I’m kind of angry right now. That probably has something to do with having to wake up so early to cover this event, but I cannot figure out how Darren Till won such a decisive decision over Stephen Thompson. I had Thompson winning four of the five rounds, only losing the fifth because he got dropped. Wonderboy fought his fight, and Till was hesitating over and over again.
Yet somehow, Till got two 49-46’s and a 48-47. I don’t get it.
The rounds weren’t blowouts for Wonderboy, but I thought he landed the much cleaner shots throughout the first 20 minutes and Till seemed a bit gunshy. When they announced the scores, I wrote out “Stephen Thomson defeated Darren Till” before they even raised an arm, because that matched up with what I saw. Except they said the other guy’s name. And raised his hand. What?
Look, I like Darren Till. I thought he fought okay. But he didn’t win that fight. He didn’t win that fight at all, and I feel bad for Stephen Thompson right now. He went on the road against a guy down in the rankings. He was in a tough spot. And he got robbed by the judges tonight.
Yeah, I used the R word. I think it applies here.
- Neil Magny managed to stay on the card by getting an ultra-late replacement opponent in Craig White. White put up a fight for a few minutes, but the experience of Magny was too much. He caught him with a hard knee to the face in the clinch, dropped him, and pounded him out. After the fight he called out Kamaru Usman, but it might be too late for that now.
- What a comeback by Arnold Allen. Mads Burnell was over him for most of the fight, in complete control. Then out of nowhere, Allen snatched up a front choke and got the tap. He took the time after the fight to call out his dad as a longtime steroid user, but says he’s clean as a whistle. Okay?
- Makwan Amirkhani and Jason Knight did a lot of talking, then went out there and fought a hell of a first five minutes. Amirkhani dropped Knight. Knight dropped Amirkhani twice in a row and had him in serious danger, then he…ended up in rubber guard? That was really odd. Amirkhani just controlled him on the mat for the next two rounds and stole a victory from the fists of defeat.
- The judge that gave Knight a 30-27 score? He or she shouldn’t be judging UFC fights.
- Amirkhani’s interview was just strange. He told a story about going to Chechnya with Jimi Manuwa (who was in the crowd) and said that Manuwa is the craziest guy in the world for wearing a gold cross in a Muslim country. That was painfully awkward.
- Claudio Silva and Nordine Taleb were mixing it up nicely, then things went sideways for Taleb. Taleb was in control but dropped for a leg lock (is it just me or are a lot of Tristar guys doing this lately?) and Silva took advantage. Silva’s definitely got squeeze, finishing it with a face crank/jaw crusher.
- Silva also had one of the weirder post-fight interviews in recent memory, branding himself a Britishzilian and asking Dana for the “50 keys” bonus. What?
- Eric Spicely surprisingly looked pretty good on the feet against Darren Stewart for a round and a half, but not being able to get his grappling game going just made it seem like he was going to get caught at some point. And that he did.
- Tom Breese looked good using his size advantage against Daniel Kelly, hurting him and stopping him in the first round. Kelly thought it was an eyepoke, but it looked like it came from a legal punch to me. It seems like the fan love affair with Kelly might be over after three straight losses.
- Lina Lansberg vs. Gina Mazany was terrible. Next.
- Carlo Pedersoli and Brad Scott put on a fairly standard standup scrap, which Pedersoli won. I like his kicking game, and think he might be able to stick around for a while in the welterweight division.
- Molly McCann was a hometown fighter, but Gillian Robertson kept them quiet with some slick grappling. After a dominant first round, she advanced to mount and put McCann to sleep with a nice choke in the second.
- In the only Fight Pass bout, Elias Theodorou survived a cut to control Trevor Smith and get a decision victory. Like many of the fights on this card, there was a lot of clinch work. Elias has now won four of five and he’s already in the rankings, so he should get someone higher up the ladder next.
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