The Bad:

The Noke/Brenneman Stoppage: We’re not going to rip Big Dan too bad for this one, but suffice it to say, when a fighter is charging for a double leg after being rocked, he is probably of sound enough mind to continue. Probably.

Jimy Hettes: Maybe it’s just us, but did Hettes look like he had not trained for Marcus Brimage, like at all? His head was on a bean pole, his striking looked one-dimensional at best, and gone was the aggressive grappling prowess that had led him to victory in the past. While credit is due to Brimage for his ability to stave off most of Hettes’ attacks, it appeared to us as if Jimy had not only overlooked Brimage, but might have bought into his own hype before stepping into the octagon this time around. But if Hettes has any of the conviction we think he does, we’d hate to be the next guy he faces.

Igor Pokrajac’s Strategy: So let me get this straight: You’re a knockout artist taking on one of the most talented Jiu-Jitsu specialists in the division and your strategy is to take him down? And then bitch about said grappling prowess on Twitter afterward? Hate the player, Igor, not the game, especially when you force said player to play said game.

Charles Oliveira’s wait-n-wilt TKO loss: Again, we could be alone in this thought, but does anyone else feel as if Oliveira’s reaction to Swanson’s right hand just appeared…off? It was as if he recognized that he was hurt and simply decided to call it quits rather than attempting to fight through through the pain. As was the case in his fight with Donald Cerrone, it appears as if Oliveira tends to wilt when things aren’t going his way. Then again, I’ve never taken a punch from Cub Swanson before, so what the hell do I know?

The Ugly:

Matt Hamill vs. Roger Hollett: We know Hamill has been out of the game for a while and Hollett was kinda sorta coming in on late notice, but dear God was that a soggy turd of a fight. I cannot recall a single moment of offensive output from Hollett, whose strategy once things hit the floor appeared to be little more than duck and covering. Was ring rust a factor in Hamill’s return? Possibly, but the fact remains that Hamill’s standup looked as slow and stagnant as ever from the very first punch he threw. Is Gregg Stott his striking coach? While we cannot answer that question outright, it’s pretty obvious that Hamill needs to fine tune some of the facets of his game before we get excited to see him fight again.

The Toronto Crowd: Look, we don’t like to throw around the term ‘butt-head’ too often. If you call everyone a butt-head, then it kind of loses its impact. But we can say, without hesitation, that Toronto was being a real dick on Saturday. Booing the Johnson/Benavidez fight was not only ridiculous from a fan’s standpoint, but made us look like real dicks for singing praises about them not a few weeks ago. Shame on you, Toronto.

Evan Dunham’s Cut: Not to reiteratem but dear God look at that thing. Absolutely nasty.

-J. Jones

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