The main card of UFC on FX 5: Browne vs. Bigfoot hadn't delivered very much action before the main event between Travis Browne and Antonio Silva. But the man they call Bigfoot delivered the big finish that the event needed.
It appeared that Browne injured his knee early in the bout somewhere in between throwing flashy spinning kicks and using footwork that wasn't really accomplishing anything. I don't mean to sound like I'm ripping the guy, but in between all his flash, it was Silva landing straight right hands that were actually landing.
An injured knee didn't force Browne to drop his hands to his waist while Bigfoot was in punching range, allowing the giant of a man to land a huge right that dropped Browne and a few more punches before the fight was stopped, leading to Silva jumping on the top of the cage and roaring a terrifying roar.
- Like it or not, the Jeremy Stephens situation dominated most of the Twitter chatter during the event. Multiple people were telling the media the fight was off, but no one reported anything beyond that the fight was "reportedly off" but that it hadn't been confirmed by the UFC. Still, Dana White found a way to blame the media while repeatedly saying that the fight would still happen despite Stephens still sitting in jail. It was irresponsible for them to try to go ahead with the fight at that point anyway, and honestly, it feels like the only reason they kept saying it was still going to happen was to not admit that it wasn't. You can't say you're still trying to make a fight happen in 2 hours when a guy would have to have his release from jail processed, get him to the arena, get his hands wrapped, have him inspected by the commission, get him warmed up and then have the fight. It was never going to happen.
- Jay Hieron and Jake Ellenberger sure put on a bit of a disappointing fight. Ellenberger rocked Hieron early which seemed to keep Hieron from ever really committing again in the fight. It's a solid win for Ellenberger, Hieron didn't do anything that should get him chased from the UFC or anything, but it wasn't fan friendly and I didn't really expect it to be a fight that would be loudly booed.
- Speaking of fights I didn't expect to be loudly booed...John Dodson beating Jussier da Silva had a horrible first round. Dodson saved the fight and hopefully built up a little steam for his title challenge when he was able to finish off Silva in the second round. The flyweight division needs to be exciting though, it's still in the "gaining acceptance" phase and you don't want to see a title fight booed followed by the booing of a number one contender fight.
- Josh Neer getting put to sleep was fantastic stuff for people like me who really don't like Neer. I thought Justin Edwards actually looked very good. He came out hard with his strikes and attacked the neck for the finish as soon as Neer provided the opening.
- Michael Johnson is one of only four fighters with three UFC wins this year, joining Stefan Struve, Matt Brown and Cub Swanson (thanks to MMA Decisions for giving me the answer when I asked on Twitter earlier). And is certainly the most surprising name on the list. He continues to improve at a really high rate and came back from being badly rocked in round 1 to score the great second round KO.
- Sometimes a fight expected to be boring really delivers, that was the case for Aaron Simpson against Mike Pierce. Simpson looked great in round one, but Pierce really drilled him with a shot in round 2 and got the finish. Not bad for a fight expected to be in the running for worst of the night.
- Let's not talk about Marcus LeVesseur and Carlo Prater.
- I may not like Jacob Volkmann's personality, but he looked as good as anyone could hope against Shane Roller. Volkmann just controlled the fight to get his submission win. Roller though? That guy looks completely shot.
- Diego Nunes has to lead the UFC in number of times he has badly hurt opponents without getting a finish. It's always decisions with the guy. He looked great tonight though, probably as good as he has to date in the UFC.
- It's pretty clear that Darren Uyenoyama may very well be the future of that division. He has really undervalued striking and is an absolute beast on the ground.