UFC 166 Takeaways

One of the best cards ever...

1) A solution for the judging needs to happen. Kaufman and Dollaway were both robbed on this card because of sheer incompetence. I thought the Kaufman scorecard was the worst of the year and then it was immediately topped by two 30-26 cards for Tim Boetsch who got his ass handed to him the first 10 minutes of that fight. It even overshadowed the ref making his debut who allowed about 5 extra punches to totally unconscious fighters by being out of position. Just atrocious

2) Daniel Cormier is the best heavyweight in the world. He takes out Cain if they ever matched up, but it will be interesting to see him at 205, a division that needs some life breathed into it

3) Lombard is going to be a scary man at 170. I didn't buy the hype at all up at 185 and was proven right by 2 lackluster performances, but fighting men his size and still carrying that kinda power with the takedown defense...it's going to be fun to watch.

4) Dodson is the 2nd best flyweight and the rematch with MM will give him his only real challenge as the division stands now

5) Diego should call it a career. That fight will go down in the history books but the slurring in the postfight interview was an uncomfortable reminder of how long he's been fight and how many clean punches he's taken to the head. He isn't going anywhere and may have a little more left in the tank than I thought going in (makes that Gomi performance look stranger than it already did) but I'd love to see him move on

6) Horiguchi dropping to 125 is Japan's best shot for a relevant winner at this point

We're really lucky to get to see a man like Cain work his craft. The UFC is lucky, never been a more talented and exciting fighter ever at that weight class in their promotion. The man optimizes what it means to be a warrior in every way possible.

He's utterly trashed again one of the most dangerous fighters ever. And done so with a masterful performance. It's crazy almost to see such a complete game executed at all levels so well against a guy like JDS, again! Great night to be an MMA fan.

Cain can be beat like anyone can, he is human, he can be punched out. But he will not ever lose because his talents are inferior to his competition. As a HW, he is one of if not the only guy that truly is on a p4p best in the world level in skill.

I don't believe Werdum will be able to hang with Cain where this fight will take place, that place being wherever Cain wants it to. I think the shots JDS took Saturday are the type that will floor Werdum. Now if he plays possum right he could get dropped and lure Cain into something on the ground, but I'd be surprised to see Cain have that type of mental lapse given the scene that unfolded with Werdum's greatest ever victory. I give Werdum a 1 out of 80 chance to win right now.


Awesome show, and an awesome card. Every fight on the PPV featured great excitement and incredible displays of talent by some of the best fighters competing in MMA today. Loved this card.

Love watching DC fight, another display were one can proudly fly their love of the sport afterwards. Watching guys like this perform at this level with that success is never not entertaining.

He is second only to Cain at HW and a match between them might forever go down as one of the greatest what ifs ever, level with the what if I have for something like Wanderlei vs Shogun. Like Cain, DC dominated and did so with great acumen against an outmatched opponent. DC beat Jones imo, he rag dolls him however he pleases. I think Glover vs DC will be a great match, Glover won't be bullied.



Give credit where credit is due. Gilbert Melendez absolutely trashed Diego Sanchez, the only thing separating this beating from the one BJ gave him is the extra rounds for Gil to finish of Sanchez. He looked fantastic any way he chose to fight, weather by his own game or swinging into Sanchez game. Lot of respect for Sanchez to not only survive but even try to Hulk Hogan out of his beating to make something happen, the guy has no quit in him. It takes a special guy to make a one sided affair like that so entertaining.

Gil beat Pettis, he did beat Bendo and he is the best LW inthe world.



Dodson is awesome inside the cage and out. It's really refreshing to see a guy not scared to just be a constant positive individual in the ways which he carries himself. He has a really high ceiling and i thought in his post fight interview he said it best, he needed to learn form the MM fight, needed to have patience and find a way to offend before finding the way to finish, the finish will come. He has a reputation in my mind for letting guys back into fights, he did so with Elliot and MM, here I had this feeling he might do it again, Montague is very talented and tough and could of made something out of it later, but Dodson changed it, didn't let him back in, didn't change up what he was doing. It was very cool to watch.

Did you get a chance to see the Facebook fights? I know you said you had to wait to watch this card

Only the fight they played on on the PPV and Prelims so I saw Amagov KO, morbid shit.  Havint got the Rio/Ferguson, Kyoji/pauge or Fili/larsen fights yet, gonna look for a DL of them tonight.

All the fights are here-

http://www.mma-core.com/videos/page/3

Great! I heard the facebook fights were fun.

The whole of UFC 166 was awesome!

1. Cain is the man, most talented HW on the planet. I do think DC's insane wrestling, is a bad style match for Cain and would favor him in a fight. However when it comes to overall talent Cain is the best HW on the planet. I thought his strategy was very smart. Smother JDS so he couldn't get shots off. He wasn't able to really take him down but smothering him and controlling him was very effective. It was almost like what Barnett did to Mir except JDS has a much better chin and bigger heart then Mir. I do think outside of DC that JDS is the only one in the World that could beat Cain. He actually landed a dozen or so very hard, clean shots but Cain handled them very well. He landed a very clean strike right in the opening seconds and I think that was enough for Cain to avoid exchanging with JDS. Masterful performance by Cain, who has amazing heart himself.

2. DC might have the most dominate wrestling in all of MMA. I think DC and Cain are pushing eachother in practice and they are helping eachother grow as fighters. Can't wait to see DC at LHW, I just wish DC was a few years younger.

3. Dodson is just better then I ever gave him credit for. Incredibly athletic. I think Mongoose is a very good fighter and still potentially top 5 fly but Dodson is on another level right now.

4. Best card of the year, hands down. Now Rogan got carried away with the "best fight ever" with Gil-Diego but it was incredibly entertaining. I have it #3 fight of the year behind Grice-Bermudez and Stann-Silva.

Good to see you admit the errors of your way about Dodson OU. He's clearly top 3 at 125.

If there were a Cruiserweight division Daniel Cormier would be King.

For real, JDS need to seriously consider weather or not he will fight Cain again.  He got it bad the 2nd fight but in the 3rd he was taking scary concussion damage. Might be in his best interest to carefully think about it. Cain hits too hard to be standing in KO concussion land with nothing but willpower keeping him on his feet. A Nick Diaz volume of HW bell ringers like he got from Cain again at this weight could see a guy meet a sad and young exit out of this game.

JDS's corner should've thrown in the towel after the 3rd.

After he fell over all on his own, I agree.

bobbitt15 wrote:

2) Daniel Cormier is the best heavyweight in the world. He takes out Cain if they ever matched up, but it will be interesting to see him at 205, a division that needs some life breathed into it

I think DC vs Cain is this decades Wanderlei vs Shogun great what if match up. That being said, Cormier has never been shy about saying Cain routinely has his number in training and would beat him in a fight. Fitch even reaffirmed that sentiment this week when asked about those two competing against each other. DC is athletic and talented enough to be a smaller division fighter beating up HWs but he doesn't beat Cain.