UFC 195 feedback, Lawler vs. Condit fight of the night
UFC 195
Thumbs way up. Some upsets, burst bubbles, and stylistic surprises, and as expected an off the chart main event. Some questionable decisions but what else is new.
Best fight: Lawler-Condit
Worst fight: wasn’t one
Best performance: Condit even losing
KO: Stipe
Sub: Ortega
Sheldon Westcott eats a couple of Edgar Garcia right hands and very quickly takes it down, ties him in knots, and gets the rather late TKO off about a zillion unanswered punches. Michonori Tanaka aggressive early but Joe Soto threatens off his back throughout and comes on very strong in the 3rd. Entertaining and competitive. 29-28 split Tanaka. Soto would have won by whole fight but by the rounds/points system you can see how it went that way. Dustin Poirer looks outstanding back at LW busting the Joe Duffy bubble, taking a wide but also entertaining and competitive UD with one 30-26.
Striker Drew Dober surprisingly widely dominates the TD game and takes the 29-28 upset UD over wrestler Scott Holtzman. Similarly, Nina Ansaroff outstrikes Justine Kish, who seems overanxious, and Kish comes on late to dominate the ground game. Could go either way. Kish takes the the UD with two 30-27s, which seems weird, as Ansaroff certainly looked to win the 1st. Alex Morono takes a dubious 29-28 x 2, 27-30 SD over Kyle Noke in a very close one. Michael McDonald looking very rusty after two years off gets used as a mat rag by Masanori Kanehara but somehow reverses a sunk-looking arm tri into RNC for the tap in the 2nd.
Tony Sims looks good early at long range and stuffing Abel Trujillo’s TD, but Trujillo counters a power double with a Guillotine for the tap. He’s so strong he didn’t even need proper position, getting pressure using his neck, shoulder and chest. Facially Trujillo and Roman Reigns could be twins.
Diego Brandao outboxes and outwrestles Brian Ortega for 2 1/2 rounds but misses a punch badly in the 3rd allowing Ortega to get position to chain subs till he locks up a triangle for the tap.
Very interesting fight that might have been too subtle for the audience. Basically Lorenz Larkin’s low kicks vs. Albert Tumenov’s body punches. Very close. Like the earlier fight whole fight scoring would be Larkin who finished strong but points go 29-28 split Tumenov. Not popular decision. Both looked very good.
A bigger bubble bursts as Stipe Miocic catches Andrei Arlovski’s always questionable chin with a short right that rocks him and does not let him off the hook and it’s over in 54s. Stipe screams at Dana for a title shot, which seems unarguable. Stipe was just ranting (not in a bad way) and I think on his promo he said at one point ‘I’m CM Punk, bro.’
Carlos Condit turns in a career-best performance in his WW title challenge to Robbie Lawler. Most fluid and instinctive he’s ever looked. Pattern is set in the 1st with Condit constantly moving and leading and Robbie looking to counter after Carlos scores a flash KD. He then dictates the rest of the round, 10-9. Pattern holds in the 2nd but Robbie finds the range and drops Carlos, a lot harder and has him in brief trouble and evens it up. The 3rd is the swing round as it turns out with Carlos again just much much busier and Robbie throwing very little but landing most of it clean and hard. I thought the sheer volume made it Condit’s round. The 4th was similar until late when Carlos rocked Robbie late and had him in some trouble and I thought was enough for a 10-8. The corner told Robbie he needed a KO and he went out and tried to get it, hitting Carlos with everything but the kitchen sink, but he couldn’t drop him and Carlos fought back every time. Early round of the year candidate and fight of the year also. Robbie took the 5th, borderline but IMO not quite 10-8. Both collapsed against the fence at the bell. I had Condit 49-46 but the judges went 48-47 split for Robbie. No losers here. A rematch could be called for but Carlos said he may retire.
Crimson Mask
Good morning Dave,
I ordered the show on UFC.tv with a fight pass discount. I definitely got my money’s worth. A solid thumbs up show, with very good prelims, and a great main event. I think a rematch at UFC 200 or that weekend HAS TO happen (sorry Tyrone). And have a #1 contender fight on standby that weekend. I scored the main event 47-47, with the champ winning rounds 2, 3, 5 @ 10-9. I scored Condit winning 1 @ 10-9 and 4 @ 10-8. Lawler did nothing in 4 and CC’s striking stats showed I was justified having a 10-8 score.
Happy WK Eve,
James Brown
Thumbs up
Best fight Robbie Lawler vs Carlos Condit
Worst fight Drew Dober vs Scott Holtzman
Best KO Stipe Miocic
Best Sub Michael MacDonald
Best Performance Robbie Lawler & Carlos Condit
Robbie and Carlos was a war, scored it for Condit but 3rd round was so close that i cant be upset about it, way more upset over the Kyle Noke decision. Poirier vs Duffy was also a great fight that is gonna go unnoticed because it aired on Fight Pass and due to the main event euphoria
Wade Haugen
Thumbs Up
Best Fight: Lawler vs. Condit
What a terrible decision. I could see a draw if you gave Lawler a 10-8 2nd round and a 10-9 5th but I can’t see how you give him the fight. Rest of the show was fun if not inconsequential outside of the Miocic KO win.
Mike Hiscoe
Thumbs up show fight of the night lawler vs condit. Worst fight was Justine kish vs Nina Anasaroff. Just an awesome main event. I think the reason I had lawler winning 48-47 was in that third round even though condit threw more, a lot of the punches didn’t land while when they were exchanging lawler got the better of him. Three was the only close round. Every other one was solid by condit in 1 and 4 while lawler in 2 and 5. Again great show.
Corey Lieb
Thumbs up. Best fight lawler vs condit. Think fight is great but being overhyped. Maybe best round 5 I’ve seen, but lot of fight was lawler failing to get off. I scored 3 to 2 for condit. Lawler would have won pride rules. Enjoyed lawler macdonald and lawler Hendricks both times better. Wish Hendricks hadn’t missed weight as I still think he and lawler is best fight to make. Love condit but don’t think he’s top 3 in division at moment. Other than lawler , think Hendricks, woodley, and macdonald all beat him. Don’t think this decision was any more controversial than Hendricks lawler 2 which I thought was more clearly for Hendricks than this was for lawler.
All that said, loved the fight.
Mark Libell
Thumbs way up.
Best match was obviously Lawler/Condit. One of the best fights ever, I think. Hope they run it back, I’d pay double to watch it.
Worst match I’d say Kish/Ansaroff for lacking anything that looked like pro-level technique.
With that main event, easy thumbs up, but the co-main was a great performance and Brian Ortega and Michael McDonald had 2 outstanding submissions. Fun show on the whole.
Jeremy Sexton