MMA Crunch

Going into Episode 9 of this season’s Ultimate Fighter, there may have been 2 quarter final fights scheduled to air, but there was only 1 fight everyone was waiting to see. Matt Brown verses a guy he’s become very good freinds with, Amir Sadollah.

Both of these guys have shown a lot of heart on the show thus far, but as much as the other contestants in the house have raved about how much Matt Brown should be feared, I’ve got to tell you I personally haven’t been all that impressed. He’s an animal, no doubt… but that savage exterior fails to cover up the fact that his hand speed is less than average and his ground game doesn’t stand up (pardon the pun) to most of the other guys in the house. Amir would be the furnace to show was Brown was really made of.

The first fight of the night was Jesse Taylor versus Dante Rivera. This fight was never even close. Jesse was the clear bully in this fight, imposing his will on Dante almost before the fight began. When the ref called for a start to the action, it wasn’t long before Taylor’s superior strength and wrestling skills manifested as he quickly took Dante down and began assaulting him with punches. That pretty much sums up the entire fight.

Dante did well to deflect much of the bombardment and showed a remarkable ability to take punishment and never look like he was the slightest bit worried… always calm and collected… but he was never able to stop Taylor from repeatedly taking the fight to the mat, securing top position and raining punched down on poor Dante’s face. Dante never posed any threat in the fight and quite frankly was never in it to start with. I was impressed with Jesse’s ability to completely dictate the fight, but at the same time unimpressed that despite his aggressive control, he was unable to finish the fight.

No brainer, Jesse Taylor wins via 2 round decision.

Next up was the fight everyone wanted to see. Matt v. Amir

The first round delivered everything people expected. These two guy came out swining, throwing punches, kicks and knees like there was no tomorrow. To my surprise, Matt looked like he was trying to take it to the ground early in the fight, but Amir was able to fight off every attempt to do so while Matt burned through enormous amounts of energy in the endeavor. Matt was a bit more aggressive, but the wild card seemed to be Amirs effortless front kicks that he was landing on Matt’s face as easily as if he were tossing out casual jabs. There may not have been a lot of power in those kicks, but they were always right on line and you could tell early on it gave Matt a moment of pause each time he considered getting within range (or staying for too long) of those kicks.

It was a very tight round up until Amir was able to sweep in a knee while in the clinch into the side of Matt’s body that clearly hurt him. His face showed visible pain and his knees buckled momentarily. By my scorecard that one knee gave Amir the round.

The second round started with Matt unleashing an early storm. A lot of strong (but as I mentioned earlier, not exactly lightning quick) punches, but nothing landed solid and Amir emerged seemingly unscathed from the exchange. The second round began looking more and more like the first until Amir was able to take Matt down and achieved a full mount position. To his credit, Matt defended himself pretty well from the mount, but through no lack of trying, was never able to come close to shaking Amir off. In a desperate attempt, Matt leveraged the cage to flip himself over, but this was ill advised since the flip only left Matt finding himself with Amir’s legs cinching around his head as he sunk a triangle on him pretty tight. It looked for a moment like Brown may escape, but once Amir began to pull Matt’s head down and really apply the pressure, Matt knew he was beat and tapped.

Winner: Amir via Triangle choke in the second round

It was an entertaining fight with some heafty exchanges, but again, the lack of hand speed hurt Brown in this fight. Amir seemed to always be able to telegraph when and where the strikes were coming. This gives me a lot of doubt for Brown’s UFC future. You can work hard on your ground game… but can you really teach speed?

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