Penick's Take
Penick's UFC Fight Night 39 Notebook: No more Nog, Nelson on track, solid undercard action, and more
Apr 11, 2014 - 6:30:25 PM Penick's UFC Fight Night 39 Notebook: No more Nog, Nelson on track, solid undercard action, and more

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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Friday's UFC Fight Night event from Abu Dhabi was a fairly worthwhile watch on UFC Fight Pass, with a couple of very solid fights and performances and nothing egregiously bad. These daytime cards can also be a nice change of pace for those who wind up watching everything, leaving the entire evening/night open after a day full of fights.

There are a few things sticking with me out of today's card, so it's time for another notebook format rundown!

-I really don't want to see Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira fight again. He got knocked out cold by Roy Nelson after getting knocked silly twice earlier in the first round, and he slammed his head on the mat at the end of it to boot. He's taken way too much damage in his MMA career, to the point we need to be concerned for his long term health. There was already reason to be concerned, but Friday's fight just seemed like something we really didn't need to see. It was sad, and a little depressing, to watch a guy like that get taken out that viciously.

-On the other side of that, Nelson did what seemed to be expected of him coming in. Nogueira had been out for a year and wasn't on the level of the two guys Nelson lost to last year. Given that and Nogueira's failing chin, and this was a recipe for the exact result we got. Good for Nelson on getting back in the win column, though, he did what he needed to do.

-The first five minutes of Clay Guida-Tatsuya Kawajiri were quite entertaining, and hearkened back to the Guida we saw more frequently in the early parts of his UFC run. The biggest problem with Guida is that it really takes someone who can stay aggressive and put him uncomfortable spots for him to have an entertaining fight. Even the fights he's won by stoppage have come because of fighters engaging with him and forcing opening that he doesn't always create himself. For the first five minutes, Kawajiri made it a fight with a couple of submission attempts that worked to his favor. Then he faded, and Guida just didn't do much offensively the rest of the way. It's enough to win fights a lot of the time, but it's significantly hurt his stock as more and more fans have caught on.

-John Howard and Ryan LaFlare had a much more entertaining fight than most expected. Howard is another guy who can be exciting when pushed, but when he's dictating the pace that doesn't always happen. Here, LaFlare forced Howard into more of a wild, continuously fluid fight, where there was a lot to which he needed to pay attention. Howard's power was clearly much greater than LaFlare's, and his positional reversals on the ground were very good at times. LaFlare was able to make up for some of the big strikes he took, and worked well enough on the ground to take a decision. Now, he was helped by a nasty knee to the groin that had Howard in a ton of pain. After that rest period, it looked like Howard was about to let time expire, but he gutted it out despite being still clearly affected by it, and he stayed competitive to the end. It was impressive despite him coming up short.

-Speaking of impressive, Ramsey Nijem had one of those fights that we've seen from him in the past. He's shown flashes of brilliance at times, then failed to live up to that in subsequent fights. Against Beneil Dariush - who came in undefeated - Nijem showcased fantastic finishing instincts after scoring a knock down strike. With Dariush hurt, the torrent of strikes delivered by Nijem was excellent, then when it wasn't opening up he nearly choked Dariush out with a guillotine choke. When that didn't finish it, he went back on the offensive with a whirlwind of strikes, and the ref finally had to save Dariush from himself given the amount of damage he was taking. I don't know whether or not Nijem can do it consistently, because to date he hasn't shown that he can, but this was a really nice win.

-I don't have much to say on Jared Rosholt vs. Daniel Omielanczuk. Two big heavyweights in warm weather after a long period of travel does not a fun fight make. That said, Rosholt had enough of an offensive attack that it wasn't as bad as last week's Minakov-Kongo fight in Bellator, but it wasn't a good fight by any stretch.

-What was better, if quite surprising, was Thales Leites stopping Trevor Smith. Leites is enjoying something of a resurgence, having won three straight since returning to the UFC last year. In this one, he just cracked Smith with a very good right hand, and finished him off with a few more on the ground. It's not what we're used to with the jiu jitsu based competitor, as it was only his third career TKO win. Still, it was a nice victory, and he deserves a bit of a higher profile bout in his next outing.

-Jim Alers and Alan Omer had an entertaining fight in their respective debuts, fighting back and forth in a crazy first seven minutes, then closed out by Alers smartly reverting to a superior top game. Omer had Alers hurt several times during the fight, but to Alers' credit, he took the punishment well and recovered enough to stay in the fight. Then he got in his takedowns and worked well from the top to take a split decision. The fight could have gone Omer's way based on damage in the first two minutes of round two, but he spent much of the last three of that frame on his back.

-Finally, a couple of things on the Johnny Bedford-Rani Yahya fight. They clashed heads twice in the first minute, and on the second one, Yahya went out. The ref didn't get there right away and Bedford landed two more brutal strikes for what appeared to be a knockout win. However, the ref correctly recognized the headbutt - which was quite clear on replay - and called it a no contest. Bedford then got ridiculous, nearly starting a second fight in the cage with Yahya while being interviewed by Dan Hardy. Now, that moment itself was kind of incredible, and well done by Hardy in his interview spot to just let the moment happen. It didn't escalate, but with Bedford overly upset at something out of he and Yahya's control, he just didn't gain any added sympathy. It was an illegal blow that put Yahya out, much like what we saw with Scott Jorgensen against Jussier Formiga last month, but worse. This one would have been overturned on appeal anyway if it had been called a win, because the headbutt was clearly the culprit for putting Yahya out, not the punches that followed.

-This was a solid start to the UFC's busy April schedule. They'll be back in just five days with "The Ultimate Fighter: Nations" Finale on Fox Sports 1, and three days after that with UFC on Fox 11. Those cards have several significantly more important fights, but for a Fight Pass event in the middle of a weekday, this provided some entertainment for sure.

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