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| UFC 170 poster photo credit to Wikipedia. |
Background:
Heading into UFC 170 I thought this was a very lackluster card, considering this was a pay-per-view. Initially, the card was supposed to feature Daniel Cormier making his light heavyweight (205) debut, versus former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans. But Evans pulled out of the fight due to a knee injury that would require surgery.
I was disappointed as a fan to see that match up get scrapped, even though Dana White says that Ronda Rousey was becoming one of the UFC's biggest superstars, I didn't buy it. As a hardcore fan, the bout that interested me most was the Cormier vs. Evans bout. A bout that would propel either contender into a title shot against pound-for-pound king: Jon Jones.
In an attempt to revive UFC 170's relevancy, Fox and the UFC really hyped up an unknown prospect that Dana literally picked up from a coffee shop, (4-0) Patrick Cummins, whose former opponents have a combined record of 10-20 according to Bleacher Report. The reason for this, stated by Dana was that Cummins claimed to have made Cormier cry in wrestling practice, as they were prepping Cormier to compete in the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
I'd have to admit, the match up was such a mismatch that I thought it would be entertaining to see Cummins, a +980 underdog, maybe pull off something magical here.
Prelims:
There were a lot of empty seats through out the preliminary bouts, which was sort of dull besides Erik Koch's knock out of Rafaello Oliveira, the under card featured five decisions.
The energy in the arena totally shifted once the main card was on. And as usual, the UFC pumped up all its fans with their signature "Face the Pain" by Stemm introduction.
Whittaker vs Thompson:
The first fight of the main card totally brought everyone out of their seats when Kickboxing specialist, Stephen Thompson knocked out The Ultimate Fighter: Nations winner Robert Whittaker in a technical, but wild exchange.
Pyle vs Waldburger:
The second fight featured 38 year old UFC veteran, Mike "Quicksand" Pyle against, ground specialist TJ Waldburger. The fight was a very interesting back and forth bout until the third round when Pyle's experience played to his advantage.
After Pyle was able to hurt Waldburger with a series of punches and his signature knee, Pyle grabbed a hold of Waldburger's neck with a guillotine that helped Pyle sweep Waldburger, landing in mount and that was all she wrote.
Pyle TKO'ed Waldburger shortly after in a late stoppage that resulted in Waldburger taking more damage than he should of.
It was a very impressive performance performance by "Quicksand." A performance that secured the no. 15 ranked Pyle's roster spot in the UFC for now.
MacDonald vs Maia:
Next fight was a bout between the welterweight division's top contenders in no. 6 ranked Demian Maia and no. 4 ranked Rory MacDonald.
After a few unimpressive performances by GSP's disciple, MacDonald really needed to earn an impressive victory to be back in the talks for title contention. A opportunity that was opened just recently with the retirement/layoff of GSP.
Maia at that point came off of a very close split decision loss in his home country of Brazil to San Francisco native Jake Shields.
Both Maia and MacDonald knew the stipulations and opportunity with a victory in this fight would do for their title contention status.
The bout was by far the most entertaining bout in the card and of Rory MacDonald's career, as MacDonald was able to survive a first round scare against the BJJ prowess of Maia in the first round. Maia was able to mount MacDonald and control him for four minutes out of five in the first.
In the second round, MacDonald came out looking possessed, looking very different from his passive performances in his past two fights, MacDonald out landed Maia 40-13 in total strikes and stifled seven of Maia's take down attempts with great strength.
Heading into the third round, the fight was clearly even with Maia taking the first and MacDonald taking the second. MacDonald was able to impose his versatile striking and stuff more of Maia's takedowns with brute force, defending 10 of 11 of them.
But the one takedown from Maia came later at around the 2:00 mark of the third (it made my younger brother who is Rory MacDonald's no. 1 fan hold his breath).
But MacDonald was able to keep his composure holding on to his butterfly hooks, not allowing Maia to advance to a more dominant position, then resulting in a beautiful scramble by MacDonald using his feet to levitate Maia off the ground, allowing him to stand back up.
MacDonald then ended the fight strong landing more strikes, then stuffing Maia's final takedown attempt.
The final results of the judges scorecards read (29-28) unanimous decision win for MacDonald.
Cormier vs Cummins:
Coming out to "Bollywood Flow" by Drake, Daniel "DC" Cormier looked like a man possessed. After the humiliating story of him crying in wrestling practice was divulged by Cummins,
Cormier looked like a different man, two days before the fight during a press conference, the two faced off and uncharacteristally, Cormier shoved Cummins while displaying a very mean and angry look on his face. It was very uncharacteristic of Cormier because he is normally a very calm and collective individual.
Though the result was what everyone had expected, a first round TKO of Cummins, the hype was just as entertaining as the fight was.
Though this victory will be looked at as a crushing of a tomato can for Cormier, this match was more about how Cormier's weight cut to light heavyweight (205) than the compeition itself.
Cormier looked good in this fight, and proved to everyone that he was able to make the weight and still perform. It was a moral victory for Cormier and a victory for the fans, because who wouldn't want to see Cormier take on the likes of Jones, Gustaffson, Texiera and Evans in the future?
Rousey vs McMann:
The main event between the two former Olympic medalists, fan favorite "Rowdy" Ronda Rousey and Sara McMann ended in a very controversial stoppage.
As soon as the fight started, both fighters took little time to get comfortable as Rousey rushed at McMann. Both fighters were swinging for the fences and landing punches, but Rousey was able to press McMann against the cage and landed some devastating knees, one of which dropped McMann and referee Herb Dean stops the fight.
The crowd showed mixed emotions after the stoppage, though Rousey was clearly the fan favorite, the fans thought the fight was stopped early. Half of the crowd was booing and half of the crowd was cheering when the final result was announced, while the replay of the fight was shown on the big screens.
It has been two early stoppages in a row for Dean, who called an early stoppage last pay-per-view at 169 between Faber and Barao.
Overall this event was very entertaining and exceeded my low expectations I had for this event.
I give this event a 7.5/10.
