UFC 152 thoughts/rate it

I'll give the card a 6. It was average if only for the prelims. If there was more goodness on the main card it would get a 7 but the good shit was all on the undercard. It had some memorable moments. The main event and co-event were weak but not show killing weak.

Jones-Belfort was pretty much as expected. I know my disdain for Jon Jones has been made clear but i really don't think he's all that and it really is a matter of time. He has cracks...some of them were shown tonight but the rain will get in those cracks eventually. As for tonight. He did as expected. Punished Belfort with GnP and kept a good distance on the feet. Jones looks like he has weak cardio but he wears guys down so early nobody can really exploit it because when he gets tired his opponent is already broken. I'll give Jones credit for taking the arm damage from the arm bar. Belfort had that locked in but i can tell Jones would let his arm break to potentially make it easier to slip out before he tapped. Belfort did exactly a couple good things off his back but didnt get after it on the feet. Considering he didnt seem that concerned about being on his back, even pulling guard he should have gone after it more. He had to have known Jones was going to pick him apart from a distance. I at the very least expected Belfort to be extremely agressive in this fight but he wasnt. Belfort fought like he had everything to lose when he had nothing to lose. All that said, Belfort did just about as well as anybody. Machida won the round but Belfort had locked that arm bar in and damaged his arm. The fight was OK.

Joe B vs. DJ - This fight was crap. Bring it on Dana and Rogan! this shit sucked. Benavidez was incredibly disappointing thought i scored 2-4 for him and only had DJ winning the first and last round. Close fight, but once again i'm just not seeing the actual work by DJ. Maybe it's because he's "soooo fast" but from what i see his shit does not even land a lot of the time. Though the stats say he's efficient, i think they are pretty sensitive counters out there. I just think DJ looks more effective offensively than he really is. Either way, Benavidez did look like he had trouble not being the fastest guy in the cage for a change but i think he landed the more effective shots and edged him out for 3 straight rounds. DJ looked the same as he always does, Benavidez looked like a completely different fighter.

I would actually like to see Benavidez go back to BW. I never cared for moving him to 125 because his speed is standout at 135 and unlike Johnson, he can hurt people at 135 with his power. He was one of the 3 best BW when he left the division.

Bisping vs. Stann was OK. As expected. Bisping is technically superior to Stann. More well rounded...he found himself in a few big exchanges i was hoping he would avoid for the sake of proving me right...but it was pretty simple. He outworked Stann and didnt get knocked out on his way to an easy decision. As for Stann, he's a sold fighter and seemingly a very good guy but he's not high level. He's high middle of the pack at best. He's simply too one dimensional. I think Bisping has proven to be slightly above that level. Not elite but definitely better than middle of the pack.

I think Bisping gets the next shot simply because Silva-Bisping is the most marketable matchup in the division at the moment. He just beat a guy with some hype around him(finally), his fight with Sonnen was very close, and of course Anderson has pushed for the fight for days. Bisping also has a tight window. If he suffers another setback i doubt they will ever be able to sell him as a legit contender. He's no more deserving than Weidman but i can see this fight being announced for 2013 not long after Spider slaughters Boner, and well before Weidman fights Boetsch.

Matt Hamill vs. Hollett...Didnt see the fight

Cub vs. Charles. Nice KO. Pretty awkward. Charles will have set backs like this. Some guys like Jon Jones keep winning when they are 22. Some guys need more time to grow.

Cub Swanson is coming up in the game. Cub Swanson and Ricardo Llamas have been criminally underrated since the WEC merger. They have excelled in the UFC.

Vinny vs. a guy that Stephan Bonnar beat...Vinny has impressive BJJ. We knew that. He looked like a mannequin standing and pulling guard isnt that simple when the competition gets tougher. Nice sub but his opponent was tailor made for him to have a better start to his second stint in the UFC than he did in his first. We'll see what comes next. I think this win gives Vinny a better idea of what he needs to do better than the scrubs he was beating in M-1.

Dunham vs. Grant. FOTN. Straight up war. These guys didnt take a breather and i must say, i've been impressed with TJ Grant as LW. Roller and Prater are OK wins, but Dunham is a very good win..especially contested on the feet. Dunham wasnt having a shit night either. Grant just beat him.

Hettes-Brimage was solid. He got weak in the 3rd round but Brimage just outworked him on the feet. I thought Hettes was going to run away with the bout after the second round but just couldnt get anything going in the 3rd.

Is this the end of Charlie Brennerman? TKO'd in 45 seconds on Facebook..3rd loss in 4 fights couple with the fact he's an extremely boring fighter.

Nice KO by Bacyznski, but i hate when an up and comer who clearly is more talented gets to excited and gets caught by a proven middle of the roader like Seth.

Yeah I went with a 6. Would have been a 5 but the fact that belfort got so close to beating him with that armbar jumped it up a notch for me.

7.

I am not excited about the Nottingham card but knowing my luck it will turn out to be card of the year.

5 was not great

I voted 5 but I still have to watch most of the undercard. But Mouse vs Joe was a fight I was really looking forward to and it didn't live up to my expectations. I think both guys fought conservative. It wasn't bad but I know both men could put on a better show. I think Joe getting a favorable matcup in the GP cause him to be overrated. I thought all along that Creepy and Mouse were the better fighters, still do. I personally still think Creepy when on his game is the man at Fly.
Vitor's good nature cost him the fight. He admits to easing up on the armbar when he heard the snaps. He should have put everything he had into it and today he would be World Champion.
Bisping vs Stann is kind of like Mouse vs Joe to me. I thought the fight would be better but it wasn't that bad.

Overall there wasn't a single fight on the card I would recommend to anyone that didn't see it. Maybe the Cub Swanson fight. I'm still surprised Cub and Mouse were underdogs. They are who I thought they were.