If mixed martial arts is a young man’s game, then Dan Henderson is certainly the exception to the rule. The 44-year-old former Pride two-divisional champion has been holding his own with the best fighters in the world for the better part of the past two decades, when he built a legendary resume on the strength of his ability to knock grown men unconscious.
Nevertheless, the former Olympian has struggled to find victory over the past two years, which has created doubt as to whether he still has those special elements he’s carried throughout his storied career. Hendo had dropped five of his last six showings inside the Octagon, and the middleweight knockout artist came into his main event tilt with Tim Boetsch at Fight Night 68 desperate to turn things around.
While there was certainly pressure to get back into the win column on The Barbarian’s side of things, Henderson was the fighter whose elite-level status—and quite possibly his job under the UFC banner—was in jeopardy. The heavy-handed Californian needed to remind the MMA world he was still as dangerous as ever, and he was going to have to do so against a fighter who is as gritty as they come in Boetsch. The stage was set for a high-stakes affair on Saturday night in New Orleans, and it was Henderson who brought the violence.
The former middleweight title challenger landed his trademark “H-Bomb” that sent Boetsch‘s legs on wobble and spelled the beginning of the end for the Pennsylvania-based fighter as Henderson swarmed in to get the finish. And while Boetsch‘s resilience allowed him to hang on for a few moments longer than he probably should have, Henderson’s killer instinct was full throttle as he dropped shots that forced the referee to jump in and stop the fight.
It was a crazy night of action down in NOLA. Let’s take a look at the good, bad and strange from Fight Night 68.
The Good
Throughout his legendary career, Dan Henderson has defeated a who’s who of great fighters, and it appears Father Time wants no part of the storied knockout artist.
While the former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion has been in a slump over in recent years, the 44-year-old slugger was determined to prove he was still as dangerous as ever. The former Olympian silenced any doubt about his ability to still launch the “H-Bomb” when he leveled Tim Boetsch in the main event at Fight Night 68 on Saturday.
After a short feeling-out period, the two men began exchanging shots when Henderson came over the top with a right hand that sent The Barbarian reeling. For the last half of his career, Henderson has been a finishing machine, and he swarmed on his wounded opponent to hammer out the stoppage victory. And while Henderson’s victory in New Orleans brings his three-fight skid to an end, it was perhaps the manner in which the win was secured that was more impressive than his success against Boetsch.
Henderson has 18 years of experience under his tires in mixed martial arts, and at Fight Night 68 he showed he can still run with the best of them.
Wacky post-fight interviews aside, Ben Rothwell may have finally found the victory that puts him into contention for the UFC heavyweight title. Big Ben came into his co-main event tilt with Matt Mitrione with back-to-back wins under his belt, and a win over the Indiana native would make his entry into the elite-level of the heavyweight fold hard to deny. The bout was figured to be a rock em’ sock em’ affair, and it was until Mitrione went for an ill-fated takedown that landed him in a brutal Rothwell choke hold. How brutal was the lock? So rapid and vicious Meathead was forced to tap with both hands as Rothwell picked up his third straight victory.
Fighting inside the Octagon in front of a Louisiana crowd has always been a dream of Dustin Poirier’s, and The Diamond turned that particular opportunity into something special. The former featherweight contender turned surging lightweight laced a tough-as-nails Yancy Medeiros to earn the stoppage victory midway through the opening round of the bout. The Lafayette, Louisiana native poured it on from start to finish as he battered and dropped his Hawaiian opponent with one huge shot after the next to secure the win. And with that win the American Top Team product put the talent-rich 155-pound division on notice that he’s here to stay.
There is a lot of hype surrounding Brian Ortega, and he’s backing it up inside the Octagon. Despite having his debut victory overturned due to testing positive for PEDs, T-City’s first showing in the UFC got people talking. The undefeated 24-year-old fighter mixed it up with seasoned veteran Thiago Tavares in what ended up being a gritty and bloody affair while it lasted. Ortega used elbows to shred the Brazilian’s face in the second round, then he put him away using his rapidly improving striking skills in the final stanza. The former RFA featherweight champion is still new to the UFC fold, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him move up the ladder quickly.
His official promotional debut may not have ended in the fashion he wanted it to, but Anthony Birchak made the most of his second showing inside the Octagon. El Toro pasted recent title challenger Joe Soto in the first round of their tilt on Saturday to pick up his first victory under the UFC banner. The Phoenix native came out of the gates ready to scrap, and he used a well-timed right hand to put Soto on roller skates before he finished the former Bellator champion.
There is violence and there is Francisco Rivera’s brand of violence. Due to the way things shook out in his last bout with Urijah Faber, the scrappy bantamweight came into his bout at Fight Night 68 with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. That said, it took Cisco 21 seconds to exorcise that frustration, as the 33-year-old Californian dusted Alex Caceres with a brutal left hook and followed up with a pair of flush shots that put Bruce Leeroy on ice. In the process of toppling the MMA Lab representative, Rivera not only gets a victory under his belt, but he should line himself up to get one of the bigger names in the 135-pound fold for his next go.
Shawn Jordan gave his home-state crowd something to cheer about on Saturday night, as Savage put away Derrick Lewis in dramatic fashion. The former LSU football player turned mixed martial artist notched a see-it-to-believe-it moment as the heavyweight unleashed a hook kick that knocked the Houston native senseless. Jordan immediately pounced on a dazed Lewis, and the referee stepped in shortly after to stop the action. And while the kick he landed was certainly impressive, the once-struggling Jordan has now collected three straight victories with his win in New Orleans.
There wasn’t anything pretty about the fight, but Omari Akhmedov added the biggest name to his record by defeating Brian Ebersole on Saturday night. While the bout was called when the welterweight veteran couldn’t continue due to a knee injury from an Akhmedov leg kick in the first round, the end result will go down as a TKO victory for the Russian-born Jackson/Winkeljohn product. Furthermore, in doing so Akhmedov became the first fighter over the course of Ebersole‘s 70-fight career to technically finish the scrappy veteran.
The expectation that comes with being a touted prospect can be difficult to carry, but Chris Wade continues to prove he’s the real deal. The 27-year-old picked up his third consecutive victory in as many showings inside the Octagon as he worked Christos Giagos en route to picking up the unanimous-decision victory. While Giagos found some success in the early goings, a perfectly timed standing elbow strike from Wade busted open his opponent’s face and swung the momentum of the fight. Although Wade didn’t have a dominant performance on Saturday, he did show he’s improving from one fight to the next, and that’s what counts at the highest level of the sport.
Despite suffering a setback in his most recent outing, Joe Proctor felt everything was falling into place for him coming into Fight Night 68. The Ultimate Fighter: Live alum had won two of his last three showings and wanted to further cement his progression by getting back into the win column against Justin Edwards on Saturday. And while he struggled to take control throughout the majority of the fight, he only needed the final 10 seconds to get what he came for. The Joe Lauzon protege caught Fast Eddie in a guillotine choke that left Edwards sleeping on the canvas seconds before the final bell sounded to pick up the victory.
The Bad
New Orleans is a city notorious for extreme swings of fortune, and Justin Edwards’ time under the UFC banner most likely will come to an end after Saturday night. Fast Eddie had won only two of his five showings prior to Fight Night 68, and back-to-back losses heading into the Crescent City certainly had the pressure bearing down on him to defeat Joe Proctor. Edwards seemed to be responding to those stakes at hand throughout the fight, but the final moments of the tilt would lead to an unfortunate end for the Ohio native.
Proctor rocked him with a flurry before latching onto the fight-ending choke hold that would leave Edwards napping face down inside the Octagon. While three straight losses isn’t the guaranteed cut it once was, his overall record on the sport’s biggest stage could very well be the reason for his probable release.
Staying with rapid swings of fate, Joe Soto could be the poster boy for the movement. The former Bellator champion made headlines around the MMA community when his slated debut against Anthony Birchak at UFC 177 insanely turned into a title shot against champion T.J. Dillashaw when challenger Renan Barao was forced out of the fight. It was a crazy turn to say the least, and Soto gave his best as he fought valiantly until being finished by the Team Alpha Male staple in the later rounds.
Yet with the roller coaster that was UFC 177 behind him, the 28-year-old Californian set his sights on settling into the UFC’s bantamweight division. As it would shake out, the bout with Birchak was rescheduled for Fight Night 68, but there was no redemption to be found in New Orleans. Birchak caught Soto with a right hand in an early exchange then pounded out the stoppage on the canvas.
And while back-to-back losses won’t cost Soto his place on the UFC roster, it is a difficult look for a fighter who was a former Bellator champion and came into the UFC riding a seven-fight winning streak accrued on smaller stages around the sport.
The Strange
If the UFC ever decides to add a “Strange” wing to its Hall of Fame, then there is no possible way Brian Ebersole‘s “hairrow” wouldn’t be a unanimous first-ballot inductee. Honestly…I don’t think there is any need to speak further on the topic. It’s just a strange thing to do, and Ebersole is definitely near the top of that particular pound-for-pound list.
Furthermore, he added another curious wrinkle to his resume on Fight Night 68 as he failed to answer the bell for the second round of his bout with Omari Akhmedov due to a knee injury he suffered during the opening frame. Not that having a knee buckle due to a leg kick is anything far outside of the norm, but keeping it strange is just so Ebersole.
Other than the Bad Boy bringing the weird at Fight Night 68, things were pretty tame down in the bayou. Granted, there was a knockout in a heavyweight fight via hook kick, and despite being popped for steroids in his last fight, Brian Ortega chose to keep the nickname T-City. But otherwise, things were fairly quiet.
Well…except for that Marcus Davis interview with Heidi Androl. The Irish Hand Grenade took a far worse beating in those few minutes then he ever did inside the Octagon. Only thing more painful in New Orleans on Saturday was the attempt Ben Rothwell made at cutting a promo in his post-fight interview. And getting into that disaster would take far too much time.
All in all, with the region’s connection to voodoo, hoodoo or the Saints, I personally expected more of the bizarre to occur during the UFC’s return to New Orleans. That said, what the card lacked in strange happenings the Fight Gods made up for in smitings, as bodies were hitting the floor at a fast and furious pace to make one of the most action-packed cards in recent memory.
Finally, here’s hoping Marcus Davis or Ben Rothwell won’t get near microphones any time soon.
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