UFC on FOX 5 Thoughts

–I really felt the new, improved Diaz would be able to beat Henderson. Henderson’s close fights with Bocek, Guida, and Edgar just made me feel like Diaz could find openings in close affairs. I was wrong, very wrong. Henderson is a beast. Epic beatdown for five rounds over an obvious top ten (or top five) fighter like Diaz is no joke. He did great. Personally, I would prerfer to see Henderson face Strikeforce titlist Gilbert Melendez next.

–I was wrong also when it came to Macdonald vs Penn. It wasn’t even a contest, Macdonald was beating Penn badly with his jab, combinations, and kicks. I think he probably could have stopped Penn in the 2nd if he had been a little more aggressive when he had Penn hurt against the cage. I have no idea how Penn stood there, taking all that punishment and not even dropping. Penn is otherwordly tough. Macdonald is elite, he’s the real deal and it’s a shame we won’t be seeing him face GSP anytime soon. I would love to see the winner of Jon Fitch vs Demian Maia vs Macdonald.

–Another, mostly one sided affair was Alexander Gustafsson outstriking Shogun Rua en route to a unanimous decision. Rua was trying to connect with big bombs but Gustafsson’s reach, technique and style was too much for Rua. This was more competitive than Penn vs Macdonald and Diaz vs Henderson but it was clear who the winner was after each round. Dana White said that Gustafsson would fight the winner of Jones vs Sonnen next, but who knows.

–First round of Swick vs Brown was pretty exciting, nice neat ground work. However, at the end, Brown knocked Swick out badly. It seems that Swick’s suffered so much from those 2 plus years away, those injuries took way too much out of him. Great win for Brown.

–Is Yves Edwards win over Jeremy Stephens his most significant win in years? I say so. What a great awesome win for a great, crafty veteran of so many years. I was worried that Stephens power would overwhelm Edwards. I mean, Stephens hits a hell of a lot harder than Stout and we saw what Stout did to Edwards at the Toronto show years ago. Great KO win for Edwards.

–Nice to see Assuncao win over Easton, it was a more talented veteran out crafting a younger fighter.

–Nijem and Proctor was a fun little affair.

–Daron Cruickshank’s beatdown of Henry Martinez was absolutely brutal. I have no idea how Martinez did not go down in the first round. But he couldn’t withstand that final horrifying kick that was brutal.

–Marcus LeVesseur is just too darn one dimensional to make it. I don’t know if it’s a case of Abel Trujillo being really that good or LeVesseur being that limited, or a combination of both. Trujillo was landing nasty strikes while LeVesseur was clinching with him. The brutality that was on display from Trujillo was nasty stuff. Good win for Trujillo, but I think LeVesseur is destined to be an AXSTV fighter.

–Nice win from Siver, I loved him working from the half guard and beating Phan badly with good strikes. When they were standing, Siver was landing at will, great combinations. Awesome legkicks, body kicks, and tight punches hurt Phan at times. Great, great performance by Siver. In Phan’s defense, he did take this fight on short notice.

–Awesome fight between Scott Jorgensen vs John Albert. Great scrambles, great submission attempts by Albert at the bottom. It was also great how active Albert’s guard was, how he was looking for submissions and sweeps. He got a great sweep there too. I wonder how upset he is that he tapped out with one second left from a nasty Jorgensen Gable grip rear naked choke. Great round, great fight. It was great to see they won the Fight of the Night bonus.