That event was a lot better than expected. I still stand by me statements last week that there was absolutely no reason to have this card and I believe to the casual fan, this card provided nothing for them other than remembering that butt chinned midget from a few years back, but it was entertaining nonetheless. My picks were horrible, but the night was full of quick finishes, upsets, a resurrection, and a new possible title challenger. 4 fights ended in first round finishes, that is ⅓ of all the fights on the card. We had Urijah Faber rise from the dead knock the fuck out of Ricky Simon who i thought would have no problem beating the old, battered, 2 year out of competition, California Kid. Then we had a shocking 16 second knockout of Aspen Ladd by Germaine De Randamie to cement herself as the top contender for the 135 pound belt. Yet after that card there is only one person on my mind, the Wizard himself, Ryan Hall.
Ryan Hall is the most interesting, entertaining, confusing, couldn’t care less fighter I have ever witnessed in my whole life. There is no one in the UFC people are more scared to grapple with, I’ll even put him ahead of Demian Maia. He went about against a great striker in Darren Elkins, but he was scared to throw anything, he knows that at any moment he could to 50/50, snag one of your legs, and just destroy any joint you have in your body. He is a matchup nightmare for anyone in the weight class not named Brian Ortega. He has been getting matchups at what feels like a record low pace for a guy that doesn’t have injury concerns, so I am going to hold out hope that this fight was a sign of things to come and he will fight at more of a competitors pace. Since that fight, all I can think about are all of the incredible matchups to be made with Hall leading to the eventual title shot that will never happen.
So let’s get rolling with who I think the Wizard should get for his next opponent.
1. Shane Burgos – A Tiger Schulmann’s product coming off of a big split decision win over Cub Swanson. He is an incredible standup fighter with only one loss on his resume when he got caught by Calvin Kattar in a FOTNY. Shane has yet to truly prove he can fight someone with a strong grappling game and this would be a prime opportunity. While Darren Elkins was also a proficient striker, he is not on the same level as Hurricane Shane. Hall can truly show how stifling his technique against a master class kickboxer.
2. Renato Moicano – This is my pick for another proficient BJJ fighter. Most of Hall’s matchups so far have been against strikers to sort out how stylistically advantageous he is. Here he would be going up against a BJJ blackbelt with a great submission game. Moicano is coming off a brutal knockout loss to the Korean Zombie. It would really be interesting to see how good these guys’ standup games are since they both aren’t too scared of getting taken to the ground. Moicano needs a win badly, this would be his chance to show he is still a top guy in this weight class who has just gotten unlucky a couple of times.
3. Jeremy Stephens – Lil Heathen has had a rollercoaster of a career since joining the UFC. In his last bout he lost a unanimous decision against Zabit Magomedsharipov, and before that was TKO’d by an old Jose Aldo. Previously he had strung together three solid wins showing that he may be a guy to keep top of mind in the title picture. He now looks to bounce back and what better way to do that than against a guy who has barely even taken a strike since he started his career. Stephens has some of the heaviest hands in this division, with a strong wrestling background, he could be the guy to pose a real challenge and finish Hall in this fight. On Hall’s side, this is just another way for him to prove that it doesn’t matter how good of a striker you are against him, you are going to be too scared of the take down to move forward.
Regardless of who Dana picks for this matchup I just hope he doesn’t sit on it for too long. Hall could be a superstar in the making, bringing BJJ back to the limelight showing it is still an outstanding foundation to build your MMA career off of. Until last week, everytime I would google Ryan Hall, some olympic runner would show up first, who the fuck cares if you are great at exercise. Hall is one of the greatest BJJ practitioners on the planet, the disrespect he has gotten from Dana is unwarranted, yea sometimes it leads to strange boring fights, but Ben Askren has been doing that shit for like 8 years and no one seems to care. Got a little worked up but I digress, I am just hoping that they do not waste too much of his career, he is already 34 with only 9 pro bouts under his belt, they need to feed the man so we can truly see his full potential.