Best Matches Seen August 2021 |
UFC on ESPN 30 8/28/21
Gerald Meerschaert vs. Makhmud Muradov R2 1:49. Meerschaert was plodding in early behind his strikes without moving his head, and was quickly stunned. He avoided the ground and pound, but Muradov was coming hard as it is he got up, and was really working him over with punches. Muradov made a huge speed advantage, and was by far the more skilled standup fighter, but Meerschaert was able suck it up and be super aggressive, jumping or sliding in with the left straight. Meerschaert landed an overhand left, and charged in high, slipping around the back but Muradov was going to defend his neck at all costs, which meant eating punches for the last 20 seconds. This was clearly a Muradov round, but Meerschaert at least got himself into it late. Meerschaert caught Muradov with a left hook a minute into the 2nd, and with Muradov still feeling the effects, the left hand was suddenly there for Meerschaert. This time Meerschaert was able to take the body off the high bodylock with 3 1/2 minutes left, and was quickly able to get the choke for the comeback win. Good match.
Ricky Turcios vs. Brady Hiestand 3R. A crazy fight! Though nowhere near as good as the gold standard of TUF Finals, Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar, they also gave us all they had, and then some. Turcios was indeed a Psycho, trying any crazy attack that popped into his head, but Brady was a rather generic amateur wrestler just looking to GSP his way to victory. Turcios kept a crazy pace, and even when he was on his back, he was the one throwing most of his strikes. To some extent, that was the difference in the fight, as Turcios' activity stole the first round that he would normally have lost because he was on his back most of the time, albeit also with a couple of decent submission attempts. Though Hiestand didn't want to slug it out, he was throwing some bombs when he wasn't grappling, and nailed Turcios with a left hook midway through the 2nd. Turcios quickly ducked into a takedown, and had Hiestand's back though, but he was too high to get the rear naked choke. Turcios jumped into a rolling guillotine, but couldn't control the body. This was probably a Hiestand round, but again Turcios did most of the cool stuff. Even in the best of circumstances, which tonight certainly wasn't given the worst judge in the history of sports, Adelaide Byrd, was already 2-2 in rendering wrong decisions, literally any scoring was possible after two rounds. Both guys came out bombing in the third, looking for something decisive that could either end the fight, or at least steal a round for them. Turcios was the one who succeeded, knocking Heistand's mouthpiece out with a right cross, then dropping him with another. Hiestand had a couple minutes of lay and pray, but Turcios nailed him with a knee as soon as he got up, and was working him over against the cage. Definitely a Turcios round, which earned him a split decision 29–28, 28–29, 29–28. Very good match.
Giga Chikadze vs. Edson Barboza R3 1:44. Chikadze represents an extremely tough matchup for Barboza, as he is the better former kickboxer, especially as it translates to MMA because he is faster and has much better footwork. Barboza was more or less always the quicker fighter at 155, but now at 145, as in a match like this, he sometimes looks kind of slow because he has the plodding Muay Thai power style whereas Chikadze has a much more fluid and flowing motion based karate style. Barboza tried to walk Chikadze down, but while he could keep Chikadze's back near the cage, he was never able to cut him off, instead basically just chasing him around while taking the slight majority of the blows that landed. Chikadze mostly worked the head in the first round, setting up two liver kicks, which didn't land perfectly, but we're still arguably the two best strikes of the round. Barboza was really working hard with fakes and feints to set up the big shot, but Chikadze just as someone to speed that he can, for instance, put the left straight right through with no setup or tell. Barboza is legendary for his leg kicks, but Chikadze was even outlanding him there. That being said, Barboza began to work himself into the match midway through the second by slowing Chikadze down with a couple of calf kicks. Theoretically, the significant strikes were about even after two rounds, but it certainly seemed like Chikadze had the advantage, and had clearly taken each round. Early in the third, Chikadze landed a step knee that Barboza caught on the recoil. Chikadze was able to push him off to break free, then land a big right straight with Barboza off-balance. Barboza's left eye seemed to be damaged from the punch, and from here everything Chikadze threw landed really big. Barboza tried to keep moving, but first he was wobbled, then he was knocked down. Chikadze tried to finish with an anaconda choke, but once the Barboza got back to his feet, Chikadze immediately knocked him down again with a left hook for the stoppage. Overall, this wasn't nearly as good a match as I was hoping for, but it's was definitely an interesting contest between two of the highest level strikers in the promotion. Good match.
UFC 265 8/7/21
Rafael Fiziev vs. Bobby Green 3R. A really interesting strategic match with Green displaying his defensive wizardry with his hands down, leaning away or rolling with the punches and pivoting to turn off to avoid, or at least greatly minimize the damage style, which Fiziev was able to somewhat counteract by kicking the body so many times, forcing Green to block. Green really wanted to fight by faking a shot to see how Fiziev would move, and draw the counter from him so he could counter back. This essentially set up a one for one scenario, but the problem with this style was Fiziev did a slightly better job of filling in the gaps with his other strikes, which ultimately resulted in him outlanding Green by a handful in each of the close two rounds. The first round certainly could have gone either way, Fiziev as I said had a minimal numbers advantage due to low and middle kicks, but none of these were really doing much beyond touching, while Green looked a lot more impressive because his defense was fantastic, but he was a bit too much in the reading and reacting mode to really be focused on being the one to actually land first. Fiziev definitely wasn't throwing as many punches as he normally would because Green thrives on the opponent targeting his head, but Fiziev did manage to stun Green with a right midway through the second round. Green began to attack more aggressively at the end of the second round, but just as he came on with a couple of punches, Fiziev cut him with a short elbow. Green ate some shots in order to bait Fiziev into standing in front of stand and exchanging early in the third, and finally began to get aggressive and focus on landing his jab to start the sequence, rather than just putting something out to draw the reaction. Fiziev was suddenly looking very tired, and all the great footwork he showed in the first two rounds largely disappeared. With Fiziev now more of a stationary target, Green was able to have much more success landing the right hand or front kick to the body. Green finally hurt Fiziev in the final seconds, and you felt like if this was a five round fight, Green would have won the next two rounds even bigger than this one, is not finished him. Certainly, scoring the fight as a whole, this was an easy win for Green behind a 74-35 strike advantage in round 3, but Fiziev outlanding him by a combined 10 strikes in the 1st two rounds was enough to give him the unanimous decision in a fight where the rounds were something like 10-9.9, 10-9.4, 8.5-10. Since the first round was so close, when I heard a unanimous decision announced that included a 30–27 scorecard, I was sure can Green must have won because no one in their right mind could possibly have given Fiziev the third round, which statistically was far closer to a 10-8 for Green. Then again, I should know by now that UFC judges have never been in their right mind. Good match.
