Poor Ryan Bader. He did such a great job in his promo for last night’s main event at UFC Fight Night 28 on Fox Sports 1, live from Brazil, as I almost believed that he may have been the man that Glover Teixeira would have to go through to get to Jon Jones or Alexander Gustafsson, depending on which fighter wins their match at UFC 165. Instead, Teixeira laid waste to Bader quickly, despite the fact that Bader had a huge opportunity to pull off the upset.
Meanwhile, the rest of the card was highly entertaining, as we watched four TKOs (including Teixeira over Bader) and two submissions, while only two of the fights ended in split decisions. Almost everyone involved put on a great show in Brazil last night, so we can all hope that UFC Fight Night 28 serves as a blueprint for our free Wednesday night fights moving forward.
As for the UFC Fight Night 28 results…
Main Event
Glover Teixeira def. Ryan Bader (TKO)
Bader landed a great shot on Teixeira that caused him to stumble, but Bader failed to capitalize on it and instead actually let Teixeira regain his ground, the momentum and ultimately a quick victory with a series of hard punches and hammers. As quickly as I thought, “Holy sh*t, Bader has a chance in this fight,” Teixeira completely flipped the script and ended the fight. Like I wrote in one of my few correct predictions yesterday, Teixeira is simply looking for statements right now. Getting the W is just an added bonus.
Main Card
Ronaldo Souza def. Yushin Okami (TKO)
Joseph Benavidez def. Jussier Formiga (TKO)
Piotr Hallmann def. Francisco Trinaldo (Submission)
Rafael Natal def. Tor Troeng (Unanimous decision)
Ali Bagautinov def. Marcos Vinicius (TKO)
Fox Sports 1 Preliminaries
Kevin Souza def. Felipe Arantes (Split decision)
Lucas Martins def. Junior Hernandez (Submission)
Elias Silverio def. Joao Zeferino (Unanimous decision)
Ivan Jorge def. Keith Wisniewski (Unanimous decision)
Online Preliminary
Sean Spencer def. Yuri Villefort (Split decision)
So What’s Next For Teixeira?
Obviously, if Jon Jones defeats Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165 to retain the UFC Light Heavyweight title later this month, then we’re going to start preparing for a Jones-Teixeira main event sometime next year. But I don’t want to count Gustafsson out just yet, as he has earned his shot at the UFC’s pound-for-pound best fighter with an impressive six consecutive wins and 7-1 record since making his UFC debut in 2009. To take him lightly would be a huge mistake. And in the event that he does win, Jones will have an immediate rematch, of course.
Still, Teixeira (and pretty much all of us) knows that the big fight and real respect comes with defeating Jones, and that’s how he explained his hopes for a title shot to the MMA Hour recently.
“It’s hard for me to say I’m rooting for him (Jones) because Gustafsson has been working hard and wants the title, but, in a way, yeah, if Jon Jones wins its better for me. If I get to fight the champion, it’s better fighting Jon Jones because he has the bigger name. It’s kind of like Weidman beating Anderson Silva. It’s great for him, but If someone goes now and beats Weidman it’s not the same thing, know what I mean?”
Absolutely.
Speaking Of Pound-For-Pound Rankings
After his huge first round win over Benson Henderson at UFC 164, the new UFC Lightweight Champion Anthony Pettis has jumped into the UFC’s Pound-for-Pound rankings at No. 8, ahead of the new Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman. Eventually, the UFC should just have five superfights involving the P4P rankings. And it would be a random drawing for matches, because I’d love to see Demetrious Johnson fight Cain Velasquez.
Initial Thoughts On The Ultimate Fighter 18
I think I have an idea of why Ronda Rousey seems so reluctant about her role on TUF 18 this season, as it seems that she just wants to be left alone to do her thing, her way. That’s why she seemed pretty annoyed when Dana White first filled her in on the coach swap, with Miesha Tate replacing the injured Cat Zingano. Otherwise, I have a feeling that her concerns that we’re going to make false assumptions based on conveniently-edited TV clips stem from the fact that she’s going to fly off the handle a lot when people either don’t listen to her or someone tells her what to do. On top of that, I don’t think she’s going to take too kindly to any of her fighters losing to Tate.
But I won’t make any real guesses or pick a favorite fighter until we get into the fun stuff on the next episode.
(Miesha Tate’s gift image via)