Ben Henderson is the man. I’ll admit, I have been on the Jim Miller bandwagon for a while and still am to some extent but Ben Henderson stole the show and with it took a whole lot of Miller’s thunder. Seriously, nobody wants to fight this guy right now, I promise you. This fight came down to the fact that Jim Miller could not submit Ben Henderson, who might just be unsubmittable. Miller has very good submissions for a wrestler but when you can’t make a guy tap under normal means, you find yourself in a pickle. Miller couldn’t go the extra mile against Henderson and this gave Henderson a number of prime opportunities to brutalize Miller out of submission attempts. This fight represents Ben Henderson’s coming out party and really puts his lose to Pettis in perspective – Pettis is very good and these two guys are here to stay. In retrospect he probably should have been my fighter to watch at 155 lbs but all eyes are on him now all the same.
Dan Hardy is not that good. I know he looked good on his rise to a title shot but he has looked equally bad on his descent from it. Hardy is likely done in the UFC and that might be ok given that the division is crowded. Hardy has been unimpressive, even when getting exactly what he wanted – a stand up fighter that will stand in the pocket and trade with him. All credit to Lytle for performing well in his last MMA fight but Dan Hardy didn’t live up to the hype one too many times and for that, SEE YA!
Donald Cerrone is better than I thought. Ok ok ok, I admit that I was down on Donald Cerrone. I am not fully on the bandwagon but I am a bit more open to the potential that he might have in the UFC lightweight division than I was before. As much as I was wrong about Cerrone I was wrong about Oliveira. Even on short notice the submission ace didn’t impress at all. He looked slow and made huge mistakes once the fight hit the ground that cost him the fight, reaching for holds that were not ripe and leaving himself exposed to strikes. He fought like he was in a grappling tournament, not an MMA fight and it cost him the win. Long story short, I was wrong about both these guys and learned a lot from their short bout.
We will miss Chris Lytle. This guy was a man’s man. He told Dan Hardy he was going to stand and swing with him and he did. Lytle likely could have taken the fight to the ground at any moment and controlled Hardy and/or tapped him out but he waited to the last minute to make that move and get a clean victory. Even the most lunatic striking fans can’t be upset with that move. Lytle has more fight awards than anyone in the UFC and he always came to fight. Even fans that didn’t know his name will miss him because Lytle is the kind of fighter that made your show better – period. Between standing and striking for 14 minutes, not using his grappling advantages for that amount of time, and refusing to let the fight go to the judges, Chris Lytle proved he was by far the superior fighter on this given night and a gem for the sport. Hats off to Chris Lytle and all the best to him and his family!
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