Penick's Take
THE HIT LIST: Top rated fights, standout finishes, and more from UFC Fight Night's 55 and 56
Nov 10, 2014 - 9:40:28 AM THE HIT LIST: Top rated fights, standout finishes, and more from UFC Fight Night's 55 and 56

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The star rating system we use here at MMATorch is essentially a short hand, easy way to subjectively let our readers know whether a fight stands out as something better than average, if it falls into the large segment of indelibly skippable fights, or if it reaches the depths of the downright awful. To that end, it's a quick way to look through our event reports and see whether or not you've missed something worth watching from an event if you don't catch it live.

That brings us to this new feature, The Hit List, where we'll run through the rated fights from televised prelims or main cards to let you know in an even quicker recap what's worth watching from each event, and what we had to say in the event report. Occasionally, an undercard fight will stand out as particularly noteworthy or exciting, though fights on the un-televised portion of UFC cards typically don't get rated. In that instance, we'll let you know what we feel is worth watching from those fights in a special section.

So in this feature, we'll highlight the top rated fights of the weekend, the not yet rated fights you should check out, and the top highlight reel finishes. The latest edition of this feature covers UFC Fight Night 55 and UFC Fight Night 56.



Weekend's Top Rated

Luke Rockhold def. Michael Bisping (UFC Fight Night 55)

Star Rating: (***+)

Jamie Penick says: "The fight wasn't really surprising, we knew coming in that Rockhold was a better fighter than Bisping, but that's still a damned fine finish. It's all the more impressive given Bisping's never been submitted. It's a shame that Belfort loss happened for him, because he's just been absolutely fantastic outside of that. Give him the title fight tomorrow and I'm in, but I still want to see the Jacare rematch as well."


Al Iaquinta def. Ross Pearson (UFC Fight Night 55)

Star Rating: (***)

Penick says: "Just a major finish for Iaquinta. This was a very competitive fight, against a very respected and talented vet, and Iaquinta got the better of it."


Robert Whittaker def. Clint Hester (UFC Fight Night 55)

Star Rating: (***)

Penick says: "That was really fun. It wasn't the most technical overall, it didn't have the highest stakes, but it was entertaining, and had a little bit of drama throughout. Really nice middleweight debut for Whittaker."


Unrated Highlights

Louis Smolka def. Richie Vaculik (UFC Fight Night 55)

Penick says: "This was one hell of a fight start to finish. Vaculik had the edge for the opening round, bloodying Smolka up and hitting him with constant combinations. Smolka rebounded well in the second, making things more competitive, and then in the third he hit sweet chin music on Vaculik to send him to the ground. Not even kidding, it was a stepping sidekick to the jaw that put Vaculik down, and Smolka followed up with strikes on the ground. Fantastic finish."


Jake Matthews def. Vagner Rocha (UFC Fight Night 55)

Penick says: "Just another fantastic finishing sequence. Matthews landed a brutal superman punch that hurt Rocha, and he took him down in the same motion. He locked on a rear naked choke with no hooks in that turned into a bit of a bulldog choke, and Rocha went out cold. Just a great performance in front of a hometown crowd."


Highlight Reel Finishes

-Marcus Brimage def. Jumabieke Tuerxun via head kick KO (UFC Fight Night 55)

-Ovince St. Preux def. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua via TKO (UFC Fight Night 56)

-Leandro Silva def. Charlie Brenneman via rear naked choke submission (UFC Fight Night 56)


This feature is a work in progress, so if you have any suggestions on what you might like to see added in future installments, email me at MMATorchEditor@gmail.com with the subject header "Hit List Feedback" to give us your thoughts.