My latest column at MMAOddsbreaker.com is my Rating the Card article, where I will take a look back at all the major MMA events and recap the event and then give my overall score of the card. For this instalment of the column, we will look back at UFC 186. The first fight of the night saw Canadian Randa Markos take on Aisling Daly in a women’s strawweight bout between TUF 20 housemates. This fight didn’t produce a finish, but it was still quite entertaining to watch, with Markos winning a unanimous decision. Markos showed off her dazzling wrestling in the fight, along with her underrated striking, while Daly showed she is a skilled and crafty vet who will hang in there for the full 15 minutes. It was a solid fight and I’m looking forward to seeing who both women get matched up with next. Rating: 6.5/10 Another women’s strawweight bout followed as Ontario’s Jessica Rakoczy took on Quebec’s Valerie Letourneau. The fight took place both on the feet and on the mat, which made it a complete mixed martial arts match. Rakoczy showed toughness by staying in the fight for the full 15 minutes, but Letourneau looked just a bit better and was able to snare a decision win. Rating: 6/10 The final fight pass prelim saw Quebec’s Nordine Taleb take on Chris Clements. This fight was awful to watch. Taleb just kept taking Clements down and Clements didn’t offer anything from the bottom, losing a blowout decision on the scorecards. Just a very bland fight overall. Rating: 2.5/10 The first televised prelim saw Olivier Aubin-Mericer squaring off against David Michaud in a lightweight contest. This was a decent fight. OAM showed a complete MMA game in this fight, eventually coaxing the tapout in round three, but Michaud showed some toughness and even some power, as he was able to briefly knock down OAM in the second. Not a great fight, but it wasn’t terrible to watch, either. Rating: 6/10 Then it was a lightweight bout between Brian Barberena and Chad Laprise. Barberena was a big underdog in this fight but showed he’s a talented and scrappy fighter by going the full 15 minutes and going toe-to-toe with Laprise the entire time. Laprise won as expected, but Barberena made the fight competitive and entertaining to watch. Rating: 6.5/10 Up next was a women’s bantamweight bout between Sarah Kaufman and Alexis Davis. This fight produced one of the few upsets on the evening, as Davis earned a second-round submission over Kaufman after losing the first round in convincing fashion. The fight was turning into a typical striking match before the submission occurred, but considering the way it ended it was a pretty exciting fight overall. Rating: 7/10 The last televised prelim saw veteran welterweights Joe Riggs and Patrick Cote go head-to-head. The two battled it out on the mat and in the standup for the full 15 minutes and turned in a pretty exciting fight for the fans. Cote eventually won the decision in his hometown, and he deserved it in what was an entertaining fight for the fans. Rating: 6/10 The opening main card bout saw Thomas Almeida emerge as a bantamweight contender as he was able to knock out Yves Jabouin in the first round. Most expected Almeida to win the fight by knockout, and he did just that, stunning Jabouin with punches and finishing the veteran’s questionable chin off in devastating fashion. Not a great fight, but a good knockout. Rating: 7/10 Then it was a lightweight fight between John Makdessi and Shane Campbell. Wow, is all I can say. This fight lasted just shy of one full round, but it was awesome while it lasted. Campbell showed off his beautiful kicks early on, but Makdessi was able to badly hurt him with punches and put him in a terrible situation, attacking his opponent with ground and pound after dropping him. Somehow, Campbell survived the beating, but Makdessi kept on him and brutally knocked him out with just a few ticks left on the clock in the first round. Awesome standup fight for how long it lasted, with a great finish. Rating: 8.5/10 Up next was a much-anticipated middleweight bout between CB Dollaway and Michael Bisping. This was a really good fight between two well-matched 185lbers. Dollaway won the first round after knocking Bisping down with a big left hook, but he couldn’t finish him and Bisping took over in the second and third rounds and pulled out a close decision win. This was a really fun fight, and neither fighter needs to hang their heads after this one. Rating: 7.5/10 The co-main event saw Quinton “Rampage” Jackson face off against Fabio Maldonado in a highly-anticipated catchweight bout. The fight had the potential to be a Fight of the Night candidate on paper, but it just didn’t live up to expectations. “Rampage” looked shot in the fight and Maldonado looked really awful as well, leading to a very mediocre PPV co-main event. Rating: 5.5/10 And finally, the main event of the evening saw UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson defend his title against Kyoji Horiguchi by tapping his opponent out at 4:59 in the fifth round to earn the latest stoppage in UFC history. Johnson would have won a decision had the fight hit the cards, but he went for the armbar with just a few seconds left and got it for the most exciting moment on the whole card. Overall Johnson dominated the fight and the finish made it even sweeter. It just would have been nicer if Horiguchi was more competitive. Rating: 7/10 Overall, I rated UFC 186 a 6.5/10. There were a few fun fights and a couple really impressive finishes, but as a whole too many of the fights went to decision and it dragged down the card’s overall rating. Still, seeing Johnson make UFC history was something else and definitely helped the card’s overall rating out. UFC 186 wasn’t the best card ever, but it was far from the worst, too.
