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 were the three biggest surprises and the three biggest disappointments from UFC 182. Surprises Paul Felder — What a breakthrough performance by Paul Felder, who knocked out Danny Castillo with a spinning back fist in arguably the most impressive performance of the night. Felder’s striking looked sharp, his takedown defence was on point, and he looked huge for the lightweight division. Keep your eyes on this guy, because he could be breaking into the top 15 of the division very soon. Cody Garbrandt — Hopefully you guys read my fight breakdown on Cody Garbrandt vs. Marcus Brimage, because it went down almost exactly like I said it would, with Garbrandt getting his hand raised by knockout. Garbrandt is just 23 years old and he has all the potential in the world to be a serious contender in the UFC bantamweight division. This was his defining performance so far in his young career, but he’s not done yet. In fact, he’s just getting started. Marion Reneau — From the tape I saw, Marion Reneau just wasn’t very good, but I was wrong about her, because she had a breakout performance against Alexis Dufresne in the opening preliminary card bout. Reneau’s striking looked sharp and accurate throughout the full 15 minutes, and while she wasn’t able to score a knockout, there’s no doubt she had an impressive performance. Disappointments Myles Jury — Many were picking young Myles Jury to upset veteran Donald Cerrone in the co-main event of the evening, but Jury was soundly beat in every area of the game and never really stood a chance. I still think Jury has good potential in the sport, but he has to start being more aggressive and he needs to start throwing a higher volume of strikes. Nate Marquardt — After his submission win over James Te Huna, many thought Nate Marquardt was “back” as a middleweight contender. But it wasn’t so, as Marquardt was thoroughly outstruck by Brad Tavares for three rounds en route to a unanimous decision loss. Marquardt has now lost four of five fights and is at very real risk of being cut by the organization should be lose his next fight. Hector Lombard — I was expecting more from Hector Lombard against Josh Burkman in the opening main card bout. There’s no doubt Lombard won every round of the fight, but he had Burkman on the ropes at numerous points during the fight and still couldn’t get a finish. Lombard is still a top contender at 170lbs, but will he win the title? Not with performances like these.
