Roundtables
ROUNDTABLE: UFC 135 Grades - Thoughts on the Best and Worst From the Event - Hansen, Hyden, Perez, Hobaugh, Amadi and Pelkey
Sep 28, 2011 - 5:15:09 PM ROUNDTABLE: UFC 135 Grades - Thoughts on the Best and Worst From the Event - Hansen, Hyden, Perez, Hobaugh, Amadi and Pelkey

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Grade Saturday's UFC 135 event as a whole from A-F. Also, what stood out as the best and worst of the card?

RICH HANSEN, MMATORCH COLUMNIST

C

Grading on a curve, the show was an F.  This was the worst UFC PPV I've seen since UFC 119.  That said, I don't grade on a curve, and I was mildly entertained, so I'll give it a C, because a bad UFC is better than a lot of other Saturday night entertainment options.  The high spots for me were Tim Boetsch's hip toss into a side slam, and of course Jon Jones throttling an elite talent like Quinton Jackson.


FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR

B-

A lot of it depends on if you're a Jon Jones or Josh Koscheck fan. Seeing your guy win always makes the card seem better. The best thing on the card was the continued improvement of Jon Jones as a fighter. He's only going to get better as he ages. It's hard to imagine how good he will one day become. The worst thing on the card was probably Matt Hughes getting crushed by Koscheck. It's obvious MMA has passed Hughes by, but he should hold his head high about what he did during his career. Whether he continues to fight or not, it's for certain that the days of a Hughes fight being a must-see are over.


ANWAR PEREZ, MMATORCH COLUMNIST

B-

I did enjoy it, thoroughly in fact.  The small problem I had with it was a weak undercard from the standpoint of the casual fan.  Most people at the place I saw it didn't know who most of the fighters were, save for when the Matt Hughes and Josh Koscheck fight began.  That's not the fault of any of the fighters by no means, but for most people it was a two fight card.  I hope with the expansion of mainstream coverage now that the UFC are on Fox, that more fighters will get a higher profile because of it.


ERIC HOBAUGH, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR

C

The Gomi-Diaz fight was never really in doubt. The Hughes-Koscheck fight was good for two minutes, but not very exciting. The best part of the card was that Jon Jones proved he is for real. He handled Rampage, but not in the totally dominate fashion most people had predicted. It was a good fight. Rampage looked decent and made it a good fight. The worst part of the card was that after the main event the other fights were not great. The UFC needs to do a better job of providing value for the top dollar they charge for their product.


JASON AMADI, MMATORCH COLUMNIST

C-

There really weren't any competitive bouts on the main card. The main event was a one sided beating, Gomi and Matt Hughes are shot fighters at this point, and the two heavyweight fights weren't worthy of being on a main card.
 
The main event was obviously the high point of the evening, but it was hard to really even get up for it after the awful Travis Brown-Rob Broughton fight. I mean, why was Rob Broughton even on a pay-per-view?
 
The prelims were just okay, nothing really memorable in any way. UFC 136 and every pay-per-view card after it seem to be much better values, and even the free card on Versus this Saturday night is poised to outdo UFC 135. This wasn't the worst card in the world, but the fights just weren't competitive enough for my taste.


MATT PELKEY, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
 
B-

I'm only that generous because I knew it was a one fight card going in. Jon Jones, Nate Diaz, and Tony Ferguson all had great performances, but they were against overmatched opposition. The rest of the card ranged from "eh" to "ugh." I know most people will list Rothwell-Hunt as the worst from the card, but for me it was the other heavyweight fight, Travis Browne vs. Rob Broughton. Broughton was there solely to be a punching bag for Browne to make him look good, and Browne just stood around doing nothing for three rounds. The best is obviously Jon Jones mesmerizing performance against Rampage. The entire card was built around him and he didn't disappoint.