Jay Primetown gives his thoughts on each of the fighters who competed at UFC 200 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jay gives his letter grades for each fighter on TheMMA-Analysis podcast which can be found on MMAOddsbreaker.com Takanori Gomi vs. Jim Miller Gomi: There’s no easy way to put this, but Gomi is years past his peak and no longer capable of being competitive in the UFC. He has no ground game, he can’t take a punch, and simply isn’t athletic enough to be competitive. This fight was one way traffic and very likely his last appearance inside the octagon. Downgraded from D+ to D- Miller: He landed a couple decent strikes on the feet, but once he was able to get his opponent to the ground it was a dominant performance by Miller. This should help extend Miller’s career in the UFC, but he’s still on the downside of his career arc. Upgraded from C- to C Gegard Mousasi vs. Thiago Santos Mousasi: Fantastic performance from start to finish from the European veteran. He dominated Santos both standing as well as on the ground. He’s right near the top of the division and is a win away from being in the title mix. Upgraded from B+ to A- Santos: This was a terrible match-up for him and it showed in this fight. Mousasi is technically gifted on the feet and learned his lesson in the Uriah Hall fight against athletic, creative strikers. On the ground, he had zero to offer his opponent. I think this fight told more about Mousasi than it did about Santos. Grade remains B- Joe Lauzon vs. Diego Sanchez Lauzon: Wow. Joe Lauzon was the first person to finish Diego Sanchez with strikes. An incredible feat and a true feather in his cap. Grade remains C+ Sanchez: After all these fights showing off an incredible chin, it appears it finally gave out. Sanchez was stunned early in this fight and was unable to fight his way out of this one. Sanchez has been struggling for a couple years now and it may finally be that his clock is up in this sport. Downgraded from C to C- Enrique Marin vs. Sage Northcutt Marin: He had his chance to win the fight, but couldn’t finish the submission in round two. If he didn’t tire out in round three, he might have pulled it off. This wasn’t necessarily a good performance, but he did better than people thought he would. Grade remains D Northcutt: Despite getting his hand raised, this was a terrible performance from Northcutt. He showed very little ability to defend takedowns and disappointingly lethargic on the feet. He needs to make real improvements or he’s going to be a lower tier fighter for a long time. Downgraded from C to C- Raphael Assuncao vs. TJ Dillashaw Assuncao: He fought a very respectable fight against excellent competition. Defended takedowns well and tried to counter strike, but he couldn’t keep up with Dillashaw’s volume. He’s a top five fighter in this division, but he’ll never be champion. Grade remains A- Dillashaw: Another strong performance from the former champion. So much volume, variety, and he hits hard. He’s an elite fighter and will almost certainly face Dominick Cruz again. Grade remains A+ Kelvin Gastelum vs. Johny Hendricks Gastelum: Easily the biggest win of his UFC career defeating the former welterweight champion. Gastelum carried a terrific pace throughout the fight landing with volume and pushing Hendricks back. After a close second round, Gastelum continued to push the pace to secure the decision win. Upgraded from B to B+ Hendricks: He’s really fallen off in his past couple fights. He once again missed weight and he simply didn’t show the wrestling ability that he had shown in his title run. I could see Hendricks being cut if he loses his next fight. Downgraded from A- to B Julianna Pena vs. Cat Zingano Pena: It took her a round to get into the fight, but once she did her relentless wrestling approach and top game wore out her opponent for her biggest win to date. Her style is one that is capable of getting her all the way to the title. Upgraded from B to A- Zingano: She did well early on in the fight securing takedowns and physically matching Pena, but cardio got the best of her in the second half of the fight. At 34 years old, is age starting to catch up to her or was it the long layoff prior to this fight? It’s probably too early to write off Zingano given the circumstances. Her next fight will tell a lot about the remainder of her professional career. Downgraded from A- to B+ Travis Browne vs. Cain Velasquez Browne: He never stood a chance in this fight. His striking was too slow and once he started getting hit, it was complete one way traffic. Fighting a motivated Cain Velasquez was never going to be easy and it showed in this fight. Grade remains B- Velasquez: This was a vintage performance from the former champion. He appeared to be in great shape in this fight and showed some excellent athleticism with kicks and movement. This was a dominant performance and to me showed he’s the best fighter in this weight class. Upgraded from A to A+ Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar Aldo: He showed no signs of change and fought a thorough five round fight against a great opponent. Aldo’s striking was crisp and he landed the bigger strikes throughout the fight. He won a clear decision and deserves to be champion again. A battle with McGregor is looming for a later date. Upgraded from A+ to A++ Edgar: He did his best to push the pace and to land first against his Brazilian opponent, but where it wrong was his strikes did not trouble Aldo. He was unable to inflict any damage on his opponent and took significant damage throughout the bout. This is the second time he’s lost to Aldo and it proved he’s a level below the champion. Grade remains A+ Daniel Cormier vs. Anderson Silva Cormier: A safe performance from Cormier as he took Silva down with regularity throughout the fight. He took minimal damage and should be able to return to the Octagon in the fall. Grade remains A+ Silva: This was a terrible stylistic match-up for Silva as there was no scenario where he was going to be able to keep this on the feet. Silva appeared to have landed a body strike late in the third that stunned Cormier, but the light heavyweight champion forced the fight against the cage, not allowing Silva to work. His striking looked good in this fight in the limited stand up exchanges that took place. At 41 years old, one has to wonder just how much longer the legendary fighter will continue to compete. Grade remains B Mark Hunt vs. Brock Lesnar Hunt: Hunt is clearly one of the best strikers in the division, but this was not his day. When taken to the mat, he had no answers for his opponent losing a clear 29-28 decision. I thought he’d have more success on the feet, but the lack of urgency was a disappointment. Downgraded from B+ to B Lesnar: He did an excellent job of maintaining distance on the feet not allowing Hunt to get within range to land one of his big bombs. Once Lesnar found a way inside to secure takedowns he did a great job of keeping Hunt down and landing strikes. Clear win for Lesnar and very much still a top 10 heavyweight in the world. What he decides to do next in MMA remains to be seen as he’s booked to wrestle at WWE’s Summerslam in August. Grade remains B+ Amanda Nunes vs. Miesha Tate Nunes: Outside of Ronda Rousey, there is no female fighter more dangerous in the first round than Amanda Nunes. She had Tate in trouble early on and poured it on knocking Tate to the ground and then securing the submission to win the championship. As dominant as performance from a challenger one will see in a title fight. Upgraded from B+ to A- Tate: This was always a dangerous fight for Tate as she’s been clipped before by lesser fighters. She needed to get outside the first five minutes where her conditioning and grinding style would take over the fight. Unfortunately for her, Nunes didn’t allow her to do that and she got beat up badly for it. Downgraded from A to B+
Updated UFC 200 Grades: Post-UFC 200
