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| This was the story of Lentz/Nunes. Photo viaFernando Donasci/UOL |
Francisco Trinaldo vs. CJ Keith: Following the first season of The
Ultimate Fighter to only feature Brazilians, Trinaldo, or also known as
Massaranduba, was considered one of the brightest prospects heading in. He
entered as a middleweight but is a natural lightweight but shockingly didn’t
give up much of a size advantage. He’s a huge lightweight, and he imposed his
size and strength over Keith right from the get go. In the second round, he
slammed him and locked in an arm triangle for the finish from half guard. This
now makes Keith 0-2 in the UFC with two losses by finishes; I will be shocked
if he fights again.
Possible matchups for Trinaldo: Though he’s only 2-1 in the UFC, he is
still a very promising fighter and I would like to see him get a fight with a
fighter higher up on the ladder, but not as high as Gleison Tibau. Perhaps a
fight with the winner of Terry Etim and Renee Forte.
Wagner Prado vs. Ildemar Alcantara: Honestly, this fight was very
difficult for me to predict. The deciding factor was the fact that Alcantara
took the fight on two weeks’ notice. The short notice didn’t seem to affect him
too much. Though he started a tad rocky in the first, he came out strong in the
second and sunk in a very tight knee-bar. Prado screamed out in pain and the
fight was over. Prado is simply not UFC caliber, so a pink slip is forth
coming.
Possible matchups for Alcantara: You could tell during the fight that
Alcantara had a huge size disadvantage, and that’s due to the fact that he is
natural middleweight, not light heavyweight. But if he can do that good against
a much larger fighter, I’m excited to see how he progresses. Buddy Roberts,
who just pulled out of his fight with Michael Kuiper due to injury, will be
looking for an opponent in his return and Alcantara will be waiting.
Yuri Alcantara vs. Pedro Nobre: Too bad the Oscar nominations already
came out, because Nobre would be nominated for best supporting actor. I’m not
surprised he did what he did though, Alcantara was about to destroy him. He
rolled him over with a kimura and had his back. With three minutes left,
Alcantara might have skimmed the back of his head and Nobre acted as if he was
hit in the back of the head with a sledgehammer. It was a no-contest but Nobre
will be released, Dana basically said it on Twitter.
Possible matchups for Alcantara: Though it wasn’t technically a win,
everyone will look at that way. He has the chance to be a future title
contender at 135. They should give him a guy with a name and a very well rounded game.
That man is Mike Easton. These two could put on a very good fight and a win for
Alcantara could launch him into the top-10 of the bantamweight division.
Edson Barboza vs. Lucas Martins: Well, this fight wasn’t particularly
surprising, though I did think that Martins would do a lot better than he did.
The problem with Barboza before was his lack of foot movement. He loved to be
flatfooted all the time. The change of camps was obviously the best thing to
happen to him. His foot work was
fantastic and he really opened up with his hands. He caught Martins early and
put him away with ground and pound.
Possible matchups for Barboza: Even though he is recently coming off of
his first loss and this win was over a general nobody, Edson Barboza is still a
very bright prospect and a great fighter. It’s tough looking for a matchup for
him though: do you want a stepping stone or a legitimate contender fight? I’m
looking for a contender fight and the guy for that is Rafael dos Anjos.
Possible matchups for Martins: It’s pretty unfair being given a fight
with Barboza on short notice as your UFC debut. He is a very promising fighter
and deserves a fight closer to his talent level. Fabricio Camoes, who is coming
off of a decision loss to Melvin Guillard, would be a good fight for both
sides; they are close in talent level.
Diego Nunes vs. Nik Lentz: At first, I had Nunes winning this fight,
but after some thought I changed it to Lentz due to the fact the wrestlers have
been doing great lately as the underdog. Well, I was right to say the least.
Lentz literally just smothered him for about 14 minutes of the fight. He easily
took Nunes down every round and just out-grappled him. The most exciting part
was in the last two seconds when Nunes almost finished Lentz. The win wasn't particularly flashy, but Lentz was extremely impressive.
Possible matchups for Lentz: Beating Nunes is a huge feat for people;
it even got Kenny Florian title shot! It launches Lentz right into the title mix.
Now, one of the most underrated fighters in the UFC is Darren Elkins. Though
many would probably think that this fight would be horribly boring, almost
every other fight that had two boring fighters ended up being amazing (Mike
Pierce vs. Aaron Simpson and Damian Maia vs. Mark Munoz).
Possible matchups for Nunes: This was a very big loss for Nunes. It
sets him pretty far back in the rankings. He is still a top-15 featherweight
but he is definitely going to need to work on his takedown defense. A fight
that he could take would the loser of Hatsu Hioki and Clay Guida.
Ronny Markes vs. Andrew Craig: Though Markes has an extremely bright
future, if he wants to make it far in the UFC, he needs to fight more exciting.
I’m not trying to sound like a fan at the bar but I’m saying that if your fights are more exciting, the UFC will heavily help you to a title shot. In the first two
rounds, Markes just absolutely dominated Craig throughout, out-grappling
him with ease. The third round though, Craig almost pulled off another crazy
comeback. He dropped Markes and almost finished him off with strikes. It was
really close to being stopped. But Markes recovered and survived for the 29-28
unanimous decision.
Possible matchups for Markes: With this rather lackluster showing,
Markes isn’t just ready for a step up in competition just yet. He is extremely
talented but he has to win at least one or two more fights. Chris Camozzi and
Nick Ring are fighting at UFC 158 in Montreal. The winner of that should face
off with Markes, in a fight that earns the winner a step up in competition.
Possible matchups for Craig: I really like Andrew Craig; he has so much
heart and so much tenacity and loves to make fights way more competitive than
it should be. He almost made the comeback in the third round and showed that
you can’t ever count him out, he’s just too tough. A fight with the loser of
Camozzi and Nick Ring makes sense as Markes could fight winner of it.
Godofredo Pepey vs. Milton Vieira: It seems that there always have to
be at least one judging robbery on every UFC card. Well this was that one
robbery. Vieira pretty handily beat Pepey in the first with superior takedowns
and better striking. The second, though, was a whole different fight. Pepey
absolutely dominated Vieira, getting his back and almost finishing him with both
strikes and submissions. The third round was similar to the first with Vieira
winning pretty much everywhere the fight went. Of course the split decision
goes to Pepey, in a horrible robbery by the judges once again.
Possible matchups for Pepey: Though it wasn’t particularly spectacular,
a win is a win. It honestly doesn’t do anything for his rankings. He really
should be 0-2 in the UFC. If he wants to show that he is still UFC caliber, he
should fight Felipe Arantes, who is coming off of a draw with Vieira. The 24 year
old Arantes poses a lot of threats for Pepey in every aspect of MMA, especially on the
feet.
Possible matchups for Vieira: Though this was such a close and
debatable fight, Vieira didn’t lose too many points to his stock. If he wants
to stick with the UFC though, he needs win in his next time out. Maximo Blanco, who hasn’t
fought since his split decision loss to Marcus Brimage back in April of 2012,
is definitely the guy for Vieira next.
