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 are the three surprises and the three disappointments from UFC Fight Night 38. Surprises Dan Henderson — In the main event of the evening, Dan Henderson knocked out Shogun Rua in the third with with his patented H-bomb right hand. At 43 Henderson is still amongst the top light heavyweights in the world and the win over Shogun will earn him another big fight his next time out. CB Dollaway — In a middleweight bout that served as the co-main event of the evening, CB Dollaway knocked out Cezar Ferreira in the first round with punches. Dollaway has shown fantastic boxing his last two fights and after taking out Ferreira, he deserves a step up in competition. Thiago Santos — In a preliminary middleweight bout, Thiago Santos cashed as a massive underdog after kicking Ronny Markes in the body and finishing him off with strikes quickly in the first round. No one gave Santos a prayer to win this fight yet he did so in impressive fashion, and now that he’s moving to welterweight he’s definitely someone to watch out for. Disappointments Gian Villante — In a main card light heavyweight tilt, Gian Villante started off well but faltered late in suffering a brutal beatdown at the hands of Fabio Maldonado in rounds two and three to lose a clear-cut decision. Villante was a big favorite in this fight but he looked really bad overall and needs to address his striking defence if he wants to crack it in the UFC. Mairbek Taisumov — In a lightweight battle, Mairbek Taisumov was taken down and beaten up for three rounds by Michel Prazeres and lost a unanimous decision. Taisumov just didn’t look like a UFC caliber fighter and with his repeated cage grabs he drew the ire of the fans watching. He’ll need to improve quickly if he wants to make a run in the UFC lightweight division. Noad Lahat — And in the very first fight of the night, newcomer Noad Lahat was knocked out in brutal fashion via flying knee by Godofredo Pepey. Despite Lahat entering the fight as a massive favorite, the featherweight was knocked out silly in his UFC debut and now he goes back to the drawing board. An awful performance by the newcomer, and hopefully for his sake he looks better in his next outing.
