Bellator 205 and UFC Fight Night 137 were both this past weekend. Let’s get right to the rundown.
Bellator 205
GOOD- Veta Arteaga submits Denise Kielholtz
Arteaga kept trying for the takedown over and over again, but Kielholtz defended well. Finally, in the second round, Arteaga got a takedown and started working towards a submission. She was able to lock it in and force the tap. Good win for Arteaga.
GOOD- Patricky Freire stops Roger Huerta
These guys were slugging early and often in this wild affair. They were both swinging for the fences. Freire stunned Huerta in the second round, hurt him again and then finished him off with some brutal punches. Good win for Freire in an exciting fight.
GOOD/BAD-Rafael Lovato Jr. submits John Salter
There were good parts to this fight, but also some bad parts. Some of that might have been that it was following an exciting fight, but it just didn’t seem to have that energy of the previous fight. Lovato showed good skill on the ground and locked in a rear-naked choke in the third round to get the victory. Good win for Lovato.
GOOD- A.J. McKee stops John Teixiera
Both fighters came out throwing big shots and then McKee destroyed Teixiera with a huge left hand just over a minute into the first round for the knockout win. Bigtime finish for McKee, who keeps right on trucking and is now 12-0. Great way to end the card.
UFC Fight Night 137
GOOD- Randa Markos vs. Marina Rodriguez
I’m probably being a bit generous here, as this was a fine fight but nothing special. They fought to a majority draw so neither fighter picks up a win here.
GOOD- Renan Barao vs. Andre Ewell
Barao missed weight by a lot (6.5 pounds) and his cardio suffered. He started strong but then faded as Ewell took control later in the fight. Ewell won the split decision in a very close fight.
GOOD- Antonio Rogerio Nogueira stops Sam Alvey
They traded shots in the first round and then Nogueira hurt Alvey badly early in the second round and finished him to pick up the win. Good win for Nogueira.
GOOD- Alex Oliveira stops Carlo Pedersoli
Oliveira popped Pedersoli with a big right and followed up with two more big shots to get the stoppage in just under forty seconds of the first round. Big win for Oliviera.
GOOD- Thiago Santos stops Eryk Anders
Anders started strong but then faded, eventually having to retire after the third round. Well, technically he didn’t so much retire as just collapse to the ground from pure exhaustion. He clearly gave everything he possibly had but just couldn’t continue.
Anders landed some good shots early but then Santos took over and started landing repeated big punches and kicks. Anders was still landing big shots of his own, but he was really taking a pounding. Santos was coming at him like a whirlwind from all angles but Anders kept fighting, he kept trying.
This was a good win for Santos. Anders wasn’t about to give up so for Santos to keep pouring it on and get the win is big for him. This was one of the better weekends for overall fight cards I can ever remember. Plenty of good fights on display here.
*************
The McGregor-Nurmagomedov press conference
Last week there was a press conference for the Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov fight at UFC 229 next month. It was as entertaining as expected, though some of that depends on how much McGregor you can take.
I don’t want to get too political with this, as I’m sure some don’t want to hear it, but I personally found the conference to be very entertaining. I’ve soured some on McGregor but this brought it all (mostly) back.
Some of that is because of the amount of information McGregor read up on and had about Nurmagomedov and the various civil wars/conflicts Dagestan and Chechnya have been in, and other such issues.
I could definitely see it being off-putting to some but this was some high-level trash talk. I won’t go through it piece by piece or anything, as there would be too much to cover here, but I would encourage you to go find it on YouTube and make your own mind up.
McGregor showed again why he’s the best talker in MMA and probably the best talker in sports.
It also shows the power of practice as McGregor surely practices his insults and putdowns and he uses them very effectively.
It’s hard to be just a sportsman in MMA (among other sports), you also have to be able to talk and sell your fights and be entertaining.
This was a master class in that and I wish more fighters would take cues from McGregor. You don’t have to use the same types of material if you don’t want, if you think McGregor goes too far, but more fighters should embrace talking and speech practice into their work routines.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank
Leave a Reply