Fight Night 36 Recap: Lyoto Machida Leads Boring Night In Jaragua

by Dr. Octagon, J.D.

We were in attendance at UFC 169, which set the record for most decisions on a Pay Per View. That card was way better than UFC Fight Night 36 in Jaragua, Brazil.

I never thought it would come to this, but I am about to complain that the five hours of free no-holds-barred cage fighting were boring, and that such events are being held too often. Welcome to The UFC’s era of over-saturation. Nothing unexpected or exciting happened on this card. For the most part, the favorites won and there were a ton of decisions.

Also, Mario Yamasaki is making a strong case for the title of worst ref in MMA. Yamasaki deducted a point from Maximo Blanco on the undercard for his first accidental kick to the junk. That’s the first time I can recall seeing that happen. The deduction didn’t end up mattering, but there should be some sort of consistency for accidental fouls.  A one point deduction in a three round fight is a pretty harsh penalty.

Speaking of consistency, in the main event Lyoto Machida was clearly on his knees when Gegard Mousasi hit him with an illegal upkick to the face. Yamasaki apparently didn’t notice it was a foul until Machida looked at him as if to ask, “What the fuck man” or the Portuguese equivalent. No point was deducted. That’s right. A kick to the groin is a point deduction. An illegal kick to the face? Yamasaki doesn’t even really notice. [[MORE]]

I’d love to hear Yamasaki’s explanation for that one, but apparently no amount of terrible officiating by the Yamasaki brothers will ever result in any consequences.

Machida cruised to a relatively easy five-round decision against Gegard Mousasi. Machida looked fast and his striking was precise as always.

Jacare Souza spent two rounds on Francis Carmont’s back and won a clear decision.

Erick Silva steamrolled Takenori Sato in the first round. Sato was a late replacement and one of the largest underdogs I can recall seeing (other than in a Ronda Rousey fight). Basically Silva just punched the hell out of Sato’s head while he was shooting the single.

After the top three fights, the quality of the card dropped off rapidly. Nicholas Musoke defeated Viscardi Andrade. Andrade looked like he won the fight, landing a huge punch on Musoke in the first round. But he celebrated rather than finishing it on the ground, and ended up losing the decision. Charles Oliveira took his time finishing an overmatched Andy Ogle in the third round by triangle.

The undercard was carried on Fightpass only. Fightpass is free right now and I had nothing better to do, so I signed up. There’s no way to Chromecast, as there used to be when the undercard is on YouTube, so you just have plug your computer’s HDMI straight into the TV. There also doesn’t appear to be an iPad app, which is pretty wack for something they’re going to charge me for (because I’ll forget to cancel it) until someone steals my identity again. That seems to happen about twice a year now, and always requires changing my credit card number.

Quality of the technology aside, the fights they’ve been putting on Fightpass are terrible. This is an event with Nicholas Musoke versus Viscardi Andrade on the main card. The undercard was godawful. Seven straight decisions. I’m not one of those guys who needs to see a finish in order to enjoy a fight, but these were a bunch of really low-end fighters just dicking around for fifteen minutes. I fell asleep multiple times during the three-hour undercard. I wasn’t even drinking.

The takeaway: the UFC is putting on way too many events. They can afford to put out a low quality product because they probably break even on these cards between the gate due and the low purses they pay the undercard fighters.

In other news, the UFC had a little segment where they were trying to create drama for the fight between Daniel Cormier, the Strikeforce Grand Prix-winning former Olympian who was tearing up the heavyweight division, and Patrick Cummins, a decorated college wrestler and barista with four fights to his credit who wrestled Cormier at one point and had some shit to talk about that.

As far as I can tell, Cormier was really pissed that he had to go on a diet to prepare for his first light heavyweight fight , so he made the UFC give him a fight on short notice rather than wait for a more appropriate opponent.

In other news, we were told during commercial breaks that Golden Corral has lobster tails now, which I am sure is making Cormier wish he stayed at heavyweight.  It’s just $3.99 extra. Sounds appetizing. They only give you one though. It’s not unlimited like everything else there.

It’s too bad I didn’t know about this before Valentine’s Day. I wouldn’t have wasted so much cash taking my old lady to Sizzler.