Photo Courtesy, Esther Lin – MMAFighting.com 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 on FOX 12. Surprises Bobby Green — In what was the biggest upset of hte night, Bobby Green solidified himself as a top-10 lightweight with a split decision win over Josh Thomson. It was a close fight for sure, but Green did more work and deserved the nod. For his next fight, Green should take on either Michael Johnson, Edson Barboza, or Jorge Masvidal, as any of those three matchups would be fantastic to watch. Patrick Cummins — After being brutally knocked out by Daniel Cormier in his UFC debut, Patrick Cummins has now won two-straight fights in the UFC, this time beating Kyle Kingsbury via dominant unanimous decision. Cummins has good wrestling and with that background can beat a lot of fighters at the bottom end of 205lbs. For his next fight, let’s match him up against Ilir Latifi. Noad Lahat — In the first fight of the night, Noad Lahat earned an upset victory with his unanimous decision win over Steven Siler. Lahat showed solid judo skills in the fight and while he did gas in round three, he did enough to win the first two rounds and get the W. Lahat is a solid prospect and whenever he returns to MMA after serving time in the Israeli army, he will have a place on the UFC featherweight roster. Disappointments Antonio Rogerio Nogueira — In the co-main event, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira returned from a 17-month layoff with a stinker of a performance against Anthony Johnson, getting knocked out early in the first round. Nogueira is 38 years old and after this brutal knockout loss and all his injuries, one has to wonder if the end of the road is near. Clay Guida — Clay Guida was a slight underdog against Dennis Bermudez but clearly he should have been an even bigger dog as he showed absolutely nothing in the fight in losing via second-round submission. He is now 2-2 as a featherweight and considering he’s getting up there in age, who knows what’s next for him. Maybe a fight against “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung, when he returns from injury, makes sense. Josh Thomson — Josh Thomson was a big favorite over Bobby Green but for whatever reason had an incredibly-disappointing performance, losing a split decision to Bobby Green. He is now 1-2 since returning to the UFC last year and while his two losses were by split decision, at the end of the day they are losses on his record. Thomson is still a top-10 fighter but he needs to win his next fight in dominant fashion if he wants to stay in title contention.
