Best Matches Seen July 2019 |
UFC 240 7/27/19: Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Alexandre Pantoja 3R. Figueiredo controlled this contest masterfully with his footwork. Initually, he used an odd stance where he had his left arm constantly extended to control the distance and was just showing Pantoja his right hand. I expected the posture to make him a little slow defensively, but that didn't seem to be the case, and it kept Pantoja an extra foot or two away, so it may not have been that noticable if it were. Pantoja's crucial mistake in this fight was not using low kicks because his inability to land with his hands from the distance forced him to come to Figueiredo sooner or later, as well as never slowing the superior mover down. Figueiredo was ready with a wide variety of counters when Pantoja attacked, sometimes answering the jab with his big right, sometimes backing so he pulled Pantoja into the right, sometimes ducking into a takedown, sometimes just backing to cause a reset. Pantoja didn't really want to strike with Figueiredo in the first place, but Deiveson kept him so far away from his legs that it was hardly even worth trying for the takedown. When the fight did go to the ground, it was on Figueiredo's terms, and he landed some punishing hammerfists and elbows. Figueiredo seemed to break his hand somewhere in the 1st round because he totally abandoned what was working for him in the 2nd to avoid throwing the right hand. He initially switched to southpaw, and when he returned to orthodox he wasn't keeping Pantoja away with the extended left arm because he was no longer willing to wing the right hand with reckless abandon. He had to rely more heavily on elbows, which forced him to fight at close range where Pantoja had a lot more opportunities to hit him or take him down. Figueiredo's output also declined considerably, so now Pantoja was inserting kicks into the dead space. I was leaning toward giving Pantoja the round, but there was a great exchange at the end where Figueiredo dropped him finally using the right hand when he had him retreating after his combo then cut him with a flurry of elbows. Figueiredo was willing to fight on the inside early in the 3rd because he felt he was strong and balanced enough to avoid the takedown or thai clinch & could further bust Pantoja up with his elbows. When Pantoja released his clinch and tried to come in behind an uninspired feint, Figueiredo rocked him with a right uppercut. Pantoja had some amazing fighting spirit & durability. He still had aspirations of winning the fight, but Figueiredo moved so much better that after the opening, Pantoja just chased him the whole round, rarely even getting into range enough to actually throw a lead much less a combo. As soon as Pantoja would stop chasing, Figueiredo would step forward with the elbow to bust him up some more. Pantoja did land 3 nice overhands in the final seconds, but it was too little too late and Figueiredo won 30-27 on all cards. Good match.
UFC on ESPN 47/20/19: Mario Bautista vs. Jinsoo Son 3R. Bautista started off using movement & a lot of different entries, but once Son started to press forward he dragged Bautista into a fire fight. Though Bautista largely scrapped the game plan after the 1st, he was still beating Son at Son's own game by getting off 1st, though the fight was much closer. Whoever was coming forward definitely had the slight advantage, as it was ultimately fine for Bautista to brawl with Son as long as he pushed him back first. One thing that makes Son an exciting fighter is he tries to catch the opponent off guard, particularly with short range jumping knees that kept Bautista honest & thinking a little bit about defense even though they mostly just missed. Bautista had a flash knockdown with a right hook late in the 2nd, and was just throwing everything he had at Son, even landing several solid shoulders in the clinch. The 3rd round was really brutal as Son figured he needed the finish, and was really coming at Bautista going for the win. Bautista landed some great elbow combos, and both had nice uppercuts on the inside as well. Both fighters were spent midway through the 3rd, but just continued to bang through it. If it wasn't for the time limit, it felt like they'd just keep going all night until someone was finally carted off because their body gave out in spite of their mind telling them to keep trading. Son purportedly had a slight advantage in significant strikes, as it was mostly strike for strike, though Bautista landed the more significant of the significant strikes en route to a 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 unanimous decision. Very good match.
UFC Fight Night 155 7/13/19: Ryan Hall vs. Darren Elkins 3R. Hall is one of the most unconventional fighters around. Known as a jiu jitsu ace who has kept the dream alive for fans of the aging leg lock specialist Masakazu Imanari, Hall has actually outstruck all his opponents, and never was it more apparent than tonight against double tough comeback master Darren Elkins. Elkins was expecting a steady dose of Imanari rolls, and that's what he got early, but the fight was never really about that beyond Elkins unwillingness to pursue Hall to the ground for fear of the leg lock. It instead showcased the growth of Hall's striking, and how fluid and tough to deal with he is, as his rolls opened up his variety of spinning attacks, and vice versa. None of Hall's opponents have wanted to grapple with him, but Hall was now able to use this to his advantage, dictating the outside fighting with his side kick then using the roll or the spinning kick as he saw fit. The way Hall was fighting, it's not surprising to learn he's trained with Raymond Daniels. He was using a lot of spinning heel kicks early, but then late in the 1st, he dropped Elkins with a spinning high kick that given his main event and typical weekly blunders probably would have been good enough to get Herb Dean to stop the fight. Hall pounced on Elkins with a guillotine, but Elkins somehow recovered enough to quickly escape. Hall had a beautiful sequence at the end of the round where he spun left for the left body kick then spun right for the right head kick. Though Hall didn't land as viciously in the subsequent rounds, his odd technique of using so many high kicks continued to work because his step high kick was well disguised looking like the much more common side kick and he would just drop to his butt to avoid counterfire anytime he missed the spinning high kick daring Elkins to pursue him to the ground. Elkins continually refused, so Hall might take a leg kick before Elkins let him up, but Elkins really had no way of making him pay without risking Hall getting a hold of his leg and trying the feared heel hook. Elkins best chance to counter was when Hall tried the spinning backfist, and with Elkins momentarily getting a reverse body lock off one, I think that's why Hall only threw a few. The second round saw Elkins try to make some adjustments, stepping forward with the one two combo to wobble Hall early & trying to use hammerfists when Hall dropped to his back. Hall was able to time him coming forward and land a big punch though, dropping Elkins twice & wobbling him once through, so it was difficult for Elkins to simply create chaos & make things ugly. This was a really good round though because Elkins was taking chances on his feet, and began to take some on the ground, though still not as many as he needed to given how badly the standup was going. Hall was just too good technically and Elkins was never able to solve the problems, but I guess 2 judges gave him the 3rd because Hall was up so big he really coasted in the last few minutes. Hall won a unanimous decision 29-28, 29-28, 30-27. Good match.
UFC 239 7/6/19, UFC Light Heavyweight Title: Jon Jones vs. Thiago Santos 5R. Santos strategy & staying power were really underestimated because he's blow through most of his opponents with his overwhelming power, but he trained to win a smart 5 round muay thai fight not make a big early push & either win spectacularly or go down in a blaze of glory. Santos' strategy was to use use movement, chopping away at Jones' skinny legs with his calf kicks. He wanted to force Jones to come to him then when Jones actually tried to engage, Santos would put an immediate end to any such aggression answering if not plowing forward with a big punch combo. This was the fight in round 1, a round easily won by Santos with Jones landing some leg kicks as well, but never getting into any kind of rhythm with Santos ready to answer any oblique kick that slid off with his heavy hands. Santos felt his knee "snap out of place" during the round, I think close to the end, though it wasn't apparent watching the fight live until his leg gave out throwing a right low kick at the start of the 2nd. Santos followed with some good punches, but despite an amazing amount of guts, increasingly he wasn't able to fight the fight he wanted and had trained for, scoring on the move & forcing Jones to eventually come to him. Santos was forced to fight almost entirely out of the southpaw stance, without much movement or his usual attack options. Still, he was doing things, and Jones was mainly fighting in a very lackadaisical manner, not wanting to take risks and content to land a kick here and there. As the 2nd round progressed, Jones was able to fight at a more comfortable range because Santos wasn't circling away anymore, and even when he was moving, his back was to the cage. Jones landed a big middle kick after Santos' leg gave out on him. Santos was still trying to be offensive, but now he was forced to try to close the distance and land a punch combo rather than waiting for Jones to be the one to close the distance so he could just explode forward before Jones got out of the pocket. This was a close round, but I thought Santos won it with the early flurry & also a left high kick. Santos was still throwing spinning kicks because he's a wild man who was going to do whatever he could as long as he was out there, but the knee would give out from time to time just from stepping. This made it hard to tell how well Jones was actually connecting because Santos went down on the body kick in the 2nd and also a counter elbow early in the 3rd, the former seeming to be lack of balance due to the compromised knee but the later being a flash knockdown or at least an off balance not due to the injury. Santos also fell throwing his own high kick midway through the 3rd, and Jones cut him with a short elbow as soon as he got back to his feet. Jones came on late in this round because Santos was standing with his back to the cage, which gave Jones too many options and Santos no room to avoid. Santos did a better job of staying off the cage in the 4th by feinting and using the jab, but was still waiting on Jones too much. The more Santos wanted to rely on his hands, the more Jones was able to use the oblique kick to stop Santos' forward progress before he got the punch combo going. I have no idea why Jones didn't try for a takedown, but he seemed to be enjoying the challenge of fighting Santos in his own domain and was doing a good job of protecting his head with his right hand and rolling with the punches, so he wasn't feeling threatened even though Santos would left loose with the punches when he did make one of his sporadic attacks. Santos gave all that he had in the 5th, while Jones fought with no urgency at all, probably figuring Las Vegas had given him the licence to cheat and will always side with the bigger draw in the big main event so he just needed to survive. Jones outlanded Santos 16-11 in the 5th, but Santos landed the more impactful blows, which was the way the fight went in general. I gave Santos the round, but with every round having 20-25 combined strikes landed there wasn't anything decisive going on, and it was no surprise that the scoring was all over the place. Bell gave Santos the 1st & 5th, Cleary gave Santos the 1st & 4th, and Kamijo gave Santos the 1st, 2nd, & 4th, so Jones retained via split decision. By the time Santos was examined, his meniscus and all its ligaments - ACL, MCL PCL - were completely torn and the right knee, which he had surgery on earlier this year, was also damaged from compensating for the issues with the left knee and perhaps being there for too many of Jones kicks. Nonetheless, it was Jones that was carried out of the cage by his seconds. Whether or not you think Jones won, you had to be a lot more impressed with Santos, who gave Jones the toughest fight of his career, fighting 1 close round after another on one leg in a match where his movement was supposed to be key. Good match.
