UFC Fight Night 82 Results: The Real Winners and Losers from Full Fight Card
Johny Hendricks is the living, breathing embodiment of UFC Fight Night 82.
When the curtain rose in Las Vegas Saturday, both the event and its main-eventer were in need of a turnaround. Both needed a spark, an excitement infusion, a booster in the public-opinion polls.
Once the UFC welterweight champ and one of the most electrifying knockout artists in the company, Hendricks seemingly fell out of favor.
Two outstanding but close and at times visually unappealing fights with current champ Robbie Lawler—the second of which cost him his belt—started to remove the Hendricks luster. A neutralization of Matt Brown in spring 2015 got him back in the win column but nonetheless exacerbated Hendricks' reputational slide.
It hit another gear last fall, when Hendricks was hospitalized while cutting weight and forced to withdraw from his UFC 192 bout with Tyron Woodley. It's always good to make the safe move, but Hendricks was criticized for being overweight and unprepared.
And then, not even a month ago, his steakhouse closed. What more can this guy go through?
Meanwhile, this event, which aired entirely on cable TV and UFC Fight Pass (the company's subscription-based streaming service), was originally supposed to air on pay-per-view. But then Cain Velasquez got injured and pulled out of his heavyweight title fight with Fabricio Werdum. Then the champ pulled out, too. Uh-oh.
What remained, on paper, was a lackluster fight card, whose biggest name in Hendricks was a lackluster figure.
But Hendricks had his own ideas.
He came in to fight week like a man possessed, focused on his task and flashing a new six-pack in his abdominal region. The man staring across at him would do his part, as well. That would be Stephen Thompson, the multi-time world kickboxing champion who is 11-1 with six knockouts since transitioning to MMA.
Could the headliners come together to salvage the event? What about the other 22 fighters on the card? As always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. These are the real winners and losers from UFC Fight Night 82.
Winner: Stephen Thompson
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We have a new contender in the UFC welterweight division.
As broadcaster and UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz said of Thompson during the post-fight show, "this isn't about Johny Hendricks being bad. It's about Stephen Thompson being good."
How true that is. It didn't take long, but it was a masterful effort from the kickboxing champion.
Thompson deftly stuffed an early takedown attempt from Hendricks and then cut off the cage and simply sniped him down. Thompson's pinpoint punches kept Hendricks at distance and tenderized the former champ. Then, a spinning hook kick crashed into Hendricks' chin and throat, and it appeared to sap the life out of Hendricks.
Ground strikes followed, and the ref called the stoppage. Thompson pulled off the knockout inside the first round.
Wonderboy is now 7-1 in the UFC, with his only loss coming to Matt Brown back in 2012. When schedules are clear, if Thompson wants to avenge that loss, I'd watch that rematch.
Loser: Johny Hendricks
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Let us once again go to Cruz on the FS1 broadcast after the event: "Hendricks couldn't get the takedown, and that's why he lost."
Well, that and the kick, but yes. Hendricks looked to be in terrific shape and focused all week. During the fight, he appeared to get discouraged after he missed on the takedown. He didn't try again, which made him a bit of a sitting duck to Thompson's long-range punches and kicks.
"I hesitated," Hendricks told broadcaster Jon Anik in the cage after the fight. "Whenever I closed the distance he moved away. ...You just have to move forward."
Indeed. This was Thompson's night, and the smart money says Hendricks will be back and strong again. It wasn't that long ago that he defeated Lawler. He can get back to that point, but he'll have to earn it all for a while.
Loser: Roy Nelson
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Roy Nelson defeated Jared Rosholt by unanimous decision. I use the term "defeated" loosely.
Oh, the judges got it right. According to the rules of MMA, they had to fill out scorecards; that's what they did, and they did so in accurate fashion.
This wasn't a good fight, though. Neither man threw many strikes. Takedowns were slow and oft-defended. Contact of most any kind was minimal, to the point you could say it was actively avoided.
Nelson is now 39 years old. He is also a rare breed in MMA: a bona fide name. People know Big Country; people like him and enjoy watching him. So as long as he can keep going out there, he'll keep getting paid, regardless of the circumstances.
So there's a lot going for Nelson right now. This fight just isn't one of them.
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Loser: Jared Rosholt
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Oh boy.
For as talented as the great college wrestler is, Rosholt probably does not deserve to continue competing on UFC main cards. The loss to Nelson was his first defeat in more than a year, and his record is still quite good at 14-3, but his style is so conservative and violence-averse that it starts to bend the boundaries of what you're watching.
Social media was howling. Bloody Elbow editor Mookie Alexander, for example, called the fight "infuriatingly bad" and wrote that Rosholt "deserves what he gets if he gets KO'd."
Rosholt, for his part, was unapologetic before the fight, telling the haters to "get a life." We'll see if he changes his tune now that his winning is streak is over, or if he doubles down on the proverbial heel turn.
Winner: Alex Nicholson
5 of 8Alex Nicholson was an overwhelming underdog in his UFC debut Saturday night. So it was smart, then, that he made sure to get himself at least one big win while he was under the big banner.
During Friday's weigh-ins, the light heavyweight proposed to his girlfriend right before he stepped on the scale. She said yes, and then he made weight and everything. A storybook situation.
Unfortunately, Nicholson lost to top prospect Misha Cirkunov the next night—and appeared to suffer a potentially nasty jaw injury in the process.
But that's OK, right? Even if he never fights in the UFC again, he certainly took a good memory home with him.
Loser: Joshua Burkman's Weight Cut
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It wasn't a pretty picture.
In the undercard main event—a slot reserved for a likely action fight—Joshua Burkman and K.J. Noons squared off.
A veteran of 40 fights at middleweight and welterweight, the 35-year-old Burkman was making his debut at lightweight. The 33-year-old Noons was competing for just the fourth time in the past three years.
Both men have reputations as competent, tough-chinned strikers. It wasn't in evidence Saturday.
The left hand was there for Noons more or less throughout, but he rarely threw it. It's always sad to say, but Noons looked shot, unwilling to pull the trigger and unable to fend off Burkman's attacks.
Burkman went for clinch time and takedowns and was successful on both fronts. That is, until the second half of the fight, when he gassed badly. Toward the final minutes, he was literally staggering from exhaustion.
In the end, Burkman took the decision, but he didn't exactly take it going away.
So, how about that new weight cut, Joshua?
"I thought I'd have a little more in the tank at 155," Burkman told Anik in the cage after the fight. "I had to cut 18 pounds in 24 hours."
Jumping jellybeans! That is a lot of weight to cut, even when grading on the inhuman curve of combat sports. It certainly explains Burkman's fade down the stretch. He is a respected veteran, and despite the fact he told Anik he felt it was "the best win of [his] career," it didn't look that way to the viewers at home.
Winner: Mickey Gall
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Mickey Gall. Mike Jackson. Total combined pro MMA record: 1-0.
Only Gall has competed before, and that was a first-round submission win last November over someone named Ron Templeton at something called Dead Serious MMA. Dead serious indeed. Jackson, meanwhile, is an MMA broadcaster with no professional fighting experience.
So, why was this fight worthy, and even more importantly, why did these two welterweights have a place on a UFC event? Because these were the two men UFC officials handpicked to spoon-feed former professional wrestler CM Punk, who signed with the company in 2014 and is ready to make his debut this year.
The total combined record of all three of these men? 1-0.
If Gall won, he was guaranteed the Punk fight. With Jackson, it was a little more nebulous. Good thing for the sake of clarity, then, that Gall dropped Jackson with his first serious punch, took Jackson's back and latched on a rear-naked choke for the win, all in less than one minute.
It was not a good or interesting contest. While a fight of this caliber undermines the UFC's reputation as a place where only the best compete—not to mention Punk himself, who has continually struggled to prove his legitimacy to the fighting public—you have to be happy for these two fighters, who realized a dream Saturday.
But more accurately, you have to be happy for Gall, who didn't even take a scratch and now appears to have a big payday in his future, assuming Punk stays true to his timeline.
UFC Fight Night 82 Full Card Results
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Main Card
- Stephen Thompson def. Johny Hendricks by TKO, 3:31, Rd. 1
- Roy Nelson def. Jared Rosholt by unanimous decision
- Ovince Saint Preux def. Rafael Cavalcante by unanimous decision
- Joseph Benavidez def. Zach Makovsky by unanimous decision
- Misha Cirkunov def. Alex Nicholson by submission (neck crank), 1:28, Rd. 2
- Mike Pyle def. Sean Spencer by TKO, 4:25, Rd. 3
Preliminary Card
- Josh Burkman def. K.J. Noons by unanimous decision
- Derrick Lewis def. Damian Grabowski by TKO, 2:17, Rd. 2
- Justin Scoggins def. Ray Borg by unanimous decision
- Diego Rivas def. Noad Lahat by KO, 0:23, Rd. 2
- Mickey Gall def. Mike Jackson by submission (rear-naked choke), 0:45, Rd. 1
- Alex White def. Artem Lobov by unanimous decision
Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter.
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