By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs. Gane was this past Saturday and it was…it was something. A lot of decisions on the card, in fact, all the main card fights were decisions. I guess they can’t all be exciting. Let’s get to the rundown.
UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs. Gane
GOOD/BAD- Alex Caceres vs. Kevin Croom
Caceres was clearly the better fight, but he wasn’t able to finish Croom. Now, you could take that as a negative against Caceres or as a positive for Croom. I’m feeling generous right now so I’ll say it’s a positive for Croom, who kept going for takedowns but wasn’t having much success with them. At the same time, though, he showed good toughness, as Caceres was tearing into him. No surprise, then, that Caceres won the decision, good win for him.
GOOD- Pedro Munhoz vs. Jimmie Rivera
Both guys were throwing and landing some heavy shots. They showed good toughness and tenacity, though Munhoz pulled ahead due to doing more. This was a slugfest, with Munhoz also doing a good job of attacking Rivera’s legs. This was a pretty wild fight, with Munhoz getting the decision victory. Good win for him.
GOOD/BAD- Montana De La Rosa vs. Mayra Bueno Silva
This fight was okay, both women tried hard and competed. Silva was deducted a point in the first round for grabbing the fence and that had major repercussions in the decision, as it was ruled a majority draw. That kind of decision never feels anything remotely resembling satisfying so I imagine they both hated it. Anyone watching at home shares that sentiment, I’m sure.
GOOD/BAD- Magomed Ankalaev vs. Nikita Krylov
This fight was solid but all these decisions are wearing on me. I understand it happens and I’m not expecting anyone to throw caution to the wind and start banging, but it still sucks. They both fought well, with Krylov doing better early and Ankalaev doing better in the latter rounds. Because of that, Ankalaev won the decision from the judges. Good win for Ankalaev.
BAD- Ciryl Gane vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
This fight sucked. It went the full five rounds, which is almost never a good thing with heavyweights. Sometimes it is, but usually it’s not. Then, on top of that, Gane played it conservative. Very conservative. At the same time, Rozenstruik was sleepwalking the entire fight. This was horrible. People here were yelling for me to change the channel, and I almost did several times. This was so dull and is the exact reason why I wish the UFC would institute a rule that in these non-title fights, if a guy wins the first three rounds, the fight is called. There was no reason for this fight to continue into the fourth and fifth rounds, the only possible way for Rozenstruik to win would be for him to do the exact opposite of what he was doing in the first three rounds. How often does that happen?
Jon Jones was trashing this fight on social media, and considering his last couple fights, that’s saying something. Again, I get the strategy from Gane, it’s smart. I don’t expect him to start throwing haymakers. I did expect that from Rozenstruik, though. He was clearly losing, there’s no way in hell he could have thought he was winning. We all know these kinds of fights happen, it was a good strategy for Gane to try to avoid, but damn this fight sucked to watch.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank and you can check out my blog athttps://3pr117238763.wordpress.com/ where I talk about wrestling, sports, and videogames and I just put a link to some great art. Thanks for reading and have a good day.
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