UFC 178 Recap: Romero cheats American hero. Johnson wins easily.

Demetrious Johnson vs. Chris Cariaso- Here we go.  Championship squash match.  Joe Rogan is saying that  Mighty Mouse “may be the best fighter on earth.” He’s not.  He’s just far and away the best fighter in an extremely thin weight class.  He’s a good fighter, but Joe Rogan will say just about anything to hype a fight.

At the end of the first round, Johnson almost knocked out Cariaso with a big right and a knee to the face, but Cariaso was saved by the bell. In the second round Johnson trapped Cariaso’s arm in the crucifix position and just brutalized him before locking in a kimura to finish him.

Donald Cerrone vs. Eddie Alvarez- Alvarez looks tiny in the cage with Cerrone.  The notable thing in the first round is that the fighters clinched and Alvarez punched cerrone in the head about twenty times and Cerrone really didn’t even move.  Cerrone survived and didn’t even look hurt, but Alvarez clearly won the round.  In the second round, Donald started to get his kicks going.  Working the body and landing heavy leg kicks as well.  Eddie tried for a takedown, but it wasn’t there.  Eddie’s right eye got jacked up.  Fight tied going into the third round.  Donald landed so many leg kicks that Eddie couldn’t stand and then went on the ground and worked some ground and pound for the final minute of the fight.  Crystal clear 29-28 for Cerrone.  There you have it.  The best fighter in Bellator looks like he belongs in the UFC, but maybe not in the top 10.  Alvarez doesn’t look like he has a lot of power in his hands.

Connor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier- Poirier’s lack of defense didn’t really do him any favors as he was dropped by a left and finished quickly in the first round.  Poirier tried to complain that some of the punches were in the back of the head, but they were really close to the ear and I’ve seen way worse.

Tim Kennedy vs. Yoel Romero- this one is going to be controversial.  Yoel won the first round, bloodying Kennedy pretty badly.  Yoel was also probably winning the second round too, but Kennedy got off a flurry of uppercuts and almost had Yoel out on his feet as the round ended.  When it was time to start the third round, Yoel was still on his stool.  Now I may be a little too used to watching boxing, but when a guy is sitting on his stool when the round begins, the fight is usually over.  Yoel’s cornermen took their sweet time getting out of the cage and then it looked like Big John made them towel him off.  End result was that a dazed and tired fighter who had an inch-wide cut on his face got an extra thirty seconds or so to gather his wits.  He went out and landed a nice combination on Kennedy before pounding Tim out on the ground.  Can’t help but think that the fight wouldn’t have ended like that if Yoel answered the bell.  I’m no expert on the unified rules, but if a guy doesn’t come out of his corner on time, you’d think there would be some sort of penalty.

Cat Zingano vs. Amanda Nunes- Let me start off by saying that I think that this was the best female bout I’ve ever seen in the UFC.  In the first round, Nunes immediately took Cat Zingano down and was crushing her with devastating ground and pound.  Nunes seemd to land four or five perfect right hands to Cat’s chin.  I couldn’t believe that she didn’t go out. For some reason Nunes tried to grab Cat’s leg and Cat flipped her over and finished the round working from the top.  In the second, Cat tossed Nunes to the mat and beat her up pretty badly.  In the third, Cat executed an even more impressive throw and put a savage beating on Nunes on the ground.  Really bloody before the ref stopped it.

Dominick Cruz vs. Takeya Mizugaki- Vegas crowd gives the former champ a warm welcome back.  Mizugaki landed a few shots on Cruz, but shortly thereafter, Cruz shot in with a powerful takedown and pounded Mizugaki out at 1:01 in the first round.  Cruz looked just like his old self for the one minute we saw him, with excellent movement and his shot looked explosive.

Jorge Masvidal vs. James Krause- Masvidal put on a striking and grappling clinic, easily beating the overmatched Krause.

Patrick Cote vs. Steven Thompson Cote seemed content to stay at range and let the far slicker Steven Thompson land kicks from range and punches whenever he got close.  Cote didn’t have much for Thompson.

John Howard vs. Brian Ebersole- John Howard’s ultra-complicated haircut versus Brian Ebersole’s manscaped chesthair arrow.  Close fight, not a great fight to watch, Ebersole got the nod. Third round was really close.

Kevin Lee vs. John Tuck- The most notable thing about this fight is that Lee kicked Tuck in the balls really hard, like straight on lined it up and blasted.  Then Tuck got Lee back twice and on the second time, got a point deducted, which is weird to see, especially since Lee’s nutshot made me cringe way more.  Anyway, Lee won 30-26 instead of 30-27.

Manvel Gamburyan vs. Cody Gibson- Manvel looked like shit and was getting his ass beat, but he pulled out a guillotine late in the second.  Really high up on the head for a guillotine at 4:56 of the second.