Best Matches Seen October 2021 |
UFC 267 10/30/21 UFC Interim Bantamweight Title Decision: Petr Yan vs. Cory Sandhagen 5R. Sandhagen is one of those fighters who doesn't benefit from the big fights being five rounds, despite having excellent cardio. He is long, quick, and he moves beautifully, but ultimately the top level opponents don't really feel threatened by him, and know that he will become increasingly predictable with each round, and once he slows down a little bit, they will probably begin to take over. Sandhagen won the first round with volume, but Yan wasn't trying to win a one round fight, he was getting his reads and setting up his power game. And we saw this right away, as Yan really began to take advantage of Sandhagen's stance change, repeatedly greeting him with a middle kick. Yan began to counter with left hook in the second as well, and he just hits so much harder than it even though Sandhagen is the aggressor and may land an extra shot or two, it consistently feels like a Yan is the one winning the exchanges, as he lands hard tight shots, while Sandhagen is just "poking and prodding" as DC describes it most of the time, looking to create the opening for some actual hard shots but almost never actually getting there. Yan also landed leg kicks because Sandhagen was relying on his movement, but these weren't really a factor beyond just being smart and not trying to swing at the guy circling away. Still, I can't really think of anything Sandhagen began to do that changed the fight in any way, everything he did well was there from the start and lessening rather than him being able to incorporate new or different techniques to gain some ground back as he began to lose round after round. It ultimately felt like Sandhagen made a lot of mistakes, while Yan made few because Yan kept punishing Sandhagen with his counters, while Sandhagen kept touching Yan but didn't even seem to be annoying him. Sandhagen did a really good job of not letting Yan walk him down or gain any traction through forward pressure, but because Sandhagen was way more active and Yan is a great counter striker, this wasn't nearly as relevant as it could have been beyond Yan not being able to just run away with it through superior technical power boxing had Sandhagen just stood in front of him more. Yan really took over late in the third round, dropping Sandhagen with a spinning backfist followed by a left hook. Yan dominated the fourth round because Sandhagen was moving a little less, and Sandhagen just wasn't a threat at all with the counter or any kind of power, so Yan had no fear of letting his power go. Sandhagen was a little better in the 5th than the previous few rounds, but nowhere near actually taking another round. Yan won a unanimous decision 49–46. Good match.
UFC Fight Night 196 10/23/21
Mason Jones vs. David Onama 3R. Jones has been a fight of the night type performer, but today he had to use his wrestling in order to secure his first UFC victory over a smaller, short notice opponent, who was more than his equal in stand up. Debuting Onama was certainly an exciting striker, with fast hands and a lot of power. This was another action packed fight, and there were some excellent exchanges, but although Jones, as usual, banged it out more than he should have, especially given his strengths are judo and grappling, he ultimately fought just smart enough, regularly taking down Onama, who wasn't the southpaw wrestler Jones had been preparing for, and being a weight class smaller was easier to muscle around. Onama is a great athlete, and he was able to defend submissions and scramble well to get back up repeatedly, but Jones was racking up points to make up for Onama's advantage in many of the exchanges. This was a round a peace going into the 3rd, where Jones had another no resistance takedown to set up it controling the majority of the round. Onama was able to get up in the last minute, and land a couple big shots, but not enough to make up for all the time he spent on his back. Jones won a unanimous decision 29-28. Good match.
Marvin Vettori vs. Paulo Costa 5R. Costa couldn't make 185, then 195, so ultimately this was shifted to 205. I really soured on Vettori when his answer to Adesanya countering was simply to not throw anything, but today he really outworked the overweight opponent, and that was the difference in the fight. Costa certainly had more power, but just couldn't land consistently enough to make up for Vettori having more stamina and activity. Vettori's volume were good solid shots, and he was just so consistent, while Costa would take so much time off in between landing his good shots that, even though his shots were clearly superior, it always felt like he was fighting himself and Vettori. It was nonetheless a close, interesting fight where with some better body language from Costa, he might have eeked out another round from the judges, but instead it was Vettori who took everything he could offer and kept coming hard from bell to bell. Vettori put a high pace on from the outset to challenge Costa's gas tank, and Costa was sucking wind early and often in between his huge power shots. Costa did a good job of working the body to help make up for his limited output, partically with the right middle kick. This helped open up the big right high kick early in the 2nd, which was the best strike of the fight, rocking Vettori. Costa expended a ton of energy trying to finish, but Vettori soon came back with a takedown. To make things worse for Costa, Jason Herzog deducted 1 point due to a Jon Jones eye poke. Costa had a chance to win the third round, but blew it diving on guillotine, which allowed Vettori to finish the round with 70 seconds of top control. Costa remained dangerous enough that the fight maintained a good level of intensity, but clearly Vettori was declining a lot less which each round, and Costa's only chance of winning was with a finish. Costa won the 5th round to make the decision closer than it looked. Vettori won a unanimous decision 48–46. Good match.
Glory Collision 3 10/23/21 Glory Heavyweight Title: Rico Verhoeven vs. Jamal Ben Saddik R4 0:56. I'm not sure if Rico has began to transition from the portion of his career where he simply dominates the opposition to the portion where he merely outlasts them. He looked more or less like himself in the tournament in January, but the competition wasn't nearly as stiff, so the question is more whether Jamal Ben Saddik & Badr Hari are that awesome that they are almost his equals, or whether Rico is slipping due to age, wear and tear, and perhaps inactivity? I definitely thought Verhoeven was much more impressive in the first fight with Ben Saddik, there he got caught early but took over and largely had his way after the first round. In this fight, he never really seemed to get his footing, it wasn't his usual technical match where his speed and stamina ruled the day, it was basically just a slugfests with him standing in front of Ben Saddik, and eventually landing a lot more big shots than he withstood because the Goliath was running on fumes. Part of the problem is Rico was badly cut, and couldn't necessarily count on having five rounds to work with, but he didn't panicking so much as continue to do what was working because his opponent didn't have the energy, if the ability, to make the adjustment to stop it. You have to feel bad for Ben Saddik in the sense that he is totally his own worst enemy. Especially tonight, the main thing that prevented him from winning the title was his own lack of conditioning, capped by simply giving up early in the fourth round, which just felt so weak given he still had a reasonable chance of winning the fight if he found the energy to finish what he started. The first round was largely a feeling out, but Ben Saddik scored what appeared to be a flash knockdown in the final seconds, but it was ruled a slip doing. Still, this appeared to be a Ben Saddik round, though obviously starting with a 10-8 round would have been huge for Ben Saddik's confidence that he could win the fight without scoring a knockout. To add insult to injury, three of the five judges gave the round to the champion. Ben Saddik's left shin was split badly, but this didn't really appear to hamper him all that much, and he knocked Rico down for real at the start of the 2nd round with a short right straight, opening a really nasty gash under his left side. Badr Hari suggested that Ben Saddik should focus on getting this stoppage by opening up the cut further, rather than burning himself out taking a big push for the knockout when Rico was clearly still there physically, which seemed like a much more reasonable strategy. Rico somewhat made a decision for Ben Saddik by standing toe to toe with him, getting his overhand right going because Ben Saddik doesn't look at the opponent when he is punching. This was an excellent round, with Verhoeven outworking Ben Saddik in the second half to the point he would have won the round had it not been for the knockdown. Ben Saddik was beginning to tire, and show is predictable technical flaws as well, but he could easily have been up 20-16, and that's not even talking about how many times Verhoeven got away with losing his mouthpiece in this fight. Rico really want to be working on the inside against his larger opponent, which perhaps is why it was a less technical fight for him and we didn't see many low kicks. He just needed to be as close as he could be because Ben Saddik had literally no answer to his overhand right, and was nearly dropped by it early in the third round. Even though this was essentially a brawl, one of the big differences was that Rico had the option of relying on his footwork or his technical skills, whereas Ben Saddik had no real defense beyond mustering up the energy for his next flurry of punches. He simply wasn't able to slow the fight down what he needed to. Ben Saddik was eating about six shots to every one he threw back in the third round, and this was such a dominant round for Verhoeven it should have been a 10-8 round for Rico even though there wasn't a knockdown. Big Mike managed to steal about as much time as we have seen for a fighter since the infamous Yoel Romero Stoolgate, but Ben Saddik was already defeated physically, if not mentally. Verhoeven scored a quick knockdown in the 4th because Ben Saddik was too busy complaining about a punch to the back of the head to stop hanging on the ropes, and although he was responding fine to the ref while losing their conversation about the illegal shot, he just simply chose not to continue after the standing eight count. I could see rating this match really highly, but at the same time this finish really left a bad taste in my mouth, and it just feels like Verhoeven is a great fighter who can overcome adversity, while Ben Saddik is merely a big bully who just quits once things stop going his way. Very good match.
