UFC Fight Night 92 Results: The Real Winners and Losers from Salt Lake City
UFC Fight Night 92 went down Saturday from Salt Lake City.
In the main event, Yair Rodriguez tried to make it five-for-five in the UFC against arguably his toughest competition to date, popular veteran Alex "Bruce Leeroy" Caceres. Although both these men are known as primarily stand-up fighters, is it possible that Caceres' recent advances in the clinch and ground phases presented a more level playing field?
In the co-main event, Dennis Bermudez tangled with Rony Jason. Both men are well-regarded, but with a combined record of 5-4-1 in their 10 bouts, both could really have used a win.
It wasn't the most stacked card the UFC has ever put together, cable TV or otherwise. But there are always storylines before and after every card, and as usual, the final stat lines only reveal so much. Could the card make up in action what it lacked in name power?
These are the real winners and losers from UFC Fight Night 92. Full results appear on the final slide.
Winners: The Spinning Stuff
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Oh, so you like the spinning attacks, do you? Are spinning kicks a particular favorite?
Well how about spinning backfists? How about spinning takedown attempts? Spinning leg-lock attempts? Spinning feints? How about just spins? No offense or defense involved; just spinning for its own sake.
Yair Rodriguez is an unabashed purveyor of the spinning stuff. Alex Caceres wasn't willing to cede the spinning title, though, and he proved equal to that challenge on Saturday. For 25 minutes that certainly exhausted fans, if not these two cardio warriors, Rodriguez and Caceres spun their way to a memorable fight that saw Rodriguez spin away with a split decision.
(And how a judge scored that 49-46 for Caceres, I'll never know. Strange. Such is life in MMA.)
If a jab worked OK, then these two reasoned that a spinning superman punch would work even more effectively.
Rodriguez landed more over the rounds and was the clear victor, but Caceres was a solid opponent. Bruce Leeroy's left hand found home more than once, and his chin held up against an onslaught that got heavy at times.
The bottom line is that Rodriguez is who we thought he was: still green, pretty inefficient, but one heck of a great and promising talent. Who, one might ask, would he like to fight next?
"I'm gonna let [UFC matchmaker] Sean Shelby pick my next opponent," Rodriguez told broadcaster Jon Anik in the cage after the fight. "I think [Caceres] was a good opponent."
No! That's not how you do it! How about Dennis Bermudez (and more on him in a moment)? How about Cub Swanson, who won farther down the card? How about Jeremy Stephens or Ricardo Lamas?
Caceres did well; Rodriguez did better. It will be interesting to see how well Rodriguez does in his next fight, which will surely come against a contender. He's in that conversation now.
Loser: Rony Jason
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After winning the featherweight portion of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil back in 2012, Rony Jason breezed into the UFC proper on a wave of expectation.Â
That wave appears to have broken, and is now ebbing back down the shore.
No longer a prospect, Jason is now 32 years old and struggling to demonstrate any meaningful forward progress. That feeling was exacerbated Saturday when, in his first fight back from a nine-month drug suspension, Jason lost a lopsided decision to Dennis Bermudez in the co-main event.
Jason is a jiu-jitsu ace, but wasn't able to scare Bermudez enough to stop multiple takedowns. Bermudez muscled Jason to the fence and didn't let up, scoring with wicked ground-and-pound that opened an early and nasty cut on Jason's forehead.
Give credit to Bermudez, who won his second straight and called out Frankie Edgar in the cage after the fight. But this loss is more about Jason failing to demonstrate he belongs at this rarefied level.
The loss moves Jason to 4-3-1 as a UFC fighter. That's not sterling. It doesn't justify a release or anything like that, but it's probably time to give up on the notion that Jason is, barring major improvements, not a threat to the company's top featherweights.
Winner: Santiago Ponzinibbio
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Santiago Ponzinibbio is a fighter on the rise in the UFC welterweight division.
The Ponz, or Ponzi, as I like to call him, handled a tough veteran in Zak Cummings. And the how was even more impressive than the what.
The Argentinean has never had a problem finding his aggression, but he leavened it Saturday with a more measured approach. His footwork and head movement were much improved, as was his ability and willingness to take what Cummings gave him.Â
An undefended right head kick rocked Cummings early. In the second round, Cummings grew impatient, and Ponzinibbio made him pay with stiff counters. As Bleacher Report senior analyst Patrick Wyman tweeted, Ponzinibbio was "sharper, more technical, and more measured than he's been, when he let his aggressiveness take over."
The 29-year-old has now won three straight, and is 5-2 under the UFC banner. He's earned a top-15 opponent in his next engagement.
Loser: Maryna Moroz
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According to Odds Shark, Maryna Moroz was a -260 favorite to defeat Danielle Taylor, who was making her UFC debut on short notice.
Even without experience in the equation, Taylor was operating at a substantial disadvantage. Seven inches worth, in fact, as the 5'0" underdog was giving up great size to the 5'7" Moroz. It stood to reason that Moroz, a high-level boxer, could simply pick Taylor apart at long range.
It seemed that even with the size advantage, Moroz needed another six inches or so of reach. She stayed busy but mainly hit air en route to a split-decision win.
It was an impressive display of shadowboxing, but not so much of MMA. Neither of these strawweights did much with this main-card opportunity, particularly Moroz, whose lack of offense was hard to comprehend.
Winner: Court McGee
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This one more or less explains itself.
In the UFC's first trip to Utah, the man who was born in and still lives and trains in the Beehive State was a no-brainer for the card. That would be Court McGee, who took an entertaining decision over a game Dominique Steele.
With the crowd chanting "Utah" for stretches of the fight, it was hard not to smile for McGee, the unlikely champion of the 11th season of The Ultimate Fighter and owner of a perhaps unlikelier career as a solid UFC middleweight.Â
Losers: Salt Lake City Singles Seeking a Low-Key Saturday Night
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No one in the greater Salt Lake City area is safe. If you're a local to that region and you're single and you're reading this and it's still Saturday, maybe there's still time.Â
En route to the closest shelter, definitely don't stop to check the social media accounts of Teruto Ishihara, the Team Alpha Male trainee who scored a first-round knockout of Horacio Gutierrez on the evening's undercard.
They are not safe for work or many other places. And they are rather detailed in their extolling of Ishihara's penchant for romance. He's a modern-day John Keats, is what he is. Go ahead, ask around.
Or you can check the thankfully SFW tweet he sent after his win, in which he wrote, "I was able to fight my best because of all of the beautiful ladies."
In any case, tip of the cap to this happy-go-lucky 25-year-old featherweight, who is now undefeated in three UFC contests. And a wag of the finger to anyone who was hoping to just chill out this Saturday in Utah's biggest city. Not happening.
UFC Fight Night 92 Full Card Results
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Main Card
Yair Rodriguez def. Alex Caceres by unanimous decision
Dennis Bermudez def. Rony Jason by unanimous decision
Thales Leites def. Chris Camozzi by submission (rear-naked choke), 2:58, Rd. 3
Santiago Ponzinibbio def. Zak Cummings by unanimous decision
Trevor Smith def. Joe Gigliotti by unanimous decision
Maryna Moroz def. Danielle Taylor by split decision
Preliminary Card
Court McGee def. Dominique Steele by unanimous decision
Marcin Tybura def. Viktor Pesta by KO, 0:53, Rd. 2
David Teymur def. Jason Novelli by TKO, 1:25, Rd. 2
Teruto Ishihara def. Horacio Gutierrez by TKO, 2:32, Rd. 1
Cub Swanson def. Tatsuya Kawajiri by unanimous decision
Justin Ledet def. Chase Sherman by unanimous decision
Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter.
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