146 and some Bellator

Bellator first:
Rick Hawn is a very solid fighter, and a very bad match-up for Michael Chandler. I'm a fan of both guys, but since Chandler is a Mizzou guy I'm still hoping he pulls it out.

Luis Nogueira was very impressive once again.

Jeremiah Riggs vs. Kelvin Tiller might have been the single worst example of BJJ in a MMA fight in the modern age. Tiller was poor to bad. No idea of half guard. No base. Should have finished that Kimura about 15 different ways and times Just completely uncomfortable on the ground. Riggs was worse. He had no defense for the shoulder lock other than to endure it. He almost got triangled 2-3 times, and powered through them. It was just ugly.

146

Glover Teixeira looked great over Kyle Kingsbury. Welcome to the UFC Mr. Teixeira.

Kingsbury is an unbelievable athlete that has just never gotten good enough at any aspect of fighting to beat anyone. At 30 years old his clock is ticking.

Glad to see Mike Brown performing well. I don't know that he can compete at the championship level. Maybe if his wrestling becomes a bit more technical.

Nothing pained me more than seeing Mayhem Miller lose what turned out to be a pinkslip fight to CB "Crushing Boredom" Dollaway. I can't stand Dollaway. He is the personal embodiment of everything people hate about wrestlers in MMA.

Mayhem needs to get his strength and conditioning in order. I don't know that he has the physical gifts to keep up with guys at the top UFC level, but I don't think he has reached whatever his physical potential is either. He's always looked thin at middleweight. His bone structure is big, he could hold some serious muscle, and he's always looked a little soft at the weight ins. Combine that with his TKO due to hypoxia loss to Bisping. I have to think that is where his problems at least start.

Jamie Varner looks like he's back in the mix.

Edson Barboza is no slouch. He has a serious future ahead of him. He needs to work on his defensive wrestling, and understand that when he throws kicks that miss he may end up on his butt.

Darren Elkins showed some serious guts in his fight with Diego Brandao. His ear blowing up may have been one of the most disgusting things I have seen in a while.

Stipe Miocic looked pretty underwhelming in his win over Shane Del Rosario. Neither guy looked good.

Big Country Roy Nelson through a perfectly timed overhand right that turned out the lights on Dave Herman. Love to see that guy win, but I still think he's the best Light-Heavyweight in the UFC. Weighing in at 246 these days (Forrest Griffon walks at about that, as did Mark Coleman), he could trim down another 15-20 and cut the last 20 to make 205. Heck Chael Sonnen walks around at 217 and he fights at 185.

Cain Velasquez must have seen something on tape or heard from Daniel Cormier. The way he snagged Bigfoot's ankle in the first exchange was a little too clean. Antonio's team might want to look into that.

I think Cain is the number one contender. Cormier is still too green. Overeem is out. Unless you thrust a prospect forward, there really isn't a championship caliber heavyweight left (you could make a case for Fabricio Werdum). Combine that with the fact that the last JDS/Cain fight was after a long injury layoff. It's really the only match that makes sense. I don't like it (I'm really sick of the UFC giving these quick turnaround rematches. It's becoming a thing) but this is really the only match that makes sense right now.

Why did Frank Mir get this title shot? His peak was when Tim Sylvia was the UFC champ, and an aging Light-Heavy (Randy Couture) revitalized his career by going UP. His boxing is decent, but not good enough to beat good strikers. He has good submissions (of the grab and yank variety) but almost no wrestling (defensive or otherwise) so he loses to good wrestlers.
He beat the ghost of Crocop, and the husk of Big Nog (twice). He decisioned Roy, who as I stated before is fighting up a weight-class. So no Frank, you're not the "best ever." You're in a limited weight-class, with a limited skill set. Your comeback from the motorcycle accident was impressive, but still your own fault. I think he loses to about 1/2 of the guys in the Strikeforce grand prix (Barnett, Cormier, the ghost of Fedor, Werdum, maybe even Bigfoot)

Junior Dos Santos is the man. He'll be tested by anyone who wants to plant him on his backside and defend submissions for 25 minutes. His hand speed, length, and power are going to be a problematic combination for a lot of guys. He could stand to get bigger (237 is a pretty thin heavyweight especially at 6'4") and work on his wrestling. It's good to have a plan 'b' and if your plan 'b' is jiu-jitsu it doesn't do much good if you can't get the fight to the deck.

Mahalo.