UFC 187 Fan Feedback

UFC 187

Thumbs Up! Excellent show top to bottom. The last four fights were all great. Cerrone needs to get a title shoot. No excuses. Weidman proved that he is more than legit. Belfort has nothing left except an Anderson Silva in Brazil. He didn’t look like he was on something and was pushed around like a rag doll. Coincidence? I think not! Johnson looked great when allowed. Needs to work on cardio. Cormier style is kind of boring but that’s his thing. His post-fight promo was just perfect.

Jon Jones situation…
Mike Tyson was convicted for rape. Floyd Mayweather for domestic violence. And even De La Hoya had some weird scandals. Jon Jones and UFC can pretend all they want, deep inside they know that they just hit the lottery. It’s a shame but is the way our society (and this business) works. Cormier’s promo just made it official.

Best Fight: Arlovski vs Browne.

Leonardo Mendez Toledo

Dave,

UFC 187 was the first UFC show I’ve bought since Weidman vs. Machida. Pretty much I only buy Weidman cards since they are guaranteed to be good, and they usually offer a good double-bill with Rousey, but this time we got a light-heavyweight title fight sans Jones, which to me is must see since I never cared for him and was looking forward to change. My money was well spent. What a great show, especially the main card. Wall-to-wall action, and for my tastes everyone that I wanted to win did.

Not enough can be said about Arlovski’s comeback in recent years. About five years ago it pretty much looked like he would have to retire, and you can’t fix a glass-jaw. Yet, somehow his stint in the WSOF, and working with Greg Jackson not only fixed him, it also made him a much better fighter than before. He destroyed Travis Browne; if you told me that was going to be a possibility just a year ago I would have probably laughed at you.

Cowboy put on a showcase against a much-better-than-expected replacement, ending the fight it classic fashion. I can’t think of anyone else that wins this many fights against anyone thrown at him, and still has to wait and see if he gets the title shot. If he were in almost any other division he would have had the shot about midway through his current streak.

Weidman showed why he is one of the best with a quick destruction of Belfort. Vitor used to be one of my favorites until it became clearly evident that TRT was why he was so good in recent years. His statements of aggression against media did nothing to help curb the stereotype of a juicer. I was glad to see him get folded like an accordion like the rest of his Brazilian counterparts at the hands of the current champ. Rockhold vs. Weidman awaits.

Johnson vs. Cormier showed the resiliency it takes that separates a champ from an also-ran. Johnson’s muscled frame, and excessive early striking did him in. That works for a few minutes against chumps, but Cormier did what it takes to be a champ. People may have booed the slowdown in action, but it was all setting up a clear dismantling of the Johnson Scud Missile. Two Blackzilians entered title fights, and two walked out empty-handed with their asses handed to them.

Thumbs up
Best Fight: Arlovski vs. Browne
Worst Fight: None -Every match on the televised undercard was also good, although I disagreed with Natal getting the nod.
Performance: Weidman, Arlovski, Cormier
KO: Arlovski
Sub: Cormier

-Matt Wright

UFC 187

Thumbs up. Not much to bitch about here. Maybe some of the judging. The top card came through big time.
Best fight: Arlovski vs. Browne
Worst fight: nothing really
Best performance: Arlovski for the upset
Worst performance: Uriah Hall, not that it was that bad and I thought he got mildly robbed, but still so far below his potenital
KO: Cerrone
Sub: gonna call this an across the board draw. Islam, Kim & Cormier.

Justin Scoggins does a 30-27 X 3 karate paint job on Josh Sampo in the opener. Islam walks through Kuntz (hee hee hee) finishing in the 2nd with RNC (seriously this is a guy to keep an eye on).

Colby Covington grounds the veteran Mike Pyle for most of the fight and escapes a very tight last 30 seconds RNC for the UD with one 29-28. After drama at the weigh in, Rafael Natal opens the fight with a groin kick and goes on to edge Uriah Hall via dubious 29-28 split. Dong Hyun Kim too much for Josh Burkman and secures the arm tri tap in the 3rd. A rusty, slower John Dodson gets a highly dubious 29-28 UD over Zach Makovsky.

Joey Benavides also not ultra impressive taking a far more competitive than the scores indicate 30-27 UD over John Moraga. I don’t see either him or Dodson staking a claim on the next title shot off this. Good fight though.

Andrei Arlovski flipped the script, stunning Travis Browne early and not letting him off the hook, finally dropping him with a backfist. Browne gets up and drops Arlovski with a Hail Mary but Arlovski flips the script again by not getting knocked out, gets up, and finishes Browne with more punches and somehow is in title contention again in 2015.

John Makdessi steps in way over his head late and saves the fight vs. Donald Cerrone and lands enough to keep it interesting until Cerrone lands a head kick in the 2nd that breaks Makdessi’s jaw and Makdessi obviously knows it and steps back making the TO sign and the fight is over.

A very skinny looking Vitor Belfort busts up Chris Weidman in the opening seconds but Weidman takes him down and the fight is pretty much over, getting the TKO off 40+ undefended strikes and retaining the MW title.

Anthony Johnson lands a right in the opening seconds that probably would have finished anybody else but Daniel Cormier is up quickly and grinds Rumble down and wears him out, really wrecking him with G&P in the 2nd, and finishing him in the 3rd with RNC and winning the vacant ‘undisputed’ LHW title. Every time Rumble got any distance he landed something heavy with either fists or feet and rocked Cormier several times but just couldn’t keep Cormier off. Cormier’s whole promo was ‘Jon Jones, get your shit together, I’m waiting for you,’ and he just walked out of the cage.
Crimson Mask

Hi Dave, Big Thumbs UpWas really looking forward to this card. Wish I was there. Even more miraculous was that there were not a lot of changes due to injury, unlike Montreal. I didn’t mind too much that the Cerrone vs Nurmagomedov was changed although I would have liked to see it. Makdessi was a great substitute going in for a battle of strikers who like to throw down.  Best Fight: Browne vs ArlovskiWorst Fight: Pyle vs Covington – wasn’t horrible but everything else was betterBest Performances: Weidman, Cormier Anthony Johnson vs. Daniel Cormier – Cormier’s fight plan to a T. Survive Rumble’s early attack until he gasses, then take him down and grind him out. Cormier looked good here but not sure if this Cormier could still beat Jones and get inside his crazy reach.
Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort – Weidman was a beast surviving Vitor’s early barrage before coming back to just decimate him. Dominant performance and looking forward to Weidman vs Rockhold. Loved how Weidman’s winning scream kind of scared Herb Dean, watch Dean’s facial expression during it then after as he kind of jokes about it.
Donald Cerrone vs. John Makdessi –  Loved how they both stayed in the pocket and let fly. Can’t wait to see Cerrone get his much deserved title shot.
Travis Browne vs. Andrei Arlovski – What a slobberknocker. Just what we love from watching the heavyweights throw down. Not sure if I would call it the greatest heavyweight fight of all time though Joe. Although he is kind of like Jimmy Hart with “This is the greatest day of my life baby” with the most recent fight being the best. I still think Big Foot vs Hunt tops this one.
Joseph Benavidez vs. John Moraga – This fight was OK, Benavidez wasn’t as dominant as he usually is but he deserved the decision.

John Dodson vs. Zach Makovsky – I want to like Dodson but I just can’t. I respect his talent but there is something about his personality that turns me off. I’d rather watch Uncle Creepy, Ian McCall any day.Grant Zwarych
Hi Dave,

I watched the PPV card today at the pub here in Melbourne.  the crowd was about double what it was for Pettis & Dos Anjos, which was the last one I watched there.

Great card.  Easy thumbs up.

Best Fight – Arlovski & Browne
Worst Fight – Benavediz & Moraga
Best Performance – DC

No surprise Belfort was dangerous early and then folded, but surprised how quickly that happened.  A great setup for a Middleweight Title fight with Rockhold.  Rumble is still terrifying, so outstanding performance by DC to implement a ‘weather and grind’ strategy to take the title.  Lastly Arlovski looked sharp and I expected he would go down first round, so that fight was quite the spectacle.

Daniel Anerphy