Recap UFC: 252

 Recap UFC: 252

Daniel Cormier v Stipe Miocic: Heavyweight Title

What an ending to the best heavyweight trilogy in UFC history. Competitive the whole way through, Stipe wins by unanimous decision. I had Stipe winning the fight 49-46 on my scorecard so I think the judges got it right. A fairly even fight until Stipe dropped Daniel at the end of the second round. I feel this was one of the best performances of his career to date. He was still getting caught by that right hand off of tie ups, but he was eating them pretty well. DC only took him down once the whole fight and Stipe got up almost immediately. This cements Stipe as the greatest heavyweight fighter ever. His resume stand alone. I know some people bring up Fedor and while he was great too, Stipe just has more wins over top quality opponents. The eye poke was a big factor in this fight. DC said he could not see out of it after the poke happened. Eye pokes happen and Stipe got poked too, although not as bad as Daniels. For me, I would love to see DC retire after this even though he lost. He is a great commentator and has a bright future in media. He is still a first ballot hall of famer and one of the best of all time.

Sean O'Malley v Marlon Vera:

This was a weird one. The official result is Vera won by TKO in the first round but there is much more to the story. About half way through the first round Chito through a calf kick that appeared to give Sean what they call "dropfoot", which is where the nerves in your foot and lower leg just stop working and it becomes very difficult to stand. We have seen it in other fights like when it happened to Michael Chandler  a while back. What I don't think people are talking enough about is what happened after that kick landed. Sean's game is all about feints and quick movements. When he went to do one of these movements, he rolled his foot/ankle really bad in the opposite direction it is not suppose to go. If you listen to the live broadcast of the fight, you can hear a loud crunch the moment that happen and to me to sounded like he broke that shit. As of the publishing of this blog, there is no official word as to what the exact injury is but if he did break it, you have to have a rematch. I know a lot of people hate Sean because he reminds them of someone that bullied them in high school but he was clearly compromised by what ever happened. Chito is a great fighter and like I said in my breakdown blog, do not sleep on him. If they don't do a rematch then they need to give him another ranked guy in the top 15. 

Best of the Rest:

While JDS looked good in the first round and won it on my scorecard, Rozenstruik just needed one bomb to land and that is what happened in the second round. I do think we are very close to seeing JDS career come to a close. He has lost his past three fight all by knockout. Pineda pulled off the upset to stop Burns late in the second round. He went 3-4 in his previous stint in the UFC six years ago but looks like a new man now. Merab did what Merab does. Relentless pressure and movement with great takedowns. He got the win by unanimous decision. Other notable performances were Virna Jandiroba won in the first round by armbar. Danny Chavez and Kai Kamaka looked really good in both of their decision win and Kyle Daukaus wins by first round KO in what was a good debut for him. 

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