UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Philippou

UFC Fight Night: Rockhold vs. Philippou
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
From The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia
Live on FOX Sports 1 at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT

Main Event: (5 Rounds)

Middleweight Bout: Luke Rockhold (#6) vs. Costa Philippou (#10)

Main Card Bouts:

Middleweight Bout: Lorenz Larkin (#13) vs. Brad Tavares

Bantamweight Bout: TJ Dillashaw (#6) vs. Mike Easton (#7)

Middleweight Bout: Yoel Romero vs. Derek Brunson

Flyweight Bout: John Moraga (#4) vs. Dustin Ortiz (#15)

Featherweight Bout: Cole Miller vs. Sam Sicilia

Preliminary Bouts: (Live on FOX Sports 1 at 5 PM ET / 2 PM PT)

Lightweight Bout: Ramsey Nijem vs. Justin Edwards

Lightweight Bout: Isaac Vallie-Flagg vs. Elias Silverio

Middleweight Bout: Trevor Smith vs. Brian Houston

Flyweight Bout: Alpetkin Ozkilic vs. Louis Smolka

Preliminary Bouts: (Live on UFC Fight Pass at 4 PM ET / 1 PM PT)

Lightweight Bout: Vinc Pichel vs. Garett Whiteley

Lightweight Bout: Charlie Brenneman vs. Beneil Dariush

I wish I was more excited about this. It is a solid card.

I don't know what it is, but I am kind of burnt out on MMA right now. It is even hard for me to get excited for big cards that are coming up.

I think Cole Miller vs. Sam Sicilia will be a surprising good fight. Both of them despite coming off wins have been rocky their last few fights and a loss could send them home for good. I was a big fan of Sam Sicilia during TUF, so I'm obviously hoping he can get a convincing win.

I'll admit that I haven't kept up with UFC and Bellator as much as I use to though, so a lot of the smaller names I don't know much about. The show will be on DVR so hopefully there will be some good fights and an overall good show...

BTW with Cruz out again and relinquishing the title he should have relinquished a while ago, does Urijah Faber have what it takes to beat the man a year and a half ago for the belt in Barao?

CapitalTTruth wrote:I wish I was more excited about this. It is a solid card.  

I don't know what it is, but I am kind of burnt out on MMA right now.  It is even hard for me to get excited for big cards that are coming up.

It's an oversaturation of the product. UFC has so many cards and is having to water down the overall quality of their brand; see the UFC Singapore card a few weeks ago.

So many cards are being filled with cards that most fans have never seen fight. Even I think that they're overdoing it, and I used to feel like there was never enough fights on TV.

I am kind of in the same boat. I definitely feel like there are too many fights and not enough substance/context, but that doesn't explicitly bother me. Acknowledging it doesn't set right the dissonance in my head about this I still feel like I want to care more about this, out of habit. I kind of think the sport has leveled off a little bit over the last few years. For so long it seemed like you could see the sport developing (physically/skill-set wise) month to month. I don't see the talent in the sport skyrocketing in the same way. THat isn't to say people aren't getting better, but the incline isn't quite as steep as it used to be. To me, it was that excitement that built enough interest to justify as many shows as they were/are doing. Of course that isn't all of it. Losing the potential presence of two of the biggest stars in the sports history probably didn't help.

A pretty average card overall, but with a great ending seeing Luke Rockhold finish Costas Philippou with some devastating kicks. Rockhold is a true top contender and has some interesting fights ahead of him in the middleweight division.

Yoel Romero was another standout on this card as he came back from a tough two rounds to brutalize Derek Brunson. That ref showed Brunson no mercy and allowed him to take a ton of punishment, including some very vicious elbows to the body.

Given Romero's age (36), he will likely be fastracked into the upper echelon of 185, especially given his three straight KO wins.

Cole Miller got an impressive win over Sam Sicilia, but his claim of being a top 10 featherweight is a bit farfetched given his mixed results since dropping to 145. He wants Donald Cerrone at 145, but I really don't think that Cowboy can make the weight. He usually looks rather weak and sucked in when he makes 155, so I don't see how he loses 10 more pounds.

I mostly forgot about the show but tuned in just in time for the last 2 fights. Larkin/Tavares was a snoozefest, and i was surprised at how little Larkin did. Rockhold/Phillippou want about what I expected, with Rockhold finishing him pretty easily (i mean I didn't think he'd stop him with body blows, but you know). I really don't see anything in Phillippou, I know he's put some wins together in the UFC, but he hasn't really beat any top 10 fighters and I don't think he is talented enough to do so.

Impressive comeback by Rockhold in taking out Philippou in quick fashion. Always love to see a well placed body shot and the one he delivered was great, along with the follow up once Philippou went down. Here's hoping he can actually stay healthy and fights a couple more times this year.

Another impressive performance was by T.J. Dillashaw. His striking has really come a long way and looked very crisp against Easton. If Easton's chin wasn't so strong, he would have been finished. I see challenging for the BW strap down the line.