UFC Fight Night: Rodriguez vs. Caceres results and post-fight analysis

Yair Rodriguez is a special talent. Being able to throw kicks like he does is a rare skill, and I don't understand how he's not dizzy after his fight with Alex Caceres. But with that being said, Caceres did exactly what needs to be done against a flashy fighter - don't give him the range to work. It took Caceres a few rounds to get it down, and it wasn't completely effective - it didn't win him the fight or anything, after all - but it does provide a good gameplan for future Rodriguez opponents.

Wrestling him might be effective too. But Caceres didn't do that.

Nonetheless, Pantera is the Mexican star the UFC desperately needs to continue their expansion into the country. He's flashy, exciting, young, and talented. If the UFC continues to match him up against the right opponents, he will continue to flourish and could be a contender one day. He's not there yet though, despite the nice win tonight. He really needs to work on his accuracy, for one thing. Wild is exciting, but it's not always effective.

• The 49-46 card for Caceres might be the worst scorecard of the year. That's absolutely ridiculous.
  

• Dennis Bermudez looked pretty good tonight, shutting down Rony Jason other than a brief scare in the third. That was a nasty cut he opened up on Rony's forehead though. I'm shocked that didn't stop the fight, but they were able to get the bleeding under control fairly easily between rounds. Somehow.
  

• Santiago Ponzinibbio is one of my favorite newer fighters in the UFC. He always brings the pressure, never backs down, packs a pretty hard punch, and is steadily improving from fight to fight. If Zak Cummings didn't have an iron chin, he might have had another knockout in this fight. I'd love to see him take another step up in competition. This time I think he can handle it.
  
• Trevor Smith looked good in his return, taking out prospect Joe Gigliotti. I'm not going to lie though - most of the entertainment during the fight were the puns that Mookie and I were going back and forth with on Twitter. After seven events in a month, we're just doing what we have to do to stay awake here, folks.
• Maryna Moroz vs. Danielle Taylor was pretty terrible. Moroz was throwing a ton of strikes and not connecting with anything. This is the first time I've ever done this and likely never will again because it seems lame, but I think this tweet by a certain BE author (ie. me) sums up Moroz's efforts quite succinctly

Moroz strikes humans with a lower percentage than lightning.

— Tim B (@TB_Money) August 7, 2016

• Taylor tried, and cracked Moroz with a huge shot in the second. She even got a late takedown. It just wasn't a good fight style-wise.
• Court McGee won a decision that was a whole lot closer than the scorecards indicated. A 30-27 for Court is a bad card. Not as bad as some cards earlier in the night though, which you're going to read about at length in a minute here.
• What a kick by Marcin Tybura. The setup looked a little sloppy, but wow did that ever connect on Viktor Pesta. You see one of those every couple of months,  but it always draws a visceral reaction from me. Which is usually followed up by me saying "Daaaamn" at my TV. Great win for the Polish fighter, and should earn him a bonus check.
• David Teymur has a pretty nasty striking game. His interview game might be even stronger though. Calling out Sage Northcutt? I like it!
• If you don't love Teruto Ishihara, there's something wrong with you. He's nasty in the cage, and apparently nasty outside of it as well. He's the exact opposite of your average Japanese fighter, who are usually quiet and reserved. Neither of those words describe Teruto. Just read this interview he did with BE before the fight if you want to learn a little more about the ladies man.
• I'm really resisting the urge to type this in caps, but here we go. First of all, Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Cub Swanson was a hell of a fight. Both of them had their moments and it was back and forth the whole way. But there were some major, major issues with the officiating and judging. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm the biggest Crusher fan in the world, and I don't have a lot of credibility when talking about his fights, but he really did get robbed here. How does John McCarthy not take a point for a blatantly illegal knee by Swanson in the second? It's ridiculous. And how the hell do two judges have it 30-27? Kawajiri CLEARLY won the first round. With the correct call and point deduction, it's a draw. It should have been a draw. Instead, Swanson gets a win he really didn't deserve.
• I'm glad I wrote the above two hours after the fight instead of in the moment, because I would have had to delete a lot of swear words.
  
• Oh yeah, there was a curtain-jerker heavyweight fight too. Justin Ledet beat up Chase Sherman while Sherman taunted him. That was about all Sherman did after the first round though.