Monday Morning Gospel: UFC 114 Thoughts

Awoke to the sun shining and my thoughts about UFC 114 running rampant in my head. So as always “The Reverend of MMA” will bring you the gospel on yet another event, UFC 114: Rampage vs. Rashad.

The night started with prelims thanks to Spike TV. “The Upgrade” Dan Lauzon (12-4) came into this fight against Efrain Escudero (8-1) after having a disagreement with his coaches and his brother, UFC fighter “J-Lau” Joe Lauzon (18-5). They refused to travel with him to the fight because they felt he had not spent enough time in the gym and did not follow their plan correctly. This fight proved that the older brother knows best as Dany seemed to tire quickly in the fight. He was never able to score much and Efrain had his way the entire fight. What shocked me was Efrain not using his wrestling background more in the fight. While Efrain is a good prospect he will have to work on becoming more aggressive, looking for the finish and finding the balance between striking and wrestling.

Next up was Dong Hyun Kim (10-4-2) versus Amir Sadollah (3-2) in the final fight on Spike TV before the pay-per-view (PPV) started.

Kim used his solid wrestling base to take Amir down at will during this fight. The one thing that stood out was that while Amir has improved his striking, you can’t do much of that if you can’t stop takedowns. I was shocked at the number of people on Twitter stating that they thought Amir would now get cut from the UFC. Since winning “The Ultimate Fighter” season seven he has gone 2-2 in the UFC and was coming off of back-to-back wins before running into the takedown machine named Dong Hyun Kim. That does merit a cut from the organization and one has to remember he is the face of “Inside the Octagon” on Spike TV. Amir will need to go back to work and spend a ton of time with high quality wrestlers in order to succeed in the UFC. I look for Joe Silva to allow him to do just that and his next fight will probably be against a striker.

Kim, while impressive with his takedowns and top control, never seemed to go for the finish in the fight except when he had the neck tie position. This position is rarely seen in MMA and I have to give credit to Amir for fighting through it. I am looking forward to seeing what UFC matchmaker Joe Silva does with Kim after this win.

The first fight on the PPV was the first fight back inside the Octagon for “The Nightmare” Diego Sanchez (21-4) after his lopsided loss to then UFC lightweight champion “The Prodigy” B.J.  (15-6-1). He decided after that loss to move back up to 170 and last night against “Hitman” John Hathaway (12-0) it was apparent that the move was a bad decision. He was simply outclassed by the young Hathaway. I stated in this article that Diego is not an elite fighter and this is further proof of that. His best bet would have been to stay at lightweight and work to get back to the title just like “KenFlo” Kenny Florian (13-4) did after being defeated in his title shot. Diego will continue to have a home in the UFC, as a stepping stone.

Hathaway however is the complete opposite from Diego. A prospect that at 22 has nowhere to go but up after a win over “The Ultimate Fighter” season one winner. He did much better than many expected him to in this fight. He showed excellent takedown defense which he will need as he wades into the deep end of the division. I will enjoy watching the young man develop over the years.

Six weeks ago Forrest Griffin (17-6) had to pull out of his fight that was scheduled for UFC 114. The UFC replaced him with “The Hitman” Jason Brilz (18-3-1). Many thought that his opponent “Lil Nog” Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (18-3) would walk right through Brilz. Brilz shocked the MMA world by not only going all three rounds with Nogueira but actually dominating him at times during the fight. This fight ended up being a split decision win for Nogueira which brought boos from the crowd and talks of bad judges from those on Twitter.

This was a close fight with Lil Nog controlling the stand up in the first round. The second was a battle of position with Lil Nog using amazing sweeps off his back and both fighters working for guillotines. Brilz sunk in a very deep choke that many would have tapped out to but Lil Nog is a black belt in jiu jitsu and showed great poise in the position.

No matter the outcome, Jason Brilz was the winner in this fight. He gained respect from many in the MMA community and garner quite a few new fans as shown by the massive increase in followers on his Twitter account. Noguiera will continue to rise through the division and Brilz will follow closely behind him. I hope the UFC and Joe Silva decide to put these two back inside the Octagon together sometime in the future.

The hype surrounding Todd Duffee (5-1) was not unwarranted contrary to what you may have heard. Yes, Todd was viciously knocked out in the third round by his opponent Mike Russow (13-1) who is the complete opposite of Duffee in the physique department. This does not mean he is a bad fighter or that the high praise was not deserving. His first fight inside the Octagon was a seven second knock out and he almost repeated that performance by rocking Mike early in the first. Russow was being dominated until the third round. Todd was able to stop any takedown attempts, push away from the clinch and landed strikes at will on the very durable chin of Russow. Then as writers all across the country were starting to pen their pieces on another Duffee win inside the Octagon, Russow stunned the world by catching Todd with a right hand that had put him out cold.

I have my doubts about Russow making it very far in the division. He carries around a lot of unnecessary weight and may be better off trying to work a new conditioning program. His striking was bad until that right hand and he never could get the fight to the mat where he wanted it.

Todd will learn from this mistake and grow as a fighter. He is only 24 and has much to learn and will need to work cardio as well. He seemed to burn out and lose a lot of steam in the middle of the second round. He will need all the cardio he can muster if he plans on making a major push to the top of the UFC heavyweight division.

What can I say about “The Count” Michael Bisping (19-3) and his win over tough Dan Miller (11-4)? Miller looked lost from the start of the round and I have to wonder about his decision to not look for takedowns earlier in the fight. Bisping was the better striker and is great at beating mid-level fighters. I am still not sure he has what it takes to beat the best in the division. Sadly to all the Bisping fans out there, I see him as a gatekeeper in the division. Only time will tell if I am wrong.

There of course is the main event but that will have to wait for another article. After the fights were over I was left with a feeling of dissatisfaction. I was let down for some reason and I am not really sure why. In a night that had a clear favorite being pushed and one being beaten, a knock out by a guy who was never in the fight and the “most anticipated grudge match in UFC history” one would think I would have been excited afterward but that was not the case.

UFC 114 let me down and that is the Monday Gospel. What did you think of UFC 114 overall?

Make sure to follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mmagospel where I tweet live during the fights.