So another UFC event has come and gone as we got to see a solid night of fights at UFN 24 last night. I was only able to catch the main card(4 fights) because I was not near a computer to check out the fights that were streamed on Facebook. I know, I lost. Anyways, let’s get to the fights that aired on Spike TV:
–Leonard Garcia vs. Chang Sung Jung: I wrote in the preview that it would be difficult for this fight to live up to the first one. It didn’t, but it was still a pretty good fight in and of itself. Garcia was much more patient in this one, but still tended to swing wildly throughout a few of the exchanges. However, the real difference in this fight was the ground skills of both fighters. Garcia is a brown belt in jiu-jitsu and had no answers for Jung’s top game. Jung was able to take his back, mount him, and ultimately finished him with the first ever “Twister” submission in the UFC. Garcia is on a real slide in his career. The judges said he won his last fight against Nam Phan, but the consensus was he clearly lost that fight. He lost to Mark Hominick before that, and many thought Jung beat Garcia the first time they fought. So that’s really 5 fights in a row he has lost, including a draw against George Roop. Big win for Jung, and it seemed like he got a big applause from the crowd.
–Amir Sadollah vs. DeMarques Johnson: This was a good fight while it lasted. I felt that Johnson edged Sadollah in the first round slightly. However, the fatigue began to sit in on Johnson as he took this fight on two weeks notice. That combined with the offensive pressure of Sadollah was just too much. It was a solid performance for Sadollah, but it was a fight he was supposed to win. I think Sadollah will be top 15 welterweight, but that’s about as high as his ceiling goes in my opinion. I think he’ll always get beaten by good wrestlers with solid top games. He says he wants a step up in competition. I think a re-match with Johny Hendricks would be appropriate. Hendricks ran through Sadollah in less than 30 seconds, and gave Sadollah his first professional defeat. Hendricks fought on the under-card and won last night. Joe Silva, make it happen!
–Anthony Johnson vs. Dan Hardy: I picked Dan Hardy because I thought the long layoff would affect Johnson’s cardio and timing as far as striking. However, he fought the smart fight and used his wrestling ability to control the pace of the fight which negated both of those factors. It was a relatively easy and dominant win for Johnson. He’s a problem for anyone in the division if he keeps his weight under control. I’d like to see him matched up against Martin Kampmann or Diego Sanchez. A win over either of those guys instantly puts him in the mix in the welterweight division. That’s three losses in a row for Hardy, but I expect the UFC to keep him around. However, he could be in trouble if he were to drop a fourth fight. He needs to drill nothing but take-down defense for 3 months.
–Phil Davis vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueria: I’ll have more on this fight later, specifically thoughts on the criticism that Phil Davis is catching after his performance last night. The fight went about how I thought it would, but I thought Davis would be able to take Nogueira down whenever he wanted. However, I noticed that Davis was the smaller guy in the cage last night even though he cuts about 15-20 pounds to make the light heavyweight limit. Davis looked uncomfortable at times on the feet last night, but he showed a good chin and composure for a young fighter. A lot of guys would have gotten discouraged when all of their take-downs got stuffed like that. He also showed that he is improving his striking game. He landed several body kicks, but it’s clear that his hands need to improve. He also mentioned that he was injured quite a bit during his training camp. I realize that most fighters don’t come into fights at 100%, but that could have been a factor in his performance as well depending on what was injured. I’d like to see Davis take on Forrest Griffin next. It would be another high profile fight, Griffin is top ten as was Nogueira, he’s a huge light heavyweight, but Davis matches up with him stylistically.
I enjoyed the fights for the most part, and I wish I could have saw the fights that streamed on Facebook. There were some folk complaining about only four fights being shown on the Spike broadcast, and the amount of commercials being shown. I hate commercials as well, especially that NAPA commerical. I wish I could have that minute or so of my life back. However, if you watched the fights streamed on Facebook you got to see NINE fights for FREE. Come on, what’s so bad about that?