UFC Fight Night The Korean Zombie v. Renato Moicano delivered a solid night of fights. After a couple of days of thinking about it, watching some fights again, I can now put my overreactions into coherent thoughts.

Best Winners:

  1. MEATBALL MOLLY MCCANN. Holy shit, what a performance she put on. It was the second fight of the card, at like 4:30 PM, and the arena was only louder for The Korean Zombie. Prelims are usually fought before an empty arena. Yet, there were still loud “Meatball” chants. She put on a hell of an entertaining fight. She won a whole lot of fans on Saturday. I am already anticipating her next fight. I’d like to see her take on Gillian Robertson again and avenge her loss.
  2. Jairzinho Rozenstruik. Hard to not be the best winner of the week when you win in 9 seconds and 4 punches, but I am on the Meatball bandwagon. Rozenstruik caught Crowder a jab in the opening seconds and landed some shots on the ground. I thought it would be a short fight, but I didn’t think it wouldn’t last 10 seconds. I hope Rozenstruik gets a step up in competition. His striking is impressive. I wouldn’t mind a showdown with Sergey Pavlovich.
  3. The Korean Zombie. Is this guy entertaining or what? The arena was electric for The Korean Zombie. Everyone knew something awesome would happen. I’m not going to lie, I picked Moicano in this fight. But the second I saw Moicano’s creepy ass beard, I knew The Korean Zombie was going to put him to sleep. I’d like to see The Korean Zombie go up against Zabit Magomedsharipov next.
  4. Louis Pena. The Violent Bob Ross looked very violent. He looks better every fight. I thought he was going to win his season of The Ultimate Fighter, until he had to leave because an injury. His striking was crisp. Wiman was clearly overmatched. That being said, Wiman hadn’t fought in several years. I want to see Pena face someone ranked next. Maybe Darren Elkins or Shane Burgos.
  5. Randy Brown. The Rudeboy showed up and put on a hell of a show. Most people had this fight pegged as a potential fight of the night candidate. Barberena showed his usual lack of care for his future by moving forward, trying to get to Brown. Brown expertly used his reach advantage to pepper Barberena with punches and kicks. Barberena’s chin held out for 2.5 rounds before Brown put it away. He put on a striking clinic. I’d like to see Randy Brown go up against Belal Muhammad next. It would be a good step up in competition, but not too drastic.

Worst Winner:

Kevin Holland. He talked so much trash leading up to the fight. Then he delivered a snoozefest. He said his shoulder was hurt, which could explain the boring the fight. I was hoping for an exciting fight like he promised.

Best Loser:

Anderson Dos Santos. He put on an impressive fight in his loss to Andre Ewell. Ewell looked very good, but Dos Santos showed some heart. He couldn’t put his Jiu-Jitsu to use, so he tried to stand and throw with Ewell. He just kept moving forward. It was gritty.

Who impressed me the most:

Andrea “KGB” Lee. Watching her fight, I was impressed at the complete shutdown of Montana De La Rosa’s previously unstoppable wrestling. They used to train together, so they know each other pretty well. People were saying their training sessions consisted of KGB winning when sparring, and Montana winning when wrestling. So how did this fight play out? KGB shut down Montana’s wrestling, she got a few takedowns of her own. She dominated when they were standing and throwing. A great overall performance for KGB.

Prelim fighter most likely to win a title:

I’m going to cheat and pick the heavyweight Jairzinho Rozenstruik. Heavyweight is the easiest division to make a big jump in. Jairzinho is an electric striker. His kickboxing background is quite impressive. The key will be his ability to hold off the wrestlers. I’m pining for a Rozenstruik v. Ngannou matchup. Maybe some time next year we can get that. Rozenstruik needs a couple of more fights before he can get into the top 5. I’m hoping for a ranked opponent next.

Hype Train:

Deron Winn made his highly anticipated debut. He looked good. He wanted to show off his standup game to show he’s not just a wrestler. But he had to eventually go to his wrestling. I was left wondering if he had an opponent that had a full training camp, if he would have been successful. His standup game was pretty good, but he kept dropping his hands and eating punches. A better trained fighter, who has watched film, will notice this. It doesn’t help that he’s insanely short and needs to get close to strike and grapple. He will have to eat a lot of shots to get in close. He should probably work on his standup defense.

That being said, I think he showed some good skills and with some more work, can become a force. Winn is in a great camp, and they should be able to get the best out of him.

Missed Opportunity:

Rob Font was the “loser” of the week. He had a chance at his biggest win in the UFC in John Lineker. Unfortunately, Lineker pulled out the night before the fight. I was excited for that fight, but we were all let down. That could have propelled Rob Font to smelling distance of a title eliminator fight. I thought he was going to make a statement in this fight. Hopefully, he can get a fight relatively soon.

Fight of the Night:

I’d be lying if I picked anything other than:

Meatball Molly McCann v. The Violence Queen Ariane Lipski