The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: UFN 121 Recap
By Tyler Kartler
"The Good"
Camacho vs Brown
This was one hell of a fight. Camacho fights like a mini Robbie Lawler, and Damien Brown is tough, well-rounded fighter that gives everyone he faces a fight. I do agree with the judges when scoring the fight for Camacho, and I do see the disappointment for Brown. But both guys should keep their heads up for putting up such an entertaining fight for the fans. Good on them.
A Flyweight Head Kick / A Heavyweight Flying Knee
Flyweights always get flack for being too small, and not having finishing power. But Benoit delivered on a vicious head kick in what was a frustrating fight for him. Mokhtarian wasn’t trying to engage much, and Benoit seemed to have broke his right hand in the 1st round. It was satisfying to see him overcome both of those things with the fight ending head kick.
Two fights earlier on the prelims, there was something to behold in the Heavyweight division. When you watch a Heavyweight fight you expect a knock out. What you don’t expect is the athletic ability of a 265 pound man to throw a flying knee, knocking his opponent out cold. Those were the only 2 finishes on the entire card, and they were good ones.
Volkanovski's Fight IQ & UFC Future
Even though Volkanovski was a -650 or more favorite for his short notice fight against Shane Young, I’d like to give him some respect for how well he fought. Volkanovski is an impressive specimen. Super well rounded, and well grounded with his approach. He mixes his striking up with his wrestling well, and he never seems uncomfortable. He does need to face higher competition to see where he really stands in the 145 pound division, but he’s a guy to definitely keep an eye on.
"The Bad"
UFC Fight Night 121
UFC fight night 121 was definitely a forgettable event. But most forgettable was it’s main card. All six fights go the distance. Three fights were split decisions, with one of them being a robbery. They were all pretty competitive fights, and for a hardcore fan like myself, I wouldn’t say that it was the most boring card. It was definitely a very long night and I can say that I was having a hard time having interest in it by the time the co-main event came on. The bright side of this card was the undercard. You had some performance of the nights, as well as your fight of the night on the prelims. Lets hope for a better event next week.
Hamilton vs. Wieczorek
This was the first fight of the entire card. Lets just say it was a snoozer. Hamilton looking to get this fight to the ground immediately backfired as it tired both fighters out for the rest of the three rounds. There was no sign of anything promising from both of these fighters. I didn’t seem as if either of them could compete at a high level in the UFC. Bad match-up, bad start.
Mokhtarian's Circles
The Benoit vs Mokhtarian fight had one of the most memorable moments of the card. The headkick finish by Benoit was clean and the follow up was vicious. But man what a lackluster and frustrating fight to watch. Mokhtarian’s plan of circling, and borderline running away from Benoit was bad. It almost made my ugly list, but he was having some success early, landing big left hooks on Benoit. After realizing that Mokhtarian was going to try to win a decision by only engaging a minimally as possible, I couldn’t help but be happy for Benoit when he landed that highlight reel head kick.
"The Ugly"
Will Brooks Fight IQ & UFC Career
This was the biggest upset on the card, and Brooks is one of the biggest losers when it comes to highly touted prospects coming to the UFC. He started his career off in the UFC against a tough vet Ross Pearson on short notice and picked up a nice decision win. Then he had the misfortune of Cowboy Oliveira missing weight badly for their fight and ended up losing by TKO suffering broken ribs in the process. After that, he welcomes Charles Oliveira back to the LW division where Brooks should have had his way with Oliveira on the feet and all he had to do was stuff takedowns and the clinch. He shit the bed on that one pretty quickly. And now, he is fighting a former teammate. A guy that he is a better wrestler than. A guy that he is a better striker than. A guy he should have a clear path to victory against. He seemed to be on his way to a decision win, although it wasn’t as dominant as everyone had expected it to be. The biggest threat Lentz gave Brooks was a guillotine attempt from full guard that Brooks almost got mounted and submitted with in the first round. So wouldn’t you just avoid grappling Lentz for the rest of the fight unless you drop him, or Lentz is clearly gassed out? He was starting to get the better of Lentz in round two, opening up some cuts on his face, and then he shoots for an unnecessary takedown that put him right into Lentz’s favorite submission. On the broadcast they mentioned that Lentz has attempted the guillotine in his UFC career more than anyone else on the roster. Well tonight Lentz won big, and it was ugly for Will Brooks.
Velickovic vs Matthews Judges Scorecards
I was amped for this fight because I knew it was going to be a close match up. Not a lot of people in the media were giving Velickovic a chance to win this fight. I did a lot of tape study on these two fighters, and I had Velickovic as one of my Cash Grabs for the week. And boy, do I feel robbed. Round one starts and Matthews immediately goes for a takedown against the fence. After a couple minutes of eating elbows and punches from Velickovic, he succeeds and snags a takedown. Still not much offense is done, and Velickovic snags a leg and starts attacking it for the rest of the round while landing one of the loudest up-kicks I’ve ever heard. Do you give the round to the guy that threw less than 4 strikes, but went for the takedown and finally got one, but did not have success on top, or do you give the round to the guy that stuffed the takedown for over 2 and a half minutes and landed 60 strikes in that round? Round 2, Velickovic clearly took with back control for the majority of the round, and Round 3 was a very close back and forth round that I think Matthews won. With Velickovic out landing Matthews by about 100 more strikes, it was looking good for the underdog to get the decision. 2 of the 3 judges seen the fight for the home country kid, Jake Matthews. This was one of the ugliest decision robberies of the year.
Theodorou vs Kelly - "The Sloppy War"
This fight wasn’t that bad of a fight. I was actually very entertained by the sloppy madness of both Theodorou and Kelly’s striking. It was just ugly to watch Theodorou throw a punch. Dana White said Jason "Mayhem" Miller had some of the worst striking he has ever seen, but Theodorou’s punches looked pretty bad tonight. Theodorou did have a solid kicking game, and he followed a smart game plan as good as he could have. And I thought Kelly went after Theodorou the entire fight trying to win the best he could. Solid game plans for both fighters, ugly technique.
My Cash Grabs
I missed on all three of my cash grabs this week. And it’s embarrassing because this is my first week of promoting this website to close friends and family, but shit happens. I have been having a successful past 3 weeks with MMA bets that it was bound to happen sometime. The hard part about having a website called MMA cash grabs is that I’m basically wearing my heart on my sleeve with announcing my bets to the public. My picks were well thought out and that’s all I can say about this ugly week.