Making the Grade: Passes/Fails from UFC Fight Night: 'Bigfoot' vs. Arlovski
Andrei Arlovski crushed Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva rather unexpectedly, Gleison Tibau did Gleison Tibau things against Piotr Hallmann and Efrain Escudero fell in his Octagon return to Leonardo Santos.
You already know who won and who lost Saturday at UFC Fight Night: "Bigfoot" vs. Arlovski. But we here at Haymaker prefer to look beyond the results.
Here's what we took away from the proceedings in Brasilia:
PASSES
Pitbull-ish
We miss the fangs, but this dorky version of Andrei Arlovski seems effective.
No more fangs. No more bushy beard. No more ungroomed body hair. Who is this guy? Andrei Arlovski is 35 years old now and he's more like your wacky uncle than a fearsome bad ass. Did you see his open workout this week in Brazil? Arlovski did a little lip-syncing to rap music and then acted as a punching bag for one of his flyweight-looking training partners. Weird, but kind of funny in a pull-my-finger kind of way.
Maybe this dorky act works for Arlovski. He did go out and stop Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva in the first round Saturday night by knockout. Very few expected the bout to go past the first, but all of them figured it would be Arlovski staring up at the lights rather than performing some kind of shake-what-your-mama-gave-ya celebratory dance and thanking everyone he has ever met in an interview with Jon Anik. The only thing missing now is a nickname change. How about "The Dachsund?"
Sealed with a kiss
One of the best moments from UFC Fight Night: "Bigfoot" vs. Arlovski didn’t happen in the Octagon. It was a pure moment of joy captured by UFC Fight Pass cameras and we wish they didn't cut away so quickly. After Jessica Andrade submitted top prospect Larissa Pacheco with a guillotine in the first round, she left the cage, made a beeline for her girlfriend in the stands and kissed her. It was great to see the raw display of emotion.
Andrade is only the second UFC fighter to come out as gay, following Liz Carmouche. The UFC still doesn't have an openly gay male fighter, though many fighters and officials feel like the company is ready for it. Showing Andrade kissing her girlfriend on the air as something completely normal is a good step in the right direction for the UFC, which has forged partnerships with influential LGBT organizations recently. How many times have we seen a male fighter kiss his girlfriend or wife after a win? The message should be sent that this is OK, too.
2014
Fights like Iuri Alcantara (left) vs. Russell Doane turn out pretty darn good more times than not.
UFC Fight Night: "Bigfoot" vs. Arlovski was supposed to be terrible. The main event was the only bout with big names and it was seemingly a lopsided rematch. Antonio Silva came in as more than a 4-to-1 favorite over Andrei Arlovski, who looked over the hill in a split-decision win over Brendan Schaub back in June. On paper, this looked like one of the UFC's worst fight cards of the year -- and it hasn't really been a banner year in terms of drawing value.
So, of course, UFC Fight Night from Brasilia delivered. There wasn't a boring fight on the entire card. Arlovski knocked out Silva stunningly in the first round, Iuri Alcantara and Russell Doane put on a show and Jessica Andrade upped her stock with a demolition of top prospect Larissa Pacheco. That's about how things have gone this year for the UFC. "Bad" events have turned into exciting ones. UFC 177, perhaps the most maligned show ever (and for good reason), was a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
The hardcore fans who watch everything have been rewarded, but the UFC still needs to figure out a way to draw in the rest. If only they could figure out a way to guarantee that an event will be exciting before it happens. Either way, "Bigfoot" vs. Arlovski was way more satisfying than Floyd Mayweather vs. Marcos Maidana with a very small fraction of the audience.
FAILS
First, let me take an unethical selfie
Ronda Rousey, just waiting for her next fan selfie.
You know how we're always up in arms about media cheering for fighters during UFC events. Well, this is worse. MMA Fighting's Guilherme Cruz reported Saturday night that "reporters" were taking selfies with UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey while actual journalists trying to do their job were attempting to interview her. If you don't know what a selfie is, refer to this link.
So why is taking photos with the athletes you're supposed to be covering bad? Well, it creates the perception of bias. Fans take pictures with fighters and players and celebrities. Journalists do not. We're not there to fawn over the competitors. We're there to objectively report or opine on what they do. That is our job. At least it is for most of us. When you start taking pictures with people you cover, it blurs the lines. It's like they're doing you a favor. They'll see you in a different way -- as a fanboy or fangirl. If that happens, you have failed yourself and your employer.
Slight of the night
There was plenty of this in the fight between Gleison Tibau and Piotr Hallmann
Obviously, they like clinch work down in Brazil. Do you think that if UFC president Dana White was in Brasilia on Saturday night, he would have picked Gleison Tibau's decision win over Piotr Hallmann as the Fight of the Night? Hell no. Tibau essentially grinded Hallmann down for three rounds. It was rather impressive, no doubt. Tibau is an extremely difficult guy to fight at lightweight with his size and style. But there wasn't anything exciting about that fight.
The upsetting thing is there were plenty of good fights to choose from. Iuri Alcantara's close, back-and-forth victory over Russell Doane would have been our first choice. That was a lot of fun. Sean Spencer-Paulo Thiago was pretty good, too, as was Rani Yahya-Johnny Bedford. The entire card was actually pretty exciting despite the lack of name power. That has been a trend lately for the UFC, for better or worse.
Xposing Johnson
Godofredo Pepey made quick work of Dashon Johnson.
No one here wishes ill on Dashon Johnson. He seems like a fairly exciting young fighter. But does he really deserve to be in the UFC? If you haven't read this article from Bloody Elbow about where Johnson came up, please do so now. Xplode Fight Series is a pretty shameless California organization that seems to pit prospects against tomato cans to pad their records.
Coming into the UFC, Johnson had a sterling 9-0 record with eight finishes. Sounds like a stud in the making. Well, then consider the cumulative records of his XFS opponents: 13-39. Of Johnson's nine opponents, seven of them didn't have a professional win. One guy was 0-10 and Johnson fought him twice. As you might expect, Johnson is now 0-2 in the UFC after being finished with a triangle armbar in the first round Saturday night by Godofredo Pepey. It might be time for "Fly Boy" to gain some seasoning back on the independent circuit. He's only 26 and no one is saying he won't be a serviceable UFC fighter one day. But we simply don't know how good he is, because he has only ever beaten the MMA equivalent of jobbers, for the most part.
EPIC FAIL
War on logic
This is what we'd like to call the karma machine.
The UFC won't let him use it in the Octagon thankfully, but Wendell Oliveira is inexplicably insisting on keeping his "War Machine" nickname, according to MMA Fighting. Maybe getting pummeled Saturday night by Santiago Ponzinibbio will knock some sense into him. Or maybe he just needs to read Christy Mack's statement about what his namesake allegedly did to her last month.
Oliveira's argument is that he had the nickname first. Who cares? Why in the world would you want to be associated with someone like Jonathan Koppenhaver, who is facing 32 charges, including attempted murder in the allegedly heinous beating of Mack, his ex-girlfriend? When people think "War Machine" and MMA, they're never going to think Wendell Oliveira -- they're going to think subhuman scum. That's some good alliteration there, Wendell. Maybe you can change your nickname to that.
