Best Matches Seen February 2020 |
GLORY 75 2/29/20: Bruno Gazani vs. Mohamed Hendouf 3R. Extremely tight contest between two high output fighters, with each throwing over 330 & landing over 200. Gazani has Semmy Schilt in his corner, but he was all about walking through Hendouf's distance strikes, mostly low kicks, and working body punches on the inside. Gazani won the 1st round with his short range boxing, and did a much better job of checking Hendouf's low kicks in the 2nd. Hendouf made his own adjustments though, making things much more difficult for Gazani by circling & backing away to reestablish the distance, which took Gazani's consistency and volume on the inside & also gave Hendouf room to kick. It's hard to say that both fighters really went for it in the 3rd when they'd each thrown 200+ strikes in the 1st two, but there was an even greater sense of urgency with the final round deciding things. Gazani's pressure was relentless, but Hendouf did a great job of throwing while backing. Hendouf hurt Gazani with an overhand right late in the 3rd, but Gazani backed him into the corner with a right hand & landed a left front kick in the final seconds. I wanted this to be an even round so they'd fight another, and it's not as though I really know who to give it to if not. Overall, Gazani slightly outlanded Hendouf and certainly appeared to be the aggressive with his style of constantly coming forward, so I'm not surprised he got the nod on 3 of the 5 cards, but it was the kind of fight where you felt like both fighters won. Good match.
UFC Fight Night 168 2/22/20: Dan Hooker vs. Paul Felder 5R. A memorable razor close fight where both fighters stayed disciplined and executed their gameplan for 5 rounds, many of which could have gone either way. Felder started a little slow as usual, but he always brings the violence, and for the most part pressured relentlessly to try to make up for the 4.5" reach disadvantage, answering the question of whether he'd be able to sustain his style in main event rounds positively. Hooker did a great job of using his lateral movement to maintain the distance, especially early on, fighting behind his jab & calf kick. Hooker was making Felder miss a lot early, with Felder especially coming up way short on his spinning backfists, and refused to try to pounce on the opportunities that might have rewarded him with a big shot while Felder was prone, but also would have played into the hands of Felder in terms of engaging in a closer range slugfest where Felder might have got his elbows going or ultimately won the exchanges because he's the harder hitter. Felder found his distance through sheer determination to keep asking the questions of Hooker, and began to take over in the 2nd half once Hooker slowed down a little. One of the problems for Felder though is while his average shot was harder and he was the one that actually hurt the opponent a few times, he's the older fighter, and his pale body reveals the damage a lot more. Felder was not only busted up, but it happened in the 1st round, so some of these close rounds may have gone to Hooker simply because Felder looking like he was getting the worst of things. Of course, the big downside to the fight is didn't take place at a neutral site. While the atmosphere in Auckland was great, a lot of my enjoyment was diminished by knowing Felder had to win rounds convincingly, if not get the finish, to come home with the victory, and both fighters were too good for anyone to run away with it. The first round was one of the two that were easy to score, as Hooker constantly circled right, stopping long enough to land the calf kick without taking much return fire, as Felder was never able to get outside his right leg to head him off. Though the calf kicks were a great strategy for Hooker, it's amazing that despite Felder showing a lot of reddening from the earliest moments, Felder's willpower was such that they somehow never actually added up to slowing down his pursuit. Felder is one of the kings of guts, and this is a fight was great example of that, as he really had to just deal with things from an early stage with Hooker's jabs welting his right eye to the point it was already half swollen shut by the end of the 1st. Hooker is a very easy & graceful mover, taking a lot of small steps that allow him to stay on balance & ready to lead or counter if he needs to and mostly reserving the lateral hop for when he's just committed to momentarily disengaging and forcing Felder to just chase him down yet again. Felder made a big push at the end of the 2nd when Hooker tried to counter him coming in with a knee then tried to back away rather than circle off, so Felder was finally able to stay in his face & land some big punches. Hooker was winning the round up until the final 30 seconds, but it was very close, and you feel like this is the sort of round that, rightly or wrongly, the hometown fighter would steal but the road fighter isn't going to, and in fact Felder only got it from Howard Hughes, who wasn't the judge that ultimately scored the bout in his favor. Duke Roufus had been trying to get Felder to not lead with the big power shot, but rather put it late in the exchange so Hooker didn't just avoid it & start back on his bicycle. In round 3, Felder toned things down a bit, and was basically just using the jab & calf kick like Hooker. This was essentially an even round as they just went back & forth with the same techniques, though Hooker outlanded Felder. Felder upped his pressure significantly in the 4th, and hurt Hooker 90 seconds in finally being able to follow the jab with a big right. Hooker was never the same fighter after this, basically he stopped kicking and just tried to slow things down with wrestling, but once Felder freed himself from the clinch, he tagged Hooker with a few more big rights to the jaw that was swollen, probably broken earlier in the fight. I really liked Duke's corner work after the 4th, knowing the fight was close & Felder would have to make a big statement in the 5th, he was just stressing the late round volume they worked on in camp before motivating Felder. Though Felder had a slight lead in strikes landed going into the round, he wasn't able to put up the kind of numbers that would be too difficult to ignore in this round, but Hooker really didn't do anything actually offensive either, staying in grappling mode because he was either too tired, too injured, or likely both. Hooker's unwillingness to kick late allowed Felder to get off first more often, and sometimes follow with the big right. Felder landed at least a handful of them in the 5th, the only significant shots of the round, as Hooker wasn't really even trying to land so much as to bait Felder into a clinch or takedown. Felder defended one early, but Hooker finally got a takedown with a minute left, and was able to take Felder's back momentarily as Felder knew he had to go to avoid giving the judges an excuse to score it for Hooker. Felder did get back up, and without Hooker landing a strike or attempting a submission, so to me this is an easy Felder round, he did all the damage, while Hooker simply succeeded in slowing him down by holding on for 90 seconds. UFC's live stats had Felder up in significant strikes 133-119, but the website has Hooker 122-110, with Hooker somehow outlanding Felder by 3 in the 5th. It was definitely about even overall, but there's no way Hooker had the striking advantage in the final stanza, even on paper. In the end, while you could make an argument for anything beyond Hooker taking the 1st and Felder taking the 4th, Hooker probably wins the 1st two, Felder probably wins the last two, and then whoever gets the coin flip 3rd takes the fight. Felder did at least get the 5th on two cards, but still lost a split decision 48-47 as only Barry Foley, the judge who had him winning, gave him the 3rd. As always, Felder was taken to the hospital after the fight, and fittingly Hooker was right there with him. Very good match.
UFC 247 2/8/20
Andrea Lee vs. Lauren Murphy 3R. These two just stood in front of each other & slugged it out. That was more toward Murphy's advantage than Lee's because Lee is longer, faster, can kick, and strikes to all quadrants whereas Murphy is pretty strictly a flatfooted arm puncher. Lee was faking with her head to set up her own strikes, but neither were showing any real defensive head movement, and basically Murphy would come forward and either miss or get intercepted by Lee's jab, Lee would land a strike or two, but then once she stopped throwing wouldn't do anything to keep Murphy from landing a strike or two back while she reloaded. Still, Lee could score coming forward and could back Murphy. She always seemed in control, and I don't mean just because she outstrike Murphy by 5-11 in every round, 24 for the fight, but just generally, she was getting off first, landing the more solid shots, and doing a good job, at least at times, of beating up Murphy's legs & body. One of the big problems with Murphy for me is partly because she doesn't have much footwork and athleticism, her punches all seem like arm punches. I mean, her jab is pretty good, but even when she can follow it up, her power punches are the same thing, just straight arms with no forward momentum, torque, utilization of her core to get anything behind them. This is why it was a big mistake for Lee to be exchanging on the inside with her, when Lee fought behind her kick & made Murphy close the distance, Murphy was just too plodding & predictable to land coming in. These judges just keep getting worse & worse though. Whatever round Monica Franco got 10-8 in at last nights Invicta 39 has to be the craziest 10-8 round ever, but tonight's judges didn't seem to know how to score anything but head punches, brief takedowns resulting in no offense, & cheers for the hometown fighters, among whom were Murphy & Trevin Giles. Part of the problem is they would have to actually be watching to know what they should have been seeing, but both Joe Rogan & Dominick Cruz were complaining during the broadcast that with 2 minutes left in a fight that was pretty obviously going the distance, at least one of the judges was too busy looking at the floor. Then a minute later, Jon Anik was thinking it might be the commissioner that was still floorgazing, but then that meant the guy next to him who he'd been talking to all this time was a judge who wasn't watching. This was insane! Murphy's nose was busted open almost immediately, but it was the left middle kick & inside leg kick of Lee that were actually doing the better work, especially long term, when Lee was willing to use them. Lee lost her mouthpiece twice within 30 seconds in the 1st, and then again in the 3rd, so she was lucky the ref didn't dock her a point. Lee had a head throw with 30 seconds left in the 1st, but Murphy responded with what should be the most meaningless of takedowns, with Lee getting up just before the round ended without Murphy even throwing a single punch. Just after Anik finished saying it was a big 2nd round for Lee, Murphy got a double leg with 11 seconds left. In the 3rd, Lee intercepted Murphy's flying switch knee with a left & tried to pounce on an anaconda, but Murphy defended for over 30 seconds, and eventually Lee wasn't turning the right way anymore and Murphy took the top, with Lee immediately adjusting to a guillotine attempt. Murphy arguably landed a handful of pitty pat punches this time, but still attempts to finish should have been worth more than Murphy's lack of ground offense. I had this 30-27 Lee. While she didn't run away with any of the rounds, I'd say she won them all solidly, Murphy just getting outworked & never really doing anything particularly damaging, threatening, or impressive. Instead, the judges came up with a 30 - 27. 28 - 29. 29 - 28 split decision win for Murphy. Good match.
Trevin Giles vs. James Krause 3R. After the weigh-in, Antonio Arroyo had to bow out due to medical complications, and Krause, who had no training camp and was just in town to be a cornerman for Youssef Zalal, decided to save the day taking the fight on less than 24 hours notice, making weight because the fight was at middleweight rather than welterweight. Realistically, Krause had a round in him, and he just went all out to finish with the rear naked choke in the 1st. Krause had over 3 minutes of back control, but Giles has an electric jab and massive power on everything he throws. Krause managed to mostly avoid in the 1st when he had energy, but was still spent by the time the 2nd round started. The second round was a big one for Giles, who was landing really heavy shots on a really good, crafty technical fighter who was just really slow because he rightfully wasn't in fighting shape. Credit to Krause, who spent the early portion of his career at lightweight, for being able to take some big shots from a much larger opponent, but a lot of the reason he was taking them is the circumstances put him at a speed disadvantage in what should have been a fight where Giles had the explosiveness & power & he had the conditioning & movement. Giles was very excitable, and when he saw he had Krause stunned, he was happy to swing for the fences. Krause was glad to get whatever rest he could on his back, but Giles really began to batter him in the final minute, and almost certainly would have finished with the rear naked choke if the round was 1-3 seconds longer. These long, wide power shots both in standing & on the ground that didn't get the job done for Giles had a similar effect to Krause lengthy choke attempt that come to fruition in the 1st, and while the fight was theoretically a round a piece going into the decider and should have been huge advantage Giles, now it was Giles who had gassed himself trying to beat the 2nd round clock & Krause who was digging really deep to outwork him in the 3rd. Giles started the 3rd decently, but Krause's calf kicks were subtly doing more damage than Giles more flashy looking punches, and their initial trading shifted to Krause continuing to land the calf kick, keep Giles off balance by switching stances, and land some good lead overhand rights while Giles stood around clowning. Giles still landed a handful of good shots and finished the round stronger with a good shot after defending the takedown & then catching Krause coming in with a big right, but mostly he wasn't using his feet or setting them up anymore, just winging wide shots from too far away so it was easy for Krause to evade. Again, the hometown fighter Giles got the split decision 29-28. I'm much less disgusted by this decision than Lee vs. Murphy because Krause was saved by the bell in the 2nd, the 3rd was close, & Giles won the fight scored as a whole, but it still sucks to see a guy who went in severely compromised still manage to win on heart & guile not have his efforts recognized. Good match.
UFC Light Heavyweight Title: Jon Jones vs. Dominick Reyes 5R UD. I'd love to lead by telling you how good of a technical fight this was, but two minutes in, when I saw Reyes was fighting smart & had a real chance if he could keep it up, I already said, if this goes the distance, Jones gets the nod no matter what. Yes, watching this, which was actually one of UFC's best events of the past year, makes me feel like replaying the classic Michael Moore fictitious times acceptance speech, which would still better be applied to the week's political shenanigans. So all that being said, to cap off a show where Andre Ewell got one of the most inexplicable 30-27's ever, and Texas fighters Lauren Murphy, Trevin Giles, and Derrick Lewis (in one of the worst fights since his worst fight of all time with Francis Ngannou) all got decisions they didn't deserve, Reyes outstruck Jones 83-59 through 3 rounds, yet lost a unanimous decision, including a ludicrous 49-46 on say it isn't so Joe Solis' card. Given there literally no grappling, certainly nothing that could sway the first three rounds in Jones' favor, as Reyes defended Jones' 4 takedown attempts during this portion, I don't really know what to say other than to quote Cruz "Joe Solis should have your judging card revoked for calling that 4-1" and point out that even Dana White's children were able to identify that Jones lost. At the press conference, White said "Going into the last round, I had Dominic Reyes three rounds to one. My kids are terrorizing [me saying] that the fix is in, and, 'How could this happen, dad? Reyes won that fight." Granted, rounds 2-4 were all somewhat close, but this was a fight where Reyes won the 1st 16 minutes with some beautiful movement, constantly circling and backing to pull Jones into his kicks, then Jones won the last 9 when Reyes slowed down enough that Jones finally sort of got going. Still, I'd rather be in a world where Thiago Santos & Reyes beat Jones but don't get the decisions than the one we were in during the previous decade where Lyoto Machida won the 1st round & Vitor Belfort caught an armbar most guys would have tapped to, but ultimately there was really only the one competitive fight where Alexander Gustafsson won at least 2 rounds at UFC 165. Anyway, Reyes understood that you can never stand still against Jon Jones, and if he did one thing tonight, he proved that he could keep Jones from landing really anything of note by always being on his bicycle. Reyes kept a massive pace in the 1st two rounds especially, while Jones was clearly fighting the long game throughout, but even when Reyes was clearly exhausted in the later stages, while he was no longer much of a threat to land damaging combinations, he still kept his feet going enough that both guys were only able to land single shots that weren't really of note. We've rarely seen rounds where Jones didn't hurt the opponent before, much less a whole fight. One of the big difference in this fight is Reyes won the kicking battle, which is crucial to Jones finding the range for his big upper body shots. Reyes had some really great timing here, especially early on, seeing Jones lifting the leg & then beating him to the kick, seeing Jones trying to close the distance and making him eat the left straight. Sure, throughout the fight it was Jones who was controlling the center and who was coming forward, so it "looked like" Jones was winning, but while Reyes was working extremely hard taking all the sideways & backward steps that really tax your cardio, he was a lot more successful at taking Jones out of his game than Jones was of doing so to him. One of the key early spots that exemplifies how this was a different sort of Jones fight was Reyes knocking him off his feet countering the left kick with the right straight to the body. The themes of this fight were definitely footwork for Reyes & patience for Jones. Reyes did a great job of switching directions, turning corners, staying a half step ahead of Jones early, generally landing a shot to allow him to change directions. That being said, while Jones would rather have had the usual tired stationary target, he also really didn't care what Reyes was doing, he stayed calm & was just kept coming forward waiting for Reyes to finally slow down. Reyes made one big push in the 2nd chasing Jones' around, but I think Jones was happy with that, and wished he'd do it more often as Jones' defense was strong and he wasn't taking any big shots, certainly nothing he wouldn't trade for the energy Reyes expended. The 2nd round wasn't even over and already they announced that Reyes had landed more significant strikes than Santos did over 5 rounds, though no one hits like Santos. Reyes didn't win the 2nd & 3rd huge, but he was landing the left to the body, the kicks, sneaking in the overhand on the transition. Where Reyes actually hurt Jones was early in the 4th with a series of hooks, but now that Reyes finally closed the distance trying to capitalize, Jones was able to successfully transition to his wrestling. Reyes got off his back quickly & Jones' nose was bloody, but then Reyes had to defend another takedown, and his punches just didn't have the same zip on them the rest of the fight. Reyes landed a much higher percentage of head punches in this round than any other, but that's partly because he was no longer able to utilize the techniques that made him successful early on. Reyes' body language wasn't as good after the opening portion of the round, everything was more labored and he was only throwing single shots now. Jones was scoring a lot more in the 4th, and finally outlanded Reyes, but even in this round, apart from the left hook Jones connected with in the final seconds, Reyes was the one who landed the shots that really mattered. Reyes seemed to find the energy for a final push to start the 5th, but Jones wisely shot again, and even though this was again only a flash takedown, it still took a lot of energy for Reyes to get right off his back, and the combos we saw at the outset of the 5th were no longer coming. Jones was now winning with the same techniques Reyes was beating him with earlier, his cardio advantage was huge and now he had no trouble beating Reyes to the leg & body shots. Jones cited the wrestling for winning him the match, but the wrestling was actually only useful in the sense that it took energy from a guy who was already slowing down, he not only landed exactly 0 ground strikes, he wasn't even credited with any control time. Good match.
