UFC 103: Efrain Escudero Stuns, KOs Cole Miller In Round 1

I planned to publish an article this morning that demanded the UFC finally recognize Cole Miller’s talents and give him a step up in competition. I wrote most of the article yesterday, but decided to wait until after his win against Efrain Escudero at UFC 103 to publish it. Sadly, things did not work out for Cole, or for myself, as planned.

After his last win against Junie Browning, Miller called out Spencer Fisher (specifically the winner of Spencer Fisher vs. Caol Uno), which is a fight I’d still like to see. Cole was smart. He didn’t call out someone too high up the ladder, but high enough that a win would put him closer to contention. So why did Joe Silva decide to put Cole against yet another TUF alumni instead? I guess I’ll have to acknowledge that maybe Silva knows what he’s doing.  It turns out that Efrain actually was a step up in competition for Cole, I just didn’t recognize it.

Truth is, I didn’t overestimate Cole, who is a skilled fighter with a lot of potential, but I definitely underestimated Efrain. During The Ultimate Fighter, Efrain showed a lot of talent and heart. Despite being a heavy underdog against both Browning and the highly overrated Phillipe Nover, he put on some great performances and walked away as The Ultimate Fighter. But it has been nine months since we’ve seen him in the octagon and after a very disappointing debut performance from fellow TUF winner Amir Sadollah, my expectations for Efrain were low.

Oh how Efrain proved me wrong. At the start of the fight, it looked like Cole was happy to use his reach advantage to keep Efrain outside. But as the fight progressed, Efrain picked up Miller’s timing, ducked under a shot to get inside, and landed a combo that sent Cole to the mat. He followed it with two to three more unanswered blows before the ref stepped in to save Miller. It was an impressive knockout victory for Efrain that hopefully says more about how good he is than about anything lacking in Miller. Only time will tell how far Efrain can go, and how much work Cole will have to do to earn his way back to his underrated position in the lower middle.

In other news, Cole Miller is not the only UFC 103 loser to have potentially been jinxed by me.  Last night was the first time ever that I picked Martin Kampmann to win a fight, and well, we all know what happened there. Actually, what did happen there? First time I remember seeing a TKO stoppage with a fighter still clearly on his feet. It might have been a little premature, but Kampmann definitely didn’t look like he was headed for recovery either, probably a good stoppage by another professional who knows what he’s doing.