Best Matches Seen May 2019 |
EVE Global Women Strike 9/27/18
Kay Lee Ray & Viper vs. Charlie Morgan & Laura Di Matteo 12:31. Ray's matches have been a bit more lighthearted & goofy of late with Viper & Wolf involved, but she worked the majority of the match to carry things, & Morgan is a good, comparable opponent for her. Supposedly Ray is the wrestler Di Matteo most wanted to finally work with. In any case, this brought out the best performance I've seen from Laura, more focused & precise, less hit & miss or mechanical. They did a good job setting up their first singles match later in the weekend. One of the highlights was Laura's surprise boomerang tornado DDT, though Morgan topped this turning Ray's whip into the corner into the old Jericho style catapult body attack to Viper on the floor. As with McKenzie vs. Hashimoto, the match ended when it was just getting good, but the fluke flash pin of Ray on Di Matteo when Viper interfered, while not the sort of finish I like, was more reasonable in terms of making the incomplete match "complete". ***
SHE-1 2018 Qualifying No Time Limit Match: Toni Storm vs. Meiko Satomura 13:26. The more I see from Storm, the less impressed I am. She has a good WWE match, but that same short & repetitive match is literally all she does unless someone else can pull her into something different, which luckily Satomura can do. Storm is certainly good for her age & experience level, but as much as I'm for the veterans putting over the young girls in general, it's pretty sad that a legend like Satomura has been taking everyone's money to put her over at every stop across the globe without getting any of these wins back. Though the finish was the same as most Storm matches where she pouts because the opponent "shockingly" kicks out of her piledriver only to almost immediately do it again for the win, Satomura did make it a fuller, more complete match before that. That being said, this was really just Storm following Satomura through Satomura's usual routine, which is also kinda tired at this point, & not really adding anything to it, so the bonus is that Satomura's routine is a lot better than Toni's random dabblings and Taguchi nonsense. Storm did have enough stiffness & impact to be a good opponent who could credibly stand up to Meiko, so the match worked. Storm did do a couple different things, the Ayako Hamada spinning high kick, except it looked 100 times better than any Ayako ever did, & a vertical suplex turned into a swinging neckbreaker at peak elevation. I liked that Storm avoiding Satomura's strike combo led to them wearing each other down with some chain wrestling before they started to pick things up, but this portion of Satomura's match isn't the strongest because it's not using moves that work in a shoot or quick, back & forth high cooperation sequences that are entertaining in a show wrestling sense, it's more like she's trying to be a credible catch wrestler without updating anything based on 3 decades of data of what actually works in a real setting. Satomura had a good level of intensity & aggression here, particularly any time she'd throw a strike. There was an interesting if a bit awkward spot where Storm caught her penalty kick, snuck through the legs, & answered with a lungblower. In the end, this was some good banging back & forth, but it didn't really build to any kind of climax so much as just end when Storm kicked out of the Death Valley bomb & hit two Strong zeros. ***
2/19/18 Defiant Women's Title #1 Contendership Match: Kay Lee Ray vs. Sammii Jayne 14:10. Jayne, who was making her Defiant debut, was better here than in EVE in that she wasn't the most hated heel, so she had more freedom to do more of her old school technical wrestling. She's not a great athlete, and that's all the more obvious against Ray, who thus executes more crisply, but she's well rounded, and with more time they were able to develop the back & forth sequences and have some substance to what they were doing rather than Jayne just being someone who dabbles in a bunch of styles as in her typical 10 minute EVE match. This was also a longer women's match than we usually see in Defiant, and they did a really good job of building it up & making the bout good from start to finish. What I really liked here was the early technical portion where were able to get more creative, and just kept countering each other back & forth. The whole match was built around action and reaction, it was never that generic you go through your stuff then I'll go through mine uninteractive boredom. Ray was really good here, and this had all the makings of a memorable match, but it was marred by terrible American booking where Jayne inexplicably was more worried about antagonizing the new champion Millie McKenzie, who may or may not have been watching in the back, than just beating the wrestler who has been above her for years to just earn the title shot at Millie. Both women had escaped each others finishers, and the match was ***1/2 level if it justed ended right there with literally any pinfall. Unfortunately, after Jayne countered Ray's boomerang move with a German suplex variant she tied her hair back like McKenzie & hit a couple German suplexes to taunt the champ, who then came out, took out the ref, and attacked Jayne for the DQ then got a German suplex on Ray after Ray attacked her for ruining the match. Apparently Vince didn't bother messaging them who was actually supposed to win, so the announcers decided the match was thrown out & they just cut to the backstage interviews before anyone had time to contemplate whether Millie could avoid ever defending by just doing her own runin any time they had a match to determine who she should defend against. ***
UFC Fight Night 152 5/18/19: Aspen Ladd vs. Sijara Eubanks 3R. Eubanks thankfully returned to bantamweight after missing weight yet again in her previous fight against Roxanne Modafferi, so Lauren Murphy didn't need to be waiting in the wings and could thus spend another day blaming Eddie Alvarez for her mediocrity. This seemed like a pretty straightforward match in that Ladd had the advantage in grappling, while Eubanks had the advantage in boxing. Eubanks did have a takedown early in the 1st, but Ladd took over with a guillotine attempt when Sarj tried to get her back down switching a single into a double leg. Ladd would progress toward rear naked chokes, but would often be off to the side with Eubanks preventing her from securing the second leg for body control. Nonetheless, no matter what weight class Eubanks is at, outworking her is going to be the primary strategy, and Ladd is someone who can go hard for 15 minutes. She had a lot of pressure no matter where the fight was taking place, really pushing the pace in standup, which was the difference in the fight because the judges apparently liked that activity and cage control even though Eubanks landed considerably more significant strikes and was the harder hitter even blowing hard at half speed in the 3rd. I thought Eubanks stole the first round with a flurry of punches and a trip in the final 10 seconds, which was the best damage of the fight. I wasn't impressed with Ladd's corner, especially their "take her ass down if you have to", as there was no logic behind being content to have Ladd fight standup. Sure, Eubanks was a lot less threatening when Ladd was inside herwide hooks where they wanted her, but as the 1st round showed, Eubanks is always dangerous and only needs 1 good shot to get going, while Ladd would have tired her out even more weighing on her than walking into her punches. Round 2 was nonetheless a big round for Ladd because she got the bodylock takedown & threatened the arm triangle & a few rear naked choke, landing some good ground punches and elbows as well. After this dominant round, Ladd inexplicably really didn't even try for the takedown in the 3rd, content to just slug it out with Eubanks. Eubanks was definitely fading, but a takedown at any point during this round would almost surely have sealed the victory, whereas Sarj had well more than a punchers chance on her feet and was marking Ladd's face up. It did make for a more entertaining fight though, with the 3rd round definitely being the best of the fight. Ladd was doing a good job with the jab, but wasn't really following it up, and was taking too many shots coming in even though Sarj's strikes were getting slower and more deliberate by the minute. I thought Ladd did better when she waited for Sarj to throw a combo to try to maintain space & answered it than when she stepped in and allowed Sarj to try to time her. There were plenty of opportunities for Ladd to duck into a double leg, but she didn't try until the last minute, and then when she didn't get it right away it was really too late for it to be all that helpful. Ladd disengaged from the clinch with an elbow at the clapper, and they had a big final hyper exchange until the bell. Ladd won a unanimous decision 30-26, 29-27, 29-28. Good match.
GLORY 65 5/17/19
Sofia Olofsson vs. Christi Brereton 3R. One of the best things about women's fights, or lower weight classes in general, is the activity level, but this was an insane amount of volume even for 120 pounds with both women averaging almost 100 strikes per round. These two just stood 2 feet away from each other & threw and threw and threw for the entire fight, putting out every thing they could think of with a title shot against Meksen in France on the line. The old cliche the best defense is a good offense could apply here, but even that assumes some level of defense in attacking first. If you believe GLORY's stats where Olofsson didn't miss a knee (67) or a kick (44) the entire fight, one would have to say defense didn't really exist in this fight. They kept their hands up, and thus some shots were deflected, but they didn't so much react to what the opponent was doing as simply finish their combination with their hands up then start the next one. The funniest thing is when John Axewood would break Olofsson's clinch & tell them to step back, they'd both back up half a step then start throwing a combination, so Axewood tried using his arms to separate them then gave up because he was mostly just turning them toward him unless he physically stepped in between them. The fight was initially difficult to score, Brereton got the 1st round on 3 cards with a lot of nice left hooks to the body and head shots, but as the fight progressed even though Brereton was still coming forward more, Olofsson was just tying her up, and the clinch knees (and to a lesser extent left middle kicks) were a lot more plentiful & consistent. Olofsson just couldn't go wrong with the knees, and increasingly would hold Brereton as close as she possibly could, using her elbow on the back of Brereton's head rather than the hand if Brereton would let her get away with it, & just practicing her stair walking on Brereton's midsection. The more they fought on the inside, the more Olofsson began to overwhelm Brereton with numbers because her connect rate was through the roof. In the end, Brereton's 132 of 273, numbers that would look great in almost any other fight, was not even close to Olofsson's ludicrous 218 of 298. I don't think I've seen a competitive decision where one fighter landed nearly 75% as Olofsson did here. The crazy thing is this was still a split decision with Brereton getting 29-28 one one card. Very good match.
Donovan Wisse vs. Yousri Belgaroui 3R. 21 year-old Wisse has been impressive and got his rank up to #6 (despite not facing any real competition), but keep in mind he was still fighting on the prelims at GLORY 62, suffering the only loss of his career in a split decision to Ertugrul Bayrak. Belgaroui is a huge step up in competition, the #1 ranked fighter in the division and a two time Middleweight Title challenger. Belgaroui is 1-2 against current champion Pereira, and this should have helped set him up for their 4th bout, but Wisse had other ideas. The 1st round somewhat went as planned with Belgaroui using his length to land the jab on the outside then either follow with the knee or meet Wisse with it. Wisse was finding ways into range though, doing a good job of mixing variations on the left hand/right foot combo. Wisse did a better job of cautiously getting inside to apply pressure in the 2nd, not darting into range so Belgaroui could pick him off, but almost inching in while shelled up so Belgaroui's jab or knee was into the block then he'd stay inside so he could land his combo without giving Belgaroui enough space to do what he wanted. After the left hook/right low kick combo, Wisse surprised Belgaroui with a right high kick for a flash knockdown. Once Wisse began walking through Belgaroui's leads, Belgaroui began spending a lot of time on his back foot because moving in the wrong direction was the only way he could regain some space. Round 3 was the best of the fight because both needed the round, and were thus fighting more aggressively & taking more chances. Belgaroui was pushing forward a lot more, while Wisse was exchanging heavy shots in the midrange rather than trying to survive it to just fight on the inside. Belgaroui did a better job of using angles to make enough space to score in the closer ranges, but Wisse knew he was on the cusp of the biggest win of his career and let loose to seize it. Wisse was just quicker and more fluid, so he was able to see Belgaroui's slower strikes coming enough to avoid taking clean shots and fire back with better and more precise combos. There was actually a noticable punching power advantage for Wisse, and he really beat up Belgaroui's left thigh, which had rendered Belgaroui less dynamic. Wisse won a unanimous decision 29-27. Good match.
Invicta Phoenix Rising 1 5/3/19, Strawweight Title Tournament Quarterfinal: Kailan Curran vs. Sunna Davidsdotter 1R. I don't think one night tournaments really work in 2019 because there's too many injuries when you go beyond 3 rounds at a clip, much less when you are cooling down & warming up multiple times to do that, so I think Rizin & Bellator are on the right track with the modern multiple show tournament format. Probably the best one night tournament structure would be 2R fights scored as a whole, but the Kansas State Athletic Commission won't authorize fighters to compete more than 25 minutes in a night and all the US commissions just want to score MMA even more poorly than boxing, so Invicta came up with this odd 1R quarterfinal & semifinal, 3R final format. Given these limitations, this was a crazy fight that was everything you'd want to see from the performers, just going all out for the win from start to finish and worrying about the next round if and when they got there. Curran applied a great deal of forward pressure from the outset (and any time she was on her feet), mixing strikes with takedown attempts, scoring an early KO with an overhand right then taking Sunna's back, but Sunna stood before Curran got the bodylock, so it wound up as a standing rear naked choke attempt. Curran just seemed overeager throughout this segment, expending a lot of energy trying for a sleeper hold from the side rather than securing the body in order to give herself a real chance to finish or just moving on to something more productive, and Davidsdotter was able to turn & trip her up into mount. Davidsdotter really had some nice ground and pound here, with Curran quickly giving her back & Davidsdotter just beating on her while she was defenseless. Right after Jimmy Smith said all Davidsdotter had to do was stay on top and she'd win the fight, Sunna inexplicably beat herself by disengaging to try to dive back in with a guard pass only to have Curran seize the opportunity to stand right up, scoring a second knockdown with an overhand right as she was backing Sunna with her pressure. Davidsdotter was right up though, tripping Curran up and finishing the fight on top, but being unable to land any significant ground and pound in this final minute. I expected the judges to just give it to Sunna because she was laying on Curran at the end, but they surprised me with a nice split decision win for Curran, actually properly valuing the damage & near finishes, which they then unfortunately didn't do in the Kay Hansen vs. Magdelena Sormova fight where Sormova somehow won the final round despite being saved by the bell from Hansen's armbar. Curran's semifinal vs. Sharon Jacobson was not as exciting, but another super close fight she may well have lost before she ran out of gas & was outgrappled by a much fresher Brianna Van Buren in the final. Very good match.
ONE 89 Clash of Legends 2/16/19, Bantamweight Muay Thai World Title Decision Match: Nong-O. Gaiyanghadao vs. Han Zi Hao 5R UD. China's top Muay Thai fighter Hao planned to go hom for the Chinese New Year, but couldn't turn down a chance to become ONE's first Bantamweight champion. Hao had youth on his side, but Nong-O is an all-time great who is capable of things others can't do, for instance this great left inside leg kick/left high kick combo we saw in the 1st. One of the things I liked about the fight is it always seemed more like a kickboxing match with a wider rule set where getting in & out of the pocket was key rather than the usual Muay Thai fight that starts really slow & has a lot of grindy inside clinch work. Michael Schiavello kept talking about Hao's speed, and while that would probably carry the day against most opponents, one of his biggest problems here is that he wasn't quick enough to attack effectively, Nong-O's step or two back to avoid was quicker than his step or two forward to close the distance, so he was stuck being the counter fighter. Nong-O was able to establish a range that was just out of reach, and was really effective at getting through the pocket quickly behind a number of fakes, feints, and leads, so Hao might be able to get a shot in at the end of Nong-O's combination, but he could never really intercept him or do anything to make him think twice about darting in. Late in the 1st, Nong-O got inside with a left jab, right straight combo, but they were mostly blocked & Hao tried to answer with a right hook assuming Nong-O was done, but Nong-O beat him to it, knocking him down & the mouthpiece out with a short right elbow. Late in the 2nd, Hao avoided Nong-O's left hook/right middle kick entry & tried to counter with a right while Nong-O was regaining his balance, but then surprised Nong-O with a short elbow that looked like a knockdown, but the ref didn't score it as such even though Nong-O's hand touched the canvas. Hao almost certainly would have put Nong-O all the way down from his squat had he followed up, but the moment had passed as Hao stopped to celebrate instead of making the ref prevent him from landing the follow up. The final 75 seconds of the 2nd contained some of the best action of the fight as Hao tried to press his advantage, while Nong-O tried to answer the knockdown but not really. Hao went down from a right just before the round ended, but this was properly called a slip as Nong-O tried to throw a right hand inside Hao's left high kick and actually wound up accidentally blocking the kick with an elbow to the shin. The first two rounds were quite good, and while the rest of the fight was entertaining enough, Nong-O had really solved things & was just building upon his lead. Hao fought hard until the end and kept it competitive, but outside of his one big moment that earned him the second, was generally just outclassed by a fighter who is still fantastic despite having recently returned from a 3 year hiatus where he was just coaching in Singapore because ONE didn't have a division for him. Good match.
UFC Fight Night 151 5/4/19
Shane Burgos vs. Cub Swanson 3R. Burgos seems like he'd be a good matchup for Swanson. As a power puncher who keeps his hands low, the best technical boxer in the division should be able to use his jab and quickness, and generally outskill Burgos. The problem is Burgos is so long for 145 at 5'11" that Swanson couldn't just exchange with him in boxing range, thus his jab wasn't nearly as effective as it normally is. Swanson certainly has the creativity to be dangerous with his feet, but when he's having his way, his boxing opens up his kicks rather than it being the other way around. The first round was close, but Swanson's big problem is he was really only landing side kicks at range, so he was going to have to close the 5.5" distance gap sooner or late. Burgos didn't make it difficult for Swanson to get inside, he was just standing in front of him, more or less content to eat the first shot figuring his counter would be the harder shot and the more creative Cub got, the more he'd leave himself open to the big counter. Burgos not moving seemed to kind of lead to Cub not moving either, I thought he would use more footwork than he did once he got inside, but in the end he just stood toe to toe as well. Burgos seemed a lot more effective when he was willing to go forward & be first, it gave him a better opportunity to bully Cub as he obviously wasn't as effective off his back foot or near the cage, but that didn't seem to be Burgos' strategy for whatever reason. Burgos was also a little better with the leg kicks, but neither used as many as they probably should have. I had it a round a piece going into the 3rd, but you could have scored either round for either fighter or even, there really wasn't much between them. Two things that were in Burgos' advantage were he landed slightly more (important given he definitely had the power advantage) and Cub marked up most likely because he's the older fighter who has almost 3 times as many fights. Swanson started well in the 3rd, finally going more for volume with quick jabs on the inside rather than trying to match power with Burgos and allowing him to answer with the harder shot. Swanson also ducked into the first takedown attempt of the fight, but couldn't quite get it, working a rear bodylock againt the cage for 90 seconds while landing knees to the thigh. The round was well in Swanson's favor, but perhaps because wrestling isn't something he really does outside of the gym, he seemed to wind himself failing on that takedown a lot more than he would in a couple rounds of his usual boxing, and Burgos made a strong push when he finally got free. Swanson just wasn't throwing or moving enough in the final two minutes, and Burgos was happy to keep attacking the target that was waiting in the pocket. Swanson again failed on the takedown, and Burgos got a couple good shots in before the bell. Overall, this was another really close round, but all of Burgos' work taking place at the end was a much better look for the judges. The scoring was all over the place with Burgos taking the split decision 30-27, 27-30, 29-28. Good match.
Donald Cerrone vs. Al Iaquinta 5R. Similar to the Burgos vs. Swanson match, Al was the better pure boxer, but Cerrone's length made it difficult to use his primary strength. The difference here is Cerrone is a strong kicker, and he fought a great strategic fight, moving well to hold the center & using his length to try to score while keeping Iaquinta out of range. Cerrone was beating up Iaquinta's legs, and while Iaquinta would try to work his way in going for the takedown or the body shot to open up the head, Cerrone did a good job of intercepting his approach with the body kick or just knocking him back with the front kick. Iaquinta finally stunned Cerrone with a left body hook, overhand right combo 2 minutes into the 2nd. Iaquinta had a nice moment late catching the low kick before Cerrone could recoil & landing the overhand right, but while the couple big shots may have been enough to steal the round, for the most part it was Cerrone scoring with teeps and low kicks. Iaquenta just couldn't gain any traction because he wasn't feinting, and couldn't get Cerrone out of his comfort zone, or particularly against the cage where he could put together a more complex combination. Cerrone totally switched things up in the 3rd, popping the jab the whole round, which quickly busted Al's nose up. Cerrone dropped Iaquinta in the final seconds with a short left as Al was trying to close the distance, the first time in his career Iaquinta has been knocked down. Cerrone followed it up at the start of the 4th with a great front kick to the chin that was basically an uppercut except with his foot to drop Al again. At this point you felt the fight was likely over, but Iaquinta would probably survive to lose the decision because he's just so ridiculously tough. Iaquinta actually recovered pretty quickly, and the 5th round wound up being the best action round of the fight because Cerrone didn't back off or just try to coast to victory. Instead, Cerrone was pushing harder for the finish in the final minute than he had at any time in the fight, even trying for a flying knee in the final seconds. This match was more exciting and had more big moments than Burgos vs. Swanson, but it wasn't as intense given you could only give Al the 2nd & he was just getting further & further behind as the fight progressed. Good match.
