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 185. The card kicked off with a flyweight bout between Fredy Serrano and Bentley Syler, a fight which was turning out to be one of the worst of the year in the UFC until Serrano knocked out Syler in the third round with a brutal uppercut. I still don’t think he has much of a future in the UFC at age 35, but it was a nice knockout for sure. It wasn’t a great fight by any means, but at least the finish was solid. Rating: 3/10 (would have been 1/10 if there hadn’t been the late KO – yes, the first two rounds were that bad) Next up was a lightweight bout between Christos Giagos and Jorge de Oliviera. Giagos was able to land an early takedown, get full mount, and then transition to back control where he was able to quickly latch on a rear-naked choke. De Oliveira tapped multiple times but the imbecile referee just sat there and watched before finally calling the fight off about five taps too late. Regardless, it was a nice win for Giagos, although overall it wasn’t much of a fight. Rating: 6.5/10 The first fight on the televised prelims was a lightweight affair between Leonardo Mafra and Cain Carrizosa. This was a very fun, back-and-forth fight that ultimately ended with Mafra winning a clear-cut unanimous decision for his first UFC win. Even thought Carrizosa lost and is now 0-2 in the UFC, I was really impressed with his chin and believe he should get one more fight in the UFC. I enjoyed watching the standup exchanges in this fight and overall I thought it was one of the better fights on the card. Rating: 7/10 The next fight featured one of the worst referee stoppages in the history of the sport. Silva had a guillotine choke from half guard on Dober and for absolutely no reason the referee stopped the fight. It was one of the most disgustingly-bad referee calls I have ever seen in all my years watching this sport and this referee should never be allowed to work ever again. Rating: N/A Next up was a featherweight fight between Kevin Souza and Katsunori Kikuno, a fight I called to a T. Kikuno doesn’t keep his hands up and Souza hits really, really hard, and a knockout was inevitable here, although I didn’t expect it to come on the very first hard punch landed. All-in-all a terrific knockout by Souza and I can’t wait to see him fight again. Rating: 8/10 For the final televised prelim, Francisco Trinaldo took on Akbarh Arreola in a lightweight bout. This was a really sloppy fight and not at all entertaining to watch. Trinaldo ended up grinding out a unanimous decision but this was a really tough fight to watch with absolutely no redeeming value at the end of 15 minutes. Rating: 2.5/10 The first fight of the night was a featherweight bout between Godofredo Pepey and Andre Fili, and it was pretty awesome. Pepey jumped guard early in the first round and took Fili to the mat where he locked in a triangle choke, and while Fili was able to defend for a few minutes, there was just too much time in the round and Pepey earned a beautiful submission win for his third victory in a row. Rating: 7.5/10 Next up on the main card was a lightweight bout between Gilbert Burns and Alex Oliveira. Wow, what a fight this was. Oliveira won the first two rounds with his striking and was well on his way to a win, but Burns stormed back in the third round and pulled off an incredible armbar submission with less than a minute left in the fight. Wow. Rating: 9/10 Then it was a women’s bantamweight bout between Amanda Nunes and Shayna Baszler. Everyone knew this was a huge mismatch and Nunes proved it by finishing Baszler early in the first round with a brutal leg kick right to the kneecap. Nunes looked awesome in this fight and is definitely someone who could fight UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey down the road. Rating : 7.5/10 Then in a lightweight bout, Leonardo Santos showed why he opened as the favorite over Tony Martin as he scored a nice second-round submission victory. Santos was undervalued heading into this fight and showed why all the steam on Martin exhibited way too much confidence in a fighter with notoriously-bad cardio. Regardless, a solid win for Santos. Rating: 5.5/10 The co-main event saw Erick Silva finish off Josh Koscheck with a second-round submission. This is a fight that should have never been sanctioned and was a huge mismatch from the get-go. Good for Silva to get a big name on his resume, but really what does a win over Koscheck, who has lost five in a row mean at this point? Rating: 7/10 And in the main event of the evening, Demian Maia showed why he should have never been the underdog to Ryan LaFlare as he was able to win a clear-cut decision over five rounds. Maia’s wrestling and ground game were dominant throughout as he was able to take a clear win on the judges’ scorecards. It wasn’t a great fight to watch, but Maia did what he needed to do to win. Rating: 4/10 Overall, I gave UFC Fight Night 62 a 7/10 rating. There were definitely a number of fun finishes on this card as well as a few back-and-forth barnburners, but the main event was a poor fight and dragged down the overall worth of the card. I enjoyed watching this card, but it didn’t exceed expectations, it just met them.
