UFC 145: Jones/Evans

[The_Legend_of_Northwest]

April 21 in Atlanta on PPV

Prelims (Facebook):
Marcus Brimage vs Maximo Blanco
Keith Wisniewski vs Chris Clements

Prelims (FX):
Mac Danzig vs Efrain Escudero
John Makdessi vs Anthony Njokuani
Matt Brown vs Stephen Thompson
Travis Browne vs Chad Griggs

Main:
Mark Bocek vs John Alessio
Mark Hominick vs Eddie Yagin
Miguel Torres vs Michael McDonald
Brendan Schaub vs Ben Rothwell (This being on the PPV card over Browne/Griggs is stupid)
Rory MacDonald vs Che Mills
Jon Jones vs Rashad Evans for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title

[The_Legend_of_Northwest]

Predictions:

Blanco 2nd Round TKO
Wisniewski Decision
Danzig Decision
Njokuani Decision
Thompson Decision
Browne Decision. Travis has his hands full here, Griggs is not going to stop coming forward on him
Bocek 3rd Round Sub
Hominick 1st Round TKO. A get right fight for Mark
McDonald 3rd Round TKO
Rothwell 2nd Round TKO
MacDonald 2nd Round Sub
Jones 3rd Round TKO

Fight of the Night: McDonald/Torres
KO of the Night: McDonald
Sub of the Night: Bocek

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

Prelims (Facebook): 2-0
Marcus Brimage -Won split Dec.
Chris Clements-Won-Spile Dec

Prelims (FX):2-2
Mac Danzig-Won Unam. Dec.
John Makdessi-Loss
Stephen Thompson-Loss-I wanted Brown but did not think he had a shot)
Chad Griggs-Loss-Submission

Main:4-2
Mark Bocek-Won-Unanimous Decision 1-0
Mark Hominick-Loss- Split Decision 1-1
Michael McDonald-Won- Knockout 2-1
Brendan Schaub-Loss- technical knockout 2-2
Rory MacDonald-Won- Technical Knockout 3-2
Jon Jones-Won -Dec. 4-2

[The_Legend_of_Northwest]

Results:

Brimage Split Decision

[The_Legend_of_Northwest]

Results:

Brimage Split Decision (0-1)
Clements Splite Decision (0-2)
Danzig Decision (1-2)
Njokuani Decision (2-2) Makdessi needs to drop to 145
Brown Decision (2-3) Thompson has some gaping holes to fix
Browne 1st Round Sub (3-3)

Bocek Decision (4-3)
Yagin Decision (4-4)
McDonald 1st Round KO (5-4). The kid is an animal
Rothwell 1st Round KO (6-4) Schaub's chin fails yet again
MacDonald 2nd Round TKO (7-4)
Jones Decision (8-4)

[ACCBiggz]

I went 8-4 as well. Could have been 10-2 but I went with my heart in picking Rashad and in the morning I was close to changing my pick to Matt Brown but talked myself out of it "Just leave your picks alone". I wasn't sold on Thompson going in, never bought the hype. Him KO'ing one of the worst fighters in the UFC in recent memory didn't excite me for him. He'll never be a relevant welterweight after what I saw last night. People can talk about how good a striker he is, but his balance is horrible. Wrestling is the hardest skill to learn and he is just awful. The takedowns Brown got should have been stuffed easily at this level, and even when he attempted to stuff he didn't have the balance to prevent the takedown and just floundered. Just imagine what the actual wrestlers in the division would do to him.

Yagin was highly impressive. The Rothwell fight went as expected. LOL Che (Rogan saying that was Rory's most impressive performance equally angered and saddened me).

[The_Legend_of_Northwest]

If Rory would have stayed on his feet and destroyed Che like that than I would have agreed with Rogan, but he did exactly what a majority of the welterweight division will do to Mills.

I expected Brown to strike more with Thompson, after what I saw of the ground game of Thompson I don't expect him to be around in the UFC for too much longer.

[ACCBiggz]

If Rory would have stayed on his feet and destroyed Che like that than I would have agreed with Rogan

Meh, no. Che is a decent striker with some decent power, but much like Daley he gets far too much credit. Neither are top the list in the striking game, their power makes them dangerous though. The UFC did a pretty good job of marketing Mills as if he stood a chance against Rory if he kept it standing. It no doubt would have been closer, but all-around striking and taking power out of the equation Rory is more technical.

It is nice to have Mills in the UFC. He was a good prospect five+ years ago, and it make me chuckle when he got choked trying to get into the TUF house. I set the over/under for the fight at 3:00 and Rory nearly stopped it just under it but slowed his pace down on the ground. I was really rooting for that under.

Moving forward, I don't see the endgame the UFC sees with Rory. He will not fight GSP, so why promote him as the co-main as he is now in the top five for sure(I have him #3). If Condit defeats GSP (I don't see that happening) then obviously that re-match is ready. But a GSP win sees Rory stagnant in the division with no future. So they'll have Rory beat up on the potential #1 contenders before they get to GSP OR they'll have him fight random former contenders? I don't know, if he isn't progressing toward the title I don't see why they'd promote him like they did. Random: GSP should move up to Middleweight anyway, he has nothing else to prove at 170.

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

8-4 OVERALL.

Overall the card was not bad at all.

[The_Legend_of_Northwest]

If Rory would have stayed on his feet and destroyed Che like that than I would have agreed with Rogan

Meh, no. Che is a decent striker with some decent power, but much like Daley he gets far too much credit. Neither are top the list in the striking game, their power makes them dangerous though. The UFC did a pretty good job of marketing Mills as if he stood a chance against Rory if he kept it standing. It no doubt would have been closer, but all-around striking and taking power out of the equation Rory is more technical.

It is nice to have Mills in the UFC. He was a good prospect five+ years ago, and it make me chuckle when he got choked trying to get into the TUF house. I set the over/under for the fight at 3:00 and Rory nearly stopped it just under it but slowed his pace down on the ground. I was really rooting for that under.

Moving forward, I don't see the endgame the UFC sees with Rory. He will not fight GSP, so why promote him as the co-main as he is now in the top five for sure(I have him #3). If Condit defeats GSP (I don't see that happening) then obviously that re-match is ready. But a GSP win sees Rory stagnant in the division with no future. So they'll have Rory beat up on the potential #1 contenders before they get to GSP OR they'll have him fight random former contenders? I don't know, if he isn't progressing toward the title I don't see why they'd promote him like they did. Random: GSP should move up to Middleweight anyway, he has nothing else to prove at 170.

I think you mistook what I meant, Rory has never really shown any extended stand up work(I think he was dropped while standing by Mike Guymon but I could be mixing that up with Chris Weidman vs Jesse Bongfeldt) so if he would have stood and tore through a guy known for his striking it would really have shut any possible naysayers up.

And I agree 100% about Rory's future predicament, its going to be very interesting to see how the UFC brass handles it.