UFC Fight Night 177 Post-Fight Analysis

 People berated this event as a low-level card with a poor main event, but the main event was a great fight and the event altogether entertaining. MMA even at its worst is usually an exciting sport.

Main Card

Tough luck for Angela Hill again on a close decision. I felt she edged that out, just like I felt she edged it out against Gadelha. Neither time can't be called robbery or really even a bad decision, so close were the fights, but still she could easily still be on a winning streak, instead finds herself with back to back losses. At least she and the eventual winner Michelle Waterson put together a good fight to take advantage of the spotlight of the main event. Reasonably both of their stock should go up from this performance, both very close to contention.

Hill definitely had the striking advantage and kept pressing on Waterson, landing lot of shots on her, but taking her fair share going in as well - it was not like it was one-sided either way. Losing the striking exchange, Waterson went for the grappling, but failing to consistently get it going. Still it was enough to tilt the judges combined with some smooth outside striking.

In the co-main event Ottman Ataizar destroyed Khama Worthy very quickly. KOing Packalen in his UFC debut did not tell us much yet about his power, but this KO means he definitely has unusually heavy hands. Regardless we need to start seeing him against much tougher competition to really test if he has championship mettle. 

Andrea Lee and Roxanne Modafferi had as close of a rematch as you would expect. Lee was getting the better of it on the feet, but Modafferi was as usual edging it her way with grappling. Either way Lee was on her way to edging it, when an ill-advised spinning backfist had her fall straight into Modafferi's arms. They spent rest of the fight on the mat which decided the fight. 

Biggest fuckery of the night was Mike Rodriguez KOing Ed Herman, then having ref step in and call it a cup shot when it was nowhere near the cup. Mistakes happen of course, but frustrating to see nonetheless when there is dozen cameras capturing what exactly happened and everyone except the ref can see it was a legit shot that put him down.

Herman was in trouble again after taking his time to recover, but credit to his toughness came back to catch Rodriguez in kimura. Still, it should have been TKO win for Rodriguez. Obviously can't blame Herman for taking the break and full advantage of situation, and I even give him the benefit of the doubt of not really know where the shot landed. Sure, might be he is just lying to roll with it, but fighting is chaotic, you are hurting all over and taking shots the head so your mind is cloudy - are you exactly sure where every shot that hurts you lands?

On to the next fight, Bobby Green schooled Alan Patrick from bell to bell. Sure, everyone expected Green to win, but the manner of victory and the maturity he showed should see him challenge some of the top fighters of the division next. 

Billy Quarantillo had to withstand some crisp shots from Kyle Nelson, but eventually his constant pressure paid off, Nelson started to tire out and then got caught with a hard shot in start of 3rd to get badly KOd. 

Prelims

Sijara Eubanks and Julia Avila scrapped hard, with Eubanks surprisingly getting outstruck, but then switching up to grappling and winning latter two rounds via top control. Smart fighting and good win, looks like Eubanks has fixed her gas tank issues.

I didn't see the Croom v Roberts fight, I was watching Lambo vids with my son a little too long and since the fight was so short, it was already over by the time I was about to switch back. The underdog got the surprise win with a guillotine, good job for him.

On to the big boys fight, we saw the signature King Kong ground and pound from Alexander Romanov. Roque Martinez had no hope of stopping the takedowns of Romanov and really, just being a fat guy does not make you a real heavyweight, frankly Roque probably is too small even at middleweight. If he was ripped and got that 80 pounds of fat off his belly he might be a real force to be reckoned with at welterweight. 

I figured Jalin Turner is the worse version of Roosevelt Roberts but off of that performance... maybe it is actually vice versa? Really nice work to KO Brok Weaver, but Weaver is about as weak opposition as you can hope for at UFC level. Not good enough grappler to impose wrestling on you, very little striking defence and fairly tame in terms of power as well. Like I said in my preview, more in the UFC for his personality than fighting capabilities. Probably that's it for his UFC run.

Anthony Ivy looked competitive against Barberena, but he just seems badly hurt every time he takes a shot. Either way he made it a to decision, but was second best for the most of the fight, easy decision for Bambam.

First fight I missed again due to sleeping in. Apparently Kish was doing surprisingly well, but Mazo closed the show with a sub in the final round.

My picks

Middle of the road night for me. 7 out of 12 picks right, but cause I forgot to make the Roberts wager, I saved one bet and ended up taking a small profit of less than a bet. I am always glad when I don't lose money, still considering how strong the first 8 months of this blog were, it's been disappointing to see the profits dry up. Either way it's all a learning process.

I would say Mazo was my best pick, she was my biggest bet definitely, but the fight was supposedly very close so in hindsight the odds weren't so great. So aside that it's really hard to choose some pick that really stands out. Guess Azaitar as a dog for a bit over normal bet size? That's pretty solid considering how the fight went. 

Worst pick? Can't say Rodriguez or Hill, cause Hill arguably won, and Rodriguez definitely won without ref fuckery, so guess it turns to Lee cause in hindsight, that was one where I could have gotten it right. Lee was doing well, but she wasn't as clearly better than Roxy as I expected, hence ruined the fight with some poor fight IQ and you gotta think she will never be a top contender in the division. I seriously expected much better. As Twitter punter Josh_P put it, it was either picking the underdog or passing kind of fight, so I should have picked Roxanne. 

We have a big fight night card next weekend, so I really need to be dripping the fight previews more steadily rather than doing 10 hour marathon at once. See ya then.