Rumble smashes Gus after eye poke. "I feel bad because he's crying"
Anthony Rumble Johnson just mauled the mauler on his home turf to earn a title shot against Jon Jones. I had a feeling that Johnson would come out victorious, but my feeling wasn’t anything compared to the Mastermind Jordan Breen’s breakdown of the fight on the Sherdog round table, basically saying that if Johnson got fouled he would go into rage mode and finish the fight. Great call. This isn’t the first time that this has happened, but it’s still pretty amazing how getting fouled seems to help Rumble kick it into a higher gear. Joe Rogan was all like “Anthony Johnson can’t get crazy here” as he basically went full on berzerker walking through all of Gus’s jabs and chasing him around the cage as though Gus was a small child who could not possibly harm him, knocked him down and then landed about twenty savage blows to the turtled Swede’s face before the ref waved the fight off. Pretty interesting to see how much longer the ref let this particular fight go compared to the last one. After the fight, Anthony Johnson said “I feel bad because he’s crying,” which was pretty awkward, but I don’t think he meant it to come out that way, as he later added that he was also an emotional guy, which took some of the sting out of his earlier comment. Tough loss for all the Swedes who stayed up until 3am so we could watch this card in prime time. Hope Gus comes back strong.
Jon Jones is a big fan of poking eyes so maybe he’ll have to watch himself against Rumble. Anthony Johnson is on an amazing run, reminding me of Shane Carwin with his insane stopping power. It is hard to believe he occasionally used to make welterweight sometimes. Can’t wait for that fight between Rumble and Bones.
I thought that the Dan Henderson Gegard Mousasi fight was stopped slightly early, but I also don’t give a fuck because Dan Henderson really should retire. A glancing blow to the head put him on rollerskates. People love to criticize the refs after watching the replays over and over in slow motion, but in real time it did look like Dan fell on his ass after getting clocked and was about to eat a few more knuckle sandwiches on his back. Not the worst stoppage I’ve ever seen. It’s been said before, but I never cease to be amused by how bored Gegard Mousasi manages to look while locked in the cage with some of the most dangerous men on the planet.
Bader versus Phil Davis was just as bad as everyone expected, with Bader winning the close decision. I’m sure some people saw it for Davis. The only certain losers in this fight were the 26,000 Swedes who stayed up late to see it. Phil Davis is a great fighter, but his fights are really tough to watch. He’s like the Jake Shields of light heavyweight. Davis has no power on the feet and basically uses his striking to set up takedowns. Davis is a great wrestler, but it’s not enough against top light heavyweights. He was unable to even put a chip in Bader’s glass chin.
Also as totally expected, Michael Chiesa’s best friend Sam Sicilia smoked Akira Corassani in the first round with a right hook and a punch on the ground that wasn’t really necessary, but that you couldn’t really blame him for throwing. Nice exciting fight before the Bader-Davis suckfest.
Below are the undercard results courtesy of MMAfighting.com. Go to their excellent site if you want to read about it. I’m shitfaced and need to go to sleep.
Undercard
Albert Tumenov def. Nico Musoke via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
Kenny Robertson def. Sultan Aliev via first-round TKO (2:42)
Makwan Amirkhani def. Andy Ogle via first-round TKO (0:08) (Watch)
Nikita Krylov def. Stanislav Nedkov via submission (guillotine) (R1, 1:24)
Mairbek Taisumov def. Anthony Christodoulou via second-round KO (0:38)
Mirsad Bektic def. Paul Redmond via unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 30-25)
Viktor Pesta def. Konstantin Erokhin via unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28)
Neil Seery def. Chris Beal via unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28)