- What was Rousimar Palhares thinking taking his eyes off of Nate Marquardt? The first thing any combat fighter learns is to never take your eyes off of your opponent. Palhares broke that golden rule, and he paid dearly for it.
- I'm glad that Joe Rogan, Herb Dean and the athletic commission were quick to head off "Greasegate 2.0" before it could gain any momentum. Every report that has come out since last night has indicated that Marquardt was clean, but these sorts of things can turn into a firestorm if not dealt with quickly.
- Charles Oliveira is only 20, and he is already well on his way to becoming a star. It wasn't just that he dominated Efrain Escudero, but that he put on a show while doing it. Oliveira does need to tighten up his striking, and I wonder how he would do against someone with crisper boxing, but his combination of flashy moves and high-level jiu-jitsu will prove a handful for a lot of fighters.
- Escudero wanted no part of Oliveira's ground game, but he certainly didn't expect Oliveira to be so dangerous on the feet (in fairness, none of us did). I thought Escudero looked a little flat, and I wonder if missing weight had something to do with it.
- Another UFC event, another referee complaint. In the third round of his fight, Oliveira took a hard knee to the groin and was obviously hurt. I don't know which was worse, the ref telling Oliveira he needed to hurry up (Oliveira is allotted five minutes) or the ref trying to speak to Oliveira in Spanish (Oliveira speaks Portuguese). It does not matter how much the fans boo, a fighter has five minutes to recover from a foul. If the ref is so sensitive to booing that he tries to hurry a fighter up, he is in the wrong profession.
- Jim Miller did a good job of making adjustments. Gleison Tibau caught and countered four of Miller's kicks in the first round, and none after that.
- It was good judging not to give the second round to Tibau based on his two takedowns. Miller had the more damaging strikes, and Tibau did absolutely nothing to follow up those takedowns.
- Cole Miller did a great job of using his reach and counter-punching to repeatedly tag Ross Pearson with straight rights. This was Miller's third Submission of the Night bonus.
- Pearson left himself open for counters with his looping punches. When facing an opponent with that sort of height and reach advantage, , needed to get in closer and work the body.
- Not a good night for Ultimate Fighter winners, as Pearson and Escudero combined to go 0-2. Could this be indicative of a larger problem? Going back two fights, the combined record of all Ultimate Fighter winners (excluding Travis Lutter and Court McGee) is a pedestrian 16-14. If you exclude Nate Diaz and Ryan Bader (the only TUF winners to win their last two fights), that mark drops to 12-14.
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