1. Glover Teixeira: Anthony Smith’s corner can drink my ass. When he’s literally telling his corner his teeth are falling out and handing them to the ref, it might be time to stop the fight. Oh, BUT THEY’RE JUST VENEERS! TOTALLY OK! But fine, hell with the teeth, just look at Smith’s body language, posture, and responses between rounds. A fighter will never tell his corner to quit, it’s his corner’s job to quit for him so he doesn’t have to. Disgusting. At any rate, an absolute bulldozing from Teixeira to somehow, someway, crawl back into contention.
2. Alistair Overeem: Got rocked by Walt Harris early, but was able to climb back into the fight, knocking Walt Harris down, and using some surprising ground acumen to flatten him out and secure a (much too late) stoppage win in the main event on UFC on ESPN.
3. Drew Dober: The Doberman squashed a potential re-boarding of the Alexander Hernandez hype train on Wednesday, earning a second-round TKO, winning 6 out of his last 7, and last three by TKO.
4. Thiago Moises: Kicked off the main card Wednesday with a slick-as-all-hell heel hook win and potentially ending the UFC career of Michael Johnson.
5. Krzysztof Jotko: The only fight on the main card that wasn’t a disputed decision or a brutally late stoppage was Jotko fighting a well-put-together fight and gameplan against Eryk Anders on Saturday over Eryk Anders, and has now won three in a row.
6. Chase Sherman: After being released from the UFC after three straight losses, Sherman did what you’re damned-well supposed to. He rebounded, reeled off three wins in Island Fights, a solid regional, won the Bare Knuckle Heavyweight championship, earned an invite back to the UFC, and took care of business, finishing Isaac Villanueva in the second round in the Fight Night prelims.
7. Andrei Arlovski: It was UFC vs. PFL, as two former champions from the respective promotions battled on Wednesday, with the Pitbull outstriking and looking much better than Lins, and still has a spot gatekeeping for new hotshots.
8. Kevin Holland: Just 39 seconds was all it took to knee and punch Anthony Hernandez for a win on the ESPN prelims.
9. Ben Rothwell: In a performance that won’t end up on either fighter’s highlight reel, Rothwell welcomed Ovince Saint Preux to the heavyweight division and squeaked out a split-decision win.
10. Miguel Baeza: Matt Brown isn’t the fighter he was, but he’s still a hard out, and getting a brutal TKO of him is still a feather in the cap of an up-and-coming fighter.
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