It was a decent card, nothing spectacular, but I was doing nothing at home anyway, lol. A lot of fights with eye pokes, lol.
I started with the Nelson/Algeo fight. I think the ref made a bad call on stopping the fight too early. Algeo was hurt, but I feel the ref could have let it go a bit longer before jumping in. The fans booed the stoppage, and some of the commentators mentioned the same or were on the fence with it.
Ruziboev will be interesting in the division. He gave an eye poke to Dumas, and then Dumas just folded and the ref did not see or stop it. He threw his hands up but the ref did not intervene. He kind of just gave-up (it looked that way to me, but who knows) and Ruziboev took advantage and dropped him and then did some GNP before it was stopped. It was a decent technical fight up until the eye poke.
Weidman and Silva was a pretty good fight, LOTS of eye pokes from both fighter. Weidman looked much better than his last fight, and his leg looked good. He isn't 100% back to where he was, but this fight you could tell gave him a major confidence boost and trust in the leg after throwing a lot of kicks. I had Weidman up 2-0 through the first 2 rounds, then in the 3rd he TKO'd Silva after a double eye poke, lol. THe ref who was doing this fight was the same one who did the Nelson/Algeo fight, and the fans booed him again, haha. The fight decision changed it from a TKO win to a decision win based off of their rules. Weidman acknowledged that he committed the eye poke, but he stated that Silva went about it wrong, forgot the reason, which i guess made 'some' sense, but it may be easier said than done when you are getting clobbered. Something about backing off after the eye poke rather than diving to the ground. Kind of a messed-up way to win, and the ref didn't really catch it, but Weidman was winning the fight up to that point, so.... All rounds were fairly close. Silva was pretty much crying after the fight pleading his case.
Buckley is coming on well in this lighter division where he is not outsized. It was a fairly close fight, but Buckley
started tagging him on the feet in the 2nd round and Luque pulled him down in to a sloppy guard and Buckley was did some GnP for a stoppage. Luque did not contest the stoppage.
Fiorot is not the most exciting fighter, but she is a major force. Blanchfield could not take her down, and she was severely outsized and weaker. Fiorot just tossed her around every time Blanchfield would grab her. It was a pretty smart gameplan by Fiorot, but not the most exciting either. She is strong, but does not punch heavy/strong, kind of weird. She reminds me of like a GSP in the standup game. Neither had strong punches, but they can/could get enough in to take effect as the fight goes/went on. In the first round, Fiorot straight up picked up Blanchfield like she was a child and body slammed her, it was pretty cool, but it backfired as Blanchfield got close to a choke. Fiorot just outmuscled her and got out of it and got to her feet. Fiorot did not look like she was intimidated by Erin's ground game, but she played it smart and didn't go there in the fight. Personally, as good as Erin is, I think she would be much better possibly in a lighter division. Not sure how close she is to that in weight, but she holds enough bodyfat to where she could make it. Her standup is mediocre, but it could be because Fiorot is a monster on the feet as well. Fiorot will get a title shot and it will be interesting to see what Erin does after this.
The only thing that sucks for Fiorot and a title shot is that she has to wait for Valentina/Grasso to get done with their Ultimate Fighter coaching and possible tri-match. I think she will do well against both of these ladies personally...not saying she will win, but she is big and strong and super athletic.
