UFC on Fuel 3 Recap

It wasn’t the greatest night of fights we have ever seen but it ended with a bang. The preliminary card did not have a ton of excitement besides Rafael Dos Anjos destroying Kamal Shalarous. Don Anjos is one of the most underrated fighters in the UFC today. He is very well rounded and is a killer. I want to see him fighting someone close to the top.

With the main card you pretty much saw the end of Jason MacDonald’s career in the UFC. I am not sure if they will ever have him come back. He is not UFC caliber anymore. He got completely KO’ed by Tom Lawlor who is no world beater himself. Lawlor has the power and strength to take out a lot of people at 185 but his cardio has been a big issue for him in the past. But I would like to see him square off with Alessio Sakara.

The Igor Pokrajac and Fabio Maldonado fight was a good one. Lots of bombs being thrown and most of them landing flush but neither man going down even once. Both of these guys are very talented but will not go too far. There division is saturated with some solid top ten guys. I would like to see Fabio fight Matyushenko and I would love to see Igor go at it with Cyrille Diabte.

That was followed by Yves Jabouin vs. Jeff Hougland. Yves easily took this fight. Yves at bantamweight has looked pretty good but he is a mid-tier guy. I think he should stay with fighting other strikers like Mike Easton or Alex Caceres. Hougland isn’t super talented but can put on good fights. I’d like to see him against fellow Fuel 3 winner Francisco Rivera.

Next you had Donald Cerrone absolutely destroying Jeremy Stephens. Stephens has now proven to be a gate keeper and not much more. He can KO anyone at 155 but his technique is lacking. Cerrone needs to keep fighting the best. His lost to Diaz was strange; he seemed off from the start. But get Cerrone in there with Gray Maynard the Gray Maynard vs. Clay Guida match or Anthony Pettis.

Then for some inexplicable reason the night’s co-main event was Air Sadollah vs. Jorge Lopez. Didn’t make sense to me and it didn’t make sense to the rest of the world. And once the fight was over it made even less sense. It was a very boring fight and was completely meaningless to the division. But Amir should keep fighting low level talent because that is where he belongs. Lopez probably would have won that fight if he did not break his hand in the first round. But Lopez should slowly work his way up the ladder.

Then the night ended with the Korean Zombie vs. Dustin Poirier. Zombie looked amazing and finished Poirier in the 4^th round with a super tight D’arce choke. I highly enjoyed this bout and it gave us a good glimpse into both of their futures. Dustin is a young guy with endless potential. He will be challenging for the title in the next 2-3 years. I think he should fight Ricardo Lamas. Now, the Zombie is obviously fighting the winner of Jose Aldo and Eric Koch; which is perfect. The featherweight division is very thin and Zombie has a huge fan base that will make a big draw. Should be a great fight.

Overall it was a barely average card but the Zombie Poirier fight saved the night.