UFC 192 had over thirteen fights scheduled to take place. It had some memorable moments, mostly for good reasons which I have written about here. This article is about the other side of UFC 192. The Lows.
Thankfully there were not as many lows as there were highlights but some of them do need to be addressed. To start, the fight that never happened. Johny Hendricks vs Tyron Woodley. Mixed Martial Arts is a professional sport, training camps are difficult and making weight is one of the toughest things a fighter puts themselves through both physically and mentally, so its fair to say that after a fight camp, fighters deserve to live a little and to relax on their strict regimes. This however is something that Johny Hendricks takes a little too seriously when it comes to blowing out. His former dietician Mike Dolce spoke on the MMA Hour about how he nearly refused to work with him leading up to his title defence last year against Robbie Lawler as he let his weight blow up to nearly 220lbs. (Welterweight is 170lbs). As a result of trying to cut too much weight this time around, Hendricks suffered kidney stones, a intestinal blockage and gained himself a one way ticket to the UFC middleweight division.
Below, Mike Dolce on the MMA Hour speaking about Johny Hendricks weight issues.
After a two year layoff, former Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad ‘Suga’ Evans returned to the Octagon against Ryan Bader. Fans were not sure how two years on the sidelines would affect ‘Suga’ and unfortunately the layoff seems to have gotten the better of him. Evans seemed like he just couldn’t get going, he was second in every exchange and struggled to land anything effective. Bader like I said earlier in the article, executed a perfect game plan to get the decision win over Evans. I only highlight this as a low overall for the simple reason that its sad to see a former champion return after a long injury and fail to pick up where they left off. Everyone was hoping for the old UFC 88 Rashad Evans to make the walk but it wasn’t to be.
One of the lowest moments of UFC 192 came hand in hand with one of the highlights of the night. Like I mentioned earlier soon to be former UFC Lightweight Fransisco Trevino was finished by Sage Northcutt after only fifty eight seconds of round number one. What Trevino did after was nothing short of disgraceful. Having being subject to a flurry of punches, a big takedown and then some vicious elbows, Herb Dean stepped in to stop the fight, albeit to protect Trevino who was not effectively defending himself for getting badly hurt. Trevino like most fighters do after losing a fight due to stoppage protested it saying he wasn’t out and that he was still defending himself. In making his argument he shoved referee Herb Dean, something that fighters cannot under any circumstances do. The MMA community has struggled in the main stream media with the false image of fighters all being thugs, an image that is thankfully dying away but nonetheless, a vine of someone pushing a referee can go viral very quickly and having people asking those questions about the legitimacy of the sport etc. Having missed weight by four pounds, on a two fight losing streak and now having pushed an official, expect to see Fransisco Trevino in the prelims of a Bellator show near you.
Follow me on Twitter @MMA_ANDY
THE MMA Andy Blog. 