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| This is only a little bit of blood compared to how much was actually shed. Photo via Yahoo! |
Chris Leben vs. Derek Brunson:
Man, this fight was painful to watch. Leben showed a very severe case of ring
rust. He was slow, his cardio was garbage, and he just looked plain old.
Brunson was clearly just stronger and had the better ground game. He outwrestled
him and out-grappled him en route to a gruesome decision win. Leben might have
to retire following that loss. I think he might even be released.
Possible matchups for Brunson:
This was a huge win for the young wrestler in Brunson. Though he was riding two
straight losses (though it should just be one loss to Jacare), Brunson deserves
another stiff test. His cardio really isn’t as bad as this fight showed, it was
most likely due to an adrenaline dump. Another fighter who is considered to be
a very promising up and comer is Francis Carmont. The winner between these two
should result in a big name matchup.
Possible matchups for Leben:
If Leben doesn’t either retire or get released, he will be put with a smaller
name fighter like Jared Hamman. That would be a loser goes home bout but could
put on an awesome barnburner.
Yushin Okami vs. Alan Belcher:
Yushin Okami is the Jon Fitch of the middleweight division: he smothers from
bell to bell. Belcher just couldn’t stop it. There isn’t really much to say
about this fight other than Okami evaded a few guillotine attempts and
smothered his way to victory.
Possible matchups for Okami:
This was a much needed win for the former title challenger. Though it wasn’t pretty,
he did look very impressive. I would like to see him fight Hector Lombard, who
is coming off of a very dominant first round KO victory over Rousimar Palhares.
Possible matchups for Belcher:
Man, Belcher just couldn’t get anything going for about 14 minutes of this
fight. He landed one or two solid punches and a couple OK guillotine attempts.
Nothing else. I could honestly see the UFC setting up a fight with Karlos
Vemola just to get him back on track.
Tim Boetsch vs. Costa Philippou:
After the first round, which was Boetsch pretty easily outwrestling Philippou,
it seemed as though Tim was going to go on to a pretty easy decision win. But
Philippou came out in the second round a new man. He cut Boetsch very bad on
the forehead (though it seemed as though it was from an accidental headbut) and
started to wear him down. He was landing more shots and stuffing all of Boetsch’s
takedown attempts. Tim knew he wasn’t going to get anything going on the feet
so he began to pull guard, which was a horrible decision. He did it about three
times in rounds two and three. Each time he did pull guard, Philippou would
beat and bloody him up, and bad enough to finish him halfway through the third.
Possible matchups for Philippou:
If Boetsch would have beaten Philippou, he would have been put into a number
one contender bout. So what does that say about Philippou’s future? Certainly
not a number one contender match, but he is now very close to a title shot.
Brian Stann is going to be fighting Wanderlei Silva next, so I expect a
knockout in favor of Stann. If Stann wins that, I’d like to see him fight
Philippou.
Possible matchups for Boetsch:
This was a devastating loss for Boetsch, there is no two ways about it. We all
knew he didn’t have elite skills in any aspect of MMA, just mediocre abilities.
But he’s still at least a top-15 middleweight. Mark Munoz is in a similar
position so I would like to see a fight between these two.
Jim Miller vs. Joe Lauzon: It’s
a shame that we already did our “End of the Year” awards because this could definitely
be considered for Fight of the Year. Miller came out guns blazing and started
to kick out Lauzon’s legs and sliced open his face with elbows in the clinch.
There was so much blood that it was basically puddling up in Lauzon’s eyes
while he was standing up. It was so dark that it looked as though his eyes were
plucked out. These two guys wouldn’t stop; they just kept slugging it out and
would have amazing scrambles on the ground. There aren’t many words that can describe
the awesomeness of this fight.
Possible matchups for Miller:
Even though this was an awesome back and forth fight with Lauzon having several
good moments, Miller still looked fantastic. If Miller wants to put on another
amazing fight, he should fight the winner of Diego Sanchez and Takanori Gomi.
If Sanchez wins, a fight between him and Miller is definitely an instant Fight
of the Year contender.
Possible matchups for Lauzon:
Joe had some momentum coming into this fight and he’s still a very good fighter
and one of the elite in the UFC’s lightweight division. But I don’t think that
he should fight a top guy next. I think he should fight the winner of Paul Sass
and Danny Castillo.
Junior dos Santos vs. Cain
Velasquez: There’s not much you can really say about this fight other than that
Velasquez absolutely mauled him. Dos Santos actually started off very well; he
defended almost everyone of Velasquez’ takedown attempts, which there were many
of. Halfway through the round though, Cain caught Dos Santos right on the chin
while Dos Santos had his arms down. It almost knocked him clean out. I thought
the fight was over but for all five rounds, Junior showed absolutely amazing
heart. You can’t question Dos Santos’ toughness, heart, or chin. He is a true
champion and he will come back stronger than ever.
Possible matchups for Velasquez:
After recapturing his title in extremely dominant fashion, Cain is ready for
the best. I think that the fight between Alistair Overeem and Antonio Silva is
a number one contender match. So the winner of that should fight Cain next.
Possible matchups for Dos
Santos: Due to the thinness of the heavyweight division, there aren’t a lot
of matchups you can make for Dos Santos. I honestly think the best choices are
either the loser of Overeem and Silva or the winner of Mark Hunt and Stefan
Struve. Either way, any four of those matchups are great.
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