- New fight camp, same old Yoshihiro Akiyama. I have a hard time believing that the game plan that Greg Jackson set forth for Akiyama was, "forsake your world-class judo entirely and headhunt with your right hand the entire fight." Whether Akiyama chose to ignore the plan or whether the first big shot he landed on Michael Bisping convinced him that he had the striking advantage, he spent the majority of the fight getting out-pointed by Bisping and never really threatened. While it's hard to argue with three 'Fight-of-the-Night' bonuses, the hype train is officially out on Akiyama.
- Akiyama has only been officially KO'd once in his career, and that was to kickboxing great Jerome Le Banner. It was Akiyama's second pro bout, and Le Banner outweighed him by 80 pounds. What I'm getting at is that Akiyama has a good chin, so it wasn't surprising that Bisping could not score the knockout despite landing multiple punches flush. Bisping might never challenge Anderson Silva for the title, but he is in the upper echelon of middleweight fighters.
- Could Carlos Condit be closer to a title shot than we realize? Consider his body of work since coming into the UFC as the last WEC welterweight champion; a razor-thin split-decision loss to Martin Kampmann (in a match that I scored for Condit) and three straight wins over Jake Ellenberger, super prospect Rory MacDonald and former number-one contender Dan Hardy. Condit entered the UFC with a lot of hype and he is starting to live up to it.
- Many people thought Mike Pyle would be another stepping stone for John Hathaway, but Pyle put his high-level grappling on display, controlling Hathaway and turning in some effective ground and pound from a top triangle position. Before this match, Hathaway had seemingly got past the 'Brits can't wrestle' stereotype, but his performance here did little to contradict that view.
- Cheick Kongo was the biggest loser at UFC 120 and he didn't even lose. Kongo cost himself the match with an inexcusable shorts-grabbing point deduction in the third round. Even without the point deduction, Kongo was hardly impressive and was not able to put away a Travis Browne who was gassed on hobbled late in the fight.
- Alexander Gustafsson turned in one of the most impressive performances of the night, dominating kickboxing champion Cyrille Diabate on the feet and on the ground en route to a rear-naked choke finish. What really impressed me about Gustafsson was his presence of mind on the ground. When it was clear that Gustafsson did not have the RNC fully locked in, he let go and pounded Diabate in the face, which opened up another opportunity for the choke.. Most fighters would have fruitlessly squeezed away, gassing out their arms in the process.
- Paul Sass is a lot of fun to watch on the ground. If you missed our 'New Blood' article, Sass holds the record for most consecutive triangle choke finishes with seven. When Sass pulled guard on Saturday, everyone on the planet (including opponent Mark Holst) knew that he was looking for the triangle. When you are able to pull a submission that your opponent knows you're looking for, that says something about your level of grappling ability.
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