This past Saturday the UFC held another Fight for the Troops event to benefit wounded soldiers. I commend the UFC for putting together such events and apparently they raised well over a million dollars to go towards treating soldiers with serious head injuries. Now onto the fights....
Charlie Brenneman vs. Amilcar Alves: Not much to comment about this fight. Brenneman is a stellar wrestler and he used to it to constantly ground Alves and wear him out with top control and ground and pound.
Waylon Lowe vs. Willemy Freire: See comments from Brenneman fight.
Rani Yahya vs. Mike Brown: When the tale of the tape came up on the screen I made the comment that I had no idea Mike Brown was 35 years old. Despite his age I felt like Brown was going to walk through Yahya thanks to his superior striking. I also thought that Brown's strength would allow him to get out of any trouble he got into on the mat. Boy was I wrong. Brown played right into Yahya's gameplan and was simply outgrappled for three rounds. Brown really didn't offer anything in this fight and I worry that his days as an elite fighter are behind him.
DaMarques Johnson vs. Mike Guymon: I don't know how Johnson didn't win submission of the night. Body triangle subs are pretty rare and are pretty friggin sweet. Johnson is one of those guys who will continue to put on good fights, but will never really crack into the elite. I'd love to see the guy fight Matt Brown. For those of you who didn't see the post-fight backstage video, Mike Guymon seemingly retired from fighting in a pretty heart-breaking moment. Best of luck to whatever he chooses to do from here.
Yves Edwards vs. Cody McKenzie: A lot of people are giving McKenzie some love for hanging tough in this fight. I on the other, hand feel as if that praise is unjustified. Edwards destroyed McKenzie on the feet and even when McKenzie got Edwards down to the mat his ground work seemed sloppy. He even took Edwards's back several times and could do nothing with the position despite being touted as some ground expert. In the end Edwards got the better of McKenzie and choked him unconscious with a rear naked choke.
Matt Wiman vs. Cole Miller: I wasn't all that excited for this fight but was immediately intrigued when Wiman and Miller were talking shit to each other from across the cage. As for the fight, all I can say is wow. I've always been kind of "eh" in regards to Matt Wiman. I've never really been particularly impressed with anything he's done aside from get knocked out by Spencer Fisher, but he looked like an absolute animal in this fight. Miller looked like he got hit early in the 1st and was shook for the rest of the fight. From there it was all Wiman dominating with some brutal ground and pound.
Pat Barry vs. Joey Beltran: Not the coming out party it should have been for Barry, but a win is a win I suppose. Barry definitely had a look in his eyes that he was going to be more aggressive and look for the finish, but unfortunately that didn't translate into smart fighting. Barry was getting hit with a lot of punches when Beltran threw wild combos, and when Barry had Beltran hurt with the legs kicks he didn't continue to throw them. Barry is a talented fighter but he barely got past a mediocre heavyweight at best and even then he didn't look all that impressive.
Mark Hominick vs. George Roop: The only thing I got out of this fight was ... well there's Jose Aldo's next victim.
Matt Mitrione vs. Tim Hague: I understand that a lot of people think it's a little too late for Mitrione to be a top-level fighter due to his age and lack of experience, but I still have high hopes for the guy. He's aggressive, he's athletic as hell, and he has some big power. Hague isn't a UFC caliber fighter, but he's definitely a step up over guys like Big Baby and Kimbo and Mitrione still passed the test with flying colors. I'm very excited to see this guy take a step up in competition and I think he'll do very well.
Melvin Guillard vs. Evan Dunham: Holy shit that was one hell of a beating. Dunham is fairly notorious for being a slow starter and he certainly paid for it in this fight. Guillard has improved leaps and bounds since his early days, but I think any mention of him getting near a title shot is way way way premature. I still have memories of the guy getting handled by grapplers, so I'd like to see him get by a high level grappler before we start talking about his chances of wearing gold.
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