It all makes sense now. Nam Phan vs Jimy Hettes was booked to open tonight's PPV broadcast as Hettes' coming out party. Joe Silva was like "Hey, here's a badass mofo at 145, let's have him smash someone to start the night off right!" And boy did he ever. Using amazing judo trips, takedowns and throws, Hettes dominated the entire fight. The only criticism I have is that Jimy wasn't able to finish things in the first three minutes when he had Phan in trouble. And his teeth. His terrible, terrible teeth.
Poor Vladimir Matyushenko. Being the gatekeeper at 205 means he's had to take beatings from Jon Jones and now Alexander Gustafsson. We didn't really get to see Gusto get tested very much, but at least we now have confirmation that his KO power transitions up the food chain and we've got another man in the mix at 205. But please. Pale lanky Swedes weren't meant to wear skimpy tights.
We'll have to wait at least a few more months to see if Jon Fitch's style has been figured out because Johny Hendricks didn't need to follow BJ Penn's blueprint to beat him. He just threw that left hand out and dropped Fitch like a sack of potatoes, finishing him in 12 seconds. The fight may have been stopped early, but all we missed was Jon getting punched in the face several more times. Which would have been okay by me, but wouldn't have made any difference in how the fight turned out.
I've said it many many times: Nate Diaz is not his brother Nick. But now I might have to take that back because he put on a Nick Diaz performance tonight, boxing Donald Cerrone up and simply outclassing him on the feet. Why Donald didn't try to switch things up and engage after knocking Diaz on his ass we'll never know. Halfway through the first round it seemed like he knew he was in serious shit and had no idea how to get out of it. FOTN and amazingly enough some classy stuff from Nate after the fight. Now can he win enough in a row to get himself a title shot?
Alistair Overeem literally kicked the shit out of Brock Lesnar tonight, taking the fight to him and finishing him off with a body kick straight to the poopgut. Brock revealed afterwards that he was planning his retirement out even if he'd won the fight, which makes me think his miraculous recovery from diverticulitis wasn't as thorough and complete as he'd made it out to be in the leadup to this match. With Lesnar walking away from the sport, I have to wonder if the UFC killed their golden goose by putting him back in against an opponent like Overeem. Ah well, I've got a feeling we might see him back in a year or two when he actually recovers properly.
(Pic via Esther Lin's UFC 141 gallery, which is growing larger as we speak!)
Source: http://www.fightlinker.com/thoughts-on-ufc-141-lesnar-no-likey-kicks-either
Len Ford Bill Willis Bobby Mitchell Paul Warfield Mike McCormack Frank Gatski
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