Best Matches Seen July 2021 |
UFC on ESPN 28 7/31/21: Jason Witt vs. Bryan Barberena 3R. This would have been a memorable fight if Barberena had more takedown defense, but 8 of 18 with 5:38 control allowed for plenty of Vanilla offense. Witt tried to hang back, waiting for Barberena to close the distance to drop into the double leg. Barberena never really got going in the first, but in round two he was able to catch Witt standing in front of him more and land some big shots, though again, as soon as he got overaggressive, Witt would just take him down again. This still could have been the Barberena round, except midway through Witt blocked a left high kick and dropped him with a right hook, then went for a guillotine but couldn't get the levrage. Barberena wobbled Witt with some big right hands two mins into the 3rd, but it was hard for him to ever sustain an offensive because Witt would just shoot for the takedown, and the more Barberena pursued him, the easier it was for Witt to take him down. Barberemna hurt Witt gain 3 1/2 minutes in with a right hook when Witt was trying to get up after failing on the takedown. They began swinging wildly, and Witt landed a nice spinning backfist, but then went down from a left hand. Barberena used a Kimura sweep to defend a takedown, and did some more wild swinging on his feet, knocking Witt's mouthpiece out. Barberena's round three was definitely the most dominant round of the fight, but at the same time, Witt still had four takedowns, 1:49 control, and landed some good punches in his own right. As much as I'd like to, I can't quite agree with Tony Weeks scoring this 10-8 for Barberena because he just wasn't consistent enough, though this was certainly more of a 10-8 round than Michael Bell's 10-8 round 2 for Witt. Witt won a majority decision 28–28, 29–27, 29–28. Good match.
UFC on ESPN 27 7/24/21
Raulian Paiva vs. Kyler Phillips 3R. Phillips displayed a much higher level of fluid, combo oriented kickboxing than we normally see in MMA. He was so much lighter on his feet than Paiva, gliding in with a combo then getting out before Paiva could return fire with a powerful counter. Phillips put Paiva down early from the pressure of a right high kick to the back of the shoulder followed by a quick right hand, and a good left straight. Paiva threw much harder, but was at such a speed and footwork disadvantage that he was mostly lunging, and quickly shifted to looking for takedowns instead of trying to exchange with Phillips. Paiva wasn't having much success with this on his own, but was able to charge forward when Phillips tried a spinning kick, as we repeatedly saw in the main event. Paiva couldn't maintain top control for long though, and Phillips hurt him with short elbows once he got back up. Phillips was really owning Paiva late in the round, and seemed close to getting a stoppage, with Paiva basically getting away with not getting up when the round ended because he was basically already in his corner. Early in the second, Phillips went down when they both exchanged right hands. After this, Phillips wasn't moving much, and without his fleet feet, the advantage shifted to Paiva, who was now landing some bombs on the inside. Phillips was now the one who was trying, to slow things down with his wrestling, and he showed more ability to do so than Paiva had previously, but he was really tired now, and was getting nailed anytime he wasn't holding on to Paiva. Round one was a big round for Phillips, while round two was a very good round for Paiva. In round three, both were beyond exhausted and just gutting it out, but that resulted in some bombs back and forth, and even Daniel Cormier admitted he was rooting against any more takedown attempts. Round three was by far the closest, with Paiva edging it by controlling most of the last 90 seconds. I had this as a 28-28 draw due to a 10-8 first round four Phillips, but since Phillips didn't lay on Paiva in the first round, only one judge gave him a 10-8 round, hence Paiva won a majority decision 29–28, 29–28, 28–28. Very good match.
T.J. Dillashaw vs. Cory Sandhagen 5R. At this point, I just expect fighters who are coming back after long layoffs or suspensions to lose (unless they're fighting a retiring 44-year-old on 4 fight losing streak). Dillashaw really impressed me here though, not because he ultimately looked like the fighter who defeated Renan Barao or Cody Garbrandt, but because he was able to fight smartly enough to overcome so much adversity to get the decision. Sandhagen got off to a good start, stunning Dillashaw with a short right when he was coming in then landing a flying knee. Dillashaw did catch him in the air, and nearly had a takedown, but Sandhagen instead wound up with a reverse triangle attempt before getting back to his feet, where Dillashaw had the first of many lengthy segments of standing control with no real damage in a reverse body lock. Though Sandhagen did the real damage, he didn't have much time on offense, whereas Dillashaw racked up quite a bit of control. I was more interested in giving Sandhagen round 1 when I thought that Dillashaw's medial meniscus bucket handle tear, lateral meniscus tear, and PCL tear at the end of the round may have been from the leg lock, rather than just bad luck with the knee popping during the scramble in the final seconds. Dillashaw obviously didn't have any of his famous movement going forward, and round two was pretty bad for him, with Sandhagen picking him apart with the jab, including a flash knockdown midway through the round. More worrisome for Dillashaw is that he sustained a nasty cut down the inside of the right eyebrow from a right hook, and it was bleeding down into his eye the rest of the fight. That being said, overall Sandhagen dropped the ball rather than actually capitalizing on any of the injuries or advantages. Instead of, for instance, the logical tactic of Sandhagen slowly destroying what was left of T.J.'s knee until he could no longer wrestle effectively, or perhaps stand, we instead saw Dillashaw decide to kill the outside of Sandhagen's right leg, and basically win by doing this. Dillashaw fought much better in the third because he just wanted it more. He at least committed to pressing forward and trying to implement his wrestling. Sandhagen still had a strong segment where he was dominating with his punches, but he kept insisting on trying spinning attacks, and Dillashaw would time them and get the clinch/take his back. Overall, Sandhagen was just way too inconsisting in this fight. Dillashaw often wasn't doing much, but he was coming forward, he was landing low kicks, he was holding on. Sandhagen landed the best shots in each of the first three rounds, but Dillashaw checked off several boxes on this score sheets, whereas Sandhagen put himself into positions where he had a hard time getting any offense in for minutes at a time. Sandhagen also just wasn't assertive enough. Often, as we saw at the beginning of the fourth round, he would seem to just wait for Dillashaw to slow down, rather than initiating his own offense. Sandhagen did do some good things in the middle of this round, but Dillashaw build up a huge lead beating on the outside of his leg for 2 minutes while Sandhagen pretty much offered nothing in return. For me, round 4 is a perfect example of a round that Sandhagen absolutely should have won, but he just wasn't willing to seize it. He had a nice spinning back fist at the end of the round, but for the most part he was very passive, and Dillashaw was in control/on the ascendancy for maybe 70% of the round. Sandhagen still outstruck Dillashaw, but the feeling you were left with is that he was way outworked. Dillashaw tried for more in the fifth because he didn't have confidence in the judges (and who could after Miranda Maverick was so obviously robbed), and that really worked to Sandhagen's advantage because he was still able to back away from Dillashaw's big final shot, and then land the best shot of the exchange. In this round, Dillashaw had a slight advantage in strikes, but Sandhagen clearly landed the majority of the best ones. A lot of the rounds were close, but Dillashaw wins its 48-47 on my card largely because he fought smarter & wanted it a lot more. Dillashaw won a split decision 47–48, 48–47, 48–47. Good match.
UFC 264 7/10/21
Michel Pereira vs. Niko Price 3R. We once again witnessed he usual story where Pereira has too much size, speed, and explosion for the opponent in the first half of the fight, but then gasses due to cutting so much weight. Pereira did a nice job of moving, keeping Price away with the front kick, and patiently looking for openings for his punches and knees while scoring with low kicks. Price did his absolute best to keep constant pressure on Pereira, basically not even taking a break when he was kicked low, and grabbing his mouthpiece off the canvas and shoving into his mouth, rather than waiting for the ref. He fought with a ton of heart and determination against an opponent who is both much more athletically gifted and skilled, making this a much more competitive contest then it probably had the right to be. Pereira is unfortunately growing less and less unconventional, wild, and spectacular with each fight, but he still did a few crazy things here, including landing a standing moonsault single foot to the head early in the second round that really did some damage. Pereira was unable to finish with submissions though in 2 minutes of ground control, and once Price got to his feet, he was able to turn the fight around against a now tired Pereira. Though Pereira looked bad because he was sucking wind, he was still landing most of the punches toward the end of the second round, and then Price just spent most of the last minute clinching against the cage, so there was no way Price won this round. Price continued to keep his crazy pace in the third, but while his connections more than doubled from round 1, it was still difficult for him to hit Pereira cleanly, and he couldn't take him down. Pereira wasn't so much trying to win the round, as just to survive to win the decision, so while he definitely took a lot more damage than in the previous rounds, there was never any real threat of Price finishing him. Pereira won a unanimous decision 29-28. Good match.
Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor 1R. Connor is, at best, verging on hasbeen status, and seemed to only amp up the WWE shenanigans to try his best to compensate for his ever fading ability. He started fast, as always, with some outside leg kicks trying to beat up Poirier's legs, probably because Dustin did that to him in the second fight (granted those were to the calves), but he immediately broke his own leg. Because the fighters are so loaded up they can't feel pain, Conor continued to kick and kick anyway for the next minute anyway, surely making things worse. The arguement is whether he consistently made questionable, if not outright poor decisions because he's just overmatched now that he hasn't evolved in years, or he had to because he eventually figured out his leg was toast. Seemingly the bone broke horizontaly, just above the ankle, so vertical pressure was allowing him to still stand on it with the Achilles' tendon and ligaments holding it together as long as his body weight was applying pressure verticaly, but later on when he tried to back out, the angle changed and the seperated pieces essentially slipped, causing a horrific scene. In any case, Poirier began countering the kicks with straight punches, and when McGregor clinched, he drove Conor into the cage and tried for a double-leg, resulting in Conor selling out for a guillotine. Apart from getting off his bad leg, if he knew that was important yet, and probably it was somewhere in between where he knew something was up but didn't realize the extent of the injury, the worst thing McGregor could do was initiate a grappling sequence with Poirier, who is worlds better on the canvas, especially putting Poirier into top position. In a sense, the fight was entertaining because McGregor kept fighting off his back, but it wasn't really good for his chances of winning the fight, except for obviously being better than trying to stand on a broken leg, and presumably both fighters figured out by now that he at least had some sort of damage, even if it might have been the vaunted ankle sprain that guys can play up for advantage and mostly fight through because they take a little while to really swell up. Conor was getting his licks in so to speak, and even managed to cut Poirier with elbows, but Poirier was obviously going to win all those battles in the long run if not also the short. The more Conor ate big elbows & punches, the more you could see the fear and despair written all over him. McGregor landed a nice upkick towards the end of the round, but then Poirier came back with a series of crushing elbows. McGregor finally got up after Poirier wrestled himself loose from Conor's illegal glove pulling, which Herb Dean somehow managed to miss. Conor's broken leg wasn't really noticeable to the announcers or audience until both missed big righthands, and then McGregor's ankle twisted horribly and gave out as he was backing away, sending him crumbling to the canvas. Dean, predictably, again didn't seem to realize anything was wrong, and it wasn't until the round ended after a 5 second flurry of punches by Poirier trying to finish that McGregor told Herb he was injured to get the fight stopped. Although McGregor initiated everything that led to the end of the fight, and certainly I am not suggesting he should have continued with a broken leg that had already shifted and thus surely also torn the connective fibers, it was so beyond pathetic to see the madman screaming as Bruce Buffer prepared to read the official result, "Doctor stoppage, doctor stoppage, doctor stoppage – tell them doctor stoppage! That’s a doctor stoppage!” Of course, McGregor having his body give out on him was predictably another missed opportunity for a badly needed personal wakeup call, and as you'd expect instead only provided another chance for him to prove what a sad individual he is as Joe Rogan sat next to him to enable him to once again insult everybody, as my friend described, "like a dying little pathetic troll." UFC, and Conor's #1 cheerleader Dana White, are already onto a 4th match whenever the ill tempered bully is healthy, probably rather than the promised Poirier title challenge, the excuse of the injury giving Dana another opportunity to bash the actual good fighter in Poirier, disrespecting him and denying him a bonus or any sense of achievement in hopes of once again lining his pockets off the back of the fading fighter who is obviously going to lose, regardless of how many crazy death threats he throws out in the meantime. Good match.
UFC on ESPN 26 7/17/21: Billy Quarantillo vs. Gabriel Benitez R3 3:40. Quarantillo just wore Benitez out with relentless pressure both in standup and on the mat. Quarantillo had a quick knockdown with a right hand, and pretty much never let up. Quarantillo was working Benitez over from rear mount, but even on the ground, the pace was really fast. Benitez was swinging no matter what position he was stuck in, though obviously he rarely had much positioning or leverage on the ground, these shots were mostly to let Quarantillo know he wasn't giving up or backing down. Benitez was doing OK in the phone booth fighting, including a knockdown early in the third, but Benitez couldn't stop the takedown, and his left eye was swelling badly. They were throwing down in standup, but Quarantillo would just take Benitez down anytime he felt like it. Benitez kept defending the rear naked choke, but it was even easier for Quarantillo to hit him in the eye from rear mount, and eventually Mark Smith finally saw enough. Good match.
