UFC 203 was certainly the weirdest event the organization has put on this year but it still managed to be pretty good. You had a fighter kicking his opponent’s coach after the fight, an accusation that the ref missed a tap followed by direct evidence that it wasn’t true, and a freak show match that was about as anticlimactic as it gets. The first UFC event in Cleveland had its ups and downs but the hometown fans and the viewers at home both were left on a good note.

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Cleveland, Home of the Heavyweight Champ – Cleveland native and UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic was this close to losing his belt in his hometown without being able to defend it even once. And if you ask his opponent, Alistair Overeem, he’ll tell you that he did lose. In his post fight interview with Joe Rogan Overeem proposed that Miocic tapped to his guillotine choke but that the ref missed it, giving Stipe enough time to escape before eventually knocking the Dutchman out. Rogan immediately went to the replay, from two separate angles, and there was no visual evidence of a tap whatsoever. It was an embarrassing moment but to be fair he had just woken up from being knocked unconscious moments earlier. And it was close. It was a crazy back and forth first round that had Miocic getting dropped by a heavy right hand early on and then put deep in that submission attempt before scrambling free and dealing most of the damage from then on. Once Stipe was able to trip Overeem to the ground it was all she wrote.

As for whats next for the heavyweight champ and his quest to be the first to defend that belt three times there are a few options. Former champion Cain Velasquez made a triumphant return from injuries to demolish Travis Browne at UFC 200 and the man that took his belt from him, Fabricio Werdum, coasted to a dominant victory over Browne himself in the co-main event Saturday night. The fight started with Werdum charging and landing a flying side kick to the face but settled into a standard kickboxing match from there with Browne having a hard time ever pulling the trigger. At one point Browne dislocated his finger and called for timeout (which for the record is not allowed) and instead of calling off the fight or allowing it to continue, the ref decided to actually give him that timeout and let the doctor take a look at it. If that wasn’t weird enough, before the decision was read Browne’s coach Edmond Tarverdyan started talking trash to Werdum and in turn Fabricio front kicked him in the chest. A near melee almost broke out but both corners were kicked out of the ring and order was restored. One of Velasquez or Werdum should be next, I would lean towards Cain in order to have a fresh match up.

CM Punk Is Not A UFC Fighter, Confirmed – About 21 months ago the UFC announced that they had signed former WWE wrestler Phil Brooks AKA CM Punk to a contract. At 36 years old and with no combat sports experience outside of professional wrestling he joined one of the top MMA camps led by Duke Roufus and started training. Multiple injuries delayed his debut and his opponent, 23 year old Mickey Gall was able to win a fight while Dana White was in attendance for his online show ‘Looking For A Fight’, call out CM Punk, and win a fight against Mike Jackson to see who got the honor of welcoming Brooks to the UFC. A lot was made of this bout despite it having no right to be on a major mixed martial arts event. It landed a spot third from the top on a Pay-Per-View, CM Punk made a reported $500,000, and it was over as soon as it started. Both men rushed forward, Gall immediately took him down beat him up and submitted him. It was James Toney esque although not quite as embarrassing as when Randy Couture humiliated the former boxer. After the fight Mickey Gall called out UFC poster boy Sage Northcutt which I would love to see. CM Punk said he wants to continue fighting which I’m not as into seeing. I highly doubt his second match would be in the UFC.

Uriah Faber Is Done As An Elite Fighter – Three months or so ago Uriah Faber was getting ready to fight Dominick Cruz for the UFC Bantamweight title. Now, he’s coming off back to back losses for the first time in his career and only the second loss of his career that wasn’t for a championship belt. He fought Jimmie Rivera on Saturday night and got out pointed on the feet for three straight rounds. Rivera used leg kicks to keep him off balance and won most of the exchanges of hands. In the third round Faber poked Rivera in the eye and it didn’t look good but the fight went on and Uriah was still unable to do much damage. For Rivera this is a huge win that catapults him into contender status in a burgeoning division of young talent. He joins the likes of TJ Dillashaw, Cody Garbrandt, John Lineker, Aljamain Sterling, and many more who are vying for a title shot. For Faber this cements his status as gatekeeper. Any hope of yet another title shot for him is out the window unless he goes on one more great run. Maybe he retires after another fight or two, or maybe he continues to be a gatekeeper for the top 10 for a while but either way he’ll be fine. Love him or hate him he’ll go down as a legend in the lighter weight classes of MMA.

What’s Next?

UFC Fight Night 94 (September 17th) – There are two fights of note on this card in Hidalgo, Texas. The main event is Dustin Poirier against Michael Johnson, two good young fighters in the lightweight division. Johnson is coming off back to back losses, the last of which coming against Nate Diaz leading to his meteoric rise to fame. Poirier is one of my favorite fighters to watch and is 4-0 since moving to lightweight after getting knocked out by Conor McGregor two years ago. The co-main event is a middleweight clash between Uriah Hall and Derek Brunson. Hall continues to be one of the most frustrating fighters to watch, capable of some of the splashiest knock outs you’ll ever see but more likely than not disappointing. Brunson is on a four fight winning streak and was supposed to fight Gegard Mousasi at UFC 200 before withdrawing due to injury. If he wins this one he should be in line for a top 10 match up.

UFC Fight Night 95 (September 24th) – This event takes place in Brazil and is headlined by Cris Cyborg versus Lina Lansberg. Making her UFC debut in May at UFC 198 the former Strikeforce and current Invicta featherweight champion came off looking like she had star potential knocking out Leslie Smith in just a couple of minutes. She fought at 140 pounds in that bout and suffered mightily during the weight cut. Instead of just adopting her at her natural fighting weight of 145 pounds the UFC is again making her cut an extra five pounds in hopes of her eventually making it all the way down to Bantamweight, 135 pounds. Thats never going to happen but I’m happy seeing her get fights in the UFC. She’s as dominant on the feet as Ronda Rousey is on the ground and I’d like to see her tested by some other good fighters. Lansberg is not that so expect another quick KO. The rest of this card is pretty well rounded but nothing that sticks out as a fight you need to watch.

UFC Fight Night 96 (October 1st) – The main event of this card taking place in Portland, Oregon is a fight I’ve been clamoring for since it was announced that both fighters would be moving up in weight. John Lineker vs. John Dodson is a match up of guys who were contenders at Flyweight but felt the need to move up to bantamweight. Lineker kept missing weight and was forced to make the change. Dodson lost to the long reigning champ at 125 pounds twice and felt the need to look elsewhere if he wanted to get back into a title picture. Both guys have giant power for their stature. Dodson from the left, Lineker from the right. I don’t know whats going to happen but I can’t wait to watch it play out. Also of note is Will Brooks getting his second UFC fight after leaving Bellator as their lightweight champion. This time he faces Alex Oliveira in a fight he should win. I expected him to get a jump up in contention after beating Ross Pearson in his debut but maybe that will happen in his next trip to the cage.

UFC 204 (October 8th) – The middleweight championship is on the line as Michael Bisping gets to defend his belt (that still feels weird) in his home country of England. Is it against Luke Rochold who he just shockingly knocked out? Jacare Souza coming off a dismantling of Vitor Belfort? Chris Weidman coming back from injury? Yoel Romero coming off a shortened suspension after beating Jacare? Nope, none of the above. He’ll be facing Dan Henderson in a rematch of their classic fight at UFC 100 when Hendo knocked him out cold and put an extra punch in for good measure. Henderson who is 46 years old, not ranked in the top 15 of the division for most MMA websites, and 3-6 over his last nine. Despite all that it kind of makes sense given the circumstances. Rochold and Weidman are coming off losses, Souza lost to Romero before beating Belfort, and Romero was popped for a PED even if it was ruled to be an unintentional tainted supplement. Henderson is coming off one of the craziest fights of the year when he knocked out Hector Lombard. This fight will sell better than the others and on top of that Henderson has announced that he will retire after this fight, win or lose. I can’t wait to see the fight I just wish it wasn’t with a belt on the line. Another interesting middleweight fight is on this card as the aforementioned Vitor Belfort fights Gegard Mousasi. Belfort’s post USADA drug testing career has been interesting as his only win is against the title challenger.

 

Bob Phelan
Bob Phelan

BSL Analyst

Bob is a co-host of ‘On the Verge’ an Orioles podcast focused on the O’s farm system here on BSL. He used to run the baseball blog ‘The Oriole Report’ before transitioning to podcasting about movies, TV, Video Games, and MMA. ‘The Redbox Report’ movie podcast was started in 2013 followed by ‘The Redbelt Report’ MMA podcast in 2016. Bob has also written for Konsume.com and BaltimoreSportsReport.com and delivers mail for a living in Baltimore County. Follow him on Twitter @TheOrioleReport.

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