It wasn’t pretty, but Francis Carmont earned himself a win at UFC 154.
Carmont was on the winning end of an extremely controversial decision against Tom Lawlor, but his performance was unimpressive whether he won or lost.
The amount of hype that surrounded Carmont heading into the bout with Lawlor is likely going to cut in half the next time he steps inside the cage, but one bad fight isn’t going to kill Carmont’s progress up the middleweight ladder.
He should find himself in the cage with another small bump in competition very soon.
With the middleweight division deeper than it has been in years, there are plenty of good fighters to help Carmont climb the ladder towards the upper echelon.