The two longest winning streaks in MMA were on the line at UFC 149. Hector Lombard and Renan Barao were in the biggest fights of their life, but at the end of the day all good things must come to an end.
In the main event, Renan Barao cruised to an unanimous decision victory over former WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber. Overall Barao was able to to get the better of Faber everywhere. His kicks really made the difference overall, but in the second round Barao landed a knee to the body on Faber that possibly broke on of Faber’s ribs. With the big win Barao is now set up to unify the belts at a later date with Dominick Cruz. Barao is riding the longest current unbeaten streak in MMA with 30 straight fights without a loss.
In the co-main event, Hector Lombard made his UFC debut against Tim Boetsch. Boetsch took the split decision victory, ending Lombard’s impressive unbeaten streak. The fight never got going. Both men were hesitant to pull the trigger, and when one would look as if they were, the other would get out of the way. Boetsch was 0/9 on take downs, while Lombard was 2/4. Overall effective strikes, Lombard truly got the better of Boetsch and even hurt him with a kick to the body that led to Lombard rushing Boetsch and stuffing a Boetsch take down attempt where he landed some shots to close the second round. In all actuality, while neither man was impressive it appeared initially that Lombard did enough to get the nod, but apparently the judges saw it differently.
Cheick Kongo and James Head were both successful on the main card winning their fights by way of decision. Matt Riddle and Chris Clements opened up the main card with an entertaining overall fight. There were moments where both men had each other hurt, but Riddle’s grappling proved to be the difference and in the third round after a failed spinning backfist by Clements, Riddle grabbed him in an arm triangle on the feet and took Clements to the ground getting the submission victory and winning submission of the night honors.
The undercard is where the excitement took place. Ryan Jimmo made his debut and just seven seconds later he finished the fight. He was able to catch Anthony Perosh with a solid right hand that instantly dropped him flat. The knockout truly occurred in five seconds, but by the time Jimmo landed an extra punch and the referee stopped it, it turned out to be seven seconds which ties the UFC record.
Francisco Rivera and Antonio Carvalho both made some impacts as they won their fights by knock out. Both men were extremely impressive. Rivera from start to finish was able to pick Roland Delorme apart on the feet. Delorme attempted to get the fight to the ground and was never successful. By not being successful in getting the fight to the ground, Rivera’s crisp striking resulted in a knockout victory. Carvalho improved so much from his previous fight. His head movement was phenomenal and his striking overall was fantastic. He was able to hurt Pineda early and it was all downhill for Pineda from there as Carvalho finished the fight with a very impressive knockout.
Bryan Caraway was able to use his super grappling to take out solid prospect, Mitch Gagnon with a rear naked choke in the third round. The submission victory was his third win in a row and two in a row inside of the UFC, which were both submission victories by rear naked choke.
Anton Kuivanen took a split decision victory over Mitch Clarke in a fun grappling affair.
Nick Ring and Court McGee went to war with each other. The fight was overall close and once it was over you could tell that both had been in a war. It appeared that Ring had won the first two rounds, but they were close. The third round was all McGee. He landed over 80 total strikes in the round and Ring was exhausted. At the end many thought McGee had done enough to win, but all three judges scored in favor of Nick Ring, who walked out to the octagon with WWF/WWE legend Bret “The Hitman” Hart.
Overall UFC 149 was an interesting event. It was a tough event due to injuries, but was still able to deliver. The under card was outstanding with tons of excitement but the main card lacked in areas. One streak ended, while one continued. Renan Barao let the world know that he is legit and here to stay, now he will face Dominick Cruz to decide who truly is the best bantamweight on the planet. If there was one thing that everyone could take from the event, that would be that Ryan Jimmo can do an outstanding Robot dance.
Written by: Cody Slovensky – @Cslovensky
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