Best Matches Seen September 2021 |
UFC 266 9/25/21
Robbie Lawler vs. Nick Diaz R3 0:44. This rematch 17 years in the making still produced an exciting back and forth war despite both fighters being a far cry from their heyday. Lawler has remained active, and in good shape, and he just looked so much faster than Diaz (who a decade ago seemed the faster of the two), it was unreal. I always expect the returning fighter to lose, but man, Diaz really looked really bad after 6 1/2 years away. He wasn't in any kind of shape, unless maybe the opponent was Evander Holyfield, barely making weight for 15 pounds above the originally intended weight class. He also didn't look motivated or well prepared. He just seemed to be in slow motion, but a Diaz will always give you a ton of high output boxing exchanges as long as their isn't a GSP to lay and pray on them or a Condit to run all night. Lawler came out super fast, looking to just overwhelm his rusty the opponent, but while he was mostly able to keep Diaz on his back foot even in this round, he really took his foot off the gas too early, and allowed Diaz to get comfortable, and win the round with volume and excellent body shots over sporadic power punching. Lawler really fought with a lot more determination in the second round, and had Diaz backing the whole time after an early liver kick, doing a better job of mixing things up and working the body in this round after basically just headhunting in the first. Diaz threw 176 in round 1 & 145 in round 2, landing over 70 times in each round, but he wasn't able to keep Lawler off him at all in the second round, and in this condition, it seemed doubtful that he could rely on taking over in the final rounds due to superior cardio. The fight ended quickly in the third, and rather oddly as Lawler hurt Diaz with a check right hook, then Diaz went down after an uppercut. Diaz's nose was busted, and Lawler just walked away to force Diaz back his feet, but Diaz oddly grabbed his knee as if he were injured (but this move apparently had nothing to do with anything), and then didn't get back up, resulting in the stoppage. The fight was still fun, but I can't imagine Diaz even winning in Bellator if this is the form he plans to show up in. Good match.
Alexander Volkanovski vs. Brian Ortega 5R. Ortega is a good striker, but at this level, all the holes in his game are easily exposed by the great striker Volkanovski. There's such a huge difference in the footwork, and not being a natural striker despite his first combat training being muay thai kickboxing at age 5, Ortega still has to really focus even on keeping his head moving. Ortega is still more than capable of winning this fight, but the problem is he isn't a natural wrestler either, so while he has great submissions from his BJJ background, he really has to make something happen with his striking or catch the opponent in a mistake to pounce on a guillotine or some other quick submission. Volkanovski is just far more consistent though, primarily because he is arguably the best feinter in the game. Virtually every move forward he makes is combined with some sort of head, shoulder, arm, or some other fake to either freeze his opponent, or at least keep them off balance and guessing. Ortega tried to make up for this by being far more active, but even fighting behind a good jab, he basically had to throw twice as many shots in order to land almost as many as Volkanovski. Volkanovski was mostly just outpointing Ortega in the first two rounds. The third round was excellent, with Ortega finally catching one of Volkanovski's low kicks and upending him with left straight counter, which allowed him to pounce on a mounted guillotine for an exciting near submission. Ortega tried for the guillotine again, and a D'Arce choke before Volkanovski took the top and pounded on him for the rest of the round, except for when Ortega nearly finished with his triangle. Ortega gave it all is he had to try to finish with his two best submissions, but Volkanovski probably would have gotten the stoppage with big leaning down punches had there been other side were 10 seconds left in the round. Even still, the fight could have been stoppped because Ortega's cornermen dragged him to his corner after he managed to stand up, and the doctor nearly stopped it in between rounds because Ortega couldn't see and was sketchy answering questions. Volkanovski's output at the end of this 3rd round was extra impressive given he was nearly choked out twice. Ortega had an inside-trip into another choke attempt midway through the 4th. Again, Ortega wound up taking big punishment here because he was still trying his best to win, which meant he didn't want to get off his back or to control Volkanovski in any way, he just hoped to catch him in a mistake and either get a triangle or an armbar. Herb Dean was close to stopping the fight a few times because Volkanovski just had free reign to drop down bombs. This was another strong round. The fight could probably have been stopped at the end of the fourth round as well, but Ortegais just had no quit in him, and kept competing not simply to finish the 5 rounds, but to somehow win it. Shockingly, Ortega managed to have his best round in the fifth, finally keeping Volkanovski on his back foot rather than being mesmerized by his forward movement. Granted, some of this was Volkanovski taking the foot off the gas even though he wasn't tired by any means. Still, I think it was reasonable to give Ortega the final round, not that it mattered given he lost the first four. Volkanovski won a unanimous decision 49–46, 50–45, 50–44. Very good match.
Glory 78 9/4/21
Mohammed Hendouf vs. Robson Minoto R3 1:30. A fun back and forth, action packed fight. Minoto was willing to just go punch for punch, which wasn't the greatest strategy. He was much better when he made an aggressive move forward to close the distance then when he allowed Hendouf to keep backing him up, and just slugged it out off his back foot. Hendouf had an overhand right knockdown in the first round, and a big flurry pressing for the finish in the next 30 seconds before conceding that it wasn't going to happen yet. Minoto came back with a delayed right hook knockdown at the start of in the second round. Hendouf might have won the round had it not bad for the knockdown, but it was 18-18 going into the third. Minoto was arguably that more active fighter in the first 2 rounds, but Hendouf certainly had a lot more energy left for the third, and Minoto dug himself a big hole just waiting too long to get going in this round. Before Minoto could get around to changing things, Hendouf answered a front kick with a running uppercut and left hook to the body from the knock out. Good match.
Arkadiusz Wrzosek vs. Badr Hari R2 1:30. Badr is Glory's Conor McGregor with the caveat that Badr was actually a great fighter in his prime, and still looks good to fantastic for a round or two before somehow falling apart. Either way, his only win since 2015 was overturned due to PED abuse, and this fight against a little known Arkadiusz Wrzosek, so famous he doesn't even have a Wikipedia page, seemed a last ditch effort at getting Hari into the win column to justify a main event that would sell more than Adegbuyi or Ben Saddik. It seemed like an even bigger mismatch in actuality than it was on paper, and for most of the fight, you were thinking about how amazing it was that Hari took the first two rounds against Rico two years ago before his leg betrayed him in the third. We saw a good mature version of Hari tonight, being very patient working the body and to a lesser extent the calves. Wrzosek landed a low kick here and there, I guess, but it was difficult to determine what his strategy really even was, beyond surviving, as he was seemingly just trying to figure Hari out when Hari scored his first knockdown with a left hook to the liver. Hari didn't go crazy for the finish, but didn't need to, as Wrzosek went down incredibly easy from the first shot that landed to the body, this time in right hook. I honestly thought he had given up right here, and was pretty surprised when he bothered to get back up. Luckily for him, Hari only had time to throw two more strikes before the round ended, though the Ref managed to not hear the bell, allowing Hari to get a few more in. Wrzosek injured his right forearm or wrist blocking a high kick for the third knockdown, and you wondered if he was even going to be able to throw the right hand, assuming he got the chance. Hari finally went for the kill, needing just one more knockdown for the TKO, but in perhaps the most improbable upset of all-time, Wrzosek threw up a short range lead headkick Hail Mary that not only cut Hari, but sent him crumbling to the canvas like a ton of bricks. Hari initially seemed like he was going to get up, but was moving slower and slower as he got to his knees, then lost his balance, and that was it. This was truly unbelievable! I mean, Wrzosek was a jobber who was there to set up another big payday for Badr, perhaps against the winner of next months Rico vs. Overeem, and he literally didn't land a worthwhile shot in the fight until the one that won it after he'd already been put down 3 times. I don't think I've ever seen a fight end like this. I mean, high kicks win all the time, but this was really close range with no setup. Nuts! Good match.
