UFC Fight Night 181 Post-Fight Analysis

Main event was lackluster, but aside that tonight's fight night card was full of good action and highlight-reel finishes.

Main Card

The fight between Uriah Hall and Anderson Silva was supposed to be a masterclass of striking... well, it definitely was tactical as both guys hesitated to engage much for the earlier rounds. This allowed the Silva to win the first two rounds, which is quite a feat for a 45-year-old, but sadly it was more about Hall being underwhelming than Silva being great.

When Hall started to open up in the 3rd round, he immediately hurt Silva and almost finished him. In fact, I think Herb wouldn't have done badly to stop the fight already then. Bell saving Silva only delayed the inevitable, as Hall caught him on the chin again next round and this time finished the fight with some hard shots on the ground, hard enough to have Silva grappling Herb in confusion.

Even after being finished Silva still refused to commit to retirement. Perhaps the early rounds gave him false confidence that he can still hang? Either way, I think both of the main event fighters stock plummeted. Hall's because even if he won, he did not look that great most of the fight and has only the fact that Silva doesn't have much durability as a 45-year-old to thank for getting the W, and for Silva... well he got finished and even if he was winning the fight up to that point, he did not look great.

Enough about that, the co-main was much the better fight. Andre Fili was always gonna be a bit step-up in competition for Mitchell, but Mitchell could still put on some suffocating top control for first and third round. In the second round he had some tough time in the striking, but Fili did not manage to put enough hurting on him on the feet, so Mitchell got a clear decision. 

Maurice Greene looked pretty bad against Greg Hardy, I guess the worries about Hardy's cut were... overstated. He was in shape, it would have been interesting to see if he would have gassed when going for the finish had the ref not stopped the fight, but that is not to say I disagree with the stoppage. If anything, it came a little late. Solid win for Hardy and for first time in a while he is back on the winning streak.

Charlie Ontiveros had a good start to his UFC debut as he was catching Holland with some flashy strikes. Ontiveros was sufficiently dangerous on the feet that Holland figured it's better to just grab hold of him and dominate him as the bigger guy. A couple of takedowns later Ontiveros hurt himself somehow after a slam and submitted. Holland stays perfect for the year.

Thiago Moises got a questionable decision after a close fight with Bobby Green. Somehow all the judges saw it 29-28 for Moises despite most of Twitter having it 29-28 for Green. Either way stand-up was close but Green was edging it out and putting in much more volume, but Moises did manage some takedowns and almost got a leg lock again. In the end, it's one of those things, close fight, some people are gonna see it the other way around.

Prelims

Alexander Hernandez did what he was expected to do and more against Gruetzemacher. Gritz started with couple of good leg kicks, but the night started turning south pretty fast after that for him. Hernandez returned the favor and started putting in some fast combinations. Gritz is lauded for his good chin, but taking one solid shot from a high-level fighter is hard enough, let alone the barrage that put him out. 

Yanez also put out Victor Rodriguez to get another spectacular finish in his UFC debut. This guy is offensively very potent, if he can still improve his defense a bit, he will soon be mixing up with ranked guys.

Sean Strickland and Jack Marshman had a fun bout with lot of banter inside the cage. Strickland ran away with the match, but with Marshman "having a head like a brick", there was no finish. 

That wasn't the case in fight between Jason Witt and Cole Williams. It turned out to be complete mismatch. Witt took Williams down fast and proceeded to GnP Williams into a bloody pulp. Williams made it out to second round, but the story remained the same and he was promptly thereafter submitted.

Dustin Jacoby offered us one of them sweet leg kick KOs. Technically the finish came with punches afterwards, but the groundwork was all leg kicks. Jacoby invested in them just a bit in the start of the match, but with each one Ledet was buckling a little bit more, and when Jacoby noticed this he landed a couple of them until one of them had Ledet on his ass. Finish came soon after. You don't address the leg kicks, you are lucky to last a round. 

In the opening fight of the night, Johns and Natividad put in the kind of low volume fight that I was sort of expecting. I was hoping Natividad could push the pace a little, but Johns' jab shut him down. After losing two rounds, Natividad had to go after it, but got KO'd pretty bad in the process. Good win for Johns. 

My picks

My budding winning streak ended despite me getting 7 out of 11 right. 3 bets down as somehow almost all my wrong picks were bigger picks and wins smaller picks. That, and of course the fact it was again mostly big favorites winning, so right pick doesn't count for much. 

All in all I don't feel too bad for my picks, it was simply misplaced emphasis. I wish I had bet much more on Witt and Yanez. Both were dominant and looked like a lock in hindsight. Still, that wouldn't have turned 3 bet loss into a win. 

I think Natividad was my only outright bad pick. That fight simply did not go as I expected and was a bad read. My other wrong picks weren't as bad errors. I said in my preview Green might kinda let the fight pass him by, and in a way that happened. He arguably should have gotten that fight though so it was just a tough break. Greene was a pretty bad pick but at least the odds were good. Finally Fili was competitive, that is the kind of fight that has tight margins. Think it was still worth it to get that good of a fighter as an underdog.

There is no rest for the wicked, but at least next weekend's card is only 10 matches, won't be as much work to research for.