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DAN MOORE, MMATORCH UK CONTRIBUTOR: (9.0)
There was so much hype and anticipation for this event that it couldn't possibly fail, and it certainly didn't disappoint.
Scott Jorgensen and John Albert was fantastic; it's a shame it only lasted one round. Had Albert held on for another 0000000.1 of a second, we would have seen more, but it was a great first fight never the less. Dennis Siver was brutal in his demolition of Nam Phan, and finally every judge saw sense to award at least one 10-8 round with one even awarding all three rounds by 10-8 to Siver. Rightly so. It was as brutally one sided as i've seen in a very long time, and equally enjoyable to watch.
After the first two or three minutes of Abel Trujillo vs. Marcus LeVesseur; I was half expecting a snooze fest but then it came to life. Brutal knees by Trujillo and an impressive start to his UFC career. He looks a prospect although I won't get carried away (unlike some I saw on Twitter) until he's fought some higher level talent. Daron Cruickshank was equally decisive in beating Henry Martinez; shot after shot unleashed, before a final head kick that even Daniel LeRusso would have been proud of!
Ramsey Nijem and Joe Proctor slowed down the pace somewhat, but i've seen fights a lot worse than that, it's just the bar has been set incredibly high tonight. Ditto for Easton vs. Assuncao and i'll just pretend that fight didn't happen. Yves Edwards woke me up and the precision of the punch that dropped Jeremy Stephens was sublime; and proof that power isn't everything. Over all, bar two fights, it was a very good undercard with some highlight reel finishes.
Matt Brown started the main card by affording Mike Swick the opportunity to show us his best Martin Kampman impression (Timber!). Brown is so difficult to back with hard cash, always inconsistent, but when he's on that type of form he's very impressive and a potential top 15 contender. Rory MacDonald did what even the most hardened B.J. Penn fans expected. Sure it was a dominant performance, but the showboating won't win him any new fans. I doubt that will bother him one bit, but even a small dose of personality goes a long way.
Whilst Alexander Gustafsson got the win, I'm even less convinced by him than I was before this fight tonight. Shogun caused him a lot of problems, and with Jon Jones reach advantage as it is, I find it hard to see how the Swede could ever beat Jones. He lacks that killer one punch knock out power which was exposed in the first round. Don't get me wrong, Gustafsson was good tonight and deserved his win, but it wasn't sensational, and he should have been. Whoever wins the Henderson vs. Machida fight next year, deserves the next shot.
Benson Henderson won the main event within the first 20 seconds. Those two early leg kicks set the tone for the perfect counter to Diaz and his stand up arsenal. Henderson was better, bigger and quicker everywhere the fight went and it was his easily his best performance to date. It wasn't like Diaz didn't show up, he just didn't get the chance to execute any kind of game plan that might have given him the advantage. I'm not a fan of Henderson, but he went up in my estimation tonight, he's a very credible champion.
Overall it was a great card that more than lived up to the hype.
ANWAR PEREZ, MMATORCH COLUMNIST: (8.0)
Having only seen the main card, and not the prelims, this was a solid card. A nice back and forth fight between Matt Brown and Mike Swick, that saw Brown picking up the knockout, and a nice streak of wins as well. Sadistically, I thoroughly enjoyed the dismantling of B.J. Penn, and hopefully he'll reconsider coming back again. A very nice showing for Rory MacDonald. Shogun and Gustaffson was nothing spectacular, and very sloppy, but decent. All I can say for Benson Henderson is "WOW." What a great performance against Nate Diaz. I didn't think he would beat the wheels off Diaz like he did, but wow. This could be the true start of a long standing line of defenses for the champion. Overall, a great night of fights for free. Can't beat that.
FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR: (8.5)
For a free card, this was pretty good. I was surprised to see Mike Swick gas out and get knocked out like that by Matt Brown. Rory MacDonald learned a good lesson tonight, don't act like a circus clown and you won't get booed. Rory acted like a real douche with his showboating clowning antics as he was beating B.J. Penn. Speaking of Penn, he never should have taken this fight. He was basically already retired. He did okay, but not what you would expect from a motivated Penn. Alexander Gustafsson looked fairly good against Shogun Rua. It was nothing transcedent or anything, but it was a good win. Shogun just doesn't have it anymore. He'll be a good gatekeeper, but he's been in far too many wars to ever realistically consider a title run a real possibility. Benson Henderson looked really strong as he took the fight from Nate Diaz. Those legkicks were just so impactful it destroyed Nate's gameplan. Diaz just couldn't recover and Henderson went on to a solid victory.
ERIC HOBAUGH, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR: (8.0)
The undercard on FX was solid. All good fights and well worth watching. The first fight on the main card was Mike Swick vs. Matt Brown and the first round was a ground clinic. It was a very exciting round and worth and the price of admission. The second round was a great back and forth and the knock out by Brown of Swick will be on every highlight real for the end of the year rewinds that will start soon. Brown’s stock has risen and he has earned a fight against a top 15 opponent in his next fight.
B.J. Penn vs. Rory MacDonald started with Rory getting the best on the feet and saw B.J. slowing down by the end of the first round. B.J. was in trouble on several occasions in the first round. Rory looks like the prodigy in every round of this fight. The second round was target practice for MacDonald. It was hard to watch Penn be dominated the way he was in this round. The showboating by MacDonald was very hard to watch. I think he lost more fans than he gained with his disrespect of one of the greatest fighters to ever fight. Having said that, he did an amazing job against a great champion and won every second of this round and the fight. MacDonald is ready for one or two more fights and then a title shot.
Mauricio Rua vs. Alexander Gustafsson was the fight I was most looking forward too. Great first round, but I gave the first round to Gustafsson because he had two take downs and landed more on the feet. The second round was more of the same with Gustafsson winning most of the exchanges. Round three was a duplicate of the first two rounds. Gustafsson won by decision and he should get Jon Jones next.
The main event of the evening was Benson Henderson vs. Nate Diaz and the first round was dead even. Round two saw Henderson start to use his strength to start to control the fight. I gave a close round two to Henderson. Round three was an exciting back and forth that I gave to Henderson. By round four it apparent that Diaz is being outclassed everywhere. I scored round four for Henderson as well. Round five was a repeat of round 4. Henderson won a decisive decision victory. Diaz was outclassed everywhere and I do not see many fighters at 155 that have a realistic chance of beating Henderson.
JAMIE PENICK, MMATORCH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: (8.5)
This was a highly entertaining night of fights, and to get the quality of performances we saw out of the likes of Ben Henderson and Rory MacDonald for free is always welcome. But the prelims were mostly entertaining as well, providing some viciously brutal action that made for an enjoyable night of fights.
But the story, as it was coming in, was the top three fights. MacDonald, Alexander Gustafsson, and Henderson all had fairly one-sided performances in their decision wins over B.J. Penn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, and Nate Diaz, respectively. There were spots where it wasn't quite as exciting as perhaps the UFC may have been hoping for, and MacDonald and Gustafsson didn't break out to the point the UFC maybe expected. Still, they won big fights and took major steps forward in their careers.
As for Ben Henderson, he bounced back from a controversial decision over Frankie Edgar in their rematch this summer and absolutely out-classed Nate Diaz. It was a great performance, and if Anthony Pettis gets past Donald Cerrone, we'll be getting a rematch of one of the best fights in the history of the WEC.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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