This was a great night of fights for a non-PPV card! I’m not going to waste any of your time on pleasantries, let’s just get into the recaps:
Jones looked very good against the experience Matyushenko. Once he got Matyushenko to the ground, he was able to get a crucifix position and rain down a bunch of quick, strong elbows, and Matyushenko was unable to defend. I’m not sure Jones really even received any damage in this fight. I don’t think we’ll be seeing much more of him except for on PPV fights, he’s going to be in title contention in the very near future.
Frankly, I’m surprised any of the judges gave Muñoz a round. Okami clearly came into this fight with the plan to avoid takedowns and keep the fight standing. He controlled the center of the octagon and did a tremendous job sprawling to neutralize Muñoz’s takedown attempts. One of those close fights that really wasn’t that close. Okami just doesn’t lose very often in the UFC, only to Rich Franklin and Chael Sonnen, who he now trains with.
Howard has said that he never throws a set-up punch, and that was clearly the case in this fight. Every punch he threw was a swing for the fences. He tagged Ellenberger with a few good throws, but Ellenberger did an outstanding job avoiding the big damage, and taking Howard down. A few well placed elbows got Howard’s left eye to swell shut (probably some sort of broken orbital bone, it was pretty nasty). This was a good win for Ellenberger to bounce back from a very close loss to Carlos Condit in his last fight.
Gomi did not look good in his first fight in the UFC against Kenny Florian, but he was very impressive tonight against Griffin. He landed a punch flush on Griffin’s jaw and Griffin landed face down on the ground as the ref stepped in to end it. Solid performance by Gomi.
So in the end, I again had a disappointing night, going 2-2 on the night with my picks. I have a habit of picking against Japanese fighters in the UFC, many of them just don’t fare very well on US soil (they destroy people over there though), and they both managed to win tonight. I’ve got plenty of chances for redemption this month, with 4 more events coming up. Like I said in the intro, this was a good night of fights considering it wasn’t a PPV event. We’ve got UFC 117 this Saturday, and it might be the best card of the year, I’ll bring you that preview on Friday.
Black Dynamite embodies everything that was great about the blaxploitation 1970’s cinema. However, it also relishes all the flaws of 1970’s cinema, and laughs with us all the way till the end. The film was released on October 16, 2009, in the United States, for only two weeks, and was released on home video on February 16, 2010.
