This was probably the most fun an MMA fan could have in one night. The only thing that could’ve made it sweeter is if we were getting ready for a Japanese card to start at some ungodly hour. Anyway, Bellator & the UFC went head to head on Saturday night and us the fans came out victorious. Let’s start things with UFC 180 in Mexico City.
Fabricio Werdum cares nothing about your MMA heroes.
Mark Hunt dropped Fabricio Werdum. TWICE. I got all tingly and was getting to accept Mark Hunt as my interim heavyweight overlord. He even survived Werdum’s ground game! Then y’know, Werdum fed Hunt some knees and that was the ballgame. Werdum will still get his match against Cain (if Cain can stay healthy) and Mark Hunt’s star power increased a bit. No real loser in this one.
If you need me, I’ll be over here drinking all the Kelvin Gastelum Kool-Aid™
I’d be lying if I said I was buying into the Kelvin Gastelum hype…until tonight. Gastelum ate some serious shots from Jake Ellenberger and took like .4 seconds to slip in a choke to seal the deal. I’m not gonna say anything wild here but I think we can throw him up against one of the top guys at 170 and see what shakes out. Also, the crowd in Mexico City LOVED them some Kelvin. That sound you hear is Dana White impersonating a cash register.
Hooray for Ricardo Lamas!
Not too much to say except, that was a great finish and a great statement in the featherweight division by snapping Dennis Bermudez’s seven fight win streak.
Only look at Leslie Smith’s busted open ear if you haven’t eaten yet.
Bruh, this was gross. I’ve watched a lot of MMA. This may be the grossest thing I’ve ever seen. Just the replays of it busting open and AHHHHHHH! Poor Leslie Smith & her ear!
Now onto Bellator. We had a ramp(!!!!), we had a title fight, we had a grudge match. It felt like a 90s wrestling PPV. So naturally, I was a child while watching it.
Ortiz v. Bonnar? Not horrible.
I don’t think anyone in their right mind expected Tito & Stephan to put on a barn burner. This fight was made to nab some viewers and to garner some buzz. Well it worked and then some. Ortiz’s wrestling was surprisingly as good as I can remember it and his striking was enough to put away Bonnar. Some putz had Bonnar winning two rounds and Bonnar was doing some putzy things after the fight but whatever, I enjoyed myself.
Michael Chandler may be the first fighter to catch the holy ghost during a fight.
So let me set the scene if you missed this bizarre chain of events. Michael Chandler appeared to hit his head pretty hard on the mat and took quite the shot from Will Brooks. Upon getting up, Chandler looked like he was protesting something? Brooks takes advantage, wins the bout by TKO. Chandler was out cold. On his feet. Probably one of the strangest things I’ve seen in MMA this year. I’m probably not even doing it justice by describing it. You gotta see this.
Odds & Ends
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Joe Schilling STARCHED Melvin Manhoef. I’m talking starched like my dad used to do his jeans in the 90s starched.
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Mike Richman absolutely disposed of Nam Pham
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King Mo also did some disposing of his own against Joe Vedepo
Both of these cards had no business being as fun as they were. I know it’ll never stop but maybe MMA fans/journalists will stop shitting on cards just because a certain amount of fighters on the card don’t have Wikipedia pages or because they’re not household names. We watch this sport to be entertained and to enjoy ourselves. I’ll confidently say that we got that and then some tonight.
