Making the Grade: Passes/Fails from UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs. Nelson
Mark Hunt flattened Roy Nelson (literally?), Myles Jury rather stunningly knocked out Takanori Gomi and Yoshihiro Akiyama made his triumphant return to the Octagon.
You already know the results from UFC Fight Night on Fight Pass: Hunt vs. Nelson on Saturday from Japan. We here at Haymaker are more interested in looking past the wins and losses.
Here's what we took away from the card from Saitama Super Arena:
PASSES
All the Sexy
Yoshihiro Akiyama is most certainly on Team Handsome.
That bronze skin. Those rippling muscles. That lustrous hair. Has there ever been a fighter with a more apt nickname than that of Yoshihiro Akiyama? "Sexyama" returned to the UFC on Saturday in Japan and we can't get enough. We don't care if he's 39 years old; we need "Sexyama" at least three times per year. It doesn't even matter if he wins. There's just a certain swagger about that guy. He's magnetic.
How much of a man is Akiyama? While he was in dominant position, smashing Amir Sadollah in the face, he was pulling chicks in the front row. Akiyama said something in Japanese to UFC women's fighter Julianna Pena, per commentator Brian Stann. We have no clue what he said, but we want to believe he got her number right then and there. Never mind that Akiyama is married to a famous Japanese model. The man is a legend.
Did we mention that he won?
Matches made in heaven
Katsunori Kikuno (right) vs. Sam Sicilia seemed like a pretty random matchup, but it turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun.
The UFC is hell bent on spreading itself as thin as possible to approach holding 50 events in 2014. The roster is brimming with nearly 500 male and female fighters. New countries are being added to the docket all the time. And, frankly, the talent pool is as watered down as it has ever been. Yet somehow matchmakers Joe Silva and Sean Shelby come up with incredible results nearly every single card.
Except for Miesha Tate vs. Rin Nakai, there wasn't a bad fight at UFC Fight Night in Japan. All of them were above average. Who knew that Richard Walsh vs. Kiichi Kunimoto would have been that much fun? Or Katsunori Kikuno vs. Sam Sicilia? Silva and Shelby did. It's probably hard enough just keeping track of who all these fighters are, never mind putting them into matchups that accentuate their strengths. Silva and Shelby don't get nearly enough credit. There are less major drawing cards now than maybe ever in the UFC, but every event seems to be fun and exciting, whether it's on pay-per-view or Fight Pass.
Better late than never
The UFC did the right thing by cutting Thiago Silva. Again.
We took the UFC to task two weeks ago for its knee-jerk decision to re-sign Thiago Silva after all charges were dropped following his arrest earlier this year. Silva allegedly threatened his wife with a gun and had a standoff with police in February. So, it would only be fair to give the UFC a pat on the back, albeit a small one, for releasing Silva again Friday once new evidence of his alleged domestic abuse came into light in the form of a video posted by his ex-wife Thaysa Kamiji.
The UFC didn't stop there, either. It suspended Anthony Johnson indefinitely after Bloody Elbow reported that the mother of two of his children filed a police report alleging that she has been getting threats from Johnson's friends and that Johnson hit her and knocked out two of her teeth in 2012. The UFC said it will investigate the incident, but until then Johnson is on ice.
One can't help but think that the current events in the NFL with star players like Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson under fire for domestic abuse -- not even alleged, they admit it -- have played into the UFC's decision-making. That's fine. It doesn’t matter if the organization might have done something different in the past. The reality is officials have clearly had their eyes opened and are taking measures to be stricter on alleged domestic abuse. Re-signing Silva didn't make any sense two weeks ago, but at least the UFC got it right this time, even if it needed further evidence to do it.
FAILS
C'mon, ref!
Leon Roberts wanted to help Roy Nelson, but he just ended up ruining Mark Hunt's majestic, walk-off KO.
Mark Hunt just wanna Mark Hunt. If referee Leon Roberts watched some film on Hunt he would know that Hunt is the king of the walk-off knockout. It doesn't matter that the reason for that is Hunt is too lazy to pounce on a guy after knocking him down the canvas. All that matters for the ref is to get the hell out of the way of photo op.
Hunt blasted Roy Nelson with a teeth-chattering uppercut Saturday and Nelson faceplanted. Roberts stepped in and shoved Hunt -- as if there were any chance of Hunt following Nelson to the ground to inflict more punishment. Hunt was already preening for the Japanese crowd.
We get it. Roberts was trying to protect Nelson. He's a good ref overall. Maybe he just has to learn some heavyweight etiquette.
Can't pull the trigger
Even Kiichi Kunimoto (left) was surprised when Bruce Buffer announced he won.
Kiichi Kunimoto escaped his bout with Richard Walsh on Saturday with a split decision and most people really had no idea how. This was not one of the worst judges' calls of the year -- it has nothing on Diego Sanchez over Ross Pearson. But it once again brought up an important point: Why aren't more judges willing to give 10-8 rounds?
Walsh destroyed Kunimoto in the first, likely breaking his nose and controlling the entire round. There would have been nothing wrong ruling it 10-8 for Walsh. The second and third rounds were close. Kunimoto probably won the latter. Walsh likely won the former. But at the very least Walsh, with a 10-8 in his pocket, should have earned a draw. Call it some home cooking for the Japanese fighter or whatever, there's no way Walsh lost that bout. This kind of stuff happens all too often.
Alphabet soup
This man's name is not Cung.
There is nothing easy about pronouncing certain foreign names for English speakers and those landmines are waiting for UFC broadcast teams on every card at this point. Remember Joanna Jedrzejcyzk? We don't know how Jon Anik was able to pull that one off as well as he did in July in Atlantic City, but he largely nailed it. The Asian names Saturday weren't nearly as hard -- some even phonetic -- and Mike Golberg and Brian Stann had a difficult time with some of them.
Particularly bad was the continued referencing of Kyung Ho Kang as "Cung" when none of his three names sound anything like that. Kazuki Tokudome was another trouble spot. The performance overall by the pairing was hardly bad -- Stann, actually, might be the UFC's best color commentator -- and maybe we're just splitting hairs here. But it's job one of a broadcaster to get the athletes' names right. Keep working on it, gentlemen.
EPIC FAILS
Sizzle, but no steak
We love that Rin Nakai is different, but that's not enough in the UFC.
We wanted badly for Rin Nakai to be a serious problem for contenders in the UFC women's bantamweight division. Could you imagine the buzz she would have created in a title eliminator bout or, dare we say it, against Ronda Rousey for the belt? Nakai's videos have become the stuff of legend or infamy, depending on how you look at it. There's little doubt she's a sex symbol in Japan and quite the curiosity to the American audience.
Now, the big question we're asking is whether she's good enough to beat any woman in the UFC. Nakai looked tiny against Miesha Tate on Saturday -- and Tate is hardly a giant. As well-muscled as Nakai is (and yeah, those muscles are large), they didn't seem to translate to being all that strong in the clinch. At just 5-foot-1 (probably less), she should be fighting at 115 pounds, not 135. That would likely be a difficult cut for Nakai due to her frame, but she doesn't seem to have the physical skills to compete at bantamweight.
That's a shame, because she has the ability to create quite the spectacle. Her sexy samurai outfit at weigh-ins and team of people taking it off was, well, something. Nakai even attempted to get on the scale in huge stilettos. Fun stuff. Hopefully, she'll start putting more work into her training rather than her videos and outfits.
