Contributor: Josh Hall
The UFC was in the Hoosier State for the first of the new Wednesday free cards that are part of the Fox Sports deal, and the mediocre card on paper far exceeded expectations. It appeared to be a card with a fun main event but not much else; instead quite a few fairly unknown guys got their chance to make a statement and they did not disappoint.
Carlos Condit’s striking looked as good as I have ever seen it, and his flurry to finish the fight in the 4th round was just beautiful. Martin Kampmann doesn’t make for an easy out ever, and Condit made some wonderful adjustments after losing a grappling heavy first round. Kudos to Kampmann for trying to throw something at Condit that he wouldn’t expect early on with the takedowns but it eventually sapped the cardio from the Dane and helped contribute to his defeat. This was a really good quality main event, especially for a free weekday card.
Rafael Dos Anjos impressed the hell out of me against Donald Cerrone. Cerrone seems to be falling into the gatekeeper to the top 10 role, and RDA showed off his much improved striking game to work him over. It looked like the right hook in the first that RDA dropped Cerrone with mentally took him out of the fight, and until the middle of the third round he couldn’t seem to snap himself back into it. Dos Anjos vs Josh Thomson seems like a reasonable route for the Brazilian at this point.
Kelvin Gastellum looks like a different fighter at WW. It is the same skill set, but his movement is so much better without the excess weight, and this class suits his frame far better than MW. Brian Melancon could never get into any kind of groove against the pressure of the 21 year old, and he had no chance to recover once Gastellum hurt him. The fact that this is a guy that was the next to last pick on a recent season of TUF blows my mind.
The 30-27 score for Robert Whittaker is one of the worst ones I have seen in a while. I have seen some people make the argument that he was damaging McGee more, but his face looking worse for the wear doesn’t override the fact that Court was outlanding strikes on him on a more than 2-1 pace for the first 2 rounds. McGee looks surprisingly good at WW now, and I think he will settle in as a solid mid-level player in his new weight class.
The Erik Perez hype train was derailed a bit by an aggressive Takeya Mizugaki who is now on the first 3 fight winning of his UFC career. Mizugaki did everything right to win two rounds very clearly, but one judge still managed to score it incorrectly. I’m just happy to see Perez back in the cage again after his bout with MRSA threatened his career and life.
Brad Tavares did just enough to win a decision over Bubba McDaniel, but it was the slowest and most boring fight on the card by far.
Hatsu Hioki continued to underachieve in the UFC, losing his third straight fight despite looking really good at times. Elkins was able to take over in the last round of a close fight and Hioki just didn’t have much of a sense of urgency and it cost him.
Papy Abedi’s cardio completely let him down after winning the first two round over Dylan Andrews, and the TUF alum wasting no time taking advantage of his weakened opponent to secure the 3rd round knockout.
Brandon Thatch is a guy to keep an eye on after absolutely ragdolling Justin Edwards all over the cage, earning his tenth first round stoppage in as many wins.
Zac Cummings has gone from 3 fights ago losing a 5 round decision to Ryan Jimmo at 205 to a lean, in shape fighter with some slick skills on the ground. The D’Arce choke he sunk in on Alloway was just beautiful.
Jason High saved his job with a solid victory over a tough and much bigger James Head. His guillotine is his best fight finishing tool in his arsenal, and he was relentless with it until Head had no option but to tap.
Abel Trujillo should have been disqualified for his illegal knee against Roger Bowling. The referee said immediately after it landed that he was taking a point for an intentional illegal strike, then changed his tune once Bowling could not continue. That kind of inconsistency should not happen in that situation, and Trujillo gets a free pass in a fight he was losing.
All in all, I hope we get more free cards like this. Good matchmaking gave us some really interesting matchups and the card had the entertainment value to please both casual and hardcore fans alike.
-Josh can be reached at [email protected] or @jhall282.
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