty seconds. Big win for Brandao as he showed some really good power here.
BAD: Takeya Mizugaki vs. George Roop
Another slow-paced, dull fight. I didn't like this fight at all, to be blunt. It was just kind of there. I'm probably being a little rough on it, but I was expecting more. Mizugaki won the clear decision to rebound from his loss to Dominick Cruz in his last fight.
GOOD/BAD: Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Chico Camus
I'm trying to be positive here, but this fight was fairly dull as well. It dragged as the rounds wore on and it was already average at best. The latter part of the fight was pretty bad. Horiguchi won the clear decision, but we already knew he was the better fighter. Camus is tough as hell, though, so you're not likely to put him away. I was just hoping for a little more volume of strikes throughout the fight, though.
GOOD/GREAT: Uriah Hall stops Gegard Mousasi
Mousasi pretty well dominated the first round. It's not like you would have given him a 10-8 or a 10-7 or anything, but he was clearly the better fighter. He controlled Hall and did whatever he was wanting to.
Then the second round happened, and everything was thrown out the window. Hall landed a beautiful spinning back kick and followed that up with a flying knee to get the finish. That was nuts. That's the Uriah Hall we all want to see. The dichotomy of Hall's fights is as intriguing as it is frustrating. He does this to a guy like Mousasi but then lays big eggs and either loses or gets a boring decision win against guys he should blow away? The talent level that Hall possesses is such that he should be competing for titles. He's a dynamic striker who is capable of beating most guys in his division, but he never utilizes his full potential. Mousasi had never been stopped by strikes before, but Hall came along and made it look easy. Wow.
GOOD: Josh Barnett vs. Roy Nelson
Nelson is one of the toughest SOB's in MMA. The amount of punishment he took here was ridiculous, and the ref should have stepped in well before it went to decision. Barnett was throwing a tremendous level of strikes, both in volume as well as power. Quite frankly, the fight should have been stopped after the third round. Nelson had nothing to offer. He did a little bit in the fourth round and even less in the fifth round. You knew in the third round that Barnett was going to win, and likely by decision.
Nelson is way too tough to expect anyone to finish him. It can happen, it's a possibility, but you sure can't expect it. Barnett was throwing everything he had at Nelson but couldn't stop him. I almost expected him to grab a chair from ringside and crack Nelson with it. The thing is, that probably wouldn't have stopped him either.
Fights like this shorten careers, and that's why I can't go GREAT with this even though it was a very entertaining fight. Barnett's striking was just crazy but there was a part of me that couldn't help but feel a little guilty watching this knowing what Nelson was going through. This was a crazy fight, and a big win for Barnett. It's hard to say how close he is to a title shot because there's a long time before UFC Heavyweight Champion Fabricio Werdum defends against Cain Velasquez; there's also Andrei Arlovski who might get the next title shot, but things will be looking really good for Barnett if he wins his next fight. There's a lot of things to shake out in the division, though, so we'll just have to wait and see. This was a good way to finish the evening.
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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