Contributor: Josh Hall
Last night the UFC put together a stacked lineup for its debut on the new Fox Sports 1 channel, and for once a monster card like that actually lived up to the potential it showed on paper. For their first time on a brand new channel it is fair to say that the UFC made exactly the kind of first impression they wanted, and they did a good job of keeping the mistakes to a minimum. The event has to be looked at as a success for Zuffa and a major upgrade to the coverage on FX/Fuel.
The fights were great, and a lot of the credit for that has to go to Joe Silva for booking fights that had no alternative to being awesome. Even so, the fighters still have to bring it, and they absolutely delivered in that regard. The addition of the new camera angle from mat level was a good one in my opinion, giving fans a different look at the grappling action. It wasn’t something they used a lot, but I felt that it really added to the production value overall.
Before I get into the specific fights, there is one big thing on the negative side that needs to be addressed, but fortunately for the UFC this happened on the YT/FB portion of the card. In the first fight of the night fans were graced with an appearance from one Lloyd Irvin, and the entire hardcore fan base simultaneously cringed. Irvin was in the corner of [fighter name redacted because I will not acknowledge the accomplishments of anyone with Irvin in his/her corner], who had an impressive submission win totally overshadowed by the presence of biggest pariah in the sport in his corner.
In a company that currently has banned Randy Couture from cornering his son to do a business disagreement with Dana White, it blows my mind that they would allow Irvin in the arena with all the information that has come to light regarding his camp and him personally. Between shady business deals and enough rape on his team to go around for the whole sport, Team Lloyd Irvin needs to be banned from all UFC events. This makes sense from a moral and a business perspective. Zuffa has been in an ongoing battle with the Vegas Culinary Union for a long time (over the attempts to unionize Station Casinos, owned by the Fertitta brothers). This is just giving them ammunition to use in their efforts to make things difficult for the UFC. The saving grace for them here is that Irvin only appeared once, on the first fight of the card in the untelevised portion of the card. But hearing him talked up by UFC announcers on a UFC broadcast was frankly disgusting to hear. I hope we never do again. Now let’s get to all the fun from this card.
The tone was set from the get go on FB/YT with quick finishes in the first 2 fights to start the night. Ramsey Nijem absolutely handed a guillotine choke to [name still redacted] early in the first, quickly followed by a ground and pound KO by Ovince St Preux in the guard of Cody Donovan after a sick reversal of a throw. Both finishes happened in an instant, but the other unaired prelim fight got a little weird.
The first round between Cole Miller and Manny Gamburyan ended in major controversy as Miller landed 2 elbows against the cage that left Manny laid out protesting an illegal strike to the back of the head (the replays I saw did not confirm this though as the elbow in question appeared to land just over the ear). He didn’t make it back to his corner before the one minute break expired, at which point he was checked by the doctor and allowed to continue. I’m honestly still not sure that Miller shouldn’t have been awarded a TKO there, but the referee seemed confused about what to do and the fight continued. Manny then managed to use his takedowns to win the last 2 rounds, securing the very odd decision victory.
Things didn’t slow down once the televised prelims began, although we did see some terrible cardio issues in the Brandao/Pineda FW bout. After a first round with 5 minutes of crazy good action both men gassed out horribly, especially for 145 pounders. It was still a solid TV opener, a decent decision win for Brandao, and fans that were looking for more finishes would not have to wait long.
Former WEC FW champ Mike Brown returned to the Octagon after a brief retirement and his second neck surgery against former TUF contestant Steven Siler and it the opposite of the comeback he wanted. Brown was clipped by a right hook coming in aggressively and Siler dropped bombs once he hit the ground until his eyes rolled back in his head and the ref stepped in. Brown protested the stoppage, but there was no question he was out cold. His return lasted all of 50 seconds and was really a sad thing to watch happen to one of the good guys of the sport.
The hype train made its first appearance on the card as Conor McGregor had the crowd going wild at the mere sight of him. The Boston Irish contingent was in full force last night to support their guy in by far his most high profile fight of his career. It looked like he might run over his opponent on the feet early, but the young Max Holloway hung in the fight like a champ. He took damage from the flashy but effective striking from McGregor, and it was clear that this was a case of too much, too soon for the talented 21 year old. “Notorious” showed off his improved ground game in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, dominating Holloway on the ground and winning a clear cut decision victory.
The main event of the prelims was the FOTN night winner between Michael “Mayday” McDonald and Brad Pickett. I said this on Twitter at the end of the first round, and I will say it again here: Brad Pickett is all that is man. He took one of the worst beatings I have ever seen in the first round, getting hit by everything but the kitchen sink by the best Mayday we have ever seen and yet he never stopped throwing back. Pickett took the fight to the mat in the 2nd round, but soon found himself the victim of a triangle choke from the 22 year old. He defended as best he could, but was forced to tap with his only fingertips as he was tied up that deep in the choke.
The main card had a lot to live up to, but it certainly held its own. Hometown fans were stunned in the main card opener when Michael Johnson absolutely took Boston native Joe Lauzon apart, almost finishing him on multiple occasions while winning 30-25 on one scorecard. It was by far the best Johnson has ever looked and the worst version of Lauzon that has ever stepped in the Octagon. If he was not injured or sick coming into the fight, all the damage he has taken in his great career many finally be taking a toll on him physically.
Uriah Hall’s hype train came to a crashing halt as he was beaten by John Howard the same way he was beaten by Kelvin Gastelum at the TUF finale. He was taken down repeatedly in a close fight and was far too friendly with his opponent, and it cost him as Howard took the split decision. The constant glove touching drew the ire of both Dana White and Joe Rogan, and Hall’s UFC push is likely over. For Howard it will give him second life in the UFC as the shortest MW in the division.
Matt Brown is getting harder to ignore with each fight. He absolutely destroyed Mike Pyle in less than 30 seconds, just stepping forward and throwing until Pyle was out cold. With a totally improbable 6 fight winning streak in the UFC with 5 wins by KO, Brown called out WW Champion Georges St Pierre (also making the fun statement that Pyle was better than GSP). That fight is unlikely to be booked, but a title eliminator actually seems like a realistic possibility at this point.
Yuri Alcantara shocked the fans and his opponent Urijah Faber with a slick thrown in to an immediate full mount, threatening with submissions and ground and pound early in the fight. Faber showed why he is still one of the best in the game though, rebounding to win the second half of the first round before taking apart Alcantara for the rest of the fight with brutal elbows from top position. Faber has teased a move to 145, but if not a fight with Michael McDonald could be incredible at BW.
In the co-main event Alistair Overeem came out with the same aggression we saw in the Lesnar fight, immediately putting Travis Browne is serious jeopardy with knees to the body. He knocked Browne down and looked to finish with punches to the head (and at least one flagrantly illegal knee to the head of a grounded Browne that was not called). Browne managed to barely move in time before the ref stopped the fight, somehow got back to his feet, and began snapping off front kick after front kick. The spent Overeem just kept plodding forward straight into the kicks until one caught him on the jaw. The big man fell like a giant tree that had been chopped down, and Browne immediately finished the fight with massive hammerfists to score the comeback win.
Most fans were expecting to see 5 rounds of Chael Sonnen outwrestling and gassing out Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the main event. Most fans were very wrong. CHAEL SONNEN JUMPED GUARD AND GUILLOTINED SHOGUN. THIS REALLY HAPPENED. I’m still not sure how we got to this point but all of a sudden Chael Sonnen has the biggest win of his career and by a shockingly impressive submission over a BJJ black belt that had not been submitted in 6 years. Sonnen called out Wanderlei Silva post fight in a pro wrestling heel promo, which led to pretty much every top Brazilian calling him out. It looks like he will accept the challenge of Vitor Belfort, giving us synthetic testosterone fueled battle between 2 veterans that seem to beat everyone but the champions. I’m in.
While it wasn’t a perfect broadcast, this card overall gets an “A-” from me. Take Lloyd Irvin off the card and it is a solid “A”, and hopefully this is what free cards are going to look like from now on. Solid work all around from the production and good action in the cage makes for a good show every time.
-Josh can be reached at [email protected] or @jhall282.
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