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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC 181 was quite the newsworthy event, living up to most expectations with some big-time performances, several exciting finishes, and a surprising signing announced as well. There's plenty to discuss out of the event, and there will be plenty of response to go around, but here's what's fresh in my mind shortly removed from the card's conclusion:
-When the horn sounded for the Robbie Lawler-Johny Hendricks fight, I honestly didn't even consider that Lawler's name was going to be called. It's not that it made no sense whatsoever, it just seemed as the fight was going on that the middle three rounds were all for the defending Champion. However, it's that fourth round that sits as the swing round, and thinking about it further makes it easy enough to see how you can give it to Lawler. Hendricks just flat out stopped fighting about two minutes into the fourth round. While he had been landing combinations at will for the previous 12 minutes, he turned his attention strictly to wrestling, but wasn't putting much effort in there. Instead, he just stalled for time. That continued in the fifth when he felt he was well ahead, and Lawler took advantage with a strong final two minutes. I'm not the least bit upset with the decision, and indeed it provides a great story in Lawler capturing the UFC Title for the first time. Really, Hendricks let this fight slip away, that's the reality this time around. We might see Rory MacDonald get his rematch with Lawler next, but the UFC may be interested in going for the trilogy bout immediately as well. Either way, I don't think they can go wrong on that front, and there's going to be a lot of drama to this division for the foreseeable future.
-Anthony Pettis is well on his way to being one of the best lightweight fighters in UFC history. He's just such a phenomenal talent that the only thing left to prove is that he can stay healthy. I don't see how you can deny it after this performance. Gilbert Melendez has been one of the best lightweights in the world for years, and Pettis just picked him apart before submitting him in that second round. Add in his wins over Benson Henderson and Donald Cerrone in the last couple of years, and he's putting together a string of unquestionable excellence. He's going to have some challenges in this division, and there might be guys who can do one thing better than the rest that make him come up with something new, but until Jose Aldo comes up to lightweight to finally make that fight happen, I don't see who legitimately threatens him at 155 lbs. The win over Melendez was superb, and he'll look to follow up on it as soon as he can. Here's to his health.
-Outside of the two title fights, the news that will get the most attention is the UFC announcing the signing of CM Punk. It was a real surprise that it actually came to fruition, but I credit the guts from Phil Brooks to give the sport a shot at 36-years-old. His age, lack of real fighting experience, and injury issues from years of pro wrestling - specifically a concerning number of concussions - are all worrisome, but it's far from the embarrassment some critics have already tried to proclaim it to be. He's not the first 0-0 fighter to have fought in the UFC, and though he'll get paid significantly more than fighters like Amir Sadollah and Matt Riddle did before him, the fact is he commands an audience. The UFC is admittedly making this move for publicity, but they like Punk, and they're willing to give him a chance to fight. It's a unique situation, and while it's going to have some criticism - a lot of which will be legitimate - I don't fault the UFC for giving him an opportunity. If they didn't, Bellator would have, and though the UFC is supposed to be more about the sport, the simple fact is they've made plenty of moves that have done more harm to that than giving Punk a fight will.
-Travis Browne, Todd Duffee, and Tony Ferguson all picked up stoppage wins on the pay-per-view, and none of those results were all that surprising. Browne is just a better fighter than Brendan Schaub, Anthony Hamilton was offered up as a sacrifice to the returning Duffee, and Ferguson had a lot more tools to beat Abel Trujillo with if he could withstand the early onslaught. He did just that, and scored that nice submission win in the second round as Trujillo wore down. All fairly predictable, but brought momentum into the two title fights.
-Until referees and commissions start punishing eye pokes, fighters are going to keep getting away with them with impunity. Whether or not you believe Urijah Faber left his fingers out intentionally to poke Francisco Rivera in the eyes, that's what happened, and it led to Faber locking on the choke at the cage when the ref missed it. In this particular situation, it wouldn't have mattered, because the eye poke wasn't seen by the ref. Still, fighters continue to leave fingers out when pawing at their opponents, because there's no risk of getting anything but a warning, even if serious damage is done. Until something changes on that front, fighters will continue to "accidentally" poke their opponents in the eyes.
-You have to feel great for Josh Samman in his successful return to the cage. The last year and a half has been tumultuous, at best, and the win - especially with such a highlight reel finish - was as good a return as he could have ever hoped.
-A similarly brutal finish from Rocky Pennington was a good undercard story as well. She was favored with Ashlee Evans-Smith coming in on short notice, but got busted up and beat up for most of that opening round. Capturing the bulldog choke and putting Evans-Smith out the way she did was a huge come from behind, and come out of nowhere, win.
-This was the first in a series of massively entertaining cards on paper from the UFC, and this one lived up to its billing. The UFC can only hope for the same from UFC 182, 183, and 184 over the next two and a half months.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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