UFC 144 Prelims: Takeya Mizugaki vs Chris Cariaso
by Dr. Octagon, J.D.
Broadcast is live from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. It’s 10am on Sunday in Japan right now and the Arena looks packed. The undercard is positively chock-full of Japanese fighters.
These guys are bantamweights, the 135-pound weight class. I love watching the small guys fight.The Japanese fans are typically silent during the fight.
Round 1-Chris Cariaso throws a big kick, but it’s blocked. Cariaso lands a nice right. Fighters exchange, looked like Cariaso landed the left again. Mizugaki shoots and doesn’t get the takedown, but pops Chris as he stands. Cariaso lands a nice combo.
The fighters clinch and Mizugaki gets the takedown into full guard. Cariaso goes for an armbar, but loses it as Mizugaki stands up. That was close. Cariaso is trying to stand up on the cage. Mizugaki pulls him away and continues to work from the top position without doing much damage. Mizugaki postures up and lands a left. Cariaso is throwing elbows from the bottom. So I just said these guys always have exciting fights, and they start out with a pretty lackluster round. Nice.
10-9 Mizugaki.
Round 2-Mizugaki throws a kick that is checked, throws a combination and pins Cariaso against the cage. Cariaso is able to get away. Cariaso lands a nice right and throws a big head kick. Not a lot of action going on.
The fighters clinch and Mizugaki gets a takedown. It looks like we’re in for another two minutes of nice ground defense. Mizugaki postures up and falls into Cariaso’s guard swinging. Cariaso sinks a 100 percent neck crank he rolls off the cage and Mizugaki spins out of it.
10-9 Mizugaki.
Round 3-Cariaso lands a head kick, which connected. Always great to see a kick knockdown, but I have to question the strategy of a guy that’s been taken down twice and lost two rounds because of it throwing massive high kicks on a taller fighter. He’s just asking to get his ass taken down.
Mizugaki ties Cariaso up, but Cariaso turns him around and pushes him against the fence. Cariaso connects as the fighters disengage. Cariaso’s punches are connecting, but they’re not fazing the larger fighter. Cariaso goes for the takedown, but Mizugaki is able to push him off. The fighters tie up and Cariaso lands when they disengage. Cariaso throws another big headkick, falls and is on his back again. Fucking dumbass. If a guy is putting you on your back again and again, you don’t throw fucking high kicks.
Cariaso is trying to work something off his back, but he knows he’s losing this fight and he deserves to. What a terrible gameplan. Mizugaki steps over trying to pass and gets to halfguard.
10-9 Mizugaki.
The judges score it 29-28 for Cariaso across the board. That is the worst decision I’ve ever seen. Ever. It’s not even close. I literally typed in 30-27 Mizugaki unanimously and was just waiting to hit enter. That was a motherfucking robbery. Jesus.
Note to fighters in the subsequent fights: these judges have absolutely no respect for top control whatsoever. They gave Cariaso a lot of points for failed submission attempts and elbows from the bottom. Maybe it looked to them like those high kicks landed, but I don’t know how they arrived at that decision.