UFC 232 12/19/18: Alexander Volkanovski vs. Chad Mendes R2 4:14. Volkanovski is the more comfortable & accurate striker. He was using his jab to both push Mendes back & make it more difficult for him to score a takedown having to go for a single on the lead leg rather than ducking into a double. That weapon was the main difference here, as Mendes was reacting to a lot of Volkanovski's feints & didn't have any relaxing method to success, closing distance by exploding with a takedown attempt, a flying knee, or a big right hand. Mendes stamina is somewhat suspect to begin with because all his offense is predictated off exploding, and with Volkanovski having a good gameplan to keep the pressure on without offering an easy takedown, adding constantly forcing Mendes to back up to Mendes' already cardio taxing style, the match was a lot of little victories for Volkanovski wearing Mendes down & out. The early portion of the match wasn't super exciting, Volkanovski was doing a nice job of being tactical and winning with safe, accurate punches while Mendes had a moment here and there, but wasn't able to control the center after the opening minute or establish any kind of consistency or go to. Mendes got a double leg late starting to circle left then switching back right & shooting when Volkanovski was squared up to him trying to adjust, but Volkanovski was confident in his ability to get back up whenever Mendes took him down, and by quickly doing so every time he never gave Mendes the opportunity to rest or relax. The match picked up considerably when Mendes countered Volkanovski lunging in for a feint or a jab with a big right hook and pressing forward with more power hooks. The inside was definitely a much better range for Mendes to be throwing his short haymakers, and he quickly dropped Volkanovski with a left hook. Though Volkanovski was the one eating big shots, Mendes was the more winded of the two, and once Volkanovski answered with a good shot of his own, Mendes went back into retreating mode & was never able to fight inside on his own terms again. Volkanovski had enough left to take advantage, and started beating Mendes up against the cage, with Mendes' takedown not lasting long enough to allow him to stabilize. Both were bleeding now, with Volkanovski's cut running into his left eye. Mendes had another takedown & took Volkanovski's back out of a scramble when Volkanovski could only get back to his knees, but seemed to rush his choke attempt trying to do everything at once then giving up & trying to mount but Volkanovski exploded back to his feet. Mendes didn't have the energy to back anymore, so he was just standing against the cage eating shots. Now Volkanovski could take his time & just land the big body shot or elbow to the head, whatever Mendes' stationary guard wasn't protecting. Mendes finally got off the cage, but seemed to use all his energy ultimately faking a right hand because Volkanovski saw it coming a mile away. Mendes just stepped back to the cage, and Volkanovski finished him with the left to the body then the right to the head. The 33-year-old Mendes surprisingly retired in the hours after the match, finishing at 18-5 with 3 of the losses in title challenges. Good match.

FNG 91 12/27/18, FNG Middleweight Title: Roman Kopylov vs. Yasubey Enomoto 3:42 R4. Kopylov is one of Russia's best prospects, a patient & precise striker with quick hands who is undefeated & captured the title last time out in just his 7th fight. Enomoto was the welterweight champion in M-1, and while he toyed with climbing to middleweight upon joining FNG in 2016 with a couple catchweight bouts in the 180's, he then went back to 170 & only moved up for this title challenge. He's got the experience on his side, but all the other metrics favor the much younger & larger Kopylov. Kopylov even had the hand speed, but his biggest advantage may have just been being a lefty because it made it so much easier for him to work over his orthodox opponent with his liver shots. The fight was almost over before it began, as Enomoto tried to back out after his jab, but got buckled momentarily by the liver kick. The ref seemed to stop it then luckily changed his mind a bit later after the announcer who learned English watching Borat had time to say very nice for the 100th time this broadcast then started complaining" That's it? Come on! Come on! That's it?" then trail off into something incoherent, probably thinking this ref is a retard stopping the fight over a shot that wouldn't even have killed any of the gypsies. Kopylov didn't push for the finish, but he also never got over aggressive & gave Enomoto good chances to catch him with anything big. He was confident he'd win the long game, and was going to stick to taking the openings that were presented no matter how much Enomoto may have been hurt. Enomoto began to come on in the 2nd, fighting at a closer range where he had a better chance of landing his punches. Enomoto wasn't really committing to his jab, but once he started following to the body he was landing the 2nd & 3rd shot a lot more frequently because Kopylov couldn't tell which combo was coming. Enomoto was beating Kopylov with volume in the 2nd & 3rd, but got dropped late in the 3rd when he thought Kopylov was going to jab, but instead he led with a left body hook. Prior to the knockdown, I thought Enomoto was probably winning the round, but even though Kopylov didn't follow him to the ground or make any kind of push for the finish, Enomoto never really recovered physically. One of the ways he was showing the fatigue & damage was by not really throwing his power punches anymore. He remained active, but he was mostly just touching Kopylov, and here he was really lucky that Kopylov isn't that great at pouncing on opportunities to counter. Kopylov finally got a little aggressive, and it was hard to tell whether the hook the followed the blocked step knee or the jab after that hurt Enomoto, but Enomoto just seemed to not have any more energy to defend. Kopylov backed him against the cage, and took him out with the left to the liver. Good match.

IPW 4/11/18 Chris Ridgeway vs. Zack Sabre Jr.18:18. A really fun match to watch because Sabre was in with someone who has the talent & willingness to chain submissions with him. It was certainly more cute than intense, as they were literally just rolling with each other, but the craftmanship of their game of twister was really high. Though I enjoyed all the countering of submissions back & forth, the story was a bit lacking in that Ridgeway just inexplicably did Sabre's match most of the way rather than making Sabre find any kind of an answer to his kicks or shoot style grappling, even if this answer was simply to explain Ridgeway not using any of them. I felt like the mix of their styles would create something more interesting, and maybe push Sabre to be even more creative, but the match was basically Ridgeway expanding his horizons by hanging with Sabre in Sabre's style. The main point of this midcard match was to help elevate Ridgeway to the level where he could be seen as a rival to an international star like Sabre, so perhaps showing he could do Sabre almost as well as Sabre was beneficial. Especially after how typically inept & lost Okada looked on the mat in Sabre's biggest match to date 10 days earlier, Ridgeway certainly earned the respect of Sabre fans as a wrestler of genuine mat skill. This is definitely some of the best technical wrestling either fighter has done all year, but it also hurt the match that Ridgeway finally started using his style, which of course was good in and of itself, again without any reason for him doing it now when he wasn't doing it then. If you're fine with the doing whatever they felt like style, then you can't really go wrong with any of this. It ended up being Sabre's style as the body of the match then picking things up with Ridgeway's big kicks leading to Ridgeway getting a near submission with a suplex dropped into a rear naked choke. Sabre had been working the ankle with stomps early to take away Ridgeway's mobility (this was a sort of story to explain him not kicking though he already wasn't kicking long before Zach targetted the body part), but down the stretch he switched to heavier blows with his penalty kicks. Ridgeway caught a middle kick, and Sabre tried to counter with a flying armbar, but Ridgeway stacked him for the flash pin before Sabre could extend. The result was more important than how they got there, and this was a good finish for this type of undercard match whose purpose is to lead to bigger & better things. ***1/2

Riptide Brighton Championship Tournament Day 2 8/3/18, Brighton Title Tournament Quarterfinal: Chris Ridgeway vs. David Starr 13:01. In the midst of a tournament that had nothing to do with credible combat, these two pulled out something that was somewhere in between a timeless solid, stiff, technical match and a worked shoot. They weren't strictly sticking to MMA by any means, but real fighting has evolved so much in 30 years the bout was surely more credible than most of the UWF stuff even without specifically trying to be. To some extent, all that is neither here nor there, but certainly my primary enjoyment was that the contest came across as a real fight, and not being flashy was to it's advantage because it added to the credibility. It was far more toward Ridgeway's style than Starr's, but Starr does well when he can match the opponent's kicks or chops with his big lariats while working for an advantage elsewhere. It wasn't so much the striking that was good, though that certainly helped, but that they were patient & really struggled with one another, particularly in the way they worked into holds on the mat rather than doing quick sequences & either immediately moving on or sitting in a submission for a minute too long under the guise of added drama. One of the reasons this match was dramatic is you had no idea who was going to win. They pretty much played even throughout, with all advantages being short lived. After the opener ended 10 minutes too soon, all the near finishes seemed more credible, especially given the type of match they were working lended itself to a caught him with one move kind of finish rather than a culmination of damage. Starr survived the rear naked choke once, but then Ridgeway used a series of punches from rear mount to break him down so he could finish him with it on the second attempt. ***1/2

NOAH Navigation For The Future 2018 Final 2/2/18, GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Kenou vs. Yuko Miyamoto 16:15. Death match specialist Miyamoto came into NOAH for the 2017 Global League, tying for 5th place (out of 8) in B Block, but defeating Kenou as one of his 3 wins. No one really thought he'd take the title, and in fact he hasn't even worked for NOAH since this challenge, but he's always willing to take a lot of punishment, and while Kenou getting a win over a guy who brought his singles title belts from DDT & ZERO1 wasn't going to take him to the next level, it certainly didn't hurt. Some people might not like that this doesn't look like the usual GHC Heavyweight Title Match, but that made it a real step forward for Kenou in terms of actually fulfilling his promise of being an alternative that would allow NOAH to change. Kenou is both more brutal and more of a faster paced junior stylist than most of NOAH's champs, and that plays into what Miyamoto brings. That being said, it was mainly Miyamoto that gave them the opportunity to be different for NOAH by using some of his regular hardcore oriented junior style, enough to be true to himself without turning NOAH extreme. This included a chair shot on the outside early and two of the big highlight sequences of the match where he delivered a moonsault attack to the floor then a fire thunder off the apron through a table then later tried it again but Kenou countered with a Dragon suplex on the apron & put Miyamoto through the table with a diving footstomp then dragged him back in & pinned him with the regular diving footstomp. Excluding Edwards defense in Impact that one shouldn't expect to resemble NOAH, this was NOAH's shortest heavyweight title match since Morishima over Marufuji 3/18/12. The match was a little thin, but the length seemed about right given it was more a junior style match where they kept a high pace & took chances. It lacked the aura of a big match, but it was certainly entertaining spectacle with both wrestlers looking good. ***1/4

M-1 Challenge 100 12/15/18: Kayck Alencar vs. Talgat Zhumagaliev 2:43 R3. Zhumagaliev stepped in for fellow Kazakh Sanzhar Adilov on less than a weeks notice to face 8-0 Brazilian Muay Thai specialist Alencar. It's the type of fight one doesn't expect to be too competitive, especially as it goes on & Alencar has the size advantage as well as presumably the cardio from having a full camp. Zhumagaliev was just avoiding Alencar's bombs early & doing anything he could to grab him or catch a kick so he could get a takedown attempt, but they were all stuffed. Suddenly, Zhumagaliev just led with an overhand right & countered Alencar's right with his own left to drop him. Alencar answered with a liver punch, but Zhumagaliev ate it to drive forward into a double leg. Zhumagaliev was expending a lot of energy trying to get Alencar down & keep him from getting right back up, but he was getting some points for control & not getting beat up. Alencar had an arm triangle attempt in the final 20 seconds that was over the nose rather than under the chin, so I don't think it was enough to steal the round back. Zhumagaliev's confidence in his standup began to increase as he countered Alencar's switch knee with an overhand right while Alencar began to grow more hesistant. Alencar came in with a right body hook, but just stood in front of Zhumagaliev, who again nailed him with his awkward 2-3 combo. Alencar stumbled halfway across the ring with the cage holding him up momentarily until Zhumagaliev caught up & hit a double leg. Zhumagaliev was finally able to hold Alencar down & get his ground & pound going, swelling Alencar's left eye most of the way shut & he bled steadily from the nose. The round was likely a 10-8 round, as while there wasn't a massive beating on the ground, Alencar had no offense to offset all Zhumagaliev's success. Alencar knew he needed to do something big & came out bombing, landing an early overhand right but eating the 2-3 back. Though Zhumagaliev was focused on using Alencar's aggression against him, Alencar was getting good body hooks in & defending the takedowns. Zhumagaliev tried to just stall out the match taking some shots while refusing to relinquish his single leg attempt, hoping to hang on for the decision victory. Zhumagaliev seemed to relax figuring he was fine as long as Alencar didn't break free, and was caught off guard by Alencar going after an anaconda rather than continuing to use his strikes to try to force Talgat to release. Alencar couldn't roll it, but once he had the choke locked in he was able to stand up & use the corner for leverage and to take away Zhumagaliev's room to escape for the submission. Though the winner was the one you expected all along, the path in which he took to get there, and ultimately getting the comeback win with a standing anaconda as the first submission of his MMA career was the last way I expected him to get there. Good match.

ONE 86 Destiny of Champions 12/7/18: Jihin Radzuan vs. Jenny Huang 3R UD. Huang was 5-0 before losing to Angela Lee, who Radzuan is being groomed for a shot at, but even though she's lost 3 fight since, she's a very experienced opponent for a 3-0 fighter. Radzuan has a ton of potential, especially since she's 20-years-old and has only been training in any form of martial arts for 4 years. She was 19-1 in muay thai and also had a BJJ base before starting her MMA training, but clearly this is a fight where she should have just used her standup but she wound up only spending about the first 20 seconds of each round at distance because she made no effort to create space or get back to her feet. It's great that she's fearless, and wants to dominate her opponent in all positions rather than to worry about what they might do when they are in a disadvantageous position, but while Huang is quite a good scrappy grappler, she has almost no standup game at all. It looks like Huang trained standup watching pro wrestling as she doesn't move her head, use any kind of footwork or angles, her elbows are too far out, etc.. Huang basically just stood there eating punches to the mush or getting the same result slowly waddling straight back. That being said, one of the main reasons the match was so entertaining is neither cared about what the other was going to do to them. Huang was going to go for submissions no matter how many punches she had to take, and Radzuan was going to dish out punishment no matter how many submissions Huang tried off her back. Huang's experience advantage showed in always grabbing Radzuan pretty much any time & any where she could because Radzuan would engage her in the grappling rather than taking the easy win at distance, but both fighters just being stubborn was also a major factor. Everyone knew Huang was going to try to clinch at all costs, but Radzuan kept trying to answer with guillotines. Part of Radzuan's ability to get work in winning the hard way came from her easily being able to take top position on the ground after her guillotines failed, but Huang didn't seem to care about position all that much. She looked like a holdover from the no ground punches to the face days of fighting where you just dive after submissions no matter what position you were in because there wasn't any real penalty, except Radzuan did batter & bloody her pretty badly by the end. Huang took a lot of punishment even in round 1, but because of her tenacity almost all of it was in the clinch, where she accepted as many elbows as it took to get a single leg then work for her favorite gogoplata & a triangle. Even when Radzuan stood out of Huang's guard, she went right to pounding Huang with guard pass punches then jumped back into her guard for more ground & pound. A lot of Huang's attempts just seemed to be to keep Radzuan reacting & engaging her in the grappling, but Huang did have a triangle at the end of the 2nd round that was getting deeper as the bell rang. Radzuan had big unanswered flurries to start the 2nd & 3rd before Huang got her clinch, but it was her damage on the ground that easily trumped Huang's submission attempts which won her the fight. Good match.

NOAH 1/6/18, GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Kenou vs. Kaito Kiyomiya 22:02. Kiyomiya returned from his 6 month North American excursion, getting a shot at NOAH's top title in his first match back in Japan because the whole conquering hero idea somehow worked so well for Kazuchika Okada, and Kiyomiya can actually do more than let the opponent more or less wrestle themselves for a half hour then beat them with the one basic move they can actually do well. Kiyomiya is pretty inexperienced being a 21-year-old with about 250 matches under his belt at this point & apparently wasn't away long enough for them to suddenly portray him as a god, plus Kenou losing to a younger, far less established guy in his first defense would have destroyed much of the work NOAH did in 2017 to make him a potential ace. Goofiness of promotions difficulties making a big star by building guys up within their own promotion aside, Kiyomiya being the young wrestler who idolizes Mitsuharu Misawa & wants to bring NOAH back to that era while Kenou being the first champion who never met Misawa & wanting to lead NOAH into the future where it can evolve & change was a logical matchup to start the Kenou era with. While Kenou is clearly the more complete & well rounded performer at the moment, I loved the fire & passion Kiyomiya showed, and his energy & enthusiasm pulled a far more intense & urgent battle out of Kenou than we saw in his by the numbers title win over Edwards last month. Kiyomiya took it to Kenou on the inside as well as the outside until Kenou ducked his second whip into the guard rail then charging elbow & hit an impressive snap German suplex. They did something of a volume vs. power dynamic with Kiyomiya hitting Kenou as often as he could with not really Misawa level elbows (his striking still needs a lot of work), but Kenou getting in the one big shot that would flatten Kiyomiya, who would will himself right off the deck so he could throw himself at Kenou some more. This played into both of their strengths, Kenou being the badass stiff striker and Kiyomiya the really willful & determined youngster, as well as forcing a pace that made it seem like both guys were actually trying to win. As the match progressed, the sheer impact of Kenou's offense really began to take its toll, including bloodying Kiyomiya's nose, and Kiyomiya's heart could only take him so far. Kiyomiya stopped the diving footstomp finisher by getting up & dropkicking Kenou out of the air, which didn't really make sense given Kiyomiya was up before Kenou actually jumped, then got a hot near fall with a Misawa tribute released Tiger suplex. In general, Kiyomiya lacked the high impact offense to make you believe he could win, but the fans were so won over by his effort it didn't matter too much. He kept coming forward with elbows & taking monster shots until his body betrayed him, with Kenou finally KO'ing him with 3 high kicks in a row. Kiyomiya has a long way to go, but this felt like a really successful match for showing what Kenou is now as well as what Kiyomiya can be. ***1/2

NOAH Winter Navigation 2017 Final 12/22/17

GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Daisuke Harada vs. Minoru Tanaka 18:00. Tanaka has done it all in his 23 year career, holding the junior title in Michinoku, New Japan, All Japan, Wrestle-1, & ZERO1. That's essentially everywhere he worked that had a junior strap, so it's only natural that he'd make a challenge early in his NOAH career. At 45, it's hard to expect too much from him, but he hasn't deteriorated like most athletes his age, and was generally awesome here, honestly better than in his New Japan Jr. title days. He did a lot of the things he did 15 years ago, and while he somehow did them just as crisply & precisely, he's now figuried out how to get more mileage out of them. They did a really good job laying the match out, telling the story of Tanaka's advantage, but building the match really well along the way so it had all the explosive & exciting moments you'd expect, but they seemed to come naturally rather than being forced or stuff to do. Tanaka controlled at the outset, working over the arm in typical technical fashion, failing to get the quick win with an early Minoru special but doing some extra damage posting Harada then coming much closer with the armbar. Harada did an excellent job of selling the arm, constantly favoring it & doing his best to wrestle one-armed wherever he could, just using the left for stability. They did a good job of allowing Harada to make credible brief comebacks with his big moves to stay in the match without negating the work that Tanaka had already put in. This also allowed Minoru to shift to some of his bigger moves, for instance cutting Harada off on the top & making him pay with an avalanche style fisherman buster. Tanaka just always seemed to have the answer to what Harada was doing. I really liked the spot where they started with an even elbow exchange, but Harada totally took it over hitting several in a row though Minoru wouldn't fall. Just when you thought he was going to level Minoru with a discus elbow, Minoru got a high kick in while Harada was still spinning to regain the offensive & a near fall with an enzuigiri. Tanaka almost knocked Harada out with another head kick then went back to the armbar, which would have been a perfect finish, but Harada eventually made the ropes. Harada's strikes were taking their toll though, and he finally made his move catching Minoru going for the Minoru special & dropping him on his head similar to a Michinoku driver. It would have preferred a few move near falls for Harada before getting the finish. It wasn't just brushing Minoru off after Minoru had consistently got the better of things all match, but Minoru pretty much just kicked out of the turn over knee before losing to the Katayama German suplex. Still, it felt like they got the most out of the time they had, and left you feeling really good about both wrestlers & wanting Minoru to get a rematch. ****

GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Eddie Edwards vs. Kenou 23:50. A good match that just couldn't follow the previous one mostly due to the lack of storytelling. Sure, the overall level of work & quality of the execution was a lot better in the junior title match as you'd expect even though the main eventers had been top level juniors in their own right, but this just felt like an indy match where they were doing a good job of being entertaining & flashy rather than the culmination of 4 years of effort bringing a top junior from a small dying regional promotion to the top of the heavyweight scene in one of Japan's biggest promotions. Edwards did his chops & Kenou did his kicks, in between they did every move they could think of, but it just felt like they were doing things for the sake of it as they failed to follow up even on the most obvious points. Normally Edwards countering Kenou's charge on the outside with an overhead belly to belly into the guard rail would at least give Edwards a run, better yet one directed at the injured area, but after Kenou sold the back of his leg for maybe 5 seconds it was forgotten like everything else. Kenou couldn't even get a run after Dragon suplexing Edwards on the apron. Edwards did sell the neck, but came back with an overhead belly to belly into the turnbuckle & they went back to the same elbow exchange they did before the Dragon suplex after a double sell. Later, the neck wasn't even worth holding when Kenou hit a released Dragon, and again a released Dragon with both standing on the top was just a setup move for the footstomp. All the strikes in this match were really nasty. Kenou's chest was bleeding midway through the match from Edwards chopping him so ruthlessly, but the striking also wasn't particularly interesting, there's just nothing dynamic or compelling when they are just standing there waiting as they just endlessly take turns landing a the same single shot. Kenou finally laid Edwards out with a couple high kicks then a diving footstomp to the back then the front to capture the biggest title of his career. I loved the effort here, but it felt like they were doing a facsimile of a big NOAH match without figuring out what made it tick. ***

Invicta 33 12/15/18, Invicta Atomweight Title: Jinh Yu Frey vs. Minna Grusander 5R. Their first match for the vacant title at Invicta 30 6/21/18 was a disaster in every way, just stalemating with Grusander holding Frey against the cage round after round. Normally, this isn't the type of match that would have fans clamoring for a rematch, but the fact that the decision was such highway robbery as the judges somehow managed to rule in favor of the fighter who spent the fight with her back on the cage doing nothing instead of the fighter who held her there trumped the fact that it was so uneventful. These aren't boring fighters in general though, and luckily it wasn't the matchup itself that just brought out the same dull pattern. Grusander did more than Frey in 3 rounds in the 1st fight if you had to give the rounds to somebody, but since the judges somehow only gave her 1 or 2 rounds she had to focus more on scoring rather than cutting off the ring & controlling against the cage. Meanwhile, Frey has had a chip on her shoulder since everyone keeps telling her she doesn't deserve the title, so it wasn't so much a defense for her as going out there determined to prove she deserved it all along. Frey had a good sequence midway through the 1st where Grusander finally came forward with an aggressive punch combo & Frey tied her up then landed a series of big left hands on the break while holding Grusander's left wrist so she couldn't defend herself. Grusander was always ready with her quick right hand, but wasn't jabbing to set it up, so she gave Frey the opportunity to lead with her more powerful punches. Grusander was able to counter a left low kick with a right straight for a flash knockdown then follow with a few big punches against the cage when Frey popped up. Frey did get a high kick in, but Grusander took her down. Round 2 had more activity though was still similar to the close rounds we saw in the 1st fight where not a lot was landing. The big improvement for Grusander was her ability to land knees in the clinch. Frey had 1 big shot on the break, but I thought Grusander was up 2-0. Grusander was doing a decent job with the inside leg kick when she threw it, but her refusal to throw the jab hurt her in the 3rd as she missed with a right & came in thinking Frey was still off guard from dodging only to get nailed with a big left. Frey got a half clinch, landing a series of lefts while she held Grusander with her right until she got the takedown. Grusander had her own takedown, but got swept. Grusander got another takedown thought & spent the last 1:45 on top working for a rear naked choke & landing a few good shots. This is the kind of round that's usually scored for Grusander because she spent the end on top, but I though Frey deserved it for the damage earlier. Frey bloodied Grusander's nose landing punches at distance in the 4th. I had it even going into the 5th, but one of the fears for Grusander is the fight was not only in the same arena (which is hard to avoid given Invicta really only uses 1), it was being scored by 2 of the same 3 blind mice that screwed her the first time. Grusander was walking Jinh down in the 5th, but neither were really connecting, and both were defending the takedown. The fight, almost fittingly, seemed poised to end in the same sort of stalemate that marred their first encounter with Grusander holding Frey against the cage but failing to get the takedown. Frey was able to land a good punch on the break, and another decent one in the final seconds. Both fighters did way better than they did in the first fight, but this one was even tougher to declare a winner, especially since so little happened in the 5th. I was okay with Frey getting the win, but although to a lesser extent than the first fight, it's basically another draw due to rounds we're just picking someone because we're supposed to. Frey won a split decision 48-47, 47-48, 48-47. Good match.

UFC Fox 31 12/15/18

Dan Ige vs. Jordan Griffin 3R. Ige was the much more solid technical fighter, but Griffin was the better athlete & had more cardio. Dubbed "The Native Psycho", Griffin was also enough of an unconventional wildman that he kept catching Ige off guard, and even though he made a lot of mistakes, he made things difficult enough for Ige that Ige began to stay in losing positions or take low percentage chances because his energy bar was down. Griffin had a bodylock takedown early, but Ige immediately used an elevator into a whizzer to sweep then cut Griffin with the first punch. Ige landed some big shots on the ground, but was too high on the back going for the rear naked choke & Griffin slipped out & almost had a good guillotine. Ige prevented Griffin from getting the right leg outside the hip for body control on the submission attempt & wound up tripping him into a better top position than he'd just had then mounted. Griffin had a big explosion when he finally got back to his feet, but was mostly missing, including 3 high kicks. They seemed to get into a game where Griffin couldn't prevent Ige's takedown, but would bait Ige into going for a choke so he could scramble back to his feet. Griffin managed to get under the neck midway through the 2nd, but Ige was able to get to his back before Griffin could control the body. The problem is he was content to just stay there for the rest of the round, except when he gave Griffin a guard pass by gambling on a leg lock, albeit this was pretty late. It was a round a piece going into the 3rd, and while conventional wisdom said Ige should be able to hit a takedown & just lock Griffin down without too much trouble, you felt like Griffin would make something happen, and it would come down to whether he could put enough pressure on Ige that Ige wouldn't be able to beat him through proper technique. Griffin was the one that tried for the quick takedown, but Ige was able to dig deep to fend it off, and ultimately fighting smarter was the difference in the fight. Griffin continued to put out the high kick with no setup rather than do something to fool Ige, while Ige threw a combo, disengaged then dropped into a double leg. They started winging after Griffin used the cage to get back to his feet, but again Griffin wasn't ready for Ige to switch into takedown mode, though Griffin nearly took his back before Ige eventually took over on the ground. Ige had almost no ground damage in this round, but was able to slow things down enough that he won the round on control rather than getting suckered into more scrambles. Ige won a unanimous 29-28 decision. Good match.

Joaquim Silva vs. Jared Gordon R3 2:39. The best fight on the best UFC show of the year, standing above the host of other quality matches because it was so back & forth with highlight moments. The first round was outstanding with Gordon really getting the better of it because he was looser & more fluid whereas Silva was loading up too his detriment, but then getting hurt late, as he would in each round. Gordon made a great move where he not only slipped outside Silva's right & landed his own, but then instead of recoiling, he locked Silva's neck & took the little steps forward so he could trip him down into an arm triangle. Silva quickly turned toward the cage & tried to stand, but Gordon took his back & landed 2 good knees before he let him go. Silva wanted to answer quickly & pressed forward with a series of rights, but once he backed Gordon into the cage, Gordon angled off & nailed him with two right hands then tripped him. Gordon bounced Silva's head off the canvas with the best of his ground punches, and burst open Silva's cauliflower ear at some point. Silva managed to get back to his feet late & hurt Gordon with an overhand right then dropped him with a flying switch knee, though Gordon went right into a double leg attempt to finish the round. Though Gordon appeared to absorb Silva's shots better, he also continued to look to wrestle in the second, which, while certainly not a bad strategy, probably meant he was still trying to recover & made it clearly the least of the 3 rounds action wise. Again, the majority of the round was Gordon's, but Silva had a double leg late & took Gordon's back. Silva was so high on the back it looked like Gordon could shake him off, but instead Silva made a fantastic move picking Gordon's leg & rolling into a stump puller that injured Gordon even though the round was over almost as soon as he got it. Cormier was wondering whether Silva knew Gordon was compromised, but I'm not sure it mattered. The third round seemed to be the way Silva wanted to fight, and now that Gordon's footwork resembled a pro wrestlers, Silva wasn't going to suddenly be the mover of the two, he was going to take advantage of his opportunity to load up against a guy who no longer possessed all his options to evade. This was an even more fan friendly round, just standing toe to toe. Gordon still tried to be quicker with his punches, and was having some success, but now that he was on his heels he didn't have the spring or the first step and Silva eventually got through when he started using kicks & body punches to open up the head rather than just headhunting. Gordon tried a double leg without much drive, and started to really up his volume though he was suddenly looking quite fatigued & seemed to be fading fast. Gordon was increasingly veering toward slow motion territory, and Silva finally began to land consistently. backing Gordon into the cage & hurting him badly with right hook to the chin. Gordon's chin was now there for the taking, & Silva caught it going back & forth with hooks until Gordon was out on his feet. Though Silva might have won either of the completed rounds, it also wouldn't have been a surprise if he lost a 29-28 decision if he didn't come on coming on early enough this round to get the big finish. Excellent match.

Drakkar Klose vs. Bobby Green 3R. This fight was very competitive, but Green won 1 round easy & should have won at least 1 if not both of the other rounds close. Klose came forward more often than not, but Green was outlanding the opponent, using his Roy Jones style hands down relying on speed & reflexes to make the opponent miss badly, & stuffing his takedowns. Green outlanded Klose 110-69, connecting at a 63% clip. Sure, Klose's game is hugging, but Green had the only takedown of the match & was on top another time, while Klose was not very close at a cool 0/6. Green also had the only submission attempt. So you're saying, well, sure, but the fight isn't scored as a whole, these totals must just not have broke right for Green. Nope, Green outlanded Klose in all 3 rounds, with the most competitive round being a 6 strike margin in the 3rd. To make things worse, Klose was blatantly cheating by grabbing Green's gloves, and kept trying to disguise this from the ref when Green was calling him out for it rather than even making it look like it was some kind of accident, letting go when Keith Peterson got an angle he could see then grabbing the inside again like a pro wrestling heel. When Peterson finally broke it up, Green scolded Klose to fight rather than cheat. Early on Klose was coming forward & landing leg kicks . This was Klose's best strategy because Green can't really avoid those with his upper body snaking, but Green got Klose to react to his movements as the fight progressed & Klose was also trying to make it a brawl on the inside so Green's technical advantages were lessened, so these were really only a factor early on. Green started to come on in the 2nd half of the round, and made a beautiful move where he came in behind a left middle kick & locked a rear naked choke, but Klose was able to escape before Green could jump on his back to get the 2nd hook in. Green landed the best shot of the round coming in behind the jab then switching stances to open up the big right, and had as many low kicks as Klose. I don't think it was a particularly decisive round, Klose's low kicks were probably slightly better than Green's, but Green made a few things happen. Klose tried to apply more pressure in the 2nd rather than allowing Green to trick him into backing, but Green had a takedown into side mount early, mounted & had 2 minutes of ground & pound before Klose cagewalked to get back to his feet. Klose had a good knee on the inside & tried to lift Green into an armbar Demetrious Johnson style, but Green saw it coming & came down on top where he finished the round. Green lost his balance defending a knee early in the 3rd, and though he was able to get up before Klose could get his back or really land anything notable, he had to back away & Klose closed the distance with a nice right hook. Green made good adjustments in the 3rd when he realized Klose just wanted to get inside & make it ugly, using his front kick & jab on the outside & when he'd close the distance instead of trying to exit, he'd just wait there for Klose's counter, avoid it then reposition himself. This didn't always work, especially when Klose tried to throw a quicker lower power punch rather than a huge shot, but generally Green would land a body shot first, so if Klose landed it was 1 for 1. Between Green's antics & his evasion, Klose seemed so lulled into worrying about what Green was doing that he forgot to throw his low kicks that were working in the 1st even though there were plenty of openings. I feel like those could have shifted the balance because Green was a lot more accurate in the punching exchanges, and by letting him get off first Klose was always going to be behind since neither were throwing much in the way of combinations, but had Klose landed the leg kick then took the shot & fired back, now he's up .7 strikes rather than down .3. Klose did a good job of defending takedowns in the 3rd, particularly when Green got in on a single after eating a knee & tried to switch to a double but Klose was able to use enough of a guillotine against the cage to get Green to release. Green seemed a little winded after this, and Klose was gaining traction late in a tight round, even remembering the leg kick, but Green stopped him finally following the left to the body with a nice right to the chin. Klose won a unanimous decision 29-28. Good match.

Edson Barboza vs. Dan Hooker R3 2:19. I was surprised that Hooker was favored here because their level of competition has been so much different. Sure, Barboza has lost 2 in a row, but there's no shame in losing to Khabib or Kevin Lee, and this is the easiest fight he's had in at least the last 4 years whereas sure Hooker has been on the rise, but his only real tests were a win over Gilbert Burns and a loss to Yair Rodriguez. Barboza is always fun to watch (except when the opponent is just laying on him) & I was getting a lot more excited about this contest when Hooker came out exchanging kicks with him. Hooker is the longer fighter, and scoring from the outside isn't difficult for him, but the power in Barboza's kicks is simply another level. Barboza was doing a good job of just using his speed to counter, waiting for Hooker to step forward or throw a kick & landing the fast low kick or right hand punch before the southpaw Hooker was ready to defend. Barboza finally stunned Hooker coming in with a right hook with a minute left in the 1st & followed with a big high kick. Hooker was counting on Barboza running out of gas, and although him coming forward was exactly what Barboza had shown he wanted, Hooker realized the distance game wasn't going to work & began to get even more aggressive & overzealous, constantly forcing an inside fight even at the price of getting caught with clinch knees and hammered with huge hooks. The benefit of the inside fight is Barboza couldn't sit back & wait on Hooker, he just had to keep throwing. Barboza only knows how to throw full power shots, so the closer Hooker got, the more Barboza was throwing huge bombs. The level of violence was good from the start, but man it really shot up quickly toward the end of the first & just kept escalating. Barboza kicked Hooker's leg out early in the 2nd, but Hooker just sucked it up & kept charging forward. Hooker was really exposing himself being square on the inside, but the fact he was able to stay inside in the 2nd took Barboza's kicks out of the equation & gave Hooker a chance. Barboza began to gas, and Hooker finally started connecting regularly. Hooker slipped throwing a high kick & Barboza pursued him to the ground a little too slowly, with Hooker already to his butt by the time Barboza tried to get on top, he was able to create a scramble & drag Barboza down. Barboza's gas tank was surprisingly decent when he was able to push Hooker off & get back to his feet mid round, but Hooker could really take a shot. He walked into a big hook, and just kept coming forward anyway firmly believing his chin would outlast Barboza's cardio. Barboza did such a good job of battering & bloodying Hooker's face on the inside he forgot to throw the low kick when he backed out & had the distance, which is likely one of the reasons other than tremendous heart that Hooker was able to last as long as he did. Barboza landed some big body hooks & kicks toward the end of the round that led to him finally almost dropping Hooker with a right hook. Hooker's right eye & left leg were done by the end of the second, but he soldiered on, somehow moving surprisingly well to start the 3rd. Hooker couldn't get a takedown against the cage, and walked into a spinning heel kick to the rib or liver after disengaging that injured & buckled him. I thought the ref could have stopped the fight there, though that might have been early, but certainly when Barboza buckled him again with a spinning heel kick because Hooker couldn't really move then landed a right hook to the head when he finally straightened back up. Cormier kept calling for the ref to end it, but Rob Hinds seemed incapable of stopping it while Hooker was still standing, and Hooker kept buckling but not going down. Hooker took another spinning kick, and when he tried to come forward he literally couldn't even throw his punch, getting beat to the punch by default then finally going down from a body hook for the stoppage. Very good match.

Al Iaquinta vs. Kevin Lee 5R. I really liked Iaquinta's patience & composure here. He's the considerably better standup fighter, and he did what he could to pressure Lee on his feet & cut off the ring without overcommitting & getting taken down unnecessarily even when that arguably let Lee recover from some damage. Lee still got some takedowns, but they were because his wrestling is that good not because Iaquinta got overzealous, one could argue with Iaquinta's choice to work the body in terms of it putting him inside where it was easier for Lee to grab him, but his gameplan was all about using his conditioning to win the long game. Iaquinta was fine on his back, giving away a round or two but giving Lee no real openings to finish with his favorite rear naked choke even though Lee was able to take his back. Especially when Lee was fighting southpaw, Iaquinta would grab his lead leg as a diversion to land a hook or in the 1st a spinning forearm on the release. Lee did a good job of using his jab, quickly damaging Al around the left eye. He was trying to use it to set up a high kick, but Iaquinta angles in & out very well, and though he took some shots, they were never the dangerous ones. Lee got a takedown early in the 2nd after Iaquinta landed a body punch & took Iaquinta's back, but Iaquinta kept his hand behind his head to protect his neck & waited for his opportunity to get to his knees then turn but stand rather than going into Lee's guard. Lee had been able to hold his ground behind his jab early in the fight, but Iaquinta was now pressing forward behind his jab to back Lee, which was going to tire him out a lot quicker. I figured Iaquinta lost the 2nd because Lee had the dominant position & had more punches because of the ground & pound, but it was a good round for both fighters, Lee establishing the threat on the ground but Iaquinta showed he was prepared & made Lee use a lot of energy throughout while landing some good shots late. Lee's best round was the 3rd, getting the takedown midway & coming closer to getting the choke though even moreso than in the 2nd, Lee was so focused that one finish Al was defending that he didn't do much damage on the ground. Iaquinta was going bigger in the 4th, hurting Lee with a lead right hook early in the round & pushing him back pretty much the rest of the round. With Lee being a lot more tired & also a bit dazed, he wasn't using his jab as much, which allowed Iaquinta to use his own jab less, getting a little closer so he could just lead with his power punches or the occasional high kick. One of the things that made the fight so good is how close it was. As a whole, Iaquinta was winning the fight through 4 rounds fairly clearly, but the first or second round could have gone either way. The fight always felt as though it were up for grabs, and particularly in the 5th, each fighter was one decisive action away from the win. Iaquinta may not have set himself up well on the scorecards, but certainly from a training, gameplan, and execution standpoint, his focus on cardio cutting where he cuts very little weight compared to Lee focusing on strength & cutting a ton of weight shifted things in his favor, especially since he'd arguably been able to make Lee work harder in every round. Obviously if Lee could get a takedown in the 5th he could probably win the fight, but the real question was whether he was going to have enough energy to apply some forward pressure because Al was piecing him up, especially in the 4th, when he moved backwards & kept getting cut off. Lee instead used what energy he had left for the takedown, which was a good plan, but Al was able to stalemate things against the cage. The round was halfway over before you knew it, but once Al finally got free he was really able to take advantage of Lee's fatigue. Lee was doing enough to hold Iaquinta off, but Iaquinta finally hurt him with a right hook to the body followed by a left hook to the head. Iaquinta finished strong, cracking Lee with several big right hands. He never gambled for the finish, which perhaps let Lee off the hook, but by staying on the outside & landing single power shots rather than going in for the flurry didn't give Lee any easy takedown attempts. Iaquinta won a unanimous decision 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 & declared himself the #1 contender because he took it like a man while Connor (predictably) looked for a way out. Good match.

FCP A Tribute To Francois Trebec 2/23/18: WALTER vs. David Starr 19:56. Their Defiant #1 contenders match from the next month was just a fine undercard match, but in this earlier midcard match they really went the extra mile to make it feel like a main event war. Just a sick level of brutality even by WALTER's massive standards. Starr is a first class masochist, and this was possibly more punishing than even some of his death matches. It was a very simple contest with WALTER just tossing Starr around & laying into him until Starr finally started ducking & firing back with his own massive lariats. One thing that's good about WALTER is although he's a big bully, he's not one of those Samoa Joe pansies who whines at the first taste of his own medicine, WALTER is not merely happy if you can hit him back about as hard as he hit you, he pretty much demands it. Just when you thought Starr might finally be gaining some traction, WALTER caught his tope & tossed him into the post then powerbombed him on the apron & crotched him on the guard rail. WALTER countered most of Starr's attempts to fly & Starr turned WALTER's powerbomb into a Canadian destroyer, but Starr isn't as creative an opponent as WALTER really needs, so the match was somewhat lacking in the big man vs. small man spots that were necessary to give Starr any kind of actual chance. Starr never really showed a strategy or did anything remotely unusual or surprising to elevate the match beyond their individual talents. Though you never felt he had any real chance to win beyond some kind of fluke, and in a 20 minute match they ought to be able to find some area where the underdog can do enough to at least make you believe he's more than a double tough punching bag, the sheer brutality of the match made it memorable. I feel Starr could be a lot more talented than he is, but at the same time he has a lot of heart & gets more mileage out of the ability he currently possesses than he should, so he's an easy guy to root for. In this case, he somewhat made up for his lack of variety by hitting harder than just about any of WALTER's small opponents & obviously withstanding more big shots, so he got there in the end even if without the kind of drama you'd really like to see. ***1/2

Defiant Stacked '18 8/26/18, Defiant Internet Title Match: WALTER vs. Will Ospreay 22:24. The question in these WALTER vs. junior heavyweight matches is always what is the little guy going to do to both make the match & find a way to be a credible opponent. I liked how rather than try to address the later, Ospreay reversed things and moved as far from being competitive as he could to make himself into an even bigger babyface. This worked particularly well because it was a long match & Ospreay is a big star, so he came in with enough credibility that he could get away with devoting a lengthy period to putting WALTER over as an even bigger monster. Ospreay knew the match he needed to fight, and did his best to try to create opportunities for that, but without slowing WALTER down, his flying didn't work on him. WALTER caught his tope leading to the key early spot where WALTER bloodied Will by throwing him into the ring post, and later WALTER got his legs up for the moonsault. Ospreay had some answers, for instance turning the golden bomb into a guillotine, but WALTER is just so big & overpowering that he threw Ospreay off with a doublearm suplex. WALTER definitely didn't work as stiff here as he generally does, and the biggest issue for Will is his strikes were generally slightly below the mark where WALTER could put them over all that much. Granted, WALTER getting the majority of the offense in didn't make for as aesthetically pleasing a match, but it seemed the more reasonable storyline. I really liked the match up until Ospreay's comeback, which was the more exciting portion to be certain, but they didn't put enough effort into finding a way to make us buy into it. The crucial failing was not concocting any kind of excuse for Will to finally do his thing after all this time getting wrecked. WALTER was losing his cool from not being able to finish, and he started clubbing Ospreay when he was in the front row, and apparently the ref restaining WALTER was enough for Will to do a swandive uppercut off the barrier then hit two dives. While this transition was by no means terrible, if Ospreay wasn't eventually going to evade something & have WALTER take a huge bump or crash landing to actually finally get his fying in they might just as well have done a fun match with Ospreay flipping all over the place from the outset, which was more toward the direction the rematch went in, though Will missed enough there that it didn't seem like WALTER was simply allowing Ospreay to do whatever he felt like. Ospreay started to counter in the final stages, but he was overdoing the Hulking up instead of getting to it, especially since his window of opportunity to consolidate the advantage should have been really narrow. This eventually cost him as after he hit 3 shooting star press variations, WALTER countered his Oscutter knocking him out of the air with a huge lariat. WALTER failed to choke Ospreay out there, but countered another Oscutter & choked him out after a tombstone. They had the basic workings of what could have been a memorable match, they just needed to do a better job with the transitions to really pull off the story they were trying to tell where the underdog pulled himself from the brink of defeat & nearly willed himself to victory. As it stands, the 2nd half has too much of a superhero feel. ***1/4

OTT Fourth Anniversary Show 10/13/18

Tomohiro Ishii vs. KUSHIDA 18:48. I enjoyed this quite a bit as a diversion for KUSHIDA, but if the New Japan junior division wasn't a joke, it's not something I'd be interested in seeing him do very often because he needs more athletic & technical opponents to be all he can be. The match was far more KUSHIDA's than Ishii's, and he was able to add quite a bit of diversity to Ishii's simple style without sacrificing any of Ishii's toughness. KUSHIDA got Ishii to use more moves & less chops, which allowed for more sequences & counters, a more developed match for the king of beatdown. KUSHIDA obviously had to dumb down his own offense because Ishii isn't offering the same level of athletic cooperation & stand in front of him so Ishii could beat him senseless, though at least there was sometimes a method to that madness, as KUSHIDA was kicking Ishii's compromised arm. Neither of those were bad things, and when you think of the ways this could have gone, it was definitely the best of the options. Even though Ishii isn't the ideal heavyweight opponent for KUSHIDA stylistically, he's one of the few that would see this as a great opportunity to have a high quality match rather than an easy win that's not worth much effort. Though this was a midcard match, they went long & hard. Sure, it potentially could have been better as a Korakuen Hall main event, but the difference would only have been a few more big moves, and this already had more non-striking offense than you'll see from an Ishii heavyweight match. KUSHIDA was pretty feisty here, trying to prove he could hang with the big boys by using his speed, athleticism, and technical ability to make Ishii look stupid. The problem was early on he kept letting Ishii know about how stupid he was making him look, and Ishii is the last guy you want to provoke. KUSHIDA took some big bumps to make the shoulderblock & superplex look massive, and really when Ishii actually hit something he was blowing KUSHIDA away, but KUSHIDA avoided enough to stay in the match & progress toward an arm submission. KUSHIDA almost had the win with the hoverboard lock after laying Ishii out with a huge Masahiro Tanaka. You felt like once Ishii made his comeback, it was going to be one of those annoying matches where KUSHIDA immediately lost, but instead they treated this like a big match, and KUSHIDA got to kick out quite a few times. There were a couple sloppy spots since they aren't used to working with each other & Ishii hasn't done much in the way of a more athletic style since his Michinoku days, but other than that this went about as well as one could have asked, with KUSHIDA losing respectfully. ***1/2

Minoru Suzuki vs. Timothy Thatcher 17:14. Again, I was really happy with this match because it's the match you'd want to see from Suzuki vs. Thatcher. Suzuki really focused on his technical wrestling and minimized his antics, so the match was very submission oriented with a couple striking sequences and a few suplexes thrown in. More importantly, it was intense because Suzuki removed enough of the screwing around that it didn't get in the way too much. Suzuki used the chair once or twice & got into it with the ref, but these were really minor aspects rather than themes, and instead you got to see them using their little touches such as stepping on the knee while working the arm to leverage the opponent to the canvas. While stylistically they are pretty similar, I liked how they were able to differentiate themselves through their personalities without taking time away from the action to do so, and how Thatcher's tolerance for pain was kind of his undoing against the sadistic master because he tried so hard to show he was tougher than Suzuki he wound up eating a few more elbows than he could actually handle. I would have rather seen this end with a submission than the Gotch piledriver since they'd invested so much time in the technical wrestling, but the final stage was heavy head shots, and that's a fine KO blow. ***

OTT World Title Match: WALTER vs. Will Ospreay 26:50. A big improvement from their Defiant match, coming across as a big main event where Ospreay had a chance, partially because the crowd was a lot more jacked for the match & especially loving Ospreay & rooting against WALTER. The strategy was better defined here with Ospreay knowing he just had to be fearless & making more of an effort to use his movement & flying, taking it to WALTER any way he could. Aside from one sequence where he got suckered into showing his fighting spirit like every other little guy WALTER fights, Ospreay did a better job of avoiding WALTER's big haymakers & getting in some quick attacks even though he never managed any real offensive runs & definitely took a lot more than he gave. So many of his high risk moves failed, but he wasn't going to win the match by abandoning his best moves, so if WALTER chopped him out of the air, so be it. There was a great spot where Ospreay was prepared to miss the shooting star press, landing on his feet & forward rolling because he saw WALTER get up, but then getting knocked to the floor with a John Woo dropkick as soon as he turned toward WALTER. Ospreay would randomly fire up in a really corny manner, particularly this lame headbanging that could have cued Van Hammer's theme song, & try to make a comeback only to get cut off quickly. His screaming to life when he was ready to start working his way out of WALTER's sleeper was particularly cartoonish. WALTER did a much better job with his persona, showing his cockiness with both his actions & offense, doing little things to disrespect & toy with his much smaller opponent while still continuing to beat on him. Ospreay had a few strikes that didn't connect the way they needed to, but in general, did a much better job in their second go around of connecting hard enough that you'd believe the shots would make an impact even on WALTER. I liked WALTER's variation on the powerbomb on the stage where he was standing on the floor, thus making it the stage into a table that didn't break or hell even give. The match was pretty dramatic & just kept finding ways to continue. You figured Ospreay would win after the match was restarted because the ref missed Ospreay's foot being on the ropes, but WALTER kicked out of the Oscutter & Ligerbomb before taking Ospreay's legs out when he was trying to balance on the top & beating him this time for real with a diving body attack just because it was more fun & insulting to beat the aerial assassin at his own game. ***3/4

Bellator 212 12/14/18, Bellator Lightweight Title Brent Primus vs. Michael Chandler 5R. Primus won the title from Chandler in a big upset on 6/24/17 quickly taking his leg out, though Chandler would have fought with one usable leg if they would have allowed him. The undefeated Primus, whose career has been held back by inactivity, hasn't fought since, while Chandler won 2 fights to set up the rematch. In the first two rounds, Primus had enough space that he was able to switch between trying the right low kick & the left high kick. Though Chandler was out of range & took a few shots early, he had such a speed advantage he was was able to get inside when he needed to, following missing a lunging distance closing right with a big left for an early knockdown. Primus recovered quickly, but time and time again Chandler missing with a right allowed him to get inside allowed him to get hold of Primus & score the takedown. Chandler's wrestling was a huge problem Primus never answered, as he either took a bunch of punches & elbows working for an omoplata that never materialized or conceded the round using a closed guard or body triangle. Primus tried to stay active use his kicks to keep Chandler from rushing in, and the 2nd round was by far his best of the fight. Chandler was having to step in to reach with his jab, and Primus soon timed it & dropped him with a left straight counter. Chandler wasn't so much hurt as caught off guard by a well timed & placed shot, but I thought Primus still might finish even though he didn't have the rear naked choke under the neck because every time Chandler pulled Primus' hand free he just locked it right back. Luckily for Chandler, the cage was keeping Primus from being able to lay back & really get his lower body into it. Chandler quickly turned into Primus' guard, and it was all downhill for Primus from there as he tried to be active from his guard, but took some big postured up bombs while Primus was looking for an armbar. I'd still give this round to Primus for the knockdown & submission attempt over control & ground & pound. Primus started well in the 3rd working the jab & his kicks, but again Chandler just used a wild right to get inside then transitioned into a double leg. The first half of the fight was quite entertaining, particularly the first 7 minutes, but it started to be wash, rinse, repeat as Primus had no answer to Chandler's takedowns & couldn't get off his back. Chandler won a 50-45 unanimous decision to become the first 3 time champion in Bellator. Good match.

UFC 231 12/8/18

Thiago Santos vs. Jimi Manuwa R2 0:41. It sounds silly to call a real fight violent given that's kind of the point, but you rarely see guys winging so aggressively. These two stood toe to toe & threw full power haymakers for as long as Santos had his way. Manuwa would slow the fight down clinching, and that was a real effective strategy for him because he would just explode into an elbow on the break then grab Manuwa & wait to do it again. The pace was inconsistent, but the explosions of crazy action more than made up for the lulls against the cage. Though this slugfest wasn't particularly long, that's not what you're looking for from this type of contest, and it felt complete because both had their moments before one finally overwhelmed the other. It didn't appear that would be the case, as Santos had two knockdowns in the first 20 seconds & his power was so ridiculous that any shot he landed threatened to finish. Manuwa was able to work the clinch until he got his senses back, and did a good job of breaking to land a big elbow. Manuwa had Santos in big trouble in the final 45 seconds of the 1st with a right elbow then left hook, and Santos inexplicably tried to answer with a slow motion spinning enzuigiri which may have worked in the sense that him landing on his back made Manuwa spend the rest of the round looking for a guillotine rather than letting him up & maybe taking him out. Early in the 2nd, Manuwa muscled Santos into the cage & tried for another big elbow, but this time Santos avoided & countered hurting Manuwa with a left hook. Santos reversed the position & landed another big left hook on the break. This time Manuwa tried to fight through being dazed rather than going right to the clinch, and Santos countered his left hook with an uppercut then finished with a left hook. Good match.

UFC Featherweight Title: Max Holloway vs. Brian Ortega 4R. Not to dismiss Ortega, who has been on a great run being undefeated over 15 fights with wins over Edgar & Swanson, but the question here was whether Holloway was still going to be Holloway after having to pull out of 3 fights in a row. Not being able to make weight on a few days notice to fill in for Tony Ferguson is obviously not going to be career changing, but after this fight was cancelled in July because Holloway was having concussion problems, you didn't know what Max would finally emerge from that dark room. Luckily, it was the same one we've always seen, fighting his fight & showing no fear of potentially being banished to isolation if he got clipped again. Once the old Holloway got into the ring, the advantages were pretty much all on his side. Sure, Ortega hits harder & is always a threat to find a submission out of nowhere, but he's nowhere near as fast, evolved, or conditioned as Holloway, especially on his feet where almost the entire fight was contested. Holloway did what you expected, applying relentless pressure, beating Ortega to the punch every time, and being ready to avoid Ortega's predictable counters & batter him some more. Ortega landed a big shot now & then, but he didn't have the variation to fool or force Holloway into having his head in the wrong place at the wrong time like Holloway does. Holloway could just keep slapping Ortega & forcing him to miss so he could slap him some more when he fired back with the same combos, the more time Max spent in there with him, the more he had the read on Ortega & could manipulate him to his advantage. Of course, with Holloway's ridiculous pressure, Ortega was also slowing down from being pushed backed consistently & getting outlanded 2-1 round after round. One of the big strengths of Max is his ability to slide in & out of the opponent's range, and really control that distance so he's making the opponent miss but transitioning right back to the offense. Ortega would pretty much back straight away from Max's attack but he lacks the ability to create much of an attack from there, and that makes it tough against one of the most efficient movers the game has ever seen. Max would just suck up that space & sooner rather than later force Ortega to back again. Ortega was thus forced to do his best to stand his ground, but on the inside it's a speed & timing game, and Max would keep landing his quick no wind up slaps & time where Ortega would be for the next one while Ortega would load up & mostly miss. Ortega was trying to stay in there & wait for his opening for the takedown, but the problem is Holloway doesn't slow down or get sloppy. Ortega did have a flash takedown midway through the first & again in the 3rd, but was never able to lock Holloway down or dive into a submission. Ortega's face was getting pretty battered in the second as Holloway just kept landing on his nose, which winded him more forcing him to breathe out of his mouth. Ortega had some success with the jab, but Holloway was ready to counter when he moved forward to follow it, which he had to do because Max always slipped out of range when Ortega didn't step into his right hand. Ortega had his moment a minute into the 3rd when he finally landed the big right after the jab, followed with another big right, and was able to get a double leg against the cage & momentarily take Max's back, but Max was back to his feet before Ortega could get the hooks in to control him. Holloway wasn't moving as much or as well when he was recovering, and Ortega got a spinning back elbow in & began to chop the lead leg. Ortega's shots were having an effect on Holloway's ability to fight whereas Holloway's had busted Ortega up but he was still more or less the same speed & skill. Ortega was now able to score pushing forward because Holloway wasn't attacking & wasn't sliding around much to evade. He also seemed to relax & finally use some different techniques from different positions, but Max recovered when Ortega tried for the takedown. Holloway still outlanded Ortega 54-32 in the 3rd, but although none of the judges gave Ortega the round, it certainly wouldn't have been unreasonable as he did the damage & had Max compromised for a while. Holloway told the announcers he was going to finish Ortega this round, and came out a lot faster & more aggressive than he had fought in the previous rounds. His performance in this round was beyond outstanding. What was so amazing is even though Holloway really upped his output & aggression, it didn't compromise his defenses. On the contrary, he was ready for everything Ortega might throw at him, and Ortega's connect percentage fell to just 14% from 36% in the previous round while Holloway's jumped to a match high 69%. Holloway was landing around 50 strikes a round through the 1st 3, but had a whopping 141 in the 4th. Thought Holloway did have a brief takedown in this round, I think he only landed 1 strike on the ground. Ortega's left eye was getting really beat up, swelling almost closed by the end of the round which led to the stoppage before the start of the 5th. Good match.

GLORY 62 12/8/18 Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal: Benjamin Adegbuyi vs. Jahfarr Wilnis R3 2:39. Given Wilnis was worn out from a more difficult 1st round fight, it seemed a tough ask for him to suddenly defeat a higher seed who has beaten him in both their previous meetings, including a decision 3 months ago at GLORY 58 9/14/18. Wilnis seemed to have actually warmed up toward the end of his split decision win over Tomas Mozny, and fought a very energetic pressure fight against Adegbuyi, coming straight forward, mixing levels with his shots, & keeping a high output for heavyweights. He forced Adegbuyi to push him back, and while Adegbuyi was accurate with his kicks, for the first half of the fight Adegbuyi was having real trouble getting his hands going to do so. Wilnis took the first round, but fighting the high pressure style for multiple bouts started to catch up with him plus Adegbuyi decided to finally try to hold his ground or even push forward some & increase his output rather than being content to spend the round against the ropes. Adegbuyi got his right hook going midway through the second then hurt Wilnis with a right uppercut and again with an overhand right. Wilnis was just standing around eating shots for most of the 2nd half of the round as he tried to clear the cobwebs, and you felt like Adegbuyi could finish him with an uppercut in between the block, but Adegbuyi was winded & didn't have a big push in him to seal the deal. Wilnis recovered at the very end of the round, and with the rest in between, was able to get off to a good start in the 3rd while Adegbuyi was still lagging from failing to finish him. Even a high kick didn't slow Wilnis down, and he began to batter Adegbuyi on the ropes. Wilnis ran low on gas again, and Adegbuyi was able to get himself into the round, but with 2 minutes gone Adegbuyi needed something big to avoid losing a 29-28 decision. This time his left high kick wobbled Wilnis. Wilnis still came forward though throwing the right hand & not recoiling it tight enough to protect his head, and though he was able to back Adegbuyi into the corner, he again couldn't stop the left high kick & this time collapsed face first onto the middle rope, dangling by the waist as the ref stopped the fight. This was a pretty clutch finish for Adegbuyi, as I'm pretty sure he was 20 seconds away from getting upset. He had nothing left for the final, which was disappointing given it was the first ever fight between the current top two contenders to Rico, but his ability to dig deep to pull out the semifinal shows just how good a tournament fighter he is, and if this had been another 4 man tournament, he may have picked up his 3rd GLORY tournament. Good match.

Riptide International Waters 7/6/18: WALTER vs. Mike Bailey 15:42. This could have been a real classic instead of the usual taking turns letting one another take their best shot until WALTER, of course, won because it's a super heavyweight against a welterweight. Bailey is an actual taekwondo expert & they started off doing a really evolved match where Bailey stayed on the outside & used his speed for quick entries & exits, doing his best to get a shot in without taking counterfire. Granted, this portion looked like a Sayama UWF match, so it wasn't futuristic but Sayama's UWF stuff are some of the only examples of actual footwork & strategy shown in pro wrestling striking, so they or anything resembling a fighter using any semblance of timing or evasion beyond ducking are almost miraculous in a world where even the pro wrestlers who do MMA or kickboxing don't try to do anything remotely realistic in their rasslin' matches. Unfortunately, it quickly turned into a more standard pro wrestling match when WALTER countered Bailey's slingshot rana with a massive powerbomb on the apron. From there, WALTER was able to maul the dazed Bailey, and he dominated with his physicality, baiting Bailey into the losing strategy of trying to show his toughness by exchanging with him. This was more frustrating than usual because you feel like they do this because it's "what they're supposed to do" when actually the early cat & mouse portion is the real & competitive fight & the later stuff is just the usual pro wrestling nonsense. It was still very impressive in the sense that neither guy was holding back & Bailey did some of his crazy flying. I've never seen Bailey hit harder, and his technique is so good there's not nearly the gap in impact the weight differential would suggest, but it wasn't really a dramatic match. I mean, sure Bailey would sort of play even in the strike for strike rallies & get going from time to time with his moonsault kneedrop variations, but once his general m.o. was standing around slugging it out you knew it was just a matter of time. Again, WALTER was good, he does what's asked of him very crisply, but for the most part he just hammers away & allows the opponent to make the match or not. Bailey had no problem spicing things up, using his speed & athleticism to set up the big spots as well as showing a lot of charisma without slowing down the match to do so. He turned the bout into something more than two guys exchanging potato shots, but at the same time he seemed to feel trapped into either bombing on WALTER without setting it up or just leaping at him & hoping for the best. The violence here is off the charts, but after such a promising start, it felt like Bailey settled in to constantly rolling the dice & hoping for snake eyes. ***1/2

KSW 46 12/1/18: Mamed Khalidov vs. Tomasz Narkun 3R. A slower paced fight, certainly than their firefight at KSW 42 but also in general, though a really intense one because both had their obvious strengths & were able to score with them when the opportunity presented itself. Khalidov's speed advantage was the biggest difference because from the outside, which was the distance they fought almost the whole fight at, he was still able to close the distance & land while Narkun never was. Khalidov negated Narkun's reach advantage as much as he could by staying on the outside & moving back when Narkun stepped forward, which meant Narkun barely landed anything but low kicks all fight. Khalidov's stamina may not have been very good again in general, he didn't burn himself out early this time by pacing himself & was accurate, landing the few highlight shots, but as a result he didn't have enough activity for the judges. Narkun had more volume, tenderizing Khalidov's lead leg with the low kicks, which slowed Khalidov down just enough that he wasn't able to come in behind the jab & land many big overhands after the first round. Narkun really needed to apply more pressure on his feet to be successful because Khalidov was going to land the more powerful shots if you let him sit back & find his moments. Narkun really only pressured to start the 3rd though, and while it worked well as far as allowing him to actually land a punch & get a takedown, he also gassed himself quickly, and that may have been a contributing factor to Khalidov being able to reverse out of side mount. Khalidov is the much more evolved & creative striker, and was able to keep his upper body & eyes stationary so it was difficult for Narkun to tell where & how he was attacking. For the most part, he came in behind the left hand & did his damage following with a big overhand right, though he scored a knockdown in the first with the overhand left, and went back to it once or twice to keep Narkun honest. Khalidov didn't have as much success with low kicks as Narkun did, but they were an important tool for him as well because, although they looked a little clumsy, he was using the same entry as his punch combos to further mask where he was attacking. Round 2 saw each fighter put more emphasis on defense with both doing a better job of avoiding the strikes that were working in the 1st & neither adding a lot to keep the opponent from keying on what they'd already been sucessful with. It was the definition of what should be an even round. Narkun was more active, but each landed about 4 significant strikes before Narkun pulled guard with a minute left after Khalidov caught his kick. Khalidov landed a couple punches on the ground & a couple kicks to the leg when he stood out before Narkun got back up. If Khalidov stayed on top, he probably would have won the decision, though logically it was a good move because he's the better striker & Narkun is a lot more dangerous on the ground as proved by Narkun's triangle submission in their first fight. Narkun managed a takedown in the last second, which is likely what won him the fight even though it was completely meaningless at that point in the fight. Narkun finally walked Khalidov down to start the 3rd, landing essentially his only two standing punches of the fight then taking Khalidov down after catching his front kick. When Khalidov rolled out of side mount he tried to use ground & pound, but he was really low so he could loop punches to the head, but this made it easier for Narkun to try submissions, and he had a good armbar attempt. Khalidov started doing better after the second armbar attempt when he off centered himself in Narkun's guard & threw more body punches and hammerfists. He stood out in the final 15 seconds & tried to dive back into a guillotine, but Narkun slid his head right out & again finished on top. This was a close round, but you have to give it to Narkun because while the top control time was about even, he was a lot more threatening off his back and had the couple early standing strikes. In the end, an obvious Khalidov round 1, a wash in round 2, and a small edge to Narkun in round 3 resulted in a unanimous decision victory for Narkun. Good match.

Kai Kara-France vs. Elias Garcia 3R. This may be one of the last flyweight fights UFC runs, but it showed why the division is one of their most entertaining. The action was often too quick to keep up with, and the fight was very intricate with counters to the counter of the counter, especially evolving on the ground where a lot of fights with larger fighters just stagnate. One of the big highlights was France stuffing a takedown & rolling Garcia onto his back, but getting caught in a deep triangle. He spiked his way out of it, but Garcia switched to an armbar only to have France take the top again. Garcia started strong with a takedown attempt where he dropped down into a kneebar attempt & a left straight knockdown midway through the first that busted France's nose, but the later really woke France up. Though Garcia was getting through with his left hand, that was the only thing that was giving France much problem in standup, where France was the much stronger & more evolved fighter. Garcia was only engaging in this area enough to distract from his takedown attempts, but France kept finding ways to either defend them outright or quickly wind up on top. He also showed a strong ground game, passing Garcia several times & landing enough ground & pound in the 2nd half of the opener to steal the round in spite of Garcia's knockdown. Garcia went all out for finishes from the bottom, and while he kept threatening with armbars & leg locks, he also allowed France to posture up & repeatedly nail him in the head with brutal punches. The ref was thinking about stopping the fight late in the 2nd despite Garcia's submission attempts because he was just taking too many clean bombs. Anthony Pettis was Garcia's cornerman & just kept yelling "Eli, you've got to get up", but by the time he was able to create a scramble he was too battered to bring it to a positive outcome. Garcia just seemed so comfortable on his back that it wasn't so much that France was able to sweep, but rather that Garcia would switch to his back at the first sign of France trying to sneak out one side. Garcia took two big right hands 2 minutes into the 3rd, and dropped to his back trying to lure France to dive in. He did try to lock the arm, but much of the 100+ strike advantage France had worked up by this point had come while Garcia was on his back trying these kind of techniques. France never slowed down or relented, and while Garcia kept moving just enough to keep the ref to ever find a time to stop the fight, he really took an even worse beating late in the 3rd. Kara-France won a unanimous decision 30-25, 30-25, 30-26. Good match.

Defiant Road To No Regrets 3/26/18, Defiant Women's Title Match: Millie McKenzie vs. Kay Lee Ray 8:40. The level here was really high, but it was kind of short because they were building to their PPV match more than trying to finish things here. With another 5 minutes this probably would have been one of the best women's matches of the year, but the main thing they were trying to do was get across the idea that the finish would come from a "surprise" big move rather than a traditional finishing sequence where a culmination of big moves did someone in. These two were really slugging it out, to some extent because that's what was sort of working for them. They kept attempting to hit their moves, but they would just get countered, so one would hammer the other, but it would just get answered with an equally hard shot. These two may be strawweights, but they sure pack a punch, particularly Ray who perhaps has as good a pound for pound superkick as you'll see, certainly one of hers has more impact than 100 of Michaels kisses that don't connect. The more they kept having answers for each others favorite moves, the more pissed they both got. The match was high intensity from the get go, but the feeling it was a life & death struggle only grew with each passing minute. McKenzie finally gained an advantage with a series of pissed off German suplexes after Ray countered with one of her own, but Ray eventually fired up & answered with 3 superkicks only to have McKenzie answer with a reverse Frankensteiner to set up a double sell on Ray's 4th superkick. The one issue these two have is sometimes it's really obvious that they're just setting up a counter. Ray always does this boomerang off the 2nd where she just jumps onto her feet not actually trying a real flying move. There was also a spot where Ray cut off McKenzie's tope with an elbow supposedly before McKenzie could jump, but you can see McKenzie decelerate more and more as she approaches the ropes & the knee on her lead leg actually hits the bottom rope before Ray hits her, whereas she would have jumped 2 steps sooner if she was actually going to do her dive (we also saw this on the early double tope attempt in the main, but these two did a much better job in the rematch because Ray was more proactive, getting herself onto the apron so she could contact Millie earlier). Ray using the turnbuckle pole for a 619 on the outside worked much better than anyone's normal version where the ropes not being tight enough often screws things up. This surprisingly led to the finish where Millie stopped Ray's suplex on the apron & laid her out with an apron Canadian destroyer. The key point here is McKenzie didn't win via countout, which if what one would have expected, but rather by pinfall because getting Ray back in & covering her gave Ray less time to find a way to survive, setting up the last woman standing match where there obviously are no pinfalls. ***1/4

Defiant No Regrets 2018

Defiant Women's Title Last Woman Standing Match: Millie McKenzie vs. Kay Lee Ray 14:48. I'm not a fan of last man standing matches as a general rule, but they don't have to be EWW style super contrived bloated nonsense that are essentially a handful of ever so slowly set up gimmick spots & and a ton of ridiculous overselling to drag the match out to supposedly epic purportions. These two are the best women in the UK, and they really did what they always do, focus on beating each other up. It was actually better than their normal matches because they amped up the physicality that much more. The finish of their last Defiant match where McKenzie won with the Canadian destroyer on the apron made the gimmick match an actual logical evolution. The rules, or lack thereof, pushed them to spend more time trying to get a KO on the outside, but they started & finished in the ring & didn't slow their match down beyond the extra 6 seconds of getting up at 8 compared to kicking out at 2. Even when they brawled around the arena, they didn't really meander & kept doing moves, with McKenzie hitting a nice spear after her German suplex was countered & a monkey flip on the stairs. Caution wasn't the word of the day, and McKenzie wound up bleeding around the elbow from one crash or another on a surface the body isn't made to bump on. The biggest difference in the skill of the two is Ray is a considerably better striker because she hits through her target (or technically across when she's slapping) whereas Millie stops at her target so she can't throw as fast & is slowing at the end, particularly on her elbows. McKenzie is the more intense of the two though, so she could wind up being the better striker if she cleans up her technique in a manner that allows her to swing more freely. The match was quickly a battle of Ray's Gory bomb & McKenzie's Canadian destroyer, both were countered on the stage, but Ray landed one on the guard rail & ring apron. The key later spot was a redo of the previous finish, but with the 10 count Ray was just able to stay in the match. I appreciate the unconventional endings to their matches where they don't build to a huge climax, but rather both women are perpetually hanging on through willpower until someone finds something lethal. The finish here took the previous match to another level, but what I liked about it wasn't the escalation, but rather that Ray seemed to have just gained the upperhand cutting McKenzie off on the top with a climb up enzuigiri only to have Millie punch her way out of Ray's avalanche style Gory bomb & finish with an avalanche style Canadian destroyer. McKenzie barely being able to stand up long enough to beat the count herself then falling into the ropes but holding on was a nice touch. McKenzie was better here because she was able to mix things up a little more, not being so reliant on the German suplex & the varying terrain seemed to help her finding some different ways in & out of moves so there wasn't as much of a doing the same old things feeling. It was a really good match for her in terms of push because between winning the previous match in Defiant & getting the better of this match it seemed like she was set to drop the title here. ***3/4

Defiant Internet Title Match: Travis Banks vs. WALTER 11:51. A really well done big man vs. little man match where both complemented each other well & you believed could go either way even though the smaller man was generally playing from behind. WALTER really brutalized Banks, laying into him with merciless strikes & tossing him around like a rag doll, but he does that every match & without someone to craft something around that it's not enough. WALTER vs. Starr on Road to No Regrets was similar in that Starr was badly outsized, but the structuring & sequencing lacked any dynamic, it just felt like two guys going through their offense rather than really working together & bringing better things out of each other. Granted Banks is a lot better worker than Starr, but I felt like the difference here is he used his running sequences to keep WALTER from getting too locked in on just blasting away, as he had to find answers to end the spurts of a guy who wasn't going to stand in front of him for long, and thus they played off each other a lot more. WALTER clearly respected Banks, and sold a lot for him, with Banks finding ways to make that credible, and keeping things lively with his speed both in terms of outmaneuevering the big man but also using a head of steam on his strikes to make up for the size differential. WALTER was able to do a lot of little things here that were impressive because he has 100+ pounds on Banks, for instance at the outset he threw him to the ground from a headlock, not in the judo takedown sort of way that's a leverage hold for smaller people, but rather just brute strengthing him off the ground, spinning, & releasing. Though WALTER was clearly getting the best of the striking, both of their chests were glowing red before long. There was a lot of potential for further development, but it was a short undercard match rather than a main event, and thus it was rather incomplete. I didn't care much for the way they did the finish. I don't mind the idea of Banks getting the pin at the same time he taps out, hence he retains via draw, but if you are really going out from a rear naked choke you aren't going to be able to maintain a bridge to keep the leverage they were selling was necessary to actually get the pin before Banks passed out. ***

UFC Ultimate Fighter 28 Finale 11/30/18: Kevin Aguilar vs. Rick Glenn 3R. A really hard fought fight that was much closer in actuality than the scorecards would suggest. Both fighters had their moments in each round, and just really put a beating on each other, which was apparent quickly from the cuts & swelling. Glenn tried to hold the center of the octagon & use his reach to keep Aguilar back with jabs & body or head kicks. This worked well for half the round, but Aguilar got Glenn's timing, and increasingly was able to use his momentum against him. He countered the jab Glenn was coming in behind with a short elbow then landing an uppercut when Glenn was stopped cold in his tracks. Aguilar wasn't able to capitalize on having Glenn hurt, but did a good job of punishing him with body hooks finishing to the head or single middle kicks. The impressive thing about Aguilar is even though he was the much smaller man, he was able to hold his own at any distance, and thus wasn't forced into being the aggressor (if anything he wasn't aggressive enough). Instead, he was able to play a little better than even with Glenn at range, which forced Glenn to try to come in with a combo, and allowed Aguilar to often punish Glenn for trying to when Glenn tried to make something happen. In round 2, he nailed Glenn with an uppercut when he was coming in. Again, Aguilar stayed patient, working the body when he could, which seemed a good strategy against a fighter who missed weight badly. Aguilar did a better job in the 3rd of targeting the right eye that was swollen early in the fight, opening up a new cut & narrowing the slit that Glenn could see out of. Glenn was able to get inside & land a couple elbows, opening another little cut, but he just couldn't get Aguilar off balance or lure him into anything. Glenn tried to use the inside leg kick to open up the body kick, but Aguilar saw it coming & beat him with an overhand right that sent Glenn to the canvas. Glenn lost his mouthpiece, but Aguilar was trying to finish him with a flurry of ground & pound, so it wound up being out for 1:45 until Glenn managed to get back to his feet. Glenn somehow found the energy for one final push, backing Aguilar into the cage & wobbling him with an elbow, but Aguilar went into takedown mode, and got right up after Glenn countered with a little hip toss. Aguilar won a 30-27 unanimous decision. Good match.

BACK TO QUEBRADA REVIEWS

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web quebrada.net

* Puroresu, MMA, & Kickboxing Reviews Copyright 2018 Quebrada *