UFC 158: Review

By - J

UFC 158 was no short of a great UFC there were many fights that had me really amped. The co-main event and main event deserve to be a story on their own but I watched the entire show this time around. Heres my fight by fight breakdown:

Mike Ricci vs. Colin Fletcher 

I'll make this short and sweet Ricci won this lightweight bout by Unanimous decision but had me asleep the entire fight. Kicks and punches here and there but looked more like a spar than a fight.

Chris Camozzi vs. Nick Ring

This fight definitely turned the tempo and heat up at the Centre Bell in Montréal. Both fighters came out ready to put on a show and they definitely did that. Ring's style was quite surprising it reminded me a bit of Anderson Silva's style of taunt and punch. However, Nick Ring is NOT Anderson Silva and he quickly realized closer to the end of the first round that he couldn't continue that method the entire fight. Ring was definitely the more agile and active fight moving all around the Octagon throughout the first and second rounds. I thought Ring was going to win the fight after the second round because he picked Camozzi apart in both rounds. However, the third round showed us all the marbles and Ring was exhausted. Camozzi capitalized on this with great conditioning and really landed a lot more damage on Ring. The winner in this Middleweight bout ended up being Camozzi by Split Decision.

Nate Marquardt vs. Jake Ellenberger

This fight was a swift one. Both Marquardt and Ellenberger came out swinging putting the pressure on one another as soon as it begun. Marquart came out kicking recklessly but Ellenberger was calm and relaxed and threw punches based on quality rather than quantity.  Boy did he do that at 3 mins he caught Marquardt against the cage and with a quick one, two dropped Marquardt. He then proceeded to throw a flurry of punches that sent Marquardt into Wonderland. The winner in the Welterweight bout ended up being Ellenberger by Knockout.

Carlos Condit vs. Johny Hendricks

Condit and Hendricks put on a really, really good fight. I cannot stress that enough. Hendricks might seem like a small guy but DAM he is strong. With a wrestling background and a devastating left hand both he and Condit put on a great fight.  Condit once held the WEC title as well as the Interim UFC title while Georges St-Pierre was out. But back to this fight, Condit and Hendricks both came out and put on a hell of a show. Even with a 7 inch reach disadvantage Hendricks put on crazy reckless punches trying to beat up Condit. Although Condit put up his own and took the punches thrown at him while throwing kicks that connected right to Hendricks' chin. Hendricks really put on a show of take downs bringing Condit down every single time, however, he was ineffective once Condit was down. Late in the second round we heard from the corner of Hendricks asking if his hand was fine. This led to less punches thrown in the third round by Hendricks. This fight went the distance which inevitably led to the winner in this Welterweight bout going to Hendricks by Unanimous Decision.

Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz

The fight we'd all been waiting for. The battle of bad blood was no shortage of greatness by GSP. GSP manhandled Diaz for the entire first round not letting him get any work in and really putting some great pounding on him. The second round featured takedown after take down from the champion pounding Diaz into the ground. Diaz tried hard to get to his feet and after getting and loosing guards he took a brutal beat down from Georges from elbows and punches. After finally getting to his feet Late in the second little was done by Diaz  except school boy tactics of taunting. Third round started on its feet as usual, commetators Joe Rogan  and Mike Goldberg even started a "Bitch" counter to see how many times Diaz could taunt. Diaz did a good attempt at staying on his feet shutting down St-Pierre's takedown attempts. This was probably his best point in the fight, you could tell how confident Diaz was on his feet. The fourth round really looked down for GSP as Diaz was solid on his feet fending off take downs and putting in knees in the clinch. GSP did not do much on his feet in my opinion I don't see him as a striker, he's the wrestler/ground and pound guy. Georges is known for going the distance in the Octagon having gone 25 minutes 6 times already.  At the start of the fifth round my opinion was that Diaz needed a finish in order to win this fight. But after being dropped by a punch from St-Pierre and many takedowns it was clear that Diaz couldn't pull out a finisher. This fight went the distance which ended with the winner in this Welterweight Title Fight going to Georges St-Pierre by Unanimous Decision.



What did you think of the fight? Let us know in the comments below.

SOURCE: UFC