Report Card: Josh Barnett scores high in win over Roy Nelson
— -- A heavyweight main attraction between Josh Barnett and Roy Nelson somehow went a full five rounds in a UFC return to Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo. The UFC Fight Night as a whole was a mixed bag of MMA, but Barnett's grueling performance against Nelson was worth a look.
Check out ESPN's full fighter grades for that UFC event, as well as Bellator 143 from Hidalgo, Texas.
"Sorry Gegard." Jokes aside, what a win for Hall. The spinning back kick was divine -- but the money shot was actually the flying knee he landed right after. And in this perfect grade, I'm not ignoring the first five minutes, during which Hall was easily handled by Mousasi's grappling and very nearly submitted. Obviously, that's a concern when you think about potential matchups near the top of that division -- but that concern is for another day. Within the context of this fight only, Hall survived a bad situation and then capitalized in the most major of ways when given the opportunity.
What a scene at the conclusion of this one. There was Barnett, widely known for his larger-than-life, pro-wrestling shtick, dialing it all the way down to politely call "Big Country" over to stand beside him -- speaking to the camera, in a calm, substitute teacher sort of demeanor, telling the audience that this man standing beside him, this is the best kind of man to entertain fans in a cage fight with. It was a perfect, honest finish to that main event, which was more about entertaining a Japanese crowd than it was sorting out the heavyweight pecking order. Had to love that.
Whelp. I guess the lesson here is, when fighting a wild, Brazilian, slugger banshee, perhaps it's best to keep one's hands up. That's not the way Kikuno rolls though and he paid for it. This was a great showcase of Brandao's finishing skills -- but other than that, there's not a whole lot to say here. On to the next, I'm on to the next one, on to the next, I'm on to the next one.
Zero loss of confidence after that complete shelling he took in the title fight against Demetrious Johnson. And his output was up. Horiguchi has gone the distance three times in his UFC career, all three-round fights. In the first two, he attempted 169 and 123 strikes. On Saturday, that number increased to 226. He looked good throwing combinations and extremely assertive when he did decide to plant his feet and exchange. Throw that loss to Johnson out the window. Horiguchi is 24 and wasn't ready for the champ. Focus on the real story here: that Horiguchi is a serious future champion candidate.
For my money, this was one of Nelson's best performances in years. Better than some of his first-round wins, honestly, when you consider the competition. He surprised Barnett with a few takedown attempts early -- and then surprised all of East Asia when he clocked Barnett with a head kick (?!) in the second round. Nelson is an amazing human being, quite frankly. A look of pure exhaustion overcame him in the third round, but this guy just never goes down. I will say, I wish he would come to fights in better shape. I get the fact Barnett put it on him, forced a high pace, wore out his arms with all that work in the clinch -- but that doesn't change my opinion that Nelson could have came into this fight in better cardiovascular condition than he did. And I'm not basing this on his physical appearance. Anyway, still a positive night for Nelson. He might never fight for a UFC title, but he'll certainly be memorable long after he's gone.
I mean, this was the way for Grove to fight Joey Beltran, was it not? Use his reach advantage, put him on the end of his jab, avoid standing in the pocket. Check, check, check. Grove's ringsmanship was very good and a knockout finish is a knockout finish, even if Beltran's chin is clearly not what it used to be. Physically, Grove is slowing down a little in his 12th year as a professional, but he showed off the benefits of experience in this veteran-esque performance. Prior to the fight, Grove told me he's frustrated sometimes by his inability to execute in a fight what he feels great doing in practice. Execution was there in this one.
I don't blame the Texas crowd for booing Warren's conservative approach, but the reality is that he 100 percent had the correct game plan. We've seen Warren brawl before, especially early in a fight. Doing so here would have been foolish, considering a title shot was on the line and Davis was clearly outgunned in the wrestling department. That said, there was a lot not to love in Warren's "ground and (not) pound" strategy. Being entertaining is not required to earn a high grade on this report card, but blatantly not even attempting to finish a fight, after you've taken down your opponent, who doesn't represent a huge submission risk -- that's no way to earn a high grade either.
Camus did what he could in an extremely tough matchup that, let's be honest, he was extremely unlikely to win. I thought he showed discipline -- kept things tight and stuck to his game plan, even as Horiguchi flew ahead on the scorecards. I'm sure the temptation to start flinging desperate haymakers was there, but Camus fought intelligently the entire time. He tried to come forward aggressively and look for a finish in the third, but that plays into Horiguchi's hands. He looked for takedowns when they were there, but that was a big cage out there, with plenty of room for his Japanese opponent to keep space between them. This looked like a nasty matchup on paper for Camus and it played out that way, but in no way did I ever see him mail it in.
Nice moment for Mizugaki, earning a UFC win in front of a Japanese crowd for the second time in his career. At this point, I don't think anyone should really expect much more from Mizugaki than exactly this: a smart, relatively efficient performance, that doesn't overwhelm you at all. He has a good understanding of the game, but he's not a terrifying threat in any particular aspect. His last finish was four years ago. This is Mizugaki, guys. You'll respect him -- but you won't be wowed by him.
Going into the fight, this was the biggest worry if you were a Mousasi believer. Mousasi is a phenomenal defensive fighter, but he does stand directly in front of his opponents. And when you're facing a guy like Hall, with all the spinning stuff, standing directly in front of your opponent is asking for trouble. If these two fought 100 times, I'm still picking Mousasi more often than Hall -- which actually makes this loss even more frustrating if you're the former Strikeforce champion.
It wasn't a rotten showing by Davis, really. Ultimately, this is just who he is. He's enough of a complete package that he'll get his share of wins, but against an opponent with any elite set of qualities (i.e. Warren's wrestling), he doesn't fare well. This is the kind of fight he had been asking for and he knew what to expect in it. It's not as if Warren surprised him with any new wrinkles to his game. Davis just couldn't stop what was coming. I actually scored the second round for him -- but even then, I didn't consider it a close fight. Davis was never a threat.
