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 the column, we will look at UFC Fight Night 63. The first fight of the night saw Justin Jones take on Ron Stallings. Jones, who only has five pro fights, looked very green in the standup and the veteran Stallings took it to him, hurting him with all sorts of kicks and punches and ultimately earning a decision. It was a pretty fun fight for what it was, although I do not think either man has a high ceiling in the sport. Rating: 6/10 Next up was Timothy Johnson taking on Shamil Abdurakhimov in a heavyweight contest between two UFC newcomers. This was a pretty high-paced fight that ultimately saw Johnson pull off the upset with a late first-round TKO. It wasn’t a great fight, but it was far from bad by any means. Rating: 5/10 Then it was Gray Maynard taking on Alexander Yakovlev in the second prelim. Maynard looked good in the first, but as has been the case in his last few fights, Maynard’s chin was not up to par as Yakovlev rocked him badly in the second round and he just couldn’t recover in time to gain energy back and take the third round. This wasn’t a great fight to watch, but it wasn’t horrible either. Rating: 4/10 And the last prelim saw Liz Carmouche take on Lauren Murphy. This was a truly horrible fight to watch, as it involved 15 minutes of cage clinching, and no one wants to watch that. But perhaps even worse than the actual fight itself was the judging, as Carmouche earned a very controversial unanimous decision nod that she did not deserve. It was one of the worst fights of the year so far in MMA, and it’s a fight I’ll never watch again. Rating: 1/10 The opening main card bout saw Dustin Poirier take on Carlos Diego Ferreira in Poirier’s UFC lightweight debut, and he looked fantastic. He picked Ferreira apart on the feet before finally landing the knockout blow and putting his foe away. It was an amazing performance by Poirier and I’m very excited to see what he can do at 155lbs. Rating: 8/10 A featherweight bout was up next and it saw Clay Guida ragdoll Robbie Peralta for three rounds as he earned a clear-cut unanimous decision. This wasn’t a great fight to watch as it was more or less a grind, but Guida did land some really nice slams during the bout to at least make things somewhat entertaining for he fans. Rating: 4/10 Julianna Pena returned from a year-plus-long injury layoff with a bang as she was able to stop Milana Dudieva in the first round with strikes from mount. Pena looked great in this fight and looks like she could be a darkhorse contender in her division with a few more wins. Rating: 6/10 A lightweight matchup saw Michael Chiesa take on Mitch Clarke, and it was a pretty decent scrap. The first two rounds saw Chiesa dominate Clarke on the mat, but Clarke stormed back in the third and made things close. Ultimately Chiesa did enough early on to take the win, but Clarke did hold his own in what was overall a solid scrap between two similar fighters. Rating: 5/10 The co-main event featured Al Iaquinta facing off against Jorge Masvidal in a fight that many were looking forward to watching, but ultimately it did not live up to expectations. Masvidal just didn’t do much after a strong start and wound up losing a split decision that set the crowd on fire. Neither guy looked great here, but Iaquinta got the win and he’ll continue to move up in the division. Rating: 4/10 And finally, the main event saw Chad Mendes knock out Ricardo Lamas in the first round. It was a really good win for Mendes, but it really wasn’t much of a fight, so to say. Still, it was exciting for as long as it lasted, and Mendes certainly brought the goods for the audience in attendance and for those watching on television. Rating: 7/10 Overall, I’ll give UFC Fight Night 63 a solid 6/10 rating. There were definitely some nice knockouts on the card, but the overall score of the event was knocked down a few pegs by a listless co-main event and some mediocre prelims. This wasn’t the worst card the UFC has put on this year, but it was far from the best, that’s for sure.
