Last night the UFC hit the BMO Harris Bradley center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for UFC 164, which was headlined by the long-anticipated rematch between former World Extreme Cagefighting champion Anthony “Showtime” Pettis and UFC Lightweight Champion Benson “Smooth” Henderson. Both fighters were eager to rematch this “Fight of the Year,” and they both put in a great performance. Here are the Highs and Lows of UFC 164:
The Highs
In the Facebook Preliminary portion of the night, Sweden’s own Magnus Cedenblad faced the ever-exciting Jared Hamman in a middleweight bout. This fight was fast and furious, and after some tentative exchanges on the feet, Cedenblad saw an opportunity to jump guard on a guillotine and he went for it. He was immediately able to get the choke sunk in tightly, and even rolled Hamman into mount, finishing the choke with ease. Next up for Cedenblad should be a matchup with a powerful striker, perhaps Dylan Andrews.
Hyun Gyu Lim faced Pascal Krauss on the Fox Sports 1 portion of the card, and boy did Lim put on a performance. From the get go Lim gritted his teeth and threw shots with vigor. The Korean looked a weight class above Krauss and really impressed me with his killer instinct; once he smelled blood he went all out for the finish. Next up for Lim should be a grappler, to see just how good his ground game is.
In a main card fight, Team Alpha Male’s Chad “Money” Mendes faced Team Greg Jackson’s Clay “The Carpenter” Guida, and I was beyond impressed with what I saw. From the get go Mendes looked amazing; his footwork was so precise that he was always a foot away from Guida’s punches and managed to create angles to get off himself. His speed was amazing and his sprawl looked good too.
From the first round on, Mendes picked Guida apart on the feet, and after landing heavy in the first two rounds, he landed heavy once more in the third, and Guida faltered. Mendes followed up with hard accurate shots, and became the first man ever to finish Guida via strikes. Next up for Mendes should be a fight with Cub Swanson.
“The War Master” returned, and in the co-main event last night a pair of former UFC champions collided, as Frank Mir faced Josh Barnett. From the get go Barnett looked to impose his will on Mir, and he dominated in the clinch, landing an abundance of punches, but his fight winning strike would be a knee. In the first round Barnett caught Mir crisply and forced the referee to stop the fight. Next up for Barnett should be a fight with Travis “Hapa” Browne.
In the main event, Anthony Pettis faced Benson Henderson for the belt, and I was very impressed with Pettis’ disdain for Henderson’s skills from the opening bell. Pettis showed zero respect for Henderson’s skill, and I believe this got into Henderson’s head. Pettis kept walking forward through Henderson’s punches, and when he began to throw those body kicks, the end was near for Henderson. After Henderson caught a kick and took it to the ground, he was still visibly hurt. As Henderson is a competitive no gi grappler, I didn’t expect him to be tapped with an armbar, but I believe the cumulative effect of the body shots made Henderson more susceptible to submission.
The Lows
In the final fight of the Facebook prelims, heavyweights Soa Palelei and Nikita Krylov did battle, and this fight had a number of lows. Firstly, Krylov blatantly held the fence during Palelei’s first takedown attempt, and it was an absolutely disgraceful that the referee didn’t take a point.
In the second round, conditioning came into play, as both Krylov and Palelei were beyond fatigued and looked like two barroom brawlers. Soa claimed to have a broken rib, but Krylov had no excuse. In the third round, Krylov literally couldn’t move with fatigue, and was stopped by pitter-patter ground and pound.
Lets be honest, neither guy looked UFC-worthy. I can give Soa the benefit of the doubt with his injury, but Krylov needs to be cut.
**********
UFC 164: Henderson vs. Pettis II took place on August 31, 2013 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Click the stars to rate how good you think UFC 164 was.
One of, if not THE high point(s), was Henderson giving Pettis credit when telling Joe Rogan how he correctly adjusted his armbar. When a black belt says a purple belt pulled off "a high level" move, that's true praise. Also Henderson's honesty when Rogan asked if his arm was ok. Losing with dignity is the sign of a true martial artist.