UFC Boston was this past weekend. Let’s get right to the rundown.
UFC Boston
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC Boston
GOOD- Deron Winn vs. Darren Stewart
Winn landed a lot of takedowns in this fight, Stewart had more success with his striking. This was a really close fight with Stewart getting the split decision victory from the judges. Good win for Stewart.
GOOD- Maycee Barber stops Gillian Robertson
Barber unloaded on Robertson early and often in the first round, before getting the ref stoppage about three minutes into the fight. Good win for Barber.
GOOD- Joe Lauzon stops Jonathan Pearce
Lauzon came out firing early and then got a takedown. He then proceeded to pound Pearce until the fight was over in about a minute and a half. Joe Lauzon getting TKO wins in 2019 is fantastic. Good win for Lauzon.
BAD/UGLY- Greg Hardy vs. Ben Sosoli
This fight wasn’t very good. Hardy did his thing, which was whatever. The UGLY comes from the fact that Hardy used an inhaler in between the second and third rounds. I don’t understand how he thought that was allowed. More importantly, how did his corner not know that was illegal? This is ridiculous. If there’s any doubt, don’t do it. Or ask somebody.
The fight was originally judged to be a decision win for Hardy, but the inhaler use turns it into a No Contest. Moving on…
GOOD- Yair Rodriguez vs. Jeremy Stephens
This was a very entertaining fight. There was a bunch of wild and frantic action, with both guys getting in some hard shots. They also both showed good toughness in taking the punishment and continuing. Rodriguez won the decision, good win for him.
GOOD- Dominick Reyes stops Chris Weidman
Reyes dropped Weidman early with a big right hand and then pounded him out for the stoppage win a little over a minute and a half into the first round. Good win for Reyes and a tough loss for Weidman, who’s now 1-5 in his last six fights. This was his light heavyweight debut and it went about as badly as possible. He didn’t look good in this fight. It might be time for him to hang it up, but I don’t know. That’s a call only he can really make. All five of his losses have been by knockout, though.
As for Reyes, he moves to 12-0 and continues climbing the ranks of the light heavyweight division. He’s close to a title shot, that’s for sure. You could argue that he should get the next title shot or that he needs one more win to get it, but that’s as far as it goes. We’ll have to wait to see what the UFC does, but I imagine they’ll be announcing it sooner rather than later.
*************
Khabib the face of the UFC?
Dana White recently said that UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov is the new face of the UFC, not Conor McGregor. There’s only one reason for this, McGregor is in legal trouble again. He’s facing sexual assault allegations so he’s not going to be fighting again anytime soon, if ever again. That’s the only reason Dana said that. The UFC would still be in the McGregor business if they could be. They don’t actually believe that Nurmagomedov is the face of the UFC. Hell, they shouldn’t want him to be the face. For one, he’s already said he’s only got a couple fights left before he retires. For two, many of his beliefs run counter to a lot of things people in this county believe in.
Nurmagomedov has antiquated viewpoints on the role women should play in society. He also has stupid beliefs with regards to gay people. Or at best associates with people who hate homosexuals. He’s also not known for having an electric personality or showing charisma on a microphone. He’s a hell of a fighter, but he’s not a big personality.This is not the guy you should want to be the face of your organization. It’s just PR talk, and I think most people know that. The problem is, you lose credibility saying such things. As if Dana White had much credibility to lose in the first place, but still, you’d think he’d want to at least try to salvage some respectability.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.comand you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank
More from MMATorch:
Leave a Reply