People often knock the ground aspect of mixed martial arts, but there have been some rather outstanding collisions in our sport that have led to phenomenal clinics on the ground.
The fans may have preferred the fight to stay standing, but there have been times when the crowd saw a Fight of the Night contender in a bout that spent more time on the ground that it did in the heat of a slugfest.
Miguel Angel Torres did not defeat Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson at UFC 130, but the now 39-4 former WEC bantamweight king and the now 10-1 perennial favorite for an inaugural top five of a potential UFC flyweight division were both involved in one of of the best 15-minute ground clinics in the most recent historical archives of mainstream mixed martial arts.
Those who predicted this to be a “Fight of the Night” candidate were not disappointed.
They were the ones that knew from the onset that despite the obvious takedown advantage Johnson had, a ground-based fight did not translate 100 percent into a one-sided fight in Johnson’s favor, just as they knew that Torres would not be at a full advantage against the ever-improving Mighty Mouse if the fight remained vertical and saw an exchange of fisticuffs.
Fans wrapped themselves up in the fact of Torres’ two losses in the WEC—to Brian Bowles and Joseph Benavidez—that they chose to conveniently forget about how sound the submission arsenal of the lanky Torres is, especially when Torres is on his back.
Torres did take some serious ground and pound from Johnson, but the story of the fight was only partially the improvements in Johnson’s striking and the always dominating wrestling game which, to Johnson’s credit, was effective inside Torres’ guard.
The other part of the story behind this bout was the Jiu-Jitsu exhibition that Torres put on this past Saturday, attempting submission attempt after submission attempt on Johnson and staying completely active from any and every position he was put in.
If you watch the fight again, Torres’ performance is the reason why many label this as a “controversial” unanimous decision win for Johnson, as the performance hardly justified the argument for Johnson’s win being “unanimous.”
If anything, the win should have been a split decision as the fight was one that argued as much a case for Torres as it did for Johnson.
Still, if you missed the Torres-Johnson bout in any way, shape or form, you may have missed what may be considered among the best pure examples of an electrifying ground clinic in mixed martial arts.
The bout just further proved what we all knew when the UFC and WEC merged:
When it comes to the lighter weights, there’s no such thing as a boring fight.
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