INSTANT CLASSIC
Wow.
Just wow.
The finish to Sunday’s UFC on Versus 4 main event is still playing over in my head, and every time it does, all I can still say is, “wow.”
There have been come from behind, pull it out at the last second victories before, and some of those were knockouts, but with all due respect to Scott Smith, this was the best one ever. Pat Barry had Cheick Kongo seemingly dead to rights, moving around like he was walking on stilts for the first time in his life on the brink of being finished.
And then it happened.
Kongo planted, clipped Barry behind the ear, scrambling the signal a little, and then unloaded with a thunderous uppercut that put Barry out. This wasn’t a “turned the lights off” knockout. This was a “there was a transformer that blew and blacked out the whole city” kind of deal.
I was glad to see Barry up and lucid by the time the official announcement came – and joking about it on the Internet already — because he landed on the canvas with the worst “I’m out” face I’ve seen in some time.
Expect to see this instant classic in the famed “Baba O’Riley” show-opening sequence, and soon.
CHARLIE BRENNEMAN AND HIS FITTING TATTOO
After thinking he wasn’t going to fight all week, Brenneman stepped into a fight with surging welterweight contender Rick Story on 24-hours notice and capitalized on the opportunity. He outworked Story through the opening two rounds and defended well in the final frame to take home a well-earned unanimous decision win.
Brenneman “seized the day” if you will, following the famous urgings of Horace that he has tattooed across his lower back.
This was a tremendous turn of events for the now 14-2 fighter who once won Spike TV’s Pros vs. Joes competition. Brenneman showed just how tightly contested things are in the welterweight division, earning easily the biggest win of his career on Sunday night.
His two previous wins – over Jason High and Amilcar Alves – didn’t make much of an impact, leaving his knockout loss to Johny Hendricks as his signature moment in the Octagon. It’s never good to be most remembered for getting knocked out. That all changes with this win.
While this shouldn’t mean that Brenneman simply trades spots with Story in the rankings, he definitely earns a bump up the ladder and a high-end opponent next time out; Josh Koscheck or Anthony Johnson might fit the bill.
UNHAPPY ENDING FOR STORY
Regardless of the result, Story emerges from this entire situation in even better standing in my books.
First, he takes a tough fight less than a month after beating Thiago Alves, and then he sticks it out through one of the biggest fiascos we’ve seen in some time. Though he was well within his rights to back away and preserve his winning streak, Story stuck to his “I’ll fight anyone, anywhere, any time” mentality and lost a tough scrap on twenty-four hours notice.
Personally, that willingness to take on all comers and do what is needed speaks louder than anything Story could have done in the cage, save for pulling a Cheick Kongo. Yes, it has already become a thing. Feel free to use it.
While the loss will undoubtedly shuffle him back into the pack a little, it shouldn’t halt all the progress he’s made to this point. Just as one win shouldn’t put Brenneman in the top 10 and in line to face the likes of Jon Fitch, Story deserves better than to be pushed back to the preliminary cards against middle of the pack competition.
See all of our UFC on Versus 4 coverage
THE MOST INTERESTING PART OF THE BROWN VS. HOWARD FIGHT WAS THE COMMENTARY
Okay – that’s probably not fair. I actually really enjoyed this scrap, am happy that Matt Brown got a victory and sorry that John Howard fell for a third straight time and is probably looking at a pink slip.
All that being said, what the hell fight was Joe Rogan watching?
I absolutely loved when Rogan starting talking to Brown in the post-fight interview about Howard tiring as he tried for takedowns and hearing Brown respond somewhere along the lines of, “Really? I thought it was because I kept punching him in the face.”
Hey Matt – I thought so too.
Brown got the better of things on the feet in the opening round, and clearly caught Howard a couple different times. That’s when Howard started reaching for takedowns, and it wasn’t because he was dying to get the fight to the ground. Well, he was, but it wasn’t because he loves to play jiu-jitsu.
It was because he was sick of being stuck on the end of Brown’s jab and eating combinations, and Rogan missed it. Throughout the rest of the fight, he was baffled with Howard’s decision to try for takedowns and almost refused to give Brown any credit for the plethora of punches he was landing.
Everyone has a bad game from time-to-time, and this fight was Rogan’s.
Remember when Matt Mitrione was wandering around the Ultimate Fighter house, complaining about headaches, being a generally odd dude and winning a sloppy, sloppy fight over Scott Junk?
Did you ever think that two years later, the former NFL defensive lineman would be 5-0 and gaining steam as an emerging prospect in the UFC?
That’s just what is happening, as Mitrione once again looked impressive on Sunday in putting a beating on Christian Morecraft. While Kongo’s knockout of Barry rightfully earned Knockout of the Night honors, Mitrione’s finish of Morecraft was impressive as well. The unbeaten heavyweight left his opponent cowering on the canvas, covering up when the referee came in to check on him after Mitrione simply walked away.
If it wasn’t clear before, it should be crystal clear now: Mitrione is a talent and he keeps getting better.
He’s got obvious knockout power and a great deal of confidence in both his hands and his chin. He stood in there trading with Morecraft, certain that he was going to give better than he got, and he was right. Mitrione also got up to his feet quickly whenever Morecraft put him on the canvas, a result of working diligently on a ground game that we haven’t really seen as of yet.
Mitrione versus Stefan Struve sounds about right to me moving forward.
END OF THE LINE FOR STEVENSON
I know I should be talking about the quality win Javier Vazquez earned on Sunday night, but the truth is that Joe Stevenson and his precipitous fall is the much more intriguing angle.
For the fourth straight fight, TUF 2 winner Stevenson walked out of the cage after being handed a defeat. Sometime in the next couple days, he’s probably going to be handed his walking papers as well. It’s the harsh reality of the sport, and too bad because Stevenson is a great guy, but his performance in the cage has completely fallen off.
There just seems to be a disconnect with “Joe Daddy” right now. The aggression that he showed in his last two wins over Nate Diaz and Spencer Fisher has disappeared. While he feints and follows, he can’t seem to pull the trigger, leading to him going 3-7 over his last ten fights.
It’s hard to say what the future holds for Stevenson at this point.
On one hand, he’s technically young enough to go out and regroup; it seems crazy because he’s been around for so long, but Stevenson is only 29-years-old. On the other hand, 13 years and close to 50 fights takes a toll on a person, mentally and physically.
Whether he just needs to rediscover something he’s lost or this is the end of the line, Stevenson has been a consummate pro and a pleasure to watch, and I wish him the best.
LAUZON LOOKS GREAT, NOW HE’S GOT TO DO IT WHEN IT COUNTS
Sunday night, Joe Lauzon took home Submission of the Night honors for the beautifully nasty kimura he cinched in against Curt Warburton.
It was an impressive performance from the Bridgewater, Massachusetts native; the kind of effort that has routinely had pundits pegging Lauzon as a potential contender in the lightweight division.
Here’s the thing, though: Lauzon always looks good against the Warburtons of the world, and always comes up short when the chips are down. As impressive as this performance was, he needs to carry it forward against a real contender next time out.
His best win to date is a victory over Jeremy Stephens, who — while tough as nails — isn’t exactly a championship contender at this point. Every time Lauzon has been given a step up, he’s stumbled, and he needs to put an end to the trend in his next fight.
He’s just now entering his athletic prime and showed Sunday night that he has the tools to compete. All that’s left for Lauzon to do is get in there and get a win against someone a little higher up on the totem pole than Warburton.
Even though their fight didn’t make it out of the second round, Nik Lentz and Charles Oliveira earned every penny of their Fight of the Night bonuses.
The opening round of their lightweight contest was one of the best rounds in recent history, and the second was shaping up the same until Oliveira made a mistake.
Let’s get a couple things clear here: yes, the knee was illegal, and no, he didn’t not mean to throw it.
For those who are going to ask how I can possibly know Oliveira’s intent, just go back and look in the kid’s eyes after the fight was over. The 21-year-old Brazilian is either a great actor or he was genuinely remorseful and on the verge of tears for landing the knee that decided the outcome of the fight.
To put it another way, he looked the exact opposite of Michael Bisping at UFC 127.
Regardless of the unfortunate series of events that led to the ending, this was a great fight and I can’t wait for the rematch. Lentz showed an aggressive side that had been lacking in most of his previous outings, while Oliveira confirmed why he’s viewed as a potential superstar.
WHILE WE’RE ON THE TOPIC OF THE ILLEGAL KNEE
Hey Chip Snider – what the hell were you thinking?
I know that refereeing is a thankless position and a daunting one at that; you don’t get any credit for the 99 things you do right from critics like me, and your one mistake is made into a major story. It sucks, but that’s the nature of the beast.
As such, Snider is going to be under heavy fire over the next few days, and he deserves every round.
For starters, that was a very obvious illegal knee. Everyone in the building noticed it, everyone at home noticed it, and it should have been addressed. What compounds things is that Snider noticed it too.
When the commission official came in the cage at the close of the bout, we (or at least I) overheard Snider say something to the effect of, “I was going to jump in, but he was already…” The last part wasn’t picked up, but probably spoke to Oliveira being en route to the finish, but it doesn’t matter. Snider should have stepped in and he didn’t, and that is unacceptable.
On the whole, this was a bad night for the officials.
In addition to Snider’s gaffe in the Oliveira-Lentz fight, all the officials spent way too much time offering instructions to the fighters. I heard as many calls to “keep it moving” and “do something here” as I did commentary from Rogan and Goldberg.
I’m all for an official giving guys instructions when they’re needed, but they’re not needed every 15 seconds, no matter what is happening.
Additionally, what the hell was with that third round stand-up in the Story-Brenneman fight? I always thought that you let the guy who is trying to sink in a kimura the chance to keep working. Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it.
Like I said, Sunday was a bad night for the officials.
A PARTING WORD ON THE NATE MARQUARDT FIASCO
All in all, this sucks.
In the coming days as more information becomes available, the media is going to be littered with opinion pieces damning Marquardt, saying that Dana White is over-reacting and everything in between. Most will have merit and be well done, but there is a possibility that they’ll all miss the mark in one regard.
At the end of the day, Marquardt made a mistake, whatever it is. Some mistakes are certainly more serious than others, and actions have consequences. His consequence is no longer fighting in the UFC, and maybe more, depending on what’s at the root of this weekend’s drama.
But in the grand scheme of things, this is still just a sport, and in addition to being an athlete, he’s also a husband, a father, and a human being, and he made a mistake.
The media has done a tremendous job in handling this situation thus far, keeping away from the speculation pieces plenty of people assumed were coming.
I just hope that when the facts come to light, we continue to keep things in perspective.
