While Bellator was mixing some entertaining fights with one of the most ridiculous moments in MMA history (the Bonnar/Ortiz “brawl), the UFC was putting on a ridiculously fun show on Fox Sports 1.
Gegard Mousasi is a fantastic fighter and a ridiculously tough out (though he was a little bland in his attack tonight), but Ronaldo Souza did seemingly anything and everything he wanted through for the duration. In round three he locked up a guillotine choke and got the submission.
People get excited when a big performance like this comes along and start to demand title shots. Vitor Belfort is up first for Chris Weidman, if Weidman survives that and Luke Rockhold beats Michael Bisping, it’s possible that Rockhold is up next (he did beat Jacare). So it’s possible Jacare is third in line for a title fight even with tonight’s great performance.
Either way, the idea of Jacare vs. Weidman is pretty damn exciting.
- Alistair Overeem is one of the biggest busts in MMA history. His stint in the UFC has been miserable. He beat a shell of Brock Lesnar, then got in trouble for assaulting a woman, failed a drug test, got knocked out twice, picked up a decision win over Frank Mir and then got knocked out again. Between Overeem and Mirko Cro Cop, it seems like it’s not a great idea to overpay for heavyweight free agents.
- Ben Rothwell is such an unlikely success story and his post win speech was a good moment. As long as he passes his drug test we can start to really put things in perspective. On the post-fight he said that he blocked a kick wrong and ended up with a broken forearm.
- I didn’t understand Derrick Lewis being the favorite over Matt Mitrione and it played out worse than even I expected. Lewis ran forward into a big shot and got put down in a hurry. Neither guy is particularly dynamic, but the more proved guy seems like the better bet over the unproven raw brawler coming out of TUF.
- I feel bad for Michael Chiesa, but that was a totally legitimate stoppage. He and Joe Lauzon were having a tremendous fight, but he ate a knee and his eyebrow was split open wide and deep. That’s the proper situation for a doctor to waive off a fight. They can (I hope) rematch down the road.
- I still haven’t figured out what happened in John Moraga’s win. I thought that he was ineffectively defending takedowns with guillotine choke attempts. He kept going back to it and it seemed like a bad idea, and then Justin Scoggins was tapping. A complete surprise in the moment.
Also, this: