Famine to feast. That's the easiest way to explain UFC Fight Night 28. I was lucky to be spared the boredom that permeated the preliminary card because a) it started at 1:30pm PST; and b) I have a real job that occupied my time. Apparently the only person to bring it in the bottom five fights was Lucas Martins, who dropped two weight classes to clubber his overmatched UFC debutant. Good on him. I did happen to make it home for the main card though, and that turned out to be pretty entertaining. So without further ado, let's take a look at the top six fights.
- Glover Teixeira won, but he got clubbered in the process. That's the second time in five UFC fights that he's been hurt by his opponent's hands. And one of those men (Fabio Maldonado) was basically a zombie when he did it. He's 5-0 in the UFC and is finishing nearly everyone, so it's hard to talk smack. But there are plenty of question marks and warning signs so far and I don't think he's going to unseat Jon Jones or anything. The UFC desperately needs new challengers for JBJ and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him fast-tracked into a title shot if Jones beats Gustafsson. But I don't think he's going to have a lot of success there, that's for sure.
- I said this on twitter, but I need to say it again here because...well, more people will read it here (seriously though, I'm entertaining on twitter!). The tired line that Glover Teixeira hasn't beat a top-ten opponent is false. Quinton Jackson was ranked at number nine when he lost to Glover. Should Teixeira be the number two challenger? No. But everyone at light heavy keeps beating each other and he's undefeated, so it's not surprising that he's leapfrogging the pack.
- And right as I say that, he's just been confirmed as the next challenger. So...there's that.
- How about Ronaldo Souza's hands? I knew Jacare hit hard, but not that hard. Jeez, he was just loading that right up like it was the only weapon he needed, and it turns out that he was right. That was only the fourth TKO stoppage of Yushin Okami's 37-fight career, and the earliest he's ever been stopped. By a guy that came into MMA as a one-dimensional BJJ guy. I'm personally a huge fan of Jacare and I loved every second of it. I'm excited to see him tackle the top of the division.
- Joseph Benavidez straight blasted Jussier Formiga. No one else at flyweight is set up for a title shot, so give Joe B. another chance. He deserves it.
- That was only the third time since the start of 2011 that the top three fights of a UFC card have been finished in the first round. The last was UFC 142, where the top four bouts all ended in the first stanza. Actually, this card was as well. It's a lot more rare than you'd think.
- How about Piotr Hallmann folks? Despite some major disagreement about how to pronounce his name (Pee oat? Pooter? Pee oat err?), he showed some resilience after getting caught with a huge body kick and overcame a bigger opponent to get a nasty submission win. He defied a lot of expectations in the process, and I hope he's back in the octagon soon. I was very impressed.
- Did you like the bout between Rafael Natal and Tor Troeng? If Michael Schiavello was announcing that fight, he would have used all sorts of zany quips about reversals. Natal clearly won the fight, but it was by far the most fun of the six main card bouts.
- Nice debut from Ali Bagautinov, but his desire to sit and wait for counters made the bout pretty slow. Dude has a lot of power for a little guy though, I'll give him that.
- I'll finish this off with one minor point that annoyed me about tonight's broadcast. Why are they insisting that a guy ranked at # 5 in a division is "top five in the world"? Uh, the UFC ranking numbers are a list of contenders. That means that the guy that's the number five contender is actually number six in the world in his division. It's petty for sure, but you can't count to six guys? Don't say he's top five when he's not!