(Photos via Tracy Lee for Yahoo! Sports and via Jenelle Schneider for Canada.com)
It’s time once again for The MMA News blog piece “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly”. Today I’ll recap what I thought was good, bad and ugly from last nights UFC 131 event from Rogers Arena in Vancouver, B.C.
This isn’t something we do for every event, but Saturday night’s event had so much going that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share my thoughts with you.
So lets get started.
THE GOOD
UFC 131 truly lived up to my expectations for the entire card. Compared to the last two pay-per-views, UFC 130 which I had high hopes only to have them dashed by a boring card, and UFC 129 which I went in with low expectations but walked away with feeling I had watched a pretty good card. Last nights UFC 131 event met all the hype that I hoped it would be.
I had two “Fight of the Night” bouts picked, and was really hoping that UFC President Dana White would award bonuses to Dave Herman vs. Jon Olav Einemo, who were awarded with the $70K bonus, and the Mark Munoz vs. Damian Maia bout. The back-and-forth slug-fest between Herman and Einemo was not what I thought would happen. I pictured a wrestling match with Einemo looking for a submission throughout the fight, instead I got to watch some big knees from both fighters and a second round finish.
Maia shocked everyone last night by taking the fight to Munoz standing up. He has vastly improved his striking since he fought UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva back at UFC 112. Rocking ‘The Filipino Wrecking Machine’ in the first round had me on my feet screaming expletives, this was a great fight and should have been much closer on the scorecard than the 29-28, 29-28, and 30-27 awarded in Munoz favor.
The striking of Sam Stout and Junior dos Santos, just wow. Stout’s knockout on Yves Edwards could go down as “Knockout of the Year” in my mind. Dos Santos, while he failed to stop Carwin, showcased once again, his ability to outbox another opponent. The Brazilian also showcased his takedown defense by stopping Carwin twice while scoring two of his own.
Lastly, FREE FIGHTS , am I right? Getting to watch a total of seven bouts for free on the web and on television is unbelievable. And not just crap bouts either. Getting to see Sam Stouts knockout and Joey Beltran’s win were great!
Okay now for THE BAD
The Judging. How could anyone score judge a 30-27 for Kenny Florian vs. Diego Nunes, Mark Munoz vs. Demian Maia, and Darren Elkins vs. Michihiro Omigawa. It just boggles the mind to see a fight that was much more close than one judges score of 30-27. Especially to give Elkins the unanimous decision over Omigawa, in a fight that saw him clearly lose the third round, and likely lose the second. I keep harping on it but these City Commissions have to go so a bigger State/Provincial commission can take over to better regulate the sport.
Yeah Omigawa got robbed, clearly. He turned Elkins face into a bloody mess and was getting the better of the exchanges between the two. Thankfully White awarded him with his win money and will treat the Japanese fighter as if he won that fight.
I listed it under “The Good” but there was a lot of bad in the Herman vs. Einamo bout. I expected the Norwegian to show off better defense, especially training in the Golden Glory camp, as Herman was able to land knees with ease. Einamo’s striking wasn’t bad but he kept cocking his right every time letting Herman see it coming. ‘Pee-Wee’ on the other hand, showed much better striking but he should have finished the fight in the first round. I felt he was either too tired or too timid by failing to finish Einamo when everyone could see he was clearly the superior striker in the opening minute.
Finally, THE UGLY
Shane Carwin’s face, that was truly ugly by the end of the night. After having his face pummeled for three rounds by Dos Santos, Carwin was sent to the emergency room to have the damage repaired. Carwin’s manager tweeted (@IngrainedMedia) that his fighter had “3 deep cuts, broken nose and he will need to go to the emergency room for a CT scan.” They later confirmed that Carwin had suffered a broken nose and a possible broken cheek bone.
The nutshots that Joey ‘The Mexicutioner’ Beltran and Aaron Rosa traded with each other. Beltran landed a knee to Rosa’s groin then landed a knee to his opponents head as he bent over in pain. Not to be outdone, Rosa would return the favor by landing his own knee putting Beltran down for a few moments. You just have to think that it hurts more when a heavyweight fighter hits someone in the groin. I cringed and felt for the future children for each fighter.
Well that sums it up on my thoughts on “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly” for UFC 131. Did I miss anything?