UFC 130 Recap

This past weekend, I had some misgivings about UFC 130. The main event was supposed to be Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard 3, but both fighters withdrew due to training camp injuries. This led to the original co main event (Rampage Jackson vs. Matt Hamill) becoming the new main event, and Frank Mir vs. Roy “Big Country” Nelson became the new co main event. I definitely wasn’t expecting much out of this one.

Let’s start with the Frank Mir/Roy Nelson bout. In my pre fight breakdown, I figured this was going to be a plain and simple slug fest. Mir and Nelson are both high level Brazilian Jiu Jitsu guys which led me to believe no one was hitting the mat unless he got KO’d. I picked Mir to win the fight via KO or decision.

After 15 minutes of fighting, it went to decision. It was pretty much a formality because anyone watching the fight knew Mir was the winner. He absolutely bulldozed Big Country in the fight. Mir had better striking, was more aggressive, and was the only one scoring takedowns en route to his unanimous decision win. All and all, Mir outworked Big Country because Mir was fit to fight unlike his opponent. It’s no secret that Big Country doesn’t have the typical MMA physique, and it cost him the fight. If Big Country has any aspirations of being the UFC heavyweight champ, then he needs to take his conditioning more seriously.

In the main event, I was looking for Rampage to stake his claim for a future light heavyweight title fight with Jon Jones. Rampage, thankfully, didn’t disappoint. He came to fight, and proved to be too much for Matt Hamill. Hamill wanted to put his wrestling pedigree to good use, and get Rampage to the ground. Rampage wouldn’t oblige him at all. While stuffing the takedown attempts, Rampage used crisp and efficient striking for three rounds to pick up the unanimous decision.

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And now, I close with some very exciting news. Three days ago, UFC President Dana White revealed (via Twitter) that the main event for UFC 137 will be UFC welterweight champ GSP vs. Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz. It’s not GSP vs. Anderson Silva, but it’s definitely a fight that fight fans have wanted to see. The champions will clash in Las Vegas on October 29th.

Other Notable Fights from UFC 130:
Brian Stann def. Jorge Santiago via TKO (strikes) at 4:29 of Rd 2.
Rick Story def. Thiago Alves via unanimous decision.
Demetrius Johnson def. Miguel Torres via unanimous decision.
Tim Boetsch def. Kendall Grove via unanimous decision.