Monday, June 17, 2013

Miocic Conquers "Big Country" At UFC 161!

When Miocic dominated Nelson to get the unanimous decision, I burst into laughter.  Even today, I still don't believe it.  This upset alone made the whole PPV worth it.  That being said, the other matches were better than people give them credit for.  Let's take a look at each of them individually:

Barry vs. Jordan: Jordan caught "HD" with a right uppercut and swarmed, taking his back and finishing the match against the cage with punches to the side of the head in Round 1.  Even though Barry wasn't out, he was just covering up and not doing anything.  Since his spirit was broken, it was only a matter of time before his body broke as well.

Davis vs. Sexton:  This match should have been stopped in Round 2.  Davis had taken Sexton's back, got her hooks in and flattened her out, pummeling her relentlessly on both sides of her head.  Sexton wasn't defending herself intelligently at all.  She just covered her head and lay there, doing nothing!  Nonetheless, Davis still won, using her superior grappling and size advantage to get the decision.  Overall, it was a pretty exciting fight and I look forward to seeing who Davis gets next.

Jimmo vs. Pokrajac:  The first one-and-a-half rounds were exciting.  Pokrajac got Jimmo with a combo against the cage, catching him with a couple of strong hooks.  Jimmo later dropped him with a left hook and rushed him against the cage.  After that, both fighters ran out of steam and it turned into a grinding affair on the ground.  So of course, all of the casuals started booing.  I just decided to ignore them and enjoy the match anyway.  After an attempted guillotine, Pokrajac basically gave up.  He just stood there holding his arms out to his side every time he was in the clinch, looking completely out of it.  In the end, Jimmo got a well-earned decision.

Nelson vs. Miocic:  Wow!  I never thought that I would ever see Miocic school "Big Country."  Miocic took Nelson apart with three and four punch combos, using his superior speed to avoid Nelson's power shots.  Miocic actually ran away a few times to escape Nelson's punches, including an uppercut that would have decapitated him if it had connected.  I thought that Nelson would fall back on his Brazilian jiu-jitsu when he realized that striking wasn't going to work.  However, it seems that, after years of getting one hit KOs, he has forsaken his grappling game.  He was taken down and did nothing on the ground.  This was definitely the best fight of the PPV, and proves that boxing is an underrated martial art.  After this, Miocic deserves another top-five opponent.  I would love to see how well he would do against Fabricio Werdum.

Henderson vs. Evans:  Watching this fight was like watching a chess match: interesting because of the strategy involved.  Hendo was focused on setting up his H-bomb, whereas "Suga" was concentrating on darting in and out with combos.  Henderson was able to catch Evans with a stiff jab in Round 1 and managed to swarm him.  Other than that, he didn't do any real damage.  Evans, on the other hand, managed a successful take down and tagged Henderson with flurries and jabs, outpointing him to get the split decision.  In other words, I was wrong: Evans is still relevant in the division.  I would love to see a match between him and Glover Teixiera next.  Hendo's days as a contender, on the other hand, are basically over.  Like Shogun, the former Pride and Strikeforce champion is destined to be a gatekeeper for the new breed of fighters. 



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