UFC's Dustin Hazelett - A Welterweight Worth Watching

If you don't know who Dustin Hazelett is, you will very soon. The American Fighter prospect and Jorge Gurgel protoge is very quickly making waves in the UFC's welterweight division. After suffering a technical knockout loss to Josh Koscheck at UFC 82, "McLovin" came back with an incredible submission victory over a very tough Josh Burkman on The Ultimate Fighter finale on Saturday.

Hazelett, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt under Gurgel, holds a 4-2 UFC record and is 11-4 overall.  Of his 11 wins, only two have gone to a decision. The rest were won by submission, with the only exception being a knockout victory over Chad Reiner.

Rarely do I so quickly become a fan of a certain fighter, but after the very first time I saw Hazelett fight, I became a huge fan. The Koscheck fight was the first time I saw Hazelett fight and even though he lost the fight, he was exciting to watch. Those who don't appreciate or understand the ground game will probably disagree with me. Don't get me wrong, I love exciting stand up bouts and knockouts as much as the next person, but as a student of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu I am in awe of Hazelett's BJJ skills.

Hazelett began putting on a Jiu-Jitsu clinic the second Burkman took him down. His flexibility makes his guard extremely dangerous and any fighter looking to take him down should seriously reconsider. His use of the rubber guard makes him especially dangerous because it makes it nearly impossible for his opponent to posture up and land any strikes of significance. It also makes it very hard for his opponent to defend against strikes from the bottom. For more proof of this, check out Jason Day vs. Alan Belcher; in that fight Belcher took Day down, but Day pummelled him from the bottom with elbows thanks to a very effective rubber guard. When Belcher finally broke free of the rubber guard, he opted to stand back up instead of sitting back down in Day's guard. Using the rubber guard also makes it fairly easy to transition to an omoplata; something Hazelett accomplished and nearly submitted Burkman with.

Hazelett's transitions from one choke to another, to another, was spectacular and Burkman had no answers.  His transitions were so slick that when Burkman had a double leg, he didn't slam Hazelett to the mat in fear of being caught in a guillotine choke.

McLovin also showed some decent standup skills against Burkman. After feeding Burkman a nicely planted front kick to the face, he followed up with a high kick that landed flush and left Burkman with a nasty looking left eye.

But just when I thought Hazelett's Jiu-Jitsu couldn't possibly be any better, he pulled off probably the sickest armbar I have ever seen. Burkman had him up against the fence with Hazelett defending with the Whizzer which is used to set up a Judo type throw. The throw tossed Burkman but Burkman defended and both fighters landed in a neutral position. But as they stood, Hazelett, still holding on with the Whizzer, jumped over Burkman's head and sunk in the armbar.

I have never seen anything like it.

Obviously, Submission of the Night bonus went to Hazelett. I am so impressed with the submission that if there were awards for Submission of the Year, I'd give it to him hands down.

This win will skyrocket Hazelett into the welterweight mix and into bigger fights on the Pay-Per-View portion of bigger cards. I can't wait to see Hazelett fight again. I've become a huge fan and I'm excited to see what he'll do next.

This guy has me inspired. I'm am definitely going to try that move in my next class.

Watch for this guy because he's going to make some big noise in the UFC and is definitely a welterweight worth watching.