Quick recap of the results from the UFC Fight Night, then some thoughts.
- Joe Stevenson def. Melvin Guillard by Guillotine Choke at 0:27, Round 1
- Justin McCully def. Antoni Hardonk by Unanimous Decision
- Kenny Florian def. Dokonjonosuke Mishima by Rear Naked Choke at 3:57, Round 3
- Wilson Gouveia def. Seth Petruzelli by Guillotine Choke at 0:39, Round 2
- Drew Fickett def. Keita Nakamura by Unanimous Decision
- Kurt Pellegrino def. Nate Mohr by Ankle Lock at 2:58, Round 1
- Kuniyoshi Hironaka def. Forrest Petz by Unanimous Decision
- Roan Carneiro def. Rich Clementi by Unanimous Decision
- Thiago Tavares def. Naoyuki Kotani by Unanimous Decision
The “main event” was anything but; Guillard came out careless and walked right into a guillotine choke. Maybe all those comparisons of Guillard to Kevin Randleman were more appropriate than we thought. This fight was eerily reminiscent of a couple of Kevin’s fights; the most recent when he stormed up to Shogun at PRIDE 32 and got caught in a leg lock a minute into the fight. Stevenson on the other hand has set himself up as one of the top contenders in the lightweight division. There are lots of great fights to be had for him, including Tyson Griffin and the loser of the Sherk/Franca title fight coming up soon.
Ken-Flo, as he’s so affectionately been dubbed, started off the night by showing us that his loss to Sean Sherk has only reinvigorated his training and will to fight. He pretty much dominated Mishima for all three rounds, up to his choke-out-by-way-of-pounding. I think he showed some improved striking skills and that will serve him well in the stacked 155 lbs. division. That was a sick knee-bar Mishima had Florian in though; he came very close to tapping. I think Florian might be limping a bit for the next couple of days.
In his post-fight interview, Ken-Flo decided he’d show us his improved acting chops. He raised a sealed-shut can of Xyience energy drink to his mouth many times while talking to Joe Rogan. I don’t know why he would do something like that; how stupid does he think the people watching are? And how nasty is that Xyience drink that he needs to pretend to drink it rather than just sucking it down for a minute, if that’s what he’s being paid to do. I guess there is no stopping the rampant commercialization of our quickly-growing sport.
On another note, I am getting pretty tired of the ridiculous exaggeration that comes out of the mouths of the UFC’s announcing duo of Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg at every UFC event.
“Hardonk… you wanna talk about, like, strikes. This guy’s got some of the best leg kicks in all of MMA.” — Joe Rogan
Really Joe? Antoni Hardonk, who has no wins over anybody significant in his weight division in six years of professional fighting, is a man with some of the best leg kicks in MMA? He’s in the same category as, say, a Cro-Cop? Sensationalizing every man who steps in the octagon as the greatest thing since sliced bread only serves to cheapen the UFC and their presentation of the sport. This is just more of the same from these guys after Goldberg called Travis Lutter “the Michael Jordan of Jiu-Jitsu” at UFC 67. I hope these guys will start reeling in the hyperbole sometime soon; pushing interest in a fight and gross misrepresentation of fighter skill are very different things.
I really like Guillard’s striking style. He does however get too excited and careless. Hopefully this will be a learning lesson for him rather than a downward spiral into Kevin Randleman.
I especially like the way you called out the commentators. I know it’s their job to exaggerate but c’mon. lol