UFC Fight Night 24 Parting Shots

UFC Fight Night 24 saw long-time top ten mainstay Antonio Rogerio Nogueira drop another fight to an up-and-coming light heavyweight prospect, this time in the form of wrestling standout Phil Davis. Dan Hardy also took another tentative step towards Cutsville, though Dana White seemed to imply that his job is safe for now. I know you’re dying to get my final thoughts on the show, so read on for my UFC Fight Night 24 Parting Shots!

Phil Davis is no Jon Jones, but then again…who is?

It’s unfortunate that promising fighters such as Phil Davis or even Ryan Bader are being held to the completely unrealistic standard that is Jon Jones’ Career So Far. In the same breath that people are saying that Jones is a once in a generation prospect, they’re criticizing Davis for not having success similar to Jones’ thus far.

Without Jones in the picture, people would be salivating over Davis. He’s not quite two-and-a-half years into his MMA career, and he just beat Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, for God’s sake. Instead, we’re hearing fans complain that he uses his wrestling too much (a laughable criticism if there ever was one) and saying he didn’t look all that great in the fight with Lil’ Nog.

Riiiiight. The guy who’s been fighting for less than three years didn’t look good enough while beating a guy who’s been a top ten light heavyweight for years now.

Davis is a very exciting prospect. As I noted in my live blog of the event, he’s just following a more normal career trajectory than Jones. Actually, “normal” isn’t really the word for it, as he’s now quite possibly in the top ten in his weight class in the entire world before having fought ten times. What I mean in terms of his following a more normal trajectory is that unlike Jones, he still has to rely a lot on his base while he rounds out his other skills. Still, he did okay while standing with Nogueira, which is impressive considering that Lil’ Nog is no slouch in the striking department.

Davis also looked good on the mat and showed a lot of poise after the first round, which I felt he lost. There is something to be said for someone like Jones, who has barely shown a hint of a weakness thus far in his career, but there’s also something to be said for seeing how a young fighter responds to adversity or a tough test, as we did the other night. Let’s not forget to give Davis his due while we’re all salivating over Jones.

Hardy weaves another tale of takedown defense and disappointment

You always want to pull for the good striker who can’t seem to stay off of his back, don’t you? I mean, to watch such a fighter get taken down fight after fight and have little chance to utilize his strengths is a bit frustrating. Still, Dan Hardy has had plenty of time to shore up his takedown defense, and for whatever reason, is having a very hard time doing so.

Now, I’m not sitting here from the comfort of my couch telling you that I could shrug off takedown attempts from Anthony Johnson, but you can’t tell me that Hardy hasn’t been working his ass off on takedown defense since before the St. Pierre fight even happened. For whatever reason, it simply isn’t working.

Before the fight, I wondered whether getting knocked out by Carlos Condit may have been a good thing. Perhaps it would entice Johnson into striking with Hardy and abandoning the wrestling aspect altogether. Unfortunately for Hardy, Johnson won by fighting a well-rounded fight and kept Hardy guessing throughout.

Oh, and wouldn’t you know it? There are already detractors complaining about Johnson’s supposed “lay and pray”. These folks need to go back and watch some mid-1990′s MMA and learn what lay and pray is really all about. There’s gotta be a Toughman tournament or something you can check out in your local area if the ground game is really that boring to you.

There’s a difference between “boring” and “anti-climactic”. Now, from early on in the fight, you could tell that Hardy had no answer for Johnson on the ground, so when the fight hit the mat, it became anti-climactic, but that’s not the same as boring, is it? It’s a lot like most of GSP’s fights these days, actually. He never stops working, but there’s also never any real doubt of the outcome for the entirety of his bouts.

Quick Shots

–When Joe Rogan asked Amir Sadollah whether he wanted to move up the ranks after his win over DaMarques Johnson, I was reminded of UFC 6, where Jeff Blatnick asked referee “Big” John McCarthy, “So is the fighter’s safety your number one concern?” What kind of answer was he expecting? “Well, it’s number two, right after making sure I look good for the skanky Octagon girls.” I’m not really trying to bust Rogan’s balls here, as I think he does a good job overall in post-fight interviews, but that’s a silly question if there ever was one.

And yes, go back and watch those early UFCs. Those Octagon girls were busted. The 80′s and early 90′s were not kind in terms of female hairstyles or attire. It also didn’t help that SEG apparently paid the first Octagon girls in meth and crack cocaine for their appearances, either. In fact, I don’t know what would be scarier: seeing the likes of Paul Varelans and Harold Howard in the Octagon these days, or seeing those girls all these years later walking around it.

–If you somehow missed the fights and didn’t see The Korean Zombie’s epic twister submission on Leonard Garcia, you need to do yourself a favor and track it down online. I was reluctant to believe that Chan Sung Jung’s claims of not relying on brawling so much would come to fruition, but I’ll be damned if he didn’t prove me wrong. He was a smarter striker and mixed in timely takedowns leading up to one of the best submissions the UFC has ever seen. Hopefully that sells him some more Korean Zombie t-shirts. Good for him.

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Tags: Anthony Johnson, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Chan Sung Jung, fans with no attention spans, Joe Rogan, Phil Davis, UFC, UFC Fight Night 24