The UFC 165 card headlined by Jon Jones versus Alexander Gustafsson last night (Sept. 21, 2013) featured a solid supporting cast of matches that started out with two decisions and ended with two decisive finishes. The Pat Healy-Khabib Nurmagomedov match showed that the Russian certainly belongs in bigger fights, as he ran his record to 21-0 by taking out Healy, who showed a lot of toughness and took significant amount of punishment. The Russian showed a lot of gas, using his superior speed throughout the fight to both outstrike and outgrapple Healy. Nurmagomedov is a fight or two away from title consideration, look for a step up bout again, such as against Benson Henderson, Gilbert Melendez or TJ Grant. The Matt Mitrione-Brendan Schaub Heavyweight encounter delivered. Both are a long way away from the top of the weight class, but both had managed to generate interest on the match by building on an exchange of twitter insults. The match stayed tense in the stand-up as Schaub showed he could stay in there. Mitrione was trying to land his one big punch, and he wanted to stay off the ground. Schaub showed why, as he wrapped Mitrione up in a slick D’Arce choke on the way down, and he had “Meathead” sleeping less than a minute later. Schaub should get someone tough like Mark Hunt for his next match, as there are still a lot of questions about “The Hybrid.” As for Mitrione, he will hope to go the route of Pat Barry, who remains with the UFC despite losing and not performing well. If not, Lavar Johnson and Tank Abbott are holding arm wrestling contests in a bar somewhere, maybe he can go join them. Frenchman Francis Carmont was efficient and methodical in manhandling Costa Philippou. Philippou, known for his striking, was outstruck by the taller, longer Carmont, who used his stand-up well to set up takedowns. Carmont had Georges St. Pierre in his corner, and he fought in the same style as the UFC welterweight champion, and that is controlling where the fight was taking place and taking very little risks in trying to finish the fight. As for Philippou, he could not sustain and back up the hype he had earned in beating up Tim Boetsch, and it’s back to the drawing board for the striker from Long Island. In the co main event, interim titleholder Renan Barao scored a KO victory over Eddie Wineland, with a spinning back kick to the head and follow-up punches in round two. Wineland had kept it close in the opening round, as Barao seemed to start out slow, but once Barao struck in the 2nd, it was over fast. Wineland and company may feel the stoppage was a bit premature, but it was probably going to get worse from there. Barao and divisional champion Dominick Cruz seemed destined to clash in a title unification match when Cruz returns from a two-year absence. This is probably not he best way to go for either athlete, but both Cruz and Barao are talking about it. The UFC is unlikely to strip Cruz and ease him back into competition after knee issues that required two surgeries if he is available to fight in the early part of 2014, so the champ vs. champ match with Barao is most likely next. As another sport entertainment company is using in their scripts nowadays, ‘it is what is best for business’. Renan Barao vs Eddie Wineland highlights:
Brendan Schaub vs Matt Mitrione highlights: