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’s the three biggest surprises and the three biggest disappointments from UFC 177. Surprises Joe Soto — Although no one gave Joe Soto a chance, the former Bellator featherweight champion put on a great fight against TJ Dillashaw, ultimately losing in the fifth round by TKO. But he took the fight on one days’ notice and despite the short notice gave Dillashaw everything he could handle for nearly 25 full minute. Soto won’t be the UFC champ anytime soon, but he is a good fighter and he’ll definitely have a spot on the UFC roster for the next few years. Yancy Medeiros — Yancy Medeiros was 0-2, 1 NC coming into his fight against Damon Jackson, and many people figured he would lose the fight considering the style matchup (Medeiros has shown weak grappling in the UFC while Jackson is a top-shelf submission artist). Well, those who picked Jackson ended up being very wrong because Medeiros looked great in dispatching of the UFC newcomer with a reverse guillotine (or reverse bulldog choke, people are calling it both) in the second and winning a Performance of the Night award. At only 26, Medeiros still has time to turn things around and make a run up the lightweight ladder. Chris Wade — In the first fight of the evening, Chris Wade won in his UFC debut with a beautiful first-round guillotine choke over Chris Carrizosa. Wade looked strong and athletic in the bout and he could be a potential sleeper in his division going forward, especially if he can keep using his wrestling to dominate his opponents on the mat. Disappointments Shayna Baszler — I’m not sure what happened, but Shayna Baszler was looking like she was on her way to victory over Bethe Correia when she suddenly gassed out and froze up against the fence and received one one of the worst beatdowns the fans have seen all year courtesy of her Brazilian opponent, who won the fighting via a standing TKO. Baszler lost to Julianna Pena on the show and now she lost to Correia and I can’t say I know exactly why she has fallen off the cliff, but I think she needs to get away from The Four Horsewomen because it’s a losing stable and if she wants to stick around the UFC clearly she needs to make a change in her career, and a change of scenery should come first. Lorenz Larkin — For the third fight in a row, Lorenz Larkin found his name in the L column, this time after losing a unanimous decision to Derek Brunson. It’s an amazing fall from grace by the same man who beat Robbie Lawler (at 185lbs) just two years ago. Overall he is 1-4 in the UFC with his only win coming over Chris Camozzi. He’s a fun striker to watch, but he’ll likely be cut from the roster after the loss to Brunson unless he can somehow make 170lbs and convince the UFC to give him one last chance before they give up on him. Ramsey Nijem — He may have won Fight of the Night, but Ramsey Nijem disappointed me at UFC 177. Coming off of two wins, including an impressive TKO victory over Beneil Dariush in his last fight, big things were hoped for from Nijem, the TUF 13 runner-up. And while he did start off strong against Carlos Diego Ferreira, once again two things plagued him: his chin and his cardio. He got tired in the second (probably from all the side-to-side movement he did in round one) and was knocked out for the third time in his career in round two by a guy who isn’t exactly a knockout artist. Nijem is only 26 and still has time, but he needs to work on some things if he wants to succeed in the UFC.
