Well guys, I just came back from vacation. Luckily there was only one UFC fight during my cruise and I was able to work around the cruise’s anti-video firewall (middle finger to your streaming restrictions, bub) and watch the fight. And despite the frame rate at times lagging to the point that I was able to apply deodorant and brush my teeth before it restarted, I got to watch it in its entirety and here are some thoughts.
There will be no gifs or any of that fancy stuff here, so all you snobs can take your cummerbunds and rising property values elsewhere.
1) Yoel Romero is a legitimate title contender
I made friends with a crow on our ship. I called him Russel for obvious reasons. I would feed him bits of bacon from the breakfast buffet to the delight of indoor diners (and the disgust of the staff). He was special to me, and despite the fact that he crapped all over our balcony railing I loved him.
What I’m saying is that I don’t like eating crow, but I’ll do it for you guys.
Earlier in the week I said that Machida vs. Romero was a mismatch and you know what? For the better part of two rounds it looked like it.
Despite how close the first two rounds may have been in terms of scoring, Machida was essentially landing snap kicks to the leg and front kicks to the torso at will of the larger Romero. There were several times when Romero tried to wing his left hook as he came in and Machida simply circled to his own left. His flying knees and clinch work were on display but despite landing a few glancing blows, it seemed like he was wasting more of his precious gas tank than was prudent.
But there were also a few surprising aspects that turned the tide of this fight.
I said Romero had good defensive head movement, but what I didn’t expect was that Machida would completely whiff on many occasions as he came forward. And while the left hook isn’t an ideal counter to a lunging left straight, Romero actually landed it a fair amount. Despite being the far less rangy fighter, Romero’s ring cutting was forcing Machida to lunge in to start his offense.
Speaking of ring cutting, holy god. I knew Romero was an underrated ring cutter, but what I didn’t expect was how much it tired out Machida. What people don’t realize is that constant lateral movement to escape a knockout threat is exhausting. Watch the fights of George Foreman, Julio Caesar Chavez, and Gennady Golovkin and watch how utterly exhausted the opponents become when/if they make it into the later rounds.
The same Lyoto Machida who made Gegard Mousasi look a fool for five rounds was noticeably slowing down by the end of round 2 and his need to throw kicks as the primary offense probably compounded that.
And Romero emphatically answered my criticism that, as an Olympic wrestler, he simply doesn’t attempt many takedowns nor do much damage from the position. He roundly answered that criticism by clinching Machida, tripping him and then elbowing him until he traveled back in time. Probably to a time before Luke Rockhold concussed him, but that’s a different story.
I revise my statement about Jacare Souza vs. Yoel Romero being an “interesting fight”; I was subtly hinting that while Romero was talented he would simply be a more difficult obstacle for an inevitable Jacare title shot.
Now I think Romero may win.
2) Lorenz Larkin and Boxing 101
I wasn’t impressed with Lorenz Larkin as much as I wanted to absolutely strangle Santiago Ponzinibbio. Maybe I’m just a cynic (okay fine, I am) but it was a quality of fight I expected from undercard contenders and not from the co-main event.
In the open canvas, Larkin vs. Ponzinibbio was a fight between two power punchers with no head movement and twitchy reflexes; both would throw technically proficient punches to decapitate his opponent only to have them slide out of the way at the last minute.
But as far as cage control went, Ponzinibbio was the far better fighter. He got Larkin to the cage often but DIDN’T. DO. A. DAMN. THING.
Well that’s not true; he alternated throwing winging rights and lefts at the head of Larkin. Technically sound hooks but still alternating left and right, still at the head, and still one at a time. Not to the body, not a straight shot, not a flurry, not a double up from one side, nothing.
And Larkin simply slipped and rolled his shoulder on nearly every damn one.
Ponzinibbio is not a top tier welterweight but he managed to get Larkin up against the cage a lot. If he had bothered to throw a left hook after Larkin slipped his right or even doubled up his right hand (Andrei Arlovski style) I have no doubt Ponzinibbio would have his biggest win to date. Larkin isn’t particularly skilled against the cage (Philippou hurt him with a basic right-left-right while he walked him down) yet Ponzinibbio couldn’t capitalize.
Eventually the savvier Larkin’s leg kicks slowed down the Argentine slugger until he began reaching on his punches, allowing Larkin to land the 3 punch combination to set up the end of the fight.
So many pundits are saying Larkin has made a “statement” with this win. What statement is that exactly?
That you should probably throw more than one punch at a time from different hands?
3) Is Steve Bosse dead?!
No seriously, do we have confirmation that the man is still of this Earth? My stream cut out and I may or may not have taken a poop break after the knockout happened, missing the post fight.
Like do we have to send his family flowers? Is there a really, really lucky cadaver lab somewhere? Has his head been requisitioned by the military to study the effect of tank shells on heavy armor?
