UFC 182 took place Saturday night live from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a solid under card that saw three knockouts, including a thrilling Paul Felder spinning back fist knockout of Danny Castillo.
It also saw UFC veteran Evan Dunham get back on the winning side of things. After three straight losses, Dunham was able to pick up the decision win over Rodrigo Damm. The main card lacked the excitement that many fight fans hoped for as each one of the five main card fights went the distance.
The card was so stretched out that the UFC almost ran out of Pay Per View Time, which would have been a huge mishap.
In the opening fight on the main card, it was Hector Lombard winning convincingly over the retuning Josh Burkman. After seven plus years away from the UFC, one would have thought that Burkman would be chomping at the bits to impress the UFC fans and brass, it was anything but the case. Burkman danced around and ran from Lombard for all three rounds.
For Lombard, it was his 3rd straight UFC win, and his 35th career win. This put him right in the middle of the UFC Welterweight title picture. The Flyweight fight of Kyoji Horiguchi defeating Louis Gaudinot that followed, was a total snooze fest that drew constant boo’s from the fans, as all three rounds lacked action.
This was not what Dana White and the UFC brass wanted from a fight that they promoted to the main card. Nate Marquardt continues to shoot himself in the foot as he lost to Brad Tavares. The fight was never close as Tavares won all three rounds on all three score cards.
Life continues to be up and down for Marquardt as he still cannot get back on track after temporarily getting kicked out of the UFC a few years back. Look out for Tavares, after a rough 2014, he should be back on the rise in 2014.
Donald Cerrone continues to be on a red hot streak as he bolted past the unbeaten Miles Jury. He won all three rounds with ease, coming close to making Jury tap several times in the first round. With six straight wins in the Lightweight division, Cerrone is not to be messed with.
He takes on Benson Henderson later this month in Boston. Henderson has beaten Cerrone twice, he looks to get revenge and also put himself in the middle of the title picture at Lightweight.
The main event failed to deliver on the hype of someone getting knocked out or tapped out between these two hated rivals. It did further solidify that Jon “Bones” Jones is one of the greatest fighters in MMA history, and one of the best athletes in sports. Bones won 4 rounds and was never in danger against the very dangerous Daniel Cormier. Jones used his reach and superior wrestling skills to take Cormier down several times late in the fight.
This took the heart and energy behind the fan favorite Cormier, it also gave “DC” his first career loss.