Overeem vs JDS Overeem gives a career best performance as he out strikes and knocks out Junior in brutal fashion to announce he isn't quite finished just yet.
And suddenly I'm almost at the present day. I'm gonna rewatch the numbered cards from 2016 and 2017 hopefully before the end of the year. ATG rankings as of 2015 1 Georges St Pierre 2 Anderson Silva 3 Fedor Emilianenko 4 Connor McGregor 5 Demetrious Johnson 6 Jon Jones 7 BJ Penn 8 Dominic Cruz 9 Jose Aldo 10 Matt Hughes 11 Frankie Edgar 12 Daniel Cormier 13 Kazushi Sakuraba 14 Jake Shields 15 Dan Henderson 16 Royce Gracie 17 Mauricio Rua 18 Rodrigo Nogueira 19 Wanderlei Silva 20 Fabricio Werdum 21 Luke Rockhold 22 Takanori Gomi 23 Lyoto Machida 24 Urijah Faber 25 T.J. Dillshaw 26 Yoel Romero 27 Robbie Lawler 28 Jacare Souza 29 Cain Velasquez 30 Gilbert Melendez 31 Kid Yamamoto 32 Rampage Jackson 33 Mirko Filipovich 34 Chuck Liddell 35 Rafael Dos Anjos 36 Chris Weidman 37 Randy Couture 38 Anthony Pettis 39 Rich Franklin 40 Johnny Hendricks 41 Shinya Aoki 42 Eddie Alvarez 43 Benson Henderson 44 Rashad Evans 45 Gegard Mousasi 46 Alistair Overeem 47 Tyrone Woodley 48 Junior Dos Santos 49 Frank Shamrock 50 Tito Ortiz 51 Renan Barao 52 Max Holloway 53 Sean Sherk 54 Chad Mendes 55 Demian Maia 56 Alexandre Nogueira 57 Stephen Thompson 58 Miguel Torres 59 Josh Barnett 60 Paulo Filho 61 Vitor Belfort 62 Stipe Miocic 63 Joseph Benavidev 64 Mike Brown 65 Henry Cejudo
Miocic vs Arlovski. Arlovski was on a right run of form going into this with a trio of big wins. Miocic absolutely smashed him to bits to underline his status as the next contender for Werdum.
Lawler vs Condit What a fight this was. I had them splitting the first two rounds by virtue of the big knockdown each man scored. Round 3 saw Lawler out strike Condit for me but round saw Carlos come back in big fashion as he really put a beating on. It was all to play for in round 5 and Lawler proved his championship class by walking through fire to land huge shots and ultimately nick the decision. I mean what to make of Lawler, as a WW in his younger brawling days he was splattered by Nick Diaz, he moved up to MW going 11-7 in a rather unspectacular campaign. Is he one of the elite WW greats? I think he's undoubtedly behind GSP, Hughes and Sakuraba. I'd maybe argue he's behind Gracie and Shields. Had his TDD really improved that much from 2009 to 2016? Or would he always be susceptible to the grappler out there? He did beat Brown, Hendricks and Condit though so maybe he was a much improved fighter. I just picture both Gracie and Shields taking him down and tapping him. But I can be convinced if anyone feels I'm wrong there. P.S. This is obviously before the Woodley fight.
Alvarez vs Pettis Eddie Alvarez is so under rated for me, I mean he has an absolute great resume with wins over Aoki, Kawajiri and Melendez not to mention Hansen and Chandler. But here he just about shades the fight against Pettis to announce himself the number 1 contender for RDA and finally a well deserved shot at UFC gold.
Cruz vs Dillashaw Another razor close fight as we see Cruz return from career ending injuries to dethrone a P4P ranked champion. But make no mistake, this fight could easily have gone the other way as Dillashaw did his career no harm whatsoever with a world class performance.
Thompson vs Hendricks Last fight for me tonight. Thompson proves his ATG credentials with a clinical first round ko of the incredibly durable Big Rig. The way Lawler takes shots, you wouldn't fancy his chances too much against wonder boy.
Alright fine Silva vs Bisping. What to make of this fight eh, Bisping was the better man over 25 minutes, there's no disputing that imo. The debate is obviously the flying knee. Yes Silva just walked away as if he was Mark Hunt, and yes Bisping was in no state to continue, but he was not in any danger as Silva was walking away from him with only 4 seconds left. Had Silva dived in like Henderson it probably would have been stopped, but he didn't. And I can't say I'm too bothered. Stupid showmanship should be punished every time it happens. Here it was. Bisping finally gets that marquee win and with it an almost guaranteed title shot.
McGregor vs Diaz Connor starts off brilliantly here lighting up the career LW with flashy combination as he cuts him to shreds. The 2nd begins in much the same fashion with Connor taking the initiative and tagging Nate almost at will, but then Nate turns it round with some heavy 1-2 shots that land flush, the fight becomes a bit of a brawl as Diaz begins landing the more accurate punches, eventually McGregor is clinched against the cage and Diaz starts unloading on him, McGregor goes for a lazy takedown, gets caught in a guillotine, he escapes but only into full mount as Diaz lays on the g&p as Connor turns to avoid punishment Diaz locks in an RNC and forces the tap. Great fight.
Maia vs Condit Maia has been on great form since his drop to WW notching up 8 big victories and suffering only two razor close losses. Maia is a world class grappler, he's probably the best indication of how someone Gracie could compete in today's division. Controversial I know but I do still feel Gracie is the best grappler we've had in the UFC, but Maia and Jacare are amazing as well. Anyways Condit was last seen pushing Lawler all the way but Maia absolutely dominated him. He took him down early, gained positional dominance and secured a choke hold. Great performance by Maia.
Hunt vs Mir Mir is a faded force by now. Then again Hunt is no spring chicken neither. They exchange jabs for a minute or so then Hunt unleashed a bomb on Mir and did his patented walk away, much more successfully than Silva earlier anyways.
Johnson vs Cejudo Johnson dominates again against the best out there as he cuts through Henry within the first round.
Overeem vs Arlovski Overeem at this point is well established as a glass cannon now. Probably the most gifted striker in HW history but his chin cannot survive a firefight. Against Silva and Browne he was winning the fight before getting clipped, against Rothwell he was just battered. He fought very tentatively early on and Arlovski began very strong trying to put the fear into Reem. Alistair covered up well, defended the shots, countered and moved and did enough to win the round. The second saw Alistair fight with a bit more intent and he ultimately caught Arlovski with a heavy shot and forced the stoppage. But this is Overeem. Good enough to beat anyone out there, but fragile enough to be beaten by anyone out there. Glass cannon.
Jacare vs Belfort Belfort was beaten by Weidman but he came back by again destroying Henderson. Jacare is on an incredible run of form, he arguably beat Rockhold and Romero, he avenged his loss to Mousasi and he destroyed Belfort here tonight. He came out with a point to prove and he did prove it. He deserves a title shot without doubt.
Last two fights of the night. Cruz vs Faber 3 Cruz dominates here and keeps his place as the top BW on the planet, well aside from Dillashaw maybe. Bisping vs Rockhold 2 Bisping catches lightning in a bottle. A perennial contender who's known for fighting everyone and taking decisions with his busy style, but here he throws the left hook of a life time knocking out an ATG champion with very little notice. Bisping has never thrown a punch like it before and this should be a great night, but instead it's the start of the dark way championship reign in UFC history.
