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By: Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist
UFC 161 ended mercifully early Sunday morning on the east coast, and those of us who stayed up past our bedtimes to watch didn't come away mightily impressed. But there were some things to like about the event, even among all the other things we had to sit through. And thus it comes again to the Ebertian question: Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?
Thumbs Up: To the little guys. Let's start on a positive note, because to be quite honest, there aren't going to be many of them. The night started out well during the preliminary fights on FX. Roland Delorme and Edwin Figueroa put on a heck of a show with Delorme showing off some pretty impressive submission attempts while Figueroa showcased some great defense. Sean Pierson and Kenny Robertson also had a fun fight featuring some really hard shots, most of which were absorbed by the eventual winner. And in the final really good fight of the night (which unfortunately came with six fights left in the event), James Krause, probably down two rounds to one on the scorecards, choked out Sam Stout with just thirteen seconds left in the fight. Had the night continued in that vein, it would have been a great show. Unfortunately…
Thumbs Down: To Tyron Woodley. There's no use in giving Jake Shields a thumbs down. He is what he is, and he's been that way for years. The fight we saw on Saturday is just what you should expect from him at this point. But Woodley earns my ire because he knew that coming into the fight. He said in a pre-fight interview that Shields hasn't evolved his game since he came on the scene. And he's absolutely right. Shields' striking is a little better than it was 10 years ago, but he still packs next to no power at all. So why was Woodley not letting his hands go? We saw the kind of power he has in his last fight, and he's got the kind of wrestling that is kryptonite to Shields being able to implement his game plan. And yet he chose to allow himself to be caught up in the clinch for fifteen minutes. This could have been a showcase for him. The best chance for Shields to win was to control the positioning of the fight, which is what he did. And that's all he did. You can make the case that Woodley won the fight, but in reality, who cares? The victory did nothing at all for Shields, and the same would have been said of Woodley had he come out on top.
Thumbs Down: To bad judging. There was no doubt in my mind that Dustin Pague was on his way to an easy victory after the horn sounded in the final round of his fight with Yves Jabouin. And yet the fight was scored for Jabouin by two judges. I also didn't see a lot of outrage about the lack of 10-8 scores during the Nelson-Miocic fight, but for all three judges to score that one 30-27 rather than at least 30-26 or 30-25 seemed off to me as well. It was widely discussed that Nelson absorbed the most significant strikes in UFC history in that fight. That's not worth one 10-8 round?
Thumbs Up: To Stipe Miocic rising to the occasion. Make no mistake – regardless of how easy Miocic made it look, beating up Roy Nelson is a tall order. Or at least it's a tall order while he still has some gas left in the tank. Miocic was able to stay away from Nelson's power and wear him out. If you can do that, you can beat Roy Nelson ten times out of ten. This could be the start of good things for Stipe Miocic. Heavyweight is a tough division just because there is so much power and it's so easy to lose, but if a fighter can string together a few victories, the path to a title shot is not very long.
Thumbs Down: To the old Ryan Jimmo making his return to MMA. If you were unfortunate enough to sit through some of Jimmo's fights in the MFC on HD Net/AXS TV, you were sorely disappointed to see that guy make his triumphant (in official result only) return to the ring/cage on Saturday. From about 2009 – 2011, Jimmo put on some truly unwatchable fights north of the border in the MFC. One can only hope that his next opponent won't be quite so… controllable.
Thumbs Down: To Pat Barry losing again. As much fun as it is to watch Pat Barry win, it's just sad to watch one of the most imminently likeable guys in the sport get knocked out repeatedly. This is Barry's fourth loss in his last six fights, and his third loss by (T)KO. He's not going anywhere because of his dynamic personality and fighting style, but he can't keep losing like this if he wants to stick around for the long haul (however long the haul can be at this point).
Thumbs Up: To rising prospects. Shawn Jordan, Stipe Miocic, and James Krause all looked great Saturday night, and given the stinkitude of most of the fights on this card, their performances stood out more than they probably would have otherwise.
Thumbs Down: To Roy Nelson's strategy for a big money contract. Actually I probably shouldn't say that just yet; the guy is probably going to get paid. But he bet the farm on his ability to walk in on short notice and beat a younger, faster fighter at his own game with no backup plan. A lot of people (myself included) thought he had a pretty good chance of making it happen, too. It's funny how easy it is to forget that, despite the rhetoric, Roy Nelson really isn't in great shape and doesn't have great card; and if you are a good striker and can wear him out, there's a pretty good chance that you can beat him up for three rounds.
Thumbs Down: To injuries. The addition of Barao-Wineland and Shogun-Nogueira would have been extremely welcome on Saturday. But as it happened, the main event was a fight that I forgot about almost immediately after it happened. The only thing I know is that if Dan Henderson can't find a place for his right hand, he's not going to win a lot of fights at this point. And I don't know what's going on with Rashad Evans. It seems like if he's not completely sure that he's going to tool someone, he's going to have a plodding fight that he's just barely going to win or barely going to lose. The way he fought Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin, and Tito Ortiz is not the same way he's fought Rampage Jackson, Jon Jones, and Dan Henderson (to name a few). And the light heavyweight contender pool may not be exceedingly deep, but if Evans wants to get back in the title hunt, he's going to have to show that he's dangerous to elite fighters, and not just in a way that impacts their popularity with fans when they have a boring fight. As for Henderson, what's left for him to do at this point? It seems highly unlikely that he's going to get a title fight either at 205 or at 185 if he can still make the cut with all that replacement testosterone he's lugging around, so one has to wonder how much longer he's going to keep this up.
Thumbs Down: To spending almost $60 on a card full of bad or anticlimactic fights. It happens from time to time, so as a guy who's going to watch every UFC pay-per-view instead of picking and choosing, you can't get too bent out of shape about it. But 60 bucks is a lot of money for three hours that eventually ended up putting me to sleep.
Questions? Comments? Hit me up on Twitter - @shawnennis, shoot me an email – ennistorch(at)gmail.com, or leave a comment below.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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