From my view of the event.
I had the opportunity to attend UFC 172 in person this weekend in the boringly named Baltimore Arena. It was a small venue, but from the point of view of an onlooker that smallness is an advantage in that it makes everything just that much more intimate. My own proximity to the cage was amazing. Though there were three large screens close to my left and a smaller one (or at least one that looked smaller) farther away to the right, I thankfully could tell most of what was happening in the cage by my own eyes. It was only a few times when the fight went to the ground that I had to rely on the screen.
Anyways, the entire night was quite the spectacle with each fight bringing something interesting to watch and think about.
The night started off with Chris Beal facing off against Patrick Williams. Though an early preliminary bout, anyone who thinks that the preliminaries are just fluff to the main event and don’t come until the pay-per-view event starts missed out on one of the most intense knockouts of the night. Not even halfway through the second round, Chris Beal, who had been having the best of the standup exchanges, unleashed a flying knee that, with a loud thwack, sent Williams to the canvas:
Something so beautiful it deserves to be immortalized in marble. Just imagine that in the Louvre (where it belongs).
If anything, the sound was the most vicious part about it. No one in the arena didn't know the moment Williams lost consciousness and anyone momentarily distracted were immediately cursing their lack of attention as they watched him collapse.
Beal's flying knee was a thing of beauty and a good auspices for the night in both the decisive manner of the victory and the technical skill it displayed. Chris Beal started a definite trend among winning fighters: Thanking God. Ad maiorem Dei gloriam.
The next fight displayed a lesson every single fighter needs to have drilled into their skulls every moment of training: Keep your hands up! Even though Charlie Brenneman definitely had the best performance in the first round, all of that work was nullified in an instance when Danny Castillo’s got a shot at the Spaniard’s undefended chin. All it took was that one shot for Brenneman to collapse unconscious. A video of Castillo’s magnificent straight right can be found here. I’ll let Bill Easlick, a coach for striking and mixed-martial arts over at Fairfax Jiu-Jitsu, deliver the lecture: “Stop reaching to parry! When your hand is away, it is not protecting your chin.”
So, if there’s anything to learn from UFC 172, it’s keeping those hands up! Just in case you need more evidence, here’s Big Nog, one of the best heavyweights to have fought in mixed-martial arts but one who is worse for wear, crumpling to a similar shot. Again, keep those hands up!
The next fight was between Jessaymne Duke and Bethe Correia which lead to Correia dominating for three rounds. For me, the most impressive parts of Duke’s game came from her judo throws. Not that surprising considering that Ronda Rousey was in her corner, but it was disappointing considering that Duke, sporting a new tattoo, had a ten inch reach advantage over her opponent. Correia was also able to deliver an unanswered barrage of kicks against Duke’s lead leg which left quite the bruise by the end of the bout. At the end, my final impression was that Duke needed to learn how to really turn her great reach advantage into a winning asset just as Jon Jones has. Luckily for her, Jon Jones was fighting that night.
Next were the lightweights Takanori Gomi and Issac Vallie-Flagg. And there was blood. Not a copious amount, the mat was never stained, but there was still a noticable amount. By the end of the bout, Gomi’s hair, dyed orange, looked as if it were dyed pink:
Tommy Gilligan - USA Today
Unsurprisingly, considering the general lack of blood in the other bouts, Gomi v. Vallie-Flagg took fight of the night. Nevertheless, it was a pleasure to watch, and certainly helped prove why the preliminaries are as worth watching as the main card. This is mixed-martial arts we’re talking abut, and one of MMA’s great features is the uncertainty of where greatness will lie.
Next up was Joseph Benavidez versus Tim Elliot. Though Elliot came out strong in his grappling against Benavidez, he came out recklessly and paid the cost of recklessness to a guillotine choke which won Benavidez a performance of the night. Elliot was really good until he was being chocked unconscious, but he was still forced to tap and tap by slamming his feet against the canvas for his arms were trapped with Benavidez in a full mount..
With that, the preliminaries had ended, but it was already quite the night of performances. The couple that came in just in time to my left for the pay-per-view event had missed so much, and I bet would be eventually regretting. From amazing knockouts to skillful submissions, the preliminaries were simply amazing.
And so the main card started. Next up was Max Holloway versus Andre Fili and then Jim Miller versus Mederiros, both of them ending by guillotines with Holloway and Miller respectively victorious.
By the time it came for the middleweights Luke Ruckhold versus Tim Boetsch, UFC 172 had already been going three submissions straight, but this bout would be something I found particularly special. But before that detail, a random observation: When Boetsch walked out, I spent a minute or so figuring out what Metallica song the guitar riff from the song he walked out to had been copied from. It was a good song, but only because of “Sad but True.”
The first round contained one of those moves one could easily see in a movie and claim could never really happen. Though Boetsch shoots to take Ruckhold to the mat, the resulting sprawl ends with Ruckhold getting a reserve triangle on Boetsch. With Boetsch’s head becoming an ever more visible shade or purple, Rockhold is able to get in the right position for a Kimura, and to get the tap. It was simply amazing to watch, and the submission I was most excited to watch the entire night. I’m a bit shocked that Rockhold didn’t get a performance of the night for his very quick submission of the Barbarian.
USA Today sports
Though the Boetsch had promised violence and that both he and his opponent would leave hurt, Rockhold had a different plan and was able to end the match before taking any damage. That’s one thing I love about jiu-jitsu: the ability to win a fight without doing damage by simply forcing an opponent to either tap or to go to sleep.
The next fight was Phil Davis versus Anthony Johnson and this was actually the bout I found the least exciting, Though “Rumble” Johnson was able to effectively destroy any chance Mr. Wonderful had of winning the bout after Rumble had him on the mat after an early exchange, the fight was simply a one-sided beat down. Though it was one sided, I never felt that Johnson really had a plan for breaking Davis and would merely ride the three rounds to a decisive decision. Though decisive, I found it anti-climatic and, after Rumble established his dominance, the bout was timing down to a decision.
Onto the main event, the event that at least brought me to the Baltimore Arena: Jon “Bones” Jones versus Glover Teixeira. A piece of advice to anyone watching Bones Jones fight: Don’t yell advice like you’re actually in the champion’s corner. You’re not. Nor are you as good as either Jones or anyone in his corner at deciding the tactical course to take. Instead, stop yelling advice, sit down, and watch a mixed-martial arts virtuoso do his work. From elbows, spinning back kicks, axe kicks, oblique kicks, to dirty boxing in the clinch, Jones showed just how versatile he is as a striker. For anyone wondering why Jones is so dominant, it’s not just his natural athleticism, it’s the versatility and tactical intuition he shows in each fight that has made him what he is. Yes, there were problems with eye poking (problems I think can only be solved by either strict point deductions or changing the rules), but those cannot blind us to the work of art which was Jones’ fighting that night. It was a clear 50-45 bout.
I shall end my discussion of Jones v. Teixeira by noting that I enjoy watching Bones Jones fight for reasons I love reading an amazing book It simply opens my eyes to the things that are actually possible in mixed-martial arts. With a large amount of credit going to the great coaches at Jackson-Wink MMA, Jones’ fighting is as cerebral as it gets in the cage.
Although Jon Jones “doesn’t want to talk about that kid,” we all know what’s coming up next for the light-heavyweight division: Jones v Gustafsson II.
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