Surprises and Disappointments is a column featured on MMAOddsbreaker.com after every UFC event, highlighting three fighters who had surprising performances and three fighters who disappointed. Here were the three biggest surprises and the three biggest disappointments from UFC Fight Night 61. Surprises Sam Alvey – Yep, I called it. I had a terrible night in picks, going 2-9 overall, but I called the fight between Sam Alvey and Cezar Ferreira to a T. I told everyone that Alvey would KO Ferreira and he did just that, destroying his Brazilian opponent in the first round with punches. Alvey is now 2-1 in the UFC with two brutal knockouts and I’m looking forward to seeing who the UFC matches him up with next. Marion Reneau – At 37 years of age, Marion Reneau is somehow now 2-0 in the UFC, first defeating Alexis Dufresne at UFC 182 via decision and now taking out Jessica Andrade at UFC Fight Night 61 via first-round submission. Reneau is a late bloomer and while I didn’t give her any credit before, I’ll admit I was completely wrong about her. She’s a very good fighter and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next for her. Matt Dwyer – WOW! Coming into his fight with William Macario off of a brutal loss to Albert Tumenov, no one thought Dwyer was going to win this bout. But he did just that, knocking out Macario with a superman punch in the first round in highlight-reel fashion. What a knockout by the Canadian, who won’t be disrespected by the bettors any longer – that, I can assure you. Disappointments Rustam Khabilov – I don’t know what happened to Rustam Khabilov. His wrestling looked terrible, his striking looked terrible, and he lost to an opponent he should have beat. Khabilov is a solid fighter but man, losing to Adriano Martins is a huge setback for him and he’ll really need to string a few wins together to rebound from such a poor outing. Iuri Alcantara – Just a horrendous performance by Iuri Alcantara, who was dominated over three rounds by journeyman Frankie Saenz en route to a unanimous decision loss. I’m not even sure what to say about this one. Alcantara has never looked this bad in the UFC and honestly, this was a performance where I wouldn’t blame the UFC if they cut him – he looked that bad. Tiago Trator – Jeez, what happened to Tiago Trator? He entered his fight against Mike de la Torre as a solid favorite and yet looked terrible in the fight, getting brutally knocked out in the first round. Trator couldn’t get any takedowns, he couldn’t land any strikes, and then he got finished. Maybe 145lbs isn’t the right weight class for him, after all.
