UFC on FX 1 Parting Shots

Our second Friday night UFC event within a month’s time produced some good action and will leave a couple of fighters sorely in need of a win. Melvin Guillard underwhelmed with another submission loss, though he looked great early in the first round. Meanwhile, Christian Morecraft may be looking for fights outside of the UFC after being knocked out by Pat Barry in the first round of their scrap.

Theme of the Night: Missed Opportunities

In both the Miller-Guillard and Barry-Morecraft fights, the eventual loser had the eventual winner right where he wanted him early on. Guillard had hurt Miller with powerful strikes and had Miller desperately reaching for a takedown while trying to get his bearings back. Morecraft, meanwhile, had Barry in what looked to be deep trouble several times in their short scrap. First, he was working for a rear naked choke along the cage, though Barry was turned partially sideways and he didn’t have his back as well as he wanted to.

Then, Morecraft effortlessly landed in the mount during a takedown, and failed to do any real damage. A very close armbar attempt was later deftly escaped by Barry, who rolled out of it when it appeared that he might tap at any moment. Those were all the chances that he had, and his failure to capitalize on any one of them would cost him, as Barry didn’t need many chances of his own before landing a counter left hook that floored Morecraft and signaled the beginning of the end.

These were evenly-contested fights, in that both fights had men who had vastly different strategies that they needed to use to win, and in both contests each man had the chance to use their strengths a number of times. In Guillard’s case, he simply went to the well too often- you can’t spam that many flying knees before someone like Miller is going to time them. The technique was questionable from the start anyway, since it was paramount that Guillard not end up on the mat with Miller.

Morecraft simply didn’t have the goods, or maybe didn’t have the urgency, to finish Barry. He almost seemed to be thinking the same thing that we were thinking while watching at home- that once he got Barry on the mat, it was a foregone conclusion. He seemed to underestimate Barry and wasn’t able to control Barry on the mat for long enough to wear him down for the submission or to land some decent strikes, because he thought he could just slap on a choke without properly having Barry’s back, for instance.

Quick Shots

–Barry and Morecraft won “Fight of the Night” honors and the accompanying $45,000 bonus, which I don’t have a real problem with. People seem to think that the FOTN always has to be a 10 to 15-minute war, and I don’t agree. That was a back and forth fight with plenty of drama packed into less than four minutes. I am happy that Dana White is apparently giving bonuses to both Mike Easton and Jared Papazian, however, for their great scrap.

–Jorge Rivera gets a big shout-out for concluding a great MMA career with a TKO win over Eric Schafer on the prelims. Many have pointed out the similarities to Chris Lytle, and there are plenty: neither won a title, but both were UFC mainstays. Both were exciting fighters, fan favorites and great family men as well. Both were able to go out when the time is right and with exciting, well-deserved wins. Good for Jorge.

–Speaking of awards, I’d have rather seen Josh Neer get the “Submission of the Night” nod than Miller. Neer’s crafty guillotine that he cinched when Duane “Bang” Ludwig was quickly trying to get up was a little more technically impressive than Miller’s rear naked choke. And neither was done on an opponent with mind-blowing jiu-jitsu skills, so that aspect is a wash. I’m not a big fan of fighters getting these bonuses based off name recognition or their standing on the card, which seems like the case here.

–Nice to see the 10-10 round alive and well, as we saw one scored in the first round of Easton-Papazian. Who was the judge? Why, Jeff Blatnick himself, the same cat you’ll see commentating on the very first UFC events.

Beautiful Loser Award

This goes to Papazian, who lost a very close fight to another promising young bantamweight on Friday night. Papazian’s performance was a bit of a disappointment, as he was supposed to have the advantage in the standup and had trouble keeping Easton off of him and matching his output. However, Papazian did look better than expected on the mat, even standing up effortlessly at times after being taken down.

Movin’ On Up Award

Can Jim Miller get a title shot, now?

Holy $#!& Award

For the second time in less than three full weeks of 2012, we’ve seen a remarkable knockout in the UFC. While it won’t compete with Edson Barboza’s ridiculous spinning back kick KO (which, by the way, was only number nine on SportsCenter’s top plays that day…ha!), Nick Denis’s vicious standing elbow KO of Joseph Sandoval should at least get an honorable mention by the time it’s all said and done. Check it out on YouTube while it lasts if you missed it, though you may want to mute your sound if your d-bag tolerance is low.

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Tags: Christian Morecraft, Duane "Bang" Ludwig, Jared Papazian, Jim Miller, Josh Neer, Melvin Guillard, Mike Easton, Pat Barry, UFC, UFC on FX 1