UFC 135 review

James Te Huna vs. Ricardo Romero

Nice and quick opener for the night,Romero shoots for a sloppy takedown attempt,Te Huna stuffs it and makes him eat a big right hand.Romero does the exact same sloppy attempt again,Te Huna sprawls and lands a vicious uppercut that has Romero out,Te Huna lands a few more shots to his slumped head,that makes Romero make some wierd zombie noises.

James Te Huna defeats Ricardo Romero via knockout (strikes) at :47 of round 1.



Takeya Mizugaki vs Cole Escovedo

The first rd started slow,then Escovedo tried to climb Mizugaki for a standing triangle,Mizugaki managed to shake him off.Miz lands a few shot from the clinch before Cole lands a bid elbow that staggers Miz.Miz finished the rd pushing forward but i personally scored the 1st rd to Cole.
Miz steps up the agression in the 2nd and managed to stagger cole at one point before dropping him with a big shot.Miz doesn't follow him to the ground,cole stands up and they get into a clinch,miz lands a few punches in the clinch before he seperates and lands a big left hook followed by a right,cole drops and miz swarms him,before the ref jumps in to stop it.
Nice finish


Takeya Mizugaki defeats Cole Escovedo via TKO (strikes) at 4:30 of round 2.



Junior Assuncao vs Eddie Yagin

All I can say about this is why the fuck did I pick Yagin,he was awful,showed no urgency and spent 3 rds defending against a guy that was hardly attacking himself.
Assuncao basicly won the 1st two rds by getting a few takedowns,in the 3rd fair enough,Jnr started to land some punches and when he took yagin down,he started teeing off on him with some nice GNP and the horn saved yagin from being stopped. Awful fight though.
Junior Assuncao defeats Eddie Yagin via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-27).




Tim Boetsch vs Nick Ring

I thought ring won the first rd,keeping range,using his movement and picking his shots,but boetsch turned up the intensity in the last two rds.Boetsch has some power in his shots and you could tell he was breaking Ring down and taking control of the fight.He nearly finished the fight at the end of the second with a kimura,but the bell went to end the rd.
Both men were winded in the last rd,but boetsch managed to get Ring down,they get stood back up,then Boetsch pulls out a brilliant hip toss and moves straight into side controll,where boestch controlls and even mounts Ring to see the rd out.

Tim Boetsch defeats Nick Ring via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27).



Tony Ferguson vs Aaron Riley

Well this fight was all about showcasing the latest TUF winner and it certainly did,fergusons striking game was just too much for Riley.
Ferguson was constantly on the front foot,while only having to aviod the odd high kick from Riley,Then Ferguson lands a stiff uppercut followed by a straight right,blood starts pouring from rileys mouth and Rogan comments straight away that he thinks the jaw is broken,Ferguson continues putting the pressure on untill the rd ends,where riley goes straight to his corner telling them his jaws broke,the doc stops the fight.

Tony Ferguson defeats Aaron Riley via TKO (doctor stoppage) at 5:00 of round one.



Nate Diaz vs Takanori Gomi

The best I've ever seen nate,is what i'd say about this fight,absolutley brilliant performance from start to finish.
Diaz absolutely schooled Gomi standing,he drops him straight away and then started picking him off with ease using stiff jabs and hooks.
Diaz starts using that family taunting style by dropping his hands to his waiste before dropping Gomi with a nice combo.Diaz took his back but gomi managed to get up and escape.Gomi throws diaz to the ground where diaz works straight for the armbar,Gomi fights it but diaz transition straight to the triangle and locks it in deep,gomi tried to slam his way out of it but diaz just grabs an arm aswel,cranks it and Gomi taps.

Nate Diaz defeats Takanori Gomi via submission (armbar) at 4:27 of round 1.



Travis Browne vs Rob broughton

A sloppy mess,between a guy that doesn't really belong in the UFC and another who has skills but has zero gas tank and doesn't seem to be able to put his game together yet.
Nothing much to say about this one,Browne won 3 sloppy rds to take the decision but if he really wants to earn his way towards the top of the division,he needs to be taking guys like broughton out and look good doing it,he failed on both accounts IMO.
I'm not sold on Browne and would still back kongo in a rematch.

Travis Browne defeats Rob Broughton via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).



Mark Hunt vs Ben Rothwell

Another sloppy fight,but this one was fun,I mean how could you not enjoy Hunts performance,when have you ever seen Hunt trying to finish by armbar,that sounds more like the punchline to a joke,but shit it happened
Big Ben was the walking dead for two rds of that fight and became nothing more than a training dummy,but Hunts improvemnets and the altitude caused it.Hunt got taken down in the first and i thought oh shit here we go,hunts fucked but no,Hunt manages to scramble out,then Ben shoots again and Hunt stuffs it but shit we weren't done there,Hunt then rushes in and takes rothwell down,cutting his eye in the process.Ok Rothwell manage to get him down again at the end,and probably win the rd,but shit Hunt was doing great.
Rothwell is now bolloxed and hunt starts taking controll of this fight,Hunt manges a trip on Rothwell and starts working some GNP.with only a short time on the clock,hunt gets a knee on Bens belly and starts working for an armbar but the horn sounds,Ben is really fooked now and needs his corner to help him get to his stool.
Rothwell is now in full zombie mode and is struggling to stand up,yet somehow even after eating shit loads of Hunt power shots he's still standing,(hell of a chin)and somehow even manges to wrestle hunt down at the end of the rd.
as i said sloppy as fuck but fun in it's own way.

Mark Hunt defeats Ben Rothwell via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 30-27).



Josh koscheck vs Mat Hughes

Hughes strated this fight really well and was causing Kos,landing his left hand aswell as a nice uppercut,but with about a minute left kos started pushing forward and catches hughes with a series of big right hands that shook hughes up,kos throws hughes to the ground and rains down some punishment,the horn was just about to sound but Kos landed another big punch that had Hughes out cold with 1 second left on the clock.

Josh Koscheck defeats Matt Hughes via knockout (strikes) at 4:59 of round 1.



Jon Jones vs Rampage

Jones just proved why he is the champ,very impressed with him,he started off looking like a dick with his monkey shit,but i can't take anything away from him,the boy is the real deal and he just methodicly broke rampage down and finished him without getting in the slightest bit of trouble,and made Rampage look completely out of his league.
haven't got much else to say apart from,great performance,great finish by a great fighter.

Jon Jones defeats Quinton "Rampage" Jackson via submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:14 of round 4.



FOTN: Jon Jone vs rampage
SOTN: Diaz
KOTN: Kos

I'll be frank the UFC got their main card line up completely wrong Prelims were far better than the main.

Gomi was awful and made Diaz look like world beater, Glad Hunt won but that fight was a complete train wreck (although is was entertaining) Browne was as unimpressive as fighter can be given the opportunity he was given.

The Hughes fight was heartbreaking to watch I just knew this would happen Matt's days as a Top fighter are gone I hope he retires.

The Jones vs Rampage fight was poor can not believe It won FOTN. IMO Jackson needs to leave Wolfslair ASAP the regression of Rampage is frighting since leaving Juanito, Jones wasn't spectacular but completely bossed the fight his reach Rampage had no answer.

Got to be honest I was more compelled by the Great Bellator card last night.

This was an average card on paper imo, but I enjoyed it.

I thought Diaz was absolutely excellent. His boxing looked superb, as did his submissions, he's just a far better fighter at lightweigh imo. Few good possible match ups for him next. Maybe Sean Sherk or Evan Dunham next?

In my opinion the two heavyweight fights were a disgrace. All four fighters are very very poor, in a very very poor division. The fact that people claim Browne to be a top 10 in the UFC just shows the state of the division.

Hughes should retire now, that's all i got to say about that fight.

Jon Jones will Anderson-Silva the LHW division for the next 10 years. That is all. Oh and "Rampage" is no longer "Rampage" it's official.

Great event, only 'boring' fights were the Mini Wandy vs Mini Penn (Assuncao- Yagin) and the Browne- Broughton fight which was DIRE.

Te Huna was impressive, guy has serious power.

Sad to see Escovedo get KO'd, but according to someone on chat box last night, he'd posted on some forum saying he expected to get cut. Not really a great attitude to have. Mizugaki showed good power but was wobbled a few times in the first, don't see him going far.

Don't know what Tim Boetschs wife thought of watching her husband pound Ring all night. He is a brute at 185. Beautiful throw, right up there with his toss-onto-the-face against that other guy whose name I can't remember... anyone know?

Ferguson showed good standup and power against a worthy opponent who unfortunately wasn't as game as some people like Faber who fought with 2 broken hands once!

Diaz is a twat but was a good performance. Gomi is done.

Hunt is back I don't know what would have happened had he won by arm bar! I'm shocked to see Ging is still alive after that moment of brilliance Hunt vs Barry I'd kill to see!

Was very impressed with Hughes' performance, he was beating Koscheck up and landing at will until his chin let him down. Personally don't think he should retire, just put him against someone with no power/standup and he should win handily, there's no doubting he's still in shape.

Jones was phenomenal. Rampage didn't have a hope in hell of landing anything all night long. Just picked apart from start to finish. Bit of a dick move to chuck Quinton on his head at the end of round 2, but other than that it was flawless from the champ. I don't see Rashad having a chance against him if I'm honest, what's Machidas reach? Think he could be the biggest (and probably only) threat to Bones' belt.

diaz v jim miller next or sherk or barbazo what a division

p4pnumber_1 wrote:In my opinion the two heavyweight fights were a disgrace. All four fighters are very very poor, in a very very poor division. The fact that people claim Browne to be a top 10 in the UFC just shows the state of the division.

This is partially the UFC's fault - they were fighting at altitude which explained why they gassed so early and Rothwell was coming back after over a year away. Browne's performance was the most disappointing.

While the Hunt-Rothwell fight was sloppy, I would much rather watch something like that than GSP jab his way to a boring UD.

Who would have thought Mark Hunt would be on a winning streak in the UFC at 37, given his past?? Hopefully Cro Cop gets past Nelson to set up Hunt v CroCop III in Japan!!

Yeah suppose that's true about the altitude.

Definitely agree about Mark Hunt, gotta hand it to him!

Read this article on him earlier if you havnt already read it Ging...

When the UFC purchased and ultimately disbanded its rival, PRIDE Fighting Championships, veteran heavyweight Mark Hunt was offered a pretty sweet deal.

Quite simply, the UFC was willing to pay him to go away and surrender his contracted fights.

But the PRIDE veteran didn't want to do that, and following a hard-fought decision victory over Ben Rothwell at Saturday's UFC 135 event, UFC president heaped praise on him.

In fact, it was White who convinced Hunt to attend the post-fight press conference for UFC 135, which took place Saturday at Denver's Pepsi Center. Hunt (7-7 MMA, 2-1 UFC) fought Rothwell (31-8 MMA, 1-2 UFC) on the night's pay-per-view main card.

"I actually asked Mark to come to this press conference," White said. "Many of you probably don't know, or some of you do know, when we bought PRIDE, he came as part of the PRIDE deal. It was back and forth, and basically I was like, 'You know what? We'll just pay you off what we owed you in the PRIDE deal.' Mark Hunt said, 'No, I want to come, and I want to fight.'"

Hunt, a tough-as-nails kickboxer stuck in a five-fight MMA losing skid, initially did little to curb skepticism about his move into the UFC. Sean McCorkle quickly tapped him out at UFC 119 a year ago, and many wrote off the 37-year-old Samoan as one-and-done with the UFC.

But despite a six-fight skid and zero victories since 2006, he wanted to press on.

The tenacity, of course, paid off. Earlier this year at UFC 127 in Australia, he blasted Chris Tuchscherer in a "Knockout of the Night" performance. And against Rothwell, a former top-10 heavyweight, he fought through crippling fatigue in Denver's thin air with a surprisingly well-rounded attack.

"The guy's got a ton of heart, and I've got a lot of respect for him," White said. "I really wanted him to be at this press conference tonight. I have nothing but respect for Mark Hunt, and I'm actually glad that we worked this thing out and he did fight in the UFC."

Hunt didn't want to share his reasons for fighting instead simply taking the money.

"I don't feel like talking about that," he told MMAjunkie.com). "It's been hard. That's about it."

White, though, felt it deserved an explanation.

"He said, 'No. I want to come in, and I want to fight, and I want to earn this money,'" White told MMAjunkie.com. "And he did it. I give him all the respect and the credit in the world. I'm glad that he opted to come in here and fight.

"I'm proud that he fought in the UFC."

It's the last line that got me confused.

I know Hunt's contract is up, but surely they're gonna offer him another fight considering he's got a 2 fight win streak?

"I'm proud that he fought in the UFC."

They've got far worse HWs on their books than Hunt. I think he has to get a new contract, unless he chooses not to accept one.

I agree that Rampage has to leave Wolfslair.

That Anthony McGann guy is a total fool. All he kept saying between rounds was 'get in the pocket' 'let your hands fly' and stupid, irrelevant clichéed comments like that. What a tool.

efils_god wrote:I agree that Rampage has to leave Wolfslair.

That Anthony McGann guy is a total fool. All he kept saying between rounds was 'get in the pocket' 'let your hands fly' and stupid, irrelevant clichéed comments like that. What a tool.

Just beat me to it. I just re-watched the fight and thought the same thing!! He looked like "just" a boxer in that fight more than any I remember.

Also, can anyone tell me why Mark Hunt has stopped kicking?? He has only thrown a few kicks since fighting in the UFC and I was wondering whether it was a technical thing relating to not wanting to be taken down. The couple of leg kicks he hit Ben with looked (and sounded!!) pretty evil.....

p4pnumber_1 wrote:It's the last line that got me confused.

I know Hunt's contract is up, but surely they're gonna offer him another fight considering he's got a 2 fight win streak?

"I'm proud that he fought in the UFC."

Does sound odd but if the UFC are going to Japan, I reckon Mark Hunt will be there. He has quite a large fan base esp in Japan and will help sell tickets...

I just read a crazy fact

Did you realize that Diazs Armbar finish the other night was the first Armbar finish in the UFC this year

It just go's to show how the game is changing and just how much the fighters have improved on defending certain moves.
I mean,when do you see good fighters get caught with standing guillotines anymore?

Standing guillotines and Armbars used to be standard finishing moves,not anymore it seems.

that is absolutley shocking who would have thought armbar was the standard sub for years

only standing guilotine i recall this year was chris weidman who looks good but that was against a sub par opponent

I'd agree with that payne but id also add that there are a lot of wrestlers in the game now that get a guy to the ground to just rest on top of them there and don't actually look to submit... was really impressed with Diaz glad he looks on form as I hate the top fighters in the LW division and I think he would give them a good fight. The bumming his brother thing annoyed me a little at the end though... I guess trying to get a reaction from the cancelled title match.

Hunt was fine but a higher calibre fighter would have dealt with him, Rothwell is shocking. Nothing annoys me more than seeing these fat heavies lumping about the cage, YOUR PRO FIGHTERS GET INTO FUCKING SHAPE!!! The last decent fat heavy (and by saying "decent" I mean at the time of him fighting) in the UFC is prob timmeth and that says it all!

Ramapage just was spell bound he had nothing that he could trouble Jones with, let's face it he shouldn't have been there, and the coach was a pain in the arse I seem to remember he kept saying "get in range" all the time. Theres LHW in the division that will give Bones more of a fight and the winner of Hendo vs Shogun has to be next in line! I could see Hendo Knocking him out! he'd def be more aggressive than rampage was!!

~not a bad event but not a great one ether, looking forward to the next instalment!

We might have to change the name of the forum from "THE ARMBAR" to "THE LAY AND PRAY" in order to keep up with the current trends in MMA

Out of the 34 submissions this year, 24 of them have either been Rear naked or the guillotine

That's crazy!

Did someone not standing guillotine Sean McCorkle? Was it christian Morecraft?

Morecraft did beat him by guillotine, cant remember if it was standing or not? Thats a good point.

I think you are right,Morecraft got a standing guillotine against McCorkle and Weidman caught Bongfeldt with one.

big sexy yeah he got destroyed

Yeah i'm pretty sure it was because i remember McCorkle went to sleep and Morecraft just let him fall to the ground and walked away!

This is right up to UFC 135

Fight Results	2011	2010
Total Fights	204	253
Gone to Decision	103	124
Unanimous Decision	88	94
Split Decision	12	24
Majority Decision	1	3
Draw	2	3
Disqualificaion/No Contest	1	1
TKO/KO	66	71
TKO Strikes	39	44
TKO Injury/Doctor Stoppage	1	6
KO	25	18
KO Punch	22	15
KO Slam	0	1
KO Kick/Knee	3	2
Tapout due to Strikes	1	3
Submissions	34	57
Arm Lock	3	12
Arm Bar	1	8
Kimura	2	4
Leg Lock	2	4
Knee Bar	1	3
Heel Hook	1	1
Chokes	28	41
Guillotine Choke	10	11
Rear Naked Choke	14	15
Triangle	3	7
Head and Arm Choke	0	8
Darce Choke	0	1
Arm Triangle	0	3
Anaconda	0	4
Submission (Body Lock)	2	0

I've got to much time on my hands,I need to get some work done

The Greg Jackson effect. Other than Condit, Cerrone and Carwin, it's a gym full of spoilers. Oh and Guillard. He's there too isn't he? He's too stupid to spoil a fight, doesn't understand game plans.

Anfields5thKing wrote:The Greg Jackson effect. Other than Condit, Cerrone and Carwin, it's a gym full of spoilers. Oh and Guillard. He's there too isn't he? He's too stupid to spoil a fight, doesn't understand game plans.

You forgot Jones, Stann, Schaub, and of course Sanchez is always fun to watch. I actually think the whole Greg Jackson boring theory is a bit overrated if im honest.