UFC 138 Parting Shots

Any night that begins with a seventeen-second win by guillotine choke and ends with Mark Munoz clamoring for a title shot is pretty close to required viewing, especially when the event in question is available for free in much of the world. UFC 138 may not have been the best card of the year (or month) on paper, but it was a worthy part of what has been a great year for the sport overall.

One thing that has really intrigued me over the last year or two is the trend of fighters publicly campaigning for title shots. Now, it’s not as if fighters haven’t called out champions or asked the brass for an opportunity at a title for years now, but recently it seems that the requests have been…different.

Usually, when someone publicly says that they want a title shot, it seems that the fight in question is already pretty much a no-brainer. I would argue that Sonnen-Silva II resides in that territory; you can talk about Sonnen having won only one bout all you want, but he’s the only guy who gave Silva a real challenge since “The Spider” debuted in the UFC.

But Munoz? Hey, he’s only lost once in his last eight fights, and that was a split decision loss to Yushin Okami, who’s one of the top fighters in the division. Still, doesn’t someone need more than a win over Demian Maia to get a title shot? He’s the only top ten opponent that Munoz has beaten to date.

There’s a strange line of thinking in the UFC these days that a number of wins in a row, regardless of your competition, means that you’re ready to take on the world- or at least, the champion of your division. It seems to be true at least some of the time, particularly in divisions where the champion has already faced the best competition there is to offer- remember Dan Hardy getting a welterweight title shot after beaten Mike Swick and Marcus Davis?

So, who knows? Maybe Munoz will get his title shot? At least, eventually. Someone like Roy Nelson may have a tougher time with his ridiculous title shot request after putting together one lonely win following two straight losses.

In other cases, like with Sonnen and Nick Diaz, the calling out of the champion seems to be fairly unnecessary. Those two should have already been the next title contenders, regardless of any post-fight shenanigans. Munoz will likely need to step aside- and face the winner of Michael Bisping and Jason Miller- before he can be given serious consideration.

Don’t call it a comeback

Thiago Alves reminded all of us on Saturday night why he is one of the elite fighters in the welterweight class. If you ask some people (*ahem*, me, *ahem*), they may tell you that he’d be even better as a middleweight, where he wouldn’t have to go through the ongoing charade of barely making weight- or not at all- and putting his body through unneeded stress in the process. That’s neither here nor there, though.

Even at 170 pounds, Alves remains an absolute beast, and he showed it against Papy Abedi. The temptation here may be to assume that Abedi is simply not what he has been built up to be, but I don’t think that’s the case. Abedi just ran into a motivated, ready Thiago Alves. And let’s face it- that style matchup was not favorable for Abedi from the get-go, anyway. I think the Rick Story fight was an aberration, and I think there are only two guys at welterweight who can consistently beat “The Pitbull”- Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch.

Adventures in Refereeing

The officials haven’t been so bad in recent major MMA events, but there’s one thing that always looks bad: when a ref makes contact with a fighter as if to stop a fight, but doesn’t stop the fight. Such was the case in the Che Mills-Chris Cope fight, where referee Marc Goddard actually made contact with Mills and started to move him out of the way before thinking better of it and stepping back, allowing the action to continue. When he finally did stop the fight moments later, he essentially body-checked Mills to the floor, but at least he was decisive at that point.

Movin’ On Up Award

Good lord, Renan “Barao”. Or, if you prefer, Renan do Nascimento Mota Pegado. Either way, what a performance for Barao, who absolutely steam-rolled a top ten bantamweight in a superb performance. I was surprised that Barao was the slight betting favorite beforehand against a reliable and proven fighter like Pickett, but he clearly showed that he deserved the distinction.

The thought of seeing Barao against fighters like “Mighty Mouse”, Torres, Jorgensen, Bowles, Benavidez and Faber is enough to get any MMA nerd worth his or her salt amped up. Just as with Alves-Abedi, I don’t think that Pickett put on a disappointing performance. On the contrary, he displayed otherworldly heart and a ridiculous ability to recover during the fight. Barao just would not be denied.

Beautiful Loser Award

I have to go with Cyrille Diabate here, as he was dominating the early goings of his fight with Anthony Perosh before Perosh finally got the bout to where he’s strongest and finished Diabate for good. I don’t like the term “classic striker vs. grappler matchup”, because all too often, the fights aren’t so classic, but this one was an example of a good matchup, as Perosh was able to survive several minutes in Diabate’s realm, but Diabate could not do the same when Perosh turned the tables.

Honorable mention goes to Justin Edwards, who had John Maguire seriously hurt in the first round of their three round battle, but couldn’t finish. I’m still impressed that Maguire was able to recover from the spinning back kick-right hook combo like he did.

Holy Crap Award

In an event with three “holy crap” performances (Alves and Barao being the others), Terry Etim takes the cake with his quick guillotine submission win over Edward Faaloloto. Sure, Faaloloto is no world-beater, but you still have to admire Etim’s quick guillotine, especially the way that he sunk it in as Faaloloto had him in the air for what would have been a big slam of a takedown. Even with the arm in, Etim had it locked up from the word “go” and finished it as effectively as you’re likely to see in an MMA fight.

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Tags: Cyrille Diabate, Mark Munoz, Renan Barao, Roy Nelson, Terry Etim, Thiago Alves, UFC, UFC 138