Contributor: Josh Hall
UFC on Fox 8 is in the books, and it was met with mixed reviews. To call the show a complete dud would be flat out wrong, but it also wasn’t quite at the level of some of the other Fox shows. It certainly had some quality fights and highlight reel finishes, but it was marred by some extraneous factors as well.
First up, let’s get the bad out of the way. I don’t want to dwell on it, but a few points need to be addressed. The judging on this card sucked a bit of life out of it for me. On the prelims we saw the following scorecards: Germaine de Randamie defeated Julie Kedzie via SD (30-27, 29-28-28-29), Ed Herman defeated Trevor Smith via SD (30-27, 29-28, 27-30), Justin Salas defeated Aaron Riley by SD (29-28, 29-28, 28-29), and Darren Cruikshank defeated Yves Edwards via SD (30-27, 30-27, 27-30).
Not all split decisions are a sign of bad judging, but sometimes merely the result of a close fight. In these cases though, the scores were all over the place and in some cases barely justifiable. Not a single media outlet scored the fight for Kedzie as one judge did, and 9 of the 11 media representatives that submitted scores had it 29-28 GDR. Every media member scored Riley/Salas for Salas, but we got a split there too. Only one media member scored Herman/Smith for Smith, and no one had it 30-27 his way. And then there is Cruickshank/Edwards, where 10 of 12 submitted media scores were 29-28 (5 for each man), and yet there was not a single 29-28 to be found amongst the official judges. It is an impressive feat to see all 3 judges miss the mark completely. Judging is oft a problem in MMA, and this was one of those nights where it really stood out more than others.
The other negative that has to be pointed out was the sure to be guaranteed FOTN co-main event between Rory MacDonald and Jake Ellenberger. Everyone expected fireworks from the two explosive welterweights, and instead saw a fight where Ellenberger did virtually nothing while MacDonald had an effective sparring session with his jab. Hopefully this opens the eyes of “The Juggernaut” to some things he needs to address in training, because there is no reason a pro fighter should get picked apart using only the most basic of boxing techniques. It was impressive to see MacDonald use one technique to completely neutralize a touted striker in Ellenberger, but there was nothing exciting or remotely interesting about the fight. A crowd killing co-main event is never a good thing (even more so on a Fox card), and especially when it had been hyped up as the “real” main event of the card before the boring flyweights that never finish fights took the stage…
For those of you who did not grow up on old school cartoons, that is the first line of the Mighty Mouse theme song, and totally fitting of the performance from the applicably nicknamed flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson. Fighting less than 2 weeks after the birth of the birth of his first child and under the pressure of the hometown crowd, “Mighty Mouse” put on a virtuoso performance against challenger John Moraga.
Johnson’s wrestling as sharp as it has ever been, taking down Moraga at will in a showcase of his remarkable speed and timing. DJ has always shown a well-rounded skill set, but there has been something lacking in his fights for many fans, namely the ability to finish fights. It is hard to overcome the stigma in MMA of being a fighter under 170 pounds (BJ Penn exception noted), and especially so as the champion of the smallest weight class without a finish in the UFC.
The fight last night against Moraga was a fairly standard one for the 125 pound champion for the first 4 rounds with DJ picking apart the challenger on the ground, looking for submissions and ground and pound at every opportunity. But in the 5th and final round, Johnson was able to get the signature moment as a champion that his UFC run has lacked. After working for kimuras from side control many times during the fight, Johnson was able to bait Moraga with a final attempt that he immediately turned into a straight armbar. Moraga tried to defend but his arm could not withstand the pressure and popped with 1:17 to go in the final round, giving Johnson his first finish since late 2010. The flyweight division suddenly has a notable champion, and Dana White is entertaining ideas of a possible superfight with Renan Barao.
Other highlights of the card include spectacular knockouts by Melvin Guillard (who was likely fighting for his job against Mac Danzig) and Robbie Lawler (who has suddenly emerged out of nowhere as a contender in the WW division after knocking out Josh Koscheck and Bobby Voelker). Guillard won a $50k KOTN bonus for his brutal KO that left Mac Danzig waking up in tears in a rather tough moment to watch. Yaotzin Meza had a nice comeback submission against the likely no longer employed John “Price” Albert after Albert burned out his legs in a triangle choke attempt and appeared to just mentally give up at that point. After missing weight and losing 4 in a row, it is likely a return to the regional scene for Albert.
Ed Herman and Trevor Smith won $50K each for the FOTN, though they had tough competition from a brutal back and forth battle between TUF winner Michael Chiesa and veteran LW Jorge Masvidal. Chiesa had a great start, winning the first round after almost finishing Masvidal on the feet, but the experienced “Gamebred” battled back in the second round and forced a tap out with a D’Arce choke at 4:59 of the second round, literally a moment before the horn sounded. Tim Means was visibly upset after losing a 29-28 unanimous decision to Danny “Last Call” Castillo, and after watching the fight a second time I think he has every reason to be. On first watch I scored it 29-28 for Castillo, but after a second look I scored it 29-28 Means, with the last 2 rounds going his way (the 2nd round being the one I changed my opinion on).
Liz Carmouche got a nice start towards a potential rematch with women’s BW champion Ronda Rousey after a 2nd round TKO win over debuting UFC fighter Jessica Andrade. Carmouche survived a tough guillotine in the first round before taking over with dominant ground and pound to secure the finish in the second. In this fight Carmouche became the first woman to fight twice inside the Octagon, and this was the first fight in UFC history between two openly gay fighters. The more tolerance in sports the better, and the fact that this wasn’t a big deal shows that this sport has come a long way.
But it was the Mighty Mouse, Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson who put on a heroic effort and represented himself and his division valiantly.
-Josh can be reached at [email protected] or @jhall282.
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