UFC 141 Thoughts
Photo Credit - UFC PPV
- Alistair Overeem became the number one contender as he destroyed Brock Lesnar in the headliner to UFC 141. Overeem landed a textbook perfect liverkick that crumpled Lesnar and led to Overeem pounding him out for the TKO victory. It’s weird that Lesnar never committed for the takedown and tried to keep the fight standing as long as he did with the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix kingpin. Lesnar just had nothing for Overeem, the Dutch kickboxer was so superior that it made the fight almost disappointing in a way. But this leads to Junior Dos Santos vs Alistair Overeem, which will be the best heavyweight striking match in mixed martial arts history.
- Leading to this card, the real main event to me was Nate Diaz vs Donald Cerrone. I thought the WEC Cowboy was going to be way to varied and use his variety of strikes to outland Diaz. I was as wrong as a human being can be. Nate Diaz put an amazing beatdown on the Cowboy, one of the greatest beatdowns in MMA history. According to FightMetric, Nate Diaz landed a 238 significant strikes, a new record for most significant strikes landed in a UFC bout. He shattered the record, he landed exactly 60 more significant strikes from the previous record holder, his brother Nick Diaz. There was so much to love about this fight, there was something poetic in seeing Cerrone flip off Diaz before the fight and seeing Nate return the bird right before the third frame. Beautiful MMA-boxing from Nate Diaz, totally picked Cerrone apart to the point that he made him look like a jabrone. I hope Nate Diaz gets a title eliminator against the winner of Anthony Pettis vs Joe Lauzon. 2011 ending with both Diaz Brothers being UFC title contenders is a beautiful thing.
- I knew Johny Hendricks was going to be a tough match up for Jon Fitch, but never did I imagine that he would crush Fitch in 12 seconds. I wonder if Zuffa was relieved to see that happen. Fitch does seem like a genuine nice guy, but it’s awesome to see Hendricks get the win like that. Sherdog Administrative Editor Jordan Breen joked on his twitter: “How many Baconators does a KO of the Night bonus buy?”
- Alexander Gustafsson is the real deal. Matyushenko will never be a world champion but he’s such a great gatekeeper to the elite fighters of the division. Gustafsson was just too much for The Janitor, and it was a great performance. Dave Meltzer talked about how Gustafsson has a star quality about him, and it’s true. But not only does he have a star quality, he also has the skills to be a legit top ten light-heavyweight fighter. If I were Joe Silva, I would have a UFC on Fox card have a co-main event fight with Alexander Gustafsson vs Forrest Griffin, to make Gustafsson a star.
- Jimy Hettes was really great in his fight against Nam Phan, great takedowns, great grappling and nasty ground and pound. I would like to see Hettes work on his cardio, but his Judo is so beautiful to watch. If I was Sean Shelby, I would match up Hettes with the winner of Mike Brown vs Vagner Rocha.
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