UFC 145 Reaction

Instead of your typical Recap format I'm going to do a Reaction type format only discussing things that I noticed that are worth talking about so here is my reaction for UFC 145.

Stephen Thompson was exposed for having a weak ground game
Mike Brown handed the Wonderboy his first EVER Pro loss. Insane, there was so much hype around Stephen Thompson and I'll admit I really took to Thompson, I didn't think he'd lose to Brown but I knew he would probably have problem with the elite wrestler heavy division. What Brown showed the Fight World is that Thompson has a weak Ground game. Brown is a great crafty ground fighter but if you go up the division ranks everyone is on an elite level of wrestling. As good as Thompson's stand up is 5 time world champion caliber it isn't worth anything if he's on his back. Another hole in Thompson's game is, his cardio isn't were it needs to be. He had couple of chances to finish Brown but he didn't have enough gas in the tank to lay it on him. Thompson is a hell of a talent but he needs to address these holes if he wants to compete with the upper tier of the division.


Mark Hominick got robbed
Eddie Yagin won a split decision against Hominick but I think the judges got this one wrong. Yagin did hurt Hominick twice but he never had him close to being finished. Hominick was able to stay composed and get back up and then land a ton of technical shots. I think Hominick out boxed Yagin but I guess the judges decisions were influenced alot by those knockdowns. This sucks for Hominick cause he is a title challenger but has hit a very bad stretch lately, hopefully the UFC lets him stay.

Brendan Schaub made a huge mistake, cost him the fight
Schaub made a terrible mistake last night that cost him not only the win but his place in the ranks. He is one of those fighters that is steady in the middle of the division a couple fights out of the top tier and this loss pushes him further down with like the Pat Barry's and the Matt Mitrione's I believe this win pushes Rothwell up to like the Fabricio Werdum, Mark Hunt level in the division. Schaub had Rothwell hurt in the fight but if you study tape on Rothwell you would know you gotta hit that guy with a sledge hammer for him to go down. No disrespect to Schaub's power he has an iron fist but I think he should of been smarter. He engaged in a trade with Rothwell which is not smart, if he stayed back and picked his shots better he might of finished him or at least took that round undoubtedly. This just shows me that Schaub is a hell of a talent but still has some more pieces of his game that he has to put together.

Rashad fought Jones' fight
Rashad had all the tools in the world to pull off an upset against Jones' but he didn't use them. He shot for like 3 take downs or so which weren't even close and then he went back to trying to fight Jones' from the feet and kept getting blasted by elbows from striking range. I thought Rashad would try to get the fight down at all cost, close the distance get a clinch, push him against the cage, go for takedowns or throws from the clinch but he didn't. I might have to watch it overs but I don't think they clinched much and Rashad definitely didn't try to take him down from close quarters. Another great job by Jon Jones to fight his fight we're he is leaps and bounds better then every guy he has fought so far. It looks like Jones' only test now is Dan Henderson. As for Rashad all he can really do is keep getting better or maybe drop down to 185.

An overall good fight card stay tuned here for my other fight reactions or follow me the blog on twitter @Fightjabber and lets talk MMA and Fighting.