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UFC 169: Another title fight, another loss for Team Alpha Male
By Zach Arnold | February 1, 2014

Event: UFC 169 in Newark, New Jersey at the Prudential Center
TV: Fox Sports 1/PPV
- Welterweights: Neil Magny defeated Gasan Umalatov after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Rashid Magomedov defeated Tony Martin after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Middleweights: Clint Hester defeated Andy Enz after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Al Iaquinta defeated Kevin Lee after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Middleweights: Nick Catone defeated Tom Watson after 3R by split decision. One judge scored the bout 30-27 in favor of Catone.
- Flyweights: Chris Cariaso defeated Danny Martinez after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Alan Patrick defeated John Makdessi after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Abel Trujillo defeated Jamie Varner in R2 in 2’32 by KO.
- Flyweights: Ali Bagautinov defeated John Lineker after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Heavyweights: Alistair Overeem defeated Frank Mir after 3R by unanimous decision.
- UFC Featherweight title match: Jose Aldo defeated Ricardo Lamas after 5R by unanimous decision.
- UFC Bantamweight title match: Renan Barao defeated Urijah Faber in R1 in 3’42 by TKO.
Good job to the judge that scored the Al Iaquinta/Kevin Lee fight 28-27, giving Iaquinta a 10-8 first round and Lee a 10-8 second round with Iaquinta finishing 10-9 in R3 for the win.
UFC & Fox should be embarrassed for prodding Mike Goldberg & Joe Rogan into pushing Rosie O’Donnell & Demi Lovato tweets about UFC 169.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Very underwhelming UFC. I think the increased schedule is not good.
I didn’t see the fight and frankly didn’t have any interest in doing so. Foreigners, especially small ones, don’t draw at all. I would be shocked if they got more than 300k buys.
I hope Frank Mir retires; he is nothing close to elite at this point and has taken enough punishment to last 5 lifetimes. Hell of a career, but time to walk away.
Just my take on a couple things:
1) Jamie Varner gave that fight away. I was telling my friend, “he is doing a good job of breaking him (Abel Trujillo) down,….when he is PATIENT,but this guy looks tough, and Varner is fight sloppy and is gonna get KO’d”,….and right after I said that, BAM! Varner went down.
2) Overeem looked MUCH BETTER, all around.
First, he look muscular but ATHLETIC, not like an over-sized, over-roided 1980s, WWF beast wanna be.
Second, his cardio was much better, he didn’t gas and never seemed winded. That may have been due to,…
Third, he seemed much more patient this fight, he didn’t try to force anything. That might be a major reason why he wasn’t sucking wind, but regardless, there was a *definite* improvement in his conditioning.
Mir looked tired, but not because his conditioning sucked (this time, at least), but because he had a big, string guy on top of him, out wrestling him,…and because he was getting pounded. There is a difference between being tired and fatigued. Regardless, hopefully the UFC offers Mir a broadcasting position. He is done, but had a great career.
3) Some will complain that the Main Event was stopped a little early. I agree, but in all fairness, even though Faber not being severely hurt (while down) and his hand was absorbing all the strikes, he was doing anything. Herb Dean was watching Uriah take something like, 14 unanswered strikes and just laying face down. I believe he was waiting for an opportunity to explode and break free, but I honestly don’t recall Faber EVER being SO rocked by shots to his head…
Very bad stoppage for a main event title fight. 10 weak slappy hammer blows directly to Fabers hand? c’mon! kids take harder shots in a game of dodge ball, that was a rare blow job by dean.
Also big blow job by Varner, while reem showed compassion by punching Mir only one time during the last minute, even though Mir was clearly ready to go.
It was a typical MMA Ref Call. And what is a typical MMA Ref Call? It is when they lack professionalism and react to things around them instead of the action itself. Two major examples are:
1) Refs that stand up fighters when fans start to booo.
2) Refs who stop fights when one opponent looks at them and motions them to stop it.
Garbage.
Yeah, can’t believe Dean fell for the “hes done” routine.
“2) Overeem looked MUCH BETTER, all around.”
It wasn’t a killer performance, but it was a smarter one.
And its about time. Reem has generally been strategy dumb his whole career.
Which was good enough in the wilds of second tier promotions but will quickly catch up to you when gathered into a division with all the best fighters available.
I’ve always considered fighting smart to be better then fighting stupid.
I’d prefer to watch two guys will skills and smarts go 5 strategic rounds then a canned mismatch finish or 2 idgits windmilling until one collapses in blood and gore.
Unfortunately dana and his posse of 13 year olds on twitter dont agree.
“It wasn’t a killer performance, but it was a smarter one.”
Oh, I agree. THAT was primarily what looked MUCH BETTER in his fight. But I do think his cardio was vastly improved, even if part of that was because he fought smarted and didn’t burn himself out early. He just didn’t seem so tired after rounds of beating on Mir’s face.
“I’ve always considered fighting smart to be better then fighting stupid.
I’d prefer to watch two guys will skills and smarts go 5 strategic rounds then a canned mismatch finish or 2 idgits windmilling until one collapses in blood and gore.”
I would, as well.
Did anyone else notice there wasn’t enough time left on the clock for a five round fight once Barao/Faber finally started. Dana White should be thanking his lucky stars today that Herb Dean intervened and stopped that fight early. Can you imagine the margarine that White would be sweating right now at the prospect of handing back all that ppv money? Shades of UFC 33.
‘Victory’ in New Jersey, lol.
PPV was scheduled until 2am on my cable guide.