Bellator 193 and UFC on FOX 27 were this past weekend. Let’s get right to the rundown.
Bellator 193
GOOD- Jake Smith stops Steve Kozola
Smith caught Kozola early with a powerful right hand that stunned him, then followed up with more punishment that ended the fight early in the first round. Good win for Smith.
GOOD- Kendall Grove vs. AJ Matthews
This was a solid fight. Nothing spectacular but it had some nice action. Matthews got the split decision win, though watching it live I thought Matthews won all three rounds.
GOOD- Saad Awad vs. J.J. Ambrose
Another solid fight. Again, nothing wrong with the fight so to speak, but this isn’t one you’ll remember next week. Awad got the clear decision victory.
GOOD- Lorenz Larkin vs. Fernando Gonzalez
Yet another solid fight. It could be worse, these could have been horrible fights, so I’ll take it. Larkin won the decision to rebound from some losses lately. Both guys worked hard, they were just fairly evenly matched. Nice win for Larkin.
UFC on FOX 27
GOOD- Frank Camacho vs. Drew Dober
Both guys were working hard and they both landed big shots throughout the fight. I appreciate the effort from both guys, they left it all in the cage, as the cliché goes. Dober won the decision, but they both come out looking good after this fight. Obviously, Dober looks better because he won but a willingness to fight and bring it will always win you fans.
GOOD- Gregor Gillespie stops Jordan Rinaldi
Gillespie kept working for the takedown and got a couple before taking Rinaldi down for the last time. He worked some good ground-and-pound and got the stoppage near the end of the first round. Nice win, but Gillespie needs to be fighting a top 10 or top 15 guy next. I want to see him pushed to see how he responds.
GOOD/BAD- Dennis Bermudez vs. Andre Fili
The fight itself was good. It was solid, like a lot of the Bellator fights from before. I liked this fight, we saw some good action. The BAD comes from the decision, which saw Fili getting the split decision victory. I thought this was clearly a Bermudez win. However, two of the judges gave Fili two of the rounds and the third judge gave Bermudez all three rounds. It’s fully possible I made a mistake in giving Bermudez all three rounds myself, but watching it live I was convinced that Bermudez won. I didn’t see enough from Fili to justify giving him the majority of the rounds. To me, this is a bad decision and I don’t agree with it.
GOOD- Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza stops Derek Brunson
Jacare landed some good counters early before flattening Brunson with a huge head kick. He followed up and it was over near the end of the first round. Big win for Jacare, as he rebounds from injury and ailments and a tough loss in his last fight to get back on track and start on another potential title chase.
This is a bad loss for Brunson. He can rebound himself, but it has to be disheartening. I’m sure he’ll go back to the drawing board and come back a tougher fighter. As for Jacare, his fight previous to this was to UFC Middleweight Champion Robert Whittaker so he’ll have to string together at least a few more wins before he gets a title shot, he can do it. We’ve seen him do some great things in the cage and I think he gets a title shot sooner rather than later. Really good win for Jacare.
*************
UFC 226 is scheduled for July 7th of this year, and it officially has a champion vs. champion superfight. UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier will fight UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic. This is going to be a spectacular fight.
Yeah, I might have preferred to see each man fight someone else in their next fight, but this is an unbelievably exciting fight. Before dropping down to light heavyweight, Cormier was undefeated at heavyweight. Miocic is probably the best heavyweight in UFC history and Cormier is possibly the best or second-best (depending on if you include Jon Jones) light heavyweight in history. Maybe some would rank Chuck Liddell higher, I’m not sure, but just being up there on the list means Cormier is an all-time great.
I’m as pumped for this fight as anything else in recent times. I think it’s going to be incredible. I’ll refrain from making any predictions until we actually get close to fight time, no sense tempting the injury gods.
NOW READ THE PREVIOUS HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC 220 and Bellator 192
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