The Surprises & Disappointments of UFC Fight Night 59

Sean-Soriano 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 Fight Night 59. Surprises Lorenz Larkin — I had no idea how Lorenz Larkin would do at 170lbs, but he answered my questions quickly with a brutal first-round knockout on John Howard. Larkin looks very big and fast at welterweight and considering he beat current UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler a few years ago in Strikeforce, the UFC should put him on the fast track in the division and see just how good he really is. Johnny Case — Make it 10 in a row for Johnny Case, who dispatched of Frankie Perez with a third-round TKO in a very dominant performance. Case is an awesome fighter to watch and I can’t wait to see who the UFC pairs him up with next because it’s sure to be an exciting fight that will leave the fans happy they watched. Charles Rosa — I knew Charles Rosa had a good ground game but didn’t know it was as good as he showed he was in his prelim bout against Sean Soriano. Rosa showed excellent wrestling and grappling skills on the ground and moving forward I really think this is someone who could eventually break into the top 15 if he improves his striking. Disappointments Benson Henderson — A lot of people thought Benson Henderson won and while it was close, I felt like his fight with Donald Cerrone could have gone either way. But this shouldn’t have been the case. Henderson should have mixed in his takedowns more instead of just standing and trading with Cerrone on the feet and I think ultimately the fact Cerrone was the aggressor and Henderson was backing up cost him the decision. Norman Parke — I was expecting more from Norman Parke in his bout against Gleison Tibau. He did okay, I guess, but I felt like if he just pushed the action a bit more he could have taken the fight on the judges’ scorecards. It was Parke’s first loss in the UFC and he will learn from it, but he may have hit his ceiling already. Sean Soriano — With his loss to Charles Rosa on the prelims, Sean Soriano dropped to 0-3 in the UFC and will surely be cut. The guy is extremely talented in the striking department but his ground game is not good and his poor wrestling defence means most grapplers can take him down and control him. He’s only 25 and can improve, but the UFC has to cut him now.

Written by Adam Martin.

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