Contributor: Ben Kohn
UFC 169 was the first MMA event I have ever attended and overall, it was sadly an underwhelming experience for the most part. There were definitely some great moments (Varner/Trujillo holy shit) and the Barao/Faber fight was really great to watch but there were a lot of fights that were really boring and the amount of slow decisions was really annoying. However, it was less the fights that were that boring and more the crowd reacting to the fights. The crowd would boo at will and I happened to be sitting next to an obnoxiously loud group of meatheads. Their incessant boos and jeers really put a damper on my experience. Did I mention my seats were way up in the nosebleeds? That sucked too. Anyway let’s move on to the fights themselves and how I perceived them live.
Thank goodness I have good eyesight and could see the action pretty clearly but when I couldn’t, I had a nice big screen close by to watch.
Clint Hester really had a good performance against Andy Enz and when he rocked him and beat him up in the first, it was a great start to the night with everyone cheering and getting behind him. The next two rounds got very annoying as the booing started immediately as the fight slowed. Watching the fight, I enjoyed it personally and Hester definitely put on a good performance but I did not like how he was throwing a lot of wild punches trying to finish Enz after rocking him. I also remember getting annoyed when he was taking down a guy who specializes in grappling and he clearly had a striking edge. Still, I liked the fight and the booing was definitely unnecessary in my opinion.
Al Iaquinta got a really nice pop from the crowd on his entrance and throughout the fight as well. There was a lot of chanting of his name and very little booing when the fight slowed down. Kevin Lee definitely impressed me with his grappling and when he survived the first round, I was in shock. He also got screwed by the fact that he should have gotten a 10-8 second round which would have made this fight a draw. The judge that gave Iaquinta a 10-8 should also be spayed and neutered. Two fights in a row that started with one fighter getting badly hurt seemed pretty good to me and I really did enjoy the fight. There was a lot of booing when Lee controlled him for the second but it seemed to have more to do with Iaquinta losing because they would boo anything Lee succeeded on.
Nick Catone got a very nice ovation, best on the undercard for sure, and Watson was booed like crazy, especially with his walkout which was despised. The fight itself was just bad but reading later on about his torn ACL, it made plenty of sense. Personally, I would have scored the fight for Watson on damage but Catone had the control and Jersey thing going on for him. Don’t wanna talk about this fight to be honest.
Chris Cariaso won his fight against Martinez which is what I expected to happen but the fight was really bad. Martinez was introduced as a boxer and immediately began to try and grind out a win against the cage. I found it pretty amusing but the fight was boring and seemed to go on forever. Caraiso got the decision which he should have as Martinez was pretty ineffectual for the most part.
On the last fight of the prelims, Allan Patrick fought John Makdessi and I personally enjoyed the fight a lot considering what it was competing against. I thought Makdessi was robber live and I was really pissed about it to be honest. I was yelling pretty loudly that it was a bullshit decision and I truly thought it was at the time. I have yet to go back and watch the card so I can’t give you any feelings other than the ones I had at the time. Makdessi stuffed most of the takedowns and was landing good strikes as far as I could tell while Patrick was failing on takedowns and also landing but missing a lot more than Makdessi.
Finally, the main card started and what a bang it started with. Abel Trujillo got fired up to hit Varner with his “pretend it’s a woman” strategy and absolutely blasted Varner with one of the single hardest knockout punches I have seen in my life. 
Seriously, that would have knocked out a fucking T-Rex. Varner looked really good, flat out beating Trujillo up until he basically gassed his arms out and dropped his hands trying to finish a badly hurt Trujillo. These two put on a FOTN and possible FOTY contender and the crowd was going crazy after a dull prelim card. It was an awesome fight that had me out of my seat despite the fact that I was upset about the result.
Ali Bagautinov put on a really good performance against Lineker that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was on the edge of my seat, particularly when Lineker started landing those hard body shots. It was really enjoyable watching Ali try and land quick in-and-out strikes and shoot in beautifully timed takedowns. It was a great performance for Ali and the posturing at the end when Lineker went for the leglock really got the crowd going despite the lukewarm reaction to the fight itself. I will say that when Lineker was landing the body shots, the crowd was audibly ooing sympathetically with Ali’s gut.
Alistair Overeem got a really nice reception as did Frank Mir; both got serious pops from the crowd, but Reem definitely had the crowd on his side for some reason. While the first round was pretty exciting, the other two were not. The crowd really started to boo by the third but would still give nice pops when Overeem would land a particularly hard punch or elbow. For some reason, Overeem’s callout of Lesnar got a crazy reaction and the reaction made me laugh so hard. I was definitely impressed with Overeem’s seemingly improved cardio and commented to my friend at the end of the night that it looked like he could go another 2 rounds.
The co-main event, the fight all the Brazilians in the crowd were waiting for, Jose Aldo vs. Ricardo Lamas was a technically beautiful performance by the champion who picked apart Lamas with excellent jabs, powerful leg licks, and brutal body punches. His wrestling also was on display in the later rounds as well. Aldo got a huge pop from the crowd, the biggest of the night by far and booing was not very heavy at all for this fight. The Brazilians kind of took over for this fight and despite the slower pace, they kept cheering for their man. Surprisingly, Lamas was able to mount a late comeback and was landing some really nice ground and pound from the guard but it was too little, too late.
Surprisingly, after the Aldo fight, many of the Brazilian fans left before the fight. I know this because a bunch right in front left and just laughed when I asked why they weren’t staying for Barao. Their response was simply “Aldo”. I was taken aback but onto the fight itself. Faber got the second biggest reception of the night and that was a nice thing to hear. I was happy he was well-received. I was not happy that Barao got booed like crazy in his walkout. The fight itself was fucking insane and I noticed right away that Faber looked really nervous and antsy. The constant stance switching didn’t seem to serve much of a purpose and when he was dropped twice and turtled, the fight got stopped, and it was all over. The crowd was extremely unhappy but I was cheering like crazy and got some dirty looks and a few curses thrown my way. Thankfully, I didn’t get stabbed so there’s that.
After the event I met Cory Braiterman, our resident top 25 ranker, who is a very nice and cool guy who had infinitely better seats than I did because fucking press row. After a nice convo, he tried getting me into the post-fight press conference and while I nearly got in, I was stopped right before the doors which sucked but what can I do? I then waited on a massive line to get my car after and for some reason, Ricardo Almeida walked right by looking boss in a really nice suit. I guess he figured he didn’t need to do much judging thanks to Barao and chilled out for a while at the Prudential Center.
Overall, for my first event, it was not the experience I had hoped for. I definitely had a good time as I went with friends but the bad seats and bad fights put a damper on the experience for sure. I truly hope my next event will be much better and regardless of how underwhelming this card was, I definitely do want to go to another one so good job UFC.
-Ben can be reached @agentbenten or at [email protected]
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