Last night the UFC hit the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana for UFC Fight Night 27, which was headlined by a fight between former UFC Interim Welterweight Champion Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit and longtime Xtreme Couture standout Martin “The Hitman” Kampmann. Both fighters were desperate for victory in this long-awaited rematch, and they delivered a great performance. Here are the Highs and Lows for UFC Fight Night 27 on Fox Sports 1:
The Highs
In the Facebook Preliminary portion of the night, The Ultimate Fighter Season 17 contestant Zak Cummings faced fellow TUF alum Ben Alloway in a battle in the welterweight division. From the bell, Cummings was looking to initiate the grappling game, which he thought would be his opponent’s Achilles’ heel; luckily for him, it was, as Cummings managed to lock in a deep D’arce choke inside the first stanza.
Next up for Cummings should be a matchup with a fellow grappler, perhaps Sergio Moraes. Unfortunately for Alloway, I believe he’s on the chopping block, and could easily find himself out of the promotion.
2013 seems to be the year of the impressive newcomers. In April at UFC on Fuel 9, we got to see the “Notorious” Conor McGregor debut to much fanfare, and last night another spectacular debut was made. Brandon Thatch is a mainstay of Denver, Colorado’s Grudge Training Center and has been garnering praise from MMA insiders for a number of years, but last night he was finally given the chance to compete in the big show.
Thatch debuted against TUF alum Justin Edwards, and the display he put on was extraordinary. From the get go he pursued his usual ruthless attack, and knocked Edwards out in 83 seconds. This was the 11th time Thatch finished an opponent in the first round, and he is sure to have a bright future in the UFC.
TUF 17’s last pick Kelvin Gastelum has been proving doubters wrong for years. During his stint on The Ultimate Fighter everyone said he was too small to be a middleweight, but he shocked the fight world by dominating every opponent en route to the Finale, where he beat the heavily-favored Uriah Hall. Gastelum has since made the decision to drop down to a more natural weight class of 170 pounds, and last night fought his first post-TUF bout against Brian Melancon.
Gastelum looked amazing! I was impressed with the 21-year-old’s ability to mix up his striking and grappling. He looked great throughout, rocking his foe before sinking in a rear naked choke. The future is bright for this 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu purple belt.
In the main event, former interim champion Carlos Condit faced Martin Kampmann, and early on Kampmann looked to have Condit’s number again, as he used great grappling to nullify Condit’s game. But in the second, there was a turn in the momentum, as Condit began to land brutal shots and dominated his foe.
Condit looked amazing from round 2 onward, as he landed strikes at will and mixed up his strikes better than anyone in the division has. In my breakdown of the fight I chose Condit to win by third-round KO, so to me it came as no surprise when Condit finished off Kampmann excellently in the 4th.
Next up for Condit should really be Matt Brown, but apparently Brown is booked for a fight later this year. Hopefully the UFC will make a rematch with Nick Diaz.
The Lows
It seems like every fight night we have an instance of a knee to a downed opponent, and last night was no different, as during their fight on the Facebook portion of the card, Abel Trujilo illegally kneed Roger Bowling, which caused the fight to be called a No Contest. This rule really annoys me. I wish there was a way to enforce a rule to allow knees to the head against the cage when the opponent is down, but not when an opponent is obviously hurt.
Joe Silva needs to book a rematch, as many fans were intrigued by the precarious position the fight was in when the referee stopped it.
I’m a massive Donald Cerrone admirer, and last night when he faced Rafael Dos Anjos, I was intrigued to see which Cowboy would turn up. Would it be the Cerrone who dominated Melvin Guillard, or would it be the flat-footed fighter who appeared against Nate Diaz? Unfortunately it was the latter. Dos Anjos did his part and looked great in the cage, but I couldn’t help but think that this wasn’t the best Cerrone.
Perhaps Cerrone’s recent legal troubles interfered with his mindset leading into his fight with Dos Anjos. Hopefully the UFC will match up Cerrone with Joe Lauzon next time out.
**********
UFC Fight Night 27: Kampmann vs. Condit II took place on August 28, 2013 at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Click the stars to rate how good you think UFC Fight Night 27 was.
I thought Papy Abedi, Bubba McDaniel, Eric Perez, and Whittaker all performed well in defeat while Brad Tavares looked very "meh" considering he was the biggest favorite on the card. And I'm a huge Tavares fan.