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| Max Holloway finishing Justin Lawrence. Photo by MMAWeekly.com |
This was a solid night of fights that was sadly capped off
with controversy. Every fight but one was entertaining and the prelims only had
one fight go to a decision. This entire card was stacked from top to bottom
with lower weight class fighters, something that has been slowly taking over
the UFC with their entertaining fights and incredible speed. Let’s take a look
at those fights and give some possible matchups.
Justin Lawrence vs. Max Holloway: This fight was the one
that I was looking forward to the most, with the exception of the main event, heading
into UFC 150. It lived up to my expectations. They showed some of the more
technical striking in the UFC, and they only have a combined age of 42 years
old. That’s pretty incredible. The first round was very close as Lawrence
pushed forward for the majority of the round but Holloway landed more
combinations, utilizing his significant reach advantage. Eventually, Holloway
landed a knee to the body that hurt Lawrence and followed it up with a punch to
the liver, ala Bas Rutten, which dropped Justin and Holloway finished him with a hectic
flurry.
Possible matchups for Holloway: Holloway is the next big
thing, and that’s to say the least. At 20 years old, he has some of the best
striking at 145 pounds, and arguably the most technical. But he’s not the only
145er to be making a name for himself; Jimy Hettes is also being considered a
future title contender as he will be fighting Marcus Brimage at 152. The winner
of that fight should face off with Holloway to see who’s truly ready for that
title contender status.
Possible matchups for Lawrence: Pablo Garza was on his way
to title contention before he lost to both Bermudez and Dustin Poirier. They
are now both looking for rebound fights and Garza would be a good test for
Lawrence’s ground game.
Yushin Okami vs. Buddy Roberts: I have to say, Roberts’
standup really impressed me in this fight. He started off very solid and was
landing great jabs on Okami before Yushin realized he was losing. Okami then dragged
him to the ground, not without difficulty at first though. Eventually in the 2nd
round, Okami would finish the fight with strikes in a very lackluster TKO
finish.
Possible matchups for Okami: It really seems that Okami’s
title contention days are behind him as he was losing the standup to Roberts.
Him and Jake Shields both won very lackluster performances Saturday night and a
fight between them makes perfect sense and I'm guessing that Okami would like revenge against Shields for their fight several years ago.
Possible matchups for Roberts: I think that Roberts really
surprised most of us with his solid striking attack against Okami. Andrew Craig
is coming off an amazing comeback KO win over Rafael Natal and even though
Roberts is coming off a loss, Roberts looked solid and deserves a move up the
rankings despite the 0-1 added to his resume.
Ed Herman vs. Jake Shields: This fight was awful. I am
personally a huge fan of a ground fight but Shields simply just didn’t do
anything when he got there. He almost had a kimura at one point, but he never
got it. He ended up winning the unanimous decision, but it didn’t do much to help his status in title talks.
Possible matchups for Herman: One of the more promising
middleweights in the UFC, Ronny Markes, does not have his next fight set up yet
and I’m sure that Herman wants to put this horrible loss to Shields behind him
as quickly as possible.
Donald Cerrone vs. Melvin Guillard: It is very rare to see a
Fight of the Night bonus go to a fight that didn’t go to a decision. It’s even
more rare for a fight to earn Fight of the Night when it didn’t go past the
second round. But for a fight to earn Fight of the Night when it only lasts 76
seconds, that's unheard of. Yes, the fight was only 76 seconds, and it undoubtedly earned Fight of
the Night. Guillard landed a solid counter right hand that dropped Cerrone, which was a first in his UFC career. Guillard rushed in, trying to finish the
fight with all his might, but was eventually caught with a head kick that
clipped the top of his head. Guillard was out on his feet as Cerrone landed the
final blow with a right straight that put “The Young Assassin” out. Back-and-forth action is always the
perfect formula for FOTN.
Possible matchups for Cerrone: Before this fight even
happened, Cerrone was calling out Anthony Pettis. Joe Silva, it’s time to make
this fight happen!
Possible matchups for Guillard: Not only did this loss make
him 1-3 in his last four, but it was also his first ever TKO/KO loss in his MMA
career. I still believe he is an elite lightweight in the UFC, his standup is
incredible, but setbacks are inescapable in the slump he is going through.
Danny Castillo and Michael Johnson are fighting at UFC 151 and they are
certainly looking for a step up in competition with whoever wins that fight.
Guillard could be that exact leap in competition they are looking for.
Benson Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar: This fight was amazing,
but it was almost completely overshadowed by its decision. It almost seems like
it’s in Henderson’s DNA to not put on a boring fight, and he didn’t fail this
time. Edgar and Henderson put on an amazing fight that I, and many other
journalists and fans, had scored for Edgar. It was an extremely close fight,
but I personally thought that it was a clear-cut decision win for Edgar. A
fight can sometimes be razor thin but still clear-cut. I had the last four rounds scored
for Edgar with the 3rd round being the only one I would give to
Henderson, if I had to change one. I was very upset with this decision, and
luckily, I’m not alone.
Possible matchups for Henderson: Nate Diaz was announced before this fight that he was the next challenger. I truly believe in
my heart that Diaz can become the new lightweight champion.
Possible matchups for Edgar: After looking through the UFC’s
lightweight roster, there are very few fights that make sense for Frankie. The
one that stands out to me the most though, is a fourth fight with Maynard. Gray
is coming off a, bizarre to say the least, win over Clay Guida and Frankie is
still the second best in the world in my eyes. This would be a great fight to
headline a Fox card to finally finish their 1-1-1 record with each other in what could be a number 1 contender's bout.
Click here for the prelim recap!
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