By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
UFC Fight Night: Thompson vs. Holland
GOOD- Philip Rowe stops Niko Price
They both open up with leg kicks for the first few minutes before
mixing in some punches. Price gets hurt towards the end of the first
round but pushes through. The second round starts with more striking
until Rowe gets a takedown. He tries to clamp on a submission but he
can’t get it fully so they go back to striking until the round ends.
The third round sees them trade more strikes. Rowe begins hammering
Price with some vicious right hands and eventually forces the referee
to jump in to stop the fight nearly three and a half minutes into the
third round. Rowe improves to 10-3 and has won 3 straight fights while
Price drops to 15-6 with 2 No Contests. Good win for Rowe.
GOOD- Eryk Anders stops Kyle Daukaus
They start off swinging right away. Daukaus tries several takedowns
but has no success with them so they continue trading on their feet.
Anders drops him at the end of the first round. The second round
starts with them fighting on the mat for a while until Anders lets
Daukaus up. That’s when Anders smashes Daukaus with a powerful left
hand and follows him to the mat as the referee is then forced to jump
in to stop the fight as Anders pummels Daukaus a little over halfway
through the second round. Anders improves to 15-7 with 1 No Contest
while Daukaus drops to 11-4 with 1 No Contest. Good win for Anders.
GOOD- Roman Dolidze stops Jack Hermansson
They trade strikes early until Hermansson gets a takedown. Dolidze
sweeps free but Hermansson tries another takedown. Hermansson keeps
sniping with kicks until the first round ends. The second round opens
with more striking exchanges at distance until Dolidze has enough and
pushes in. Hermansson gets another takedown but it’s his undoing as
Dolidze tries for an armbar but can’t get it. Dolidze then switches to
attack the legs and traps Hermansson before teeing off on him with
punches and forcing the referee to jump in to stop the fight a little
over four minutes into the second round. Dolidze improves to 12-1 and
has won 4 straight fights while Hermansson drops to 23-8 and has
alternated wins and losses in his last 8 fights. Good win for Dolidze.
GOOD- Sergei Pavlovich stops Tai Tuivasa
Pavlovich drops Tuivasa early but he gets up. However, he immediately
gets stunned with a right hand and is dropped again by a huge
uppercut. Pavlovich punches away until the referee jumps in to stop
the fight less than a minute into the first round. Pavlovich improves
to 17-1 and has won 5 straight fights. 14 of his 17 wins have come in
the first round, 5 of those in the first minute. Holy hell, his hands
are dynamite. Tuivasa drops to 14-5. For the record, 11 of his wins
have come in the first round so you knew this was going to be
explosive and it absolutely was. Good win for Pavlovich.
GOOD- Matheus Nicolau stops Matt Schnell
They trade leg kicks early until Nicolau drops Schnell with a left
hook. Nicolau drops some elbows but lets Schnell up and they finish
the first round exchanging strikes. The second round opens with
Nicolau dropping Schnell again with a straight left. He works a little
ground-and-pound before letting him up again. Nicolau hurts Schnell
again and this fight is over not quite two minutes into the second
round. Nicolau improves to 19-2-1 and has won 6 straight fights while
Schnell drops to 16-7 with 1 No Contest. Good win for Nicolau.
GOOD- Rafael dos Anjos submits Bryan Barberena
They come out swinging until dos Anjos gets a takedown. He starts
looking for an arm triangle but can’t quite get it. Barberena is
working but he can’t get RDA off of him and the first round ends. The
second round starts with RDA getting takedowns but Barberena keeps
fighting them off and standing. They go back and forth a few times
until RDA takes Barberena’s back and locks in a rear-naked choke and
gets the tap. Dos Anjos improves to 32-14 while Barberena drops to
18-9 and has his 3 fight winning streak snapped. Good win for dos
Anjos.
GOOD- Stephen Thompson stops Kevin Holland
They both start off with kicks before mixing in some vicious punches.
They both show really good toughness as they’re absorbing some
powerful strikes here. The action is fast as kicks are flying from
every direction. The first round ends with Thompson having the
advantage but Holland has landed some good strikes of his own. The
second round starts with more of the same, some fast and furious
striking exchanges. Again, Thompson was getting the better of them but
Holland is landing some powerful strikes as well. The toughness on
display here is great. We move onto the third round and this is great
stuff. The striking is high level stuff and I know I keep repeating
this but the toughness from both men is incredible. Holland in
particular keeps taking these heavy shots but keeps on coming forward.
Thompson is belting him with these stiff strikes but Holland won’t
give up. Thompson’s accuracy is also great. Thompson drops Holland
late in the fourth round but lets him up. The round ends shortly
thereafter and Holland’s corner stops the fight. Holland has a right
hand injury from earlier in the fight that’s limiting him. It’s the
smart move, the odds of him finishing Thompson in the fifth round were
very low. Thompson improves to 17-6-1 while Holland drops to 23-9 with
1 No Contest. Good win for Thompson and this was a hell of a card. All
seven main card fights ended in a finish.
My new fantasy book is now out. It’s called Kingdom of Zarias: A Fight For
Survival. It’s the third book in my epic fantasy Kingdom of Zarias
series and follows the adventures of the Summers siblings as they
fight to defend the world from an evil villain named Galren. This book
also introduces lots of other characters as the scope of the world
grows. There’s lots of action, magic, and monsters in the Kingdom of
Zarias. It’s like a tabletop game in novel form. It’s on Amazon,
Barnes & Noble, and many other places. If you’re interested, I would
greatly appreciate it if you would check it out and support me. Also,
here’s the link to my new Compendium book about the Kingdom of Zarias
series- KoZ Compendium
Thank you very much, have a good day.Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at
hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank.
Thanks for reading and have a good day.
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