Best Matches Seen October 2020 |
UFC 254 10/24/20: Casey Kenney vs. Nathaniel Wood 3R. These guys kept a phenomenal pace with Wood throwing almost 325 shots and Kenney throwing almost 250. I thought Wood's consistency was one of the keys to the fight, even though he was the one who required the catch weight for taking the fight on short notice and arguably lost round 3 because judges just want to score holding, his ability to keep pressuring by landing the jab and low kick and usually getting out was tiring Kenney out a lot, leading to a 3rd round where Kenney lost much of his power advantage and just resorted to con the judges via control. Wood's leg kick was really fast, and it seemed like he did the better job of avoiding shots though statistically that wasn't the case. Where Kenney had the advantage is that his head strikes were the most powerful and easy to notice of the fight, and even though it seemed like he often took 1.5 to land 1, he was a lot more likely to jar or jolt the opponent with a big impact. Wood's low kicks were basically the difference in the strikes landed, and that probably hurt him in the sense that low kicks are the least likely to get the credit they deserve from the judges. That was definitely the case here all 3 judges gave Kenney the 1st for landing the more damaging blows. Kenney trying to put more power on his punches led to him slowing down noticably in the 2nd, whereas Wood remained very light on his feet and was flowing with the low kick and jab. As Kenney slowed, it was easier to see him getting ready to throw the heavy shots, and his connect percentage began to drop, but Wood really wasn't able to change the tenor of the fight and start taking over when it came to being the aggressor. Kenney started to at least threaten the takedown, but got away from working the body despite landing 13 of 15 in the 1st and his corner urging him to continue exploiting that. Kenney was lagging in the 3rd, but had almost 1 1/2 minutes of control off a reverse bodylock out of a single leg attempt where he expended most of the energy he had left failing to actually get Wood down beyond a knee, and wasn't able to actually throw anything in the meantime. Wood broke free after a distraction guillotine and although he was finally slowing down a little, was just beating Kenney on handspeed and cardio at this point, working over the cut around the right eye, though Kenney once again landed the best shot of the final portion of the fight. Though Kenney had the clinching that the judges like for some reason in the 3rd, this was his worst round as he really didn't do much offensively, looking too tired to really be quick enough to get the strikes off and in. Wood won round 2, and while rounds 1 & 3 were close enough, it's hard to imagine Wood not getting 1 of them. David Lethaby was a real kook giving all 3 rounds to Kenney, while the other two had it 29-28 Kenney, with Derek Cleary also somehow giving Kenney the 2nd. Good match.
UFC Fight Night 180 10/17/20: Guram Kutateladze vs. Mateusz Gamrot 3R. For me this is a rare example of a close fight that was properly scored. While both fighters were new to UFC, the better known Gamrot, a 2 division king in KSW, was the favorite, and he won the fight by the numbers, outlanding Kutateladze 69-43 and having 5 takedowns. However, Kutateladze was clearly the far superior striker, picking his shots to land powerful blows. There was simply no comparison in the quality of the strikes as Kutateladze threw full power kicks out of the muay thai stance that were bruising Gamrot whereas Gamrot threw pitty pat punches from the orthodox stance that Kutateladze didn't have to respect then would switch to southpaw to shoot. Gamrot landed 2 or 3 good punches on the ground, but, in general, Kutateladze probably landed 17 of the 20 best strikes in the fight, including a knock down. The urgency Kutateladze showed off his back to not settle for being there was just exemplary, and one of the reasons he's a really good fighter who can execute his gameplan whereas John Phillips is a pretty poor fighter who can't control his own destiny, and really needs an opponent who just wants to bang with him. While Gamrot did own the ground in the sense of getting the takedowns and being on top, Kutateladze did such a great job of constantly moving and throwing up submissions, keeping the ADCC competitor Gamrot from getting set and into his offense because all his energy was spent trying to keep Kutateladze down and still, which he'd usually kind of just give up on, posturing up for a punch then losing the position. The first round didn't have a lot of major moments, you had a couple brutal kicks from Kutateladze, the sort that usually get shafted by the judges because they were not to the head, vs. Gamrot's takedown where Kutateladze defended briefly then attacked a heel hook in order to get back to his feet. These kicks are powerful enough that you can probably only withstand a small number without at least being hampered, whereas the takedown does no real damage, so why rate it if the opponent just gets back up unscathed, or actually, is the one who has the chance, even if slight, to actually win out of the ground exchange? Gamrot, whose right hand appeared to be injured, tried to open with a right high kick, but Kutateladze countered with a great overhand left for the knockdown. Gamrot got the takedown in the later stages, but Kutateladze tried an omoplata, and while he ate a couple good punches, was able to just squirm and push off with his right leg until he got back to his feet. Gamrot was nothing if not persistent though, and increasingly was finding ways to chain his takedown attempts, forcing Kutateladze to defend the 2nd and 3rd strong push. Gamrot finally began to sit down and put some actual force into his punches, which helped him finally get a relatively easy takedown midway through the 3rd. Kutateladze was up without taking any damage again, and while he was slowing down & never really got his own offense going in the 3rd, he still kept Gamrot from doing anything with the takedowns when they occured, at worst he might eat one or two hard punches in exchange for kicking Gamrot off and standing. Despite winning a 29-28 split decision, Kutateladze said he lost because of the takedowns, which I respected in a sense that he didn't want to take credit for what he didn't believe he earned , but just further enforced the conventional wrong scoring in a fight where Gamrot maybe won the final 2 minutes of the 2nd & 3rd round but was never really comfortable and kind of always on the defensive even when he was theoretically in control. Good match.
