By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
UFC Fight Night: Blanchfield vs. Fiorot was this past weekend and featured some exciting fights. Who won and who lost? Let’s get to the rundown.
UFC Fight Night: Blanchfield vs. Fiorot
GOOD- Chidi Njokuani vs. Rhys McKee
They start off trading kicks while mixing in the occasional punch.
They fight on the fence for a while before the first round ends. The second round begins with more kicks before they again start fighting
on the fence. Njokuani is just more active and more accurate with his strikes. Neither man is able to get a takedown and the second round ends.
The third round starts with more kicking from Njoukani. McKee again tries to get the fight to the fence. It’s clear that his
strategy is to grind and try to wear down Njokuani but he’s not nearly active enough with his striking for that strategy to work. The fight ends so we go to the judges to render their verdict. Njokuani wins the Split Decision and improves to 23-10 with 1 No Contest and snaps his 3
fight losing streak while McKee drops to 13-6-1. Good win for
Njokuani.
GOOD- Kyle Nelson stops Bill Algeo
Algeo lands some kicks to start but gets smacked by a right hand from
Nelson. They fight on the fence for a while as they’re both throwing lots of kicks. Nelson blasts Algeo with a huge overhand right that
staggers him and finishes him off with more punches, forcing the referee to jump in to stop the fight four minutes into the first round. Nelson improves to 16-5-1 and has won 3 straight fights while Algeo drops to 18-8. Good win for Nelson.
GOOD/BAD- Nursulton Ruziboev stops Sedriques Dumas
Not a lot of connecting strikes here early in the fight. It’s not
until the midpoint of the first round when something happens, as Dumas
gets his eyes raked and Ruziboev connects with a big uppercut to send him to the mat and force the stoppage not quite three and a half
minutes into the first round. Apparently the UFC brought in a WWE referee to officiate this one. Ruziboev improves to 34-8-2 with 2 No Contests and has won 10 straight fights while Dumas drops to 9-2.
Ruziboev should be disqualified and Dumas given the win. I’m sick of fighters sticking their fingers out and getting rewarded for it.
UGLY- Chris Weidman “stops” Bruno Silva
Weidman connects with a head kick that starts a big exchange that ends
with Weidman getting a takedown. Nothing comes of it for an extended
period and the first round ends. The second round begins with Weidman
landing a bunch of kicks and punches. Silva is fighting back but not as actively. Weidman catches Silva in the eye with his thumb before Weidman starts teeing off of Silva to close the second round.
The third round starts with a double eyepoke. Silva gets poked in the eye
again but the referee apparently took a few eyepokes himself and allows it to continue before he jumps in to stop the fight so Weidman gets the stoppage win originally. Absolutely ridiculous. Later it’s
changed but Weidman is still given the Technical Decision win and improves to 16-7 while Silva drops to 23-11 and has lost 3 straight fights.
I’m so sick to death of these eyepokes. It makes the UFC look low-rent for this garbage to keep happening when there’s ways to fix it. Other sports leagues at least try to get things right and do better. Are they perfect? Hell no, but at least they try. I’m not going to keep going on about this because anyone who reads this regularly knows how much I hate eyepokes.
What makes it even worse is Weidman’s comments after the fight. He said Silva can’t just go down because of an eyepoke. That’s absurd.
Plus, he didn’t go down from just one eyepoke. He got poked twice. Weidman poked him in the right eye with his left hand and then poked him in the left eye with his right hand. I think that’s the first time there’s ever been a 1-2 for eyepokes. Weidman stuck his damn fingers straight out the entire fight. For that alone he should be
disqualified, let alone poking your opponent in the eye four times. Unbelievable.
Anyway, I know I continued on after I said I’d stop. Moving on.
GOOD- Joaquin Buckley stops Vicente Luque
A lot of flurries, both connecting and missing, early before Buckley
catches Luque coming in. Luque gets a takedown late in the first
round. The second round begins with lots of strikes being thrown but
not a lot of them landing. Buckley starts to turn it on and when Luque gets denied on a takedown and pulls guard it gives Buckley the
opportunity to start unloading and force the referee to jump in to stop the fight a bit over three minutes into the second round. Buckley
improves to 18-6 and has won 3 straight fights while Luque drops to 22-10-1. Great win for Buckley.
GOOD- Erin Blanchfield vs. Manon Fiorot
Fiorot spends the first round pounding away at Blanchfield with
strikes and lands a slam early. Blanchfield can’t get close enough to
strike because everytime she does she’s made to pay by Fiorot.
The second round begins with Blanchfield taking some punches in order to
get closer but is taking a lot of damage in the process. The third
round starts with Blanchfield having a little more success but Fiorot is still pounding away at her with those strikes. Fiorot is looking
strong.
The fourth round opens with more of the same. Blanchfield is
trying to get in close but is coming straight in so Fiorot is wailing
away on her. Good toughness from Blanchfield but she needs to mix it up because Fiorot isn’t tiring. The fifth round begins with an early Blanchfield head kick but she can’t capitalize on it. Fiorot continues to tee off on her but she can’t stop her and the fight ends. We go to the judges to render their verdict. Fiorot wins the decision to
improve to 12-1 and has won 12 straight fights while Blanchfield drops
to 12-2 and has her 9 fight winning streak snapped. Easy win for Fiorot.
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Beginning. The exciting epic fantasy series Kingdom of Zarias returns with the 4th book in the series. After the harrowing events of Book 3 the residents of the Kingdom of Zarias continue on their paths.
Serena Summers continues to learn and grow as a fighter, desperately
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Daniel Summers discovers new parts of the world that open his eyes to just how little he truly knows. A new hero, Lamar Abeers, arrives to
join the fight against evil. Plus, Zach Summers, Tiana Highsmith, and Xavien Ekens continue their journeys with their friends, and a new ruler of Vhaharen is crowned. The world has found a little peace.
However, that peace is only temporary. In a shocking act of violence,
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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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