Best Matches Seen December 2019 |
UFC 245 12/14/19
Brandon Moreno vs. Kai Kara-France 3R. This battle of former TUF roommates seemed to be one Kara-France should win as he's the more technical fighter and seemingly could put out enough double jabs to open up doing the damage with his fast right straight. Moreno should have the advantage on the ground, but made no attempt to ever get the fight there, instead trying to be entertaining & swinging for the finish. The fight started well for Kai, who landed at least 3 good right straights in the 1st, but once Moreno adjusted to this strategy in the 2nd, Kara-France didn't seem to be able to get things back in his favor. Moreno did a better job of backing Kara-France up in the 2nd, really getting his longer jab going to bloody Kai as well as doing some damage with the middle kick. When Kara-France was able to attack, Moreno would now counter the jab with his own combination so Kara-France wouldn't get the right straight off, often finishing with the left high kick with Kara-France would block with his right hand. In general, Moreno just kept Kara-France out of his comfort zone all round, no matter if Moreno was leading with the jab or taking a shot at most to countering with a few of his own, he suddenly just had Kara-France reacting rather than (or even when he seemed to be) dictating. Kara-France tried to be more aggressive in the 3rd, but Moreno was the more comfortable fighter in a wild fight. This was a fairly close round in spite of Moreno clowning him. The announcers were suggesting that Kara-France wasn't carrying his power as well, and while Moreno was definitely landing the harder shots, to me it was more that Kara-France just didn't have anything to fool Moreno, so it wasn't that he had less on his shots, but rather that they were just grazing if not outright missing. Moreno took the last 2 rounds to win 29–28, 30–27, 29–28. Good match.
Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington R5 4:10. I've found both fighters to be dull decisionators, and would rate Covington near the top of the world's auto ignore morons list, but I'll give them credit, this was a hell of a slugest. It was a fascinating fight because, while both have gotten here through wrestling, they had so much respect for each other in that regard that neither even tried a takedown. I felt a striking centric match would favor Covington because he's all about pressure in all regards, and if his volume isn't high in a contest it's because the opponent hasn't been able to either put up any resistance to his takedowns or subsequently get back to their feet. Usman is clearly the more powerful puncher though, and while that did make a big difference, it was ultimately Usman being the better technical fighter, mostly fighting behind the jab but doing just enough to mix things up by digging into the body with some really damaging shots that carried the day. There were a lot of really close rounds though, Covington won the first getting outside a jab & stunning Usman with a left hook, and while Usman did drop Covington's hands later with a big body shot, it was Covington that had more volume & landed a few more of the most damaging shots. The second round was somewhat similar in that the average shot from Usman was definitely a lot more impressive, and he was so consistent with his jab to the nose, but when Covington would manage to close the distance a little, his hook would stun Usman. Covington fighting out of the opposite stance of Usman was important because he could keep moving off the center in the direction of his jab hand to stay close at a close enough distance that his hook would sometimes connect. That being said, this was opening up the tactic Usman's corner was urging him to use, the right uppercut to the body. It wasn't until Usman hurt Covington there the second time in the fight, with less than 30 seconds left in the 2nd, that he really started to hone in on this technique. I felt it stole Usman the round, but only Derek Cleary agreed. Usman began to utilize the front kick to the body a lot more in the 3rd to back Covington, which would allow him to mix in the long body hook or high kick when Covington was on his back foot then go back to the jab when Covington tried to come forward again. Covington wasn't slowing down in terms of stamina despite Usman having broken his jaw countering a right jab with a huge right straight to the open jaw, but Usman doing a much better job of fighting long kept Covington's output to almost nothing in the 3rd. Covington was showing a lot of damage now with swelling from the broken jaw as well as blood dripping down the right side of his cheek from all the jabs, but he managed to stun Usman a few times in this round, even though Usman was looking good with the solid and steady technical gameplan. Covington took more chances in this round, but was very inconsistent. He probably landed the 4 best shots, but Covington didn't have an answer for Usman's front kick, and that kept Covington from being able to regain his usual high output in the 4th. The fight was 39-37, 38-38, 37-39 going into the 5th, so whoever got the final round on Eric Colon's even scorecard would theoretically leave with the belt. Usman was trying to come forward more in the 5th because he wanted to do everything he could to impress the judges. He was winning, but again it was close, until he hurt Covington with a big right straight to the broken jaw with 1:45 left. Usman saw he had Covington hurt, and began to direct everything at the jaw, dropping Covington with a right straight 35 seconds later. Covington was up quickly, but went down easily from the first blow and was just kind of trapped on his knees with Usman hammerfisting him in the side or back of the head until the stoppage. Covington, of course, whined about the stoppage, which was fine, but even regardless with a 10-8 round for Usman he would have won a majority decision anyway. Very good match.
UFC on ESPN 7 12/7/19: Rob Font vs. Ricky Simon 3R. Simon called Font out, but to me this was a good matchup for Font because he's so much more technical. Simon is the better grappler, and generally a really tough guy with a great chin, but as long as Font fought the smart fight, which he literally always did, he just has too many feints & fakes for Simon to gain much traction on him. Font just did a great job using his shoulders and lead hand to draw a reaction that would then allow him to hit Simon with the punch that Simon feared in the first place. And he did it over and over again. Whether or not Font connected, it was difficult for Simon to counter effectively because Font wasn't overcommitting to the jab or trying for a big follow up, he'd just put the left out and then take a step back so if Simon tried to counter, he stepped right into the 2. It's great to see guys swinging for the fences, but you just have to appreciate Font's patience, his ability to know when the strike isn't there so throwing would accomplish nothing beyond exposing himself. Simon is very much the opposite, a wild man who can make things happen through persistence and indifference to pain. We saw this right at the outset when he walked right into an uppercut, but just kept coming & answered with his own flying knee. Simon was able to get inside sometimes & get takedowns in each round, the problem is he couldn't keep Font down for long enough to really get his ground and pound going, and once Font was back up he'd be right back to dictating with the jab. This was a very entertaining, high paced fight though, actually a really good matchup because Simon didn't have the ability to try to match Font's technique and was thus forced to take punishment to make things happen. If anything, Simon was trying too hard to create, especially on the takedowns where he would often just try naked shots rather than using his punches to set up the level change. To Simon's credit, he had 5 takedowns, which is 3 more than anyone else has scored on Simon. I didn't think Simon won a round because Font scored consistently on his feet & was never in any danger when he was taken down, but I wasn't confident he'd get the decision because so many bad judges wrongly score control over effective striking. Font won a unanimous decision 29–28, 29–28, 30–27. Good match.
GLORY 73 12/7/19, Bruno Gazani vs. Vlad Tuinov R3 0:23. A very interesting stylistic fight with Tuinov having the better hands, but also a lot more options in general, which sometimes helped and sometimes didn't as he mixed things up well but was rarely able to dictate. Gazani is a straight up brawler, and just came forward the whole fight. Either his pressure worked or it didn't, but though Tuinov was landing more, Gazani seemed to absorb the strikes a lot better, really seeming impervious to everything even though he was literally walking into strike after strike. I felt Tuinov would have won the fight if he worked harder to hold his ground and just fought behind his jab, but while he was landing consistently, Gazani always had him on his back foot so the impact wasn't what it could have been, and Tuinov wasn't able to combo that much because he was forced to keep backing to maintain the distance. The first round was very close, with a big explosive final 10 seconds after a lengthy delay for a low blow that still wasn't long enough for Tuinov to recover. I don't know what was up with the canvas tonight, but it felt like they were fighting on ice, with the ref even slipping sometimes. Tuinov began holding his ground in the 2nd, and now was landing 4+ shot combos, but Gazani still refused to give any ground, and just waited for Tuinov to stop to counter. Tuinov would eventually be the one that tried to back or circle out to create space, and Gazani was timing him on the exit, busting his nose open with a knee. Once Gazani started kneeing, he didn't stop, though all the subsequent ones were too the body. He was using the left knee, and while Tuinov withstood a few, the fight turned with Gazani forcing Tuinov to block high for the jab then scoring the knockdown surprising Tuinov with a right knee to the midsection. Tuinov lost his mouthpiece on the knockdown, and the ref not only allowed him to get away with not actually getting up by the 10 count because he was trying to pick his mouthpiece up, but then also gave him a break while his corner cleaned the mouthpiece. By the time all this was over, Tuinov had recovered enough to hang on for the last 12 seconds. It didn't matter though, as at the start of the 3rd, Gazani found the same spot that resulted in the 1st knockdown, countering Tuinov's right hand with a right knee for the finish. Good match.
