Post UFC ESPN Santos vs Hill 5 takeaways

    5 takeaways from UFC on ESPN Santos vs Hill

1. The main event could be broken up into 3 parts: 

a) Jamal Hill can be outwrestled! Anyone in the Light Heavyweight division with a solid gas tank who can chain wrestle can beat this guy. Didn’t the former GOAT of this division do that fairly well? Not to mention the most recent former champion in Glover Teixeira. 

b) Jamal Hill has decent reach and is frighteningly accurate with his punches. If you can’t take him down and keep him there then you’re in for a very long night at the office, or a very short night depending on your chin. 

c) Thiago Santos had a very smart game plan… for a young fighter with an extraordinary gas tank. That he is not, so where did that leave him? One definitive round under his belt, with the first two up for debate and no gas left to get through the last two. Ouch. Double Ouch. 

2. Geoff Neal is for real! He just took out the #6 welterweight coasting in 2nd gear. He was very accommodating with Vincente Luque’s insatiable desire to eat serving after serving of straight left hands. Luque offered a few solid kicks in round 2, but ultimately sufficed his appetite, taking a barrage of 9 consecutive uppercuts and a final left hand before he went tumbling to the mat head first.

 Key takeaway - Luque looked unusually flat footed taking those shots from Neal, did he stumble upon any advice from Eric Nicksick before this fight? And maybe Geoff Neal didn’t need to be so honest about his gas tank level during that 3rd round burst. What would he look like in a 5 round affair? That being said, how fun would a matchup between him and Kevin Holland be? I know it’s not a move forward, but hot damn that would be exciting! 

3. Mohammed Usman did not disappoint the suits at UFC H.Q. It turns out, all he needed was a check left hook somewhere in the range of 50% power to put down Zac Pauga. Yikes! Damn did he look scary, stomping around the cage flexing every fiber of his upper body screaming in victory!?! So the Usman brother looks great getting off the bus and will gladly put your lights out given the chance, but the question remains, how many chances will his skills afford him going upward in competition? 

4. Is Serghei Spivac about to go on the most unlikely streak in heavyweight history? Having started with taking out a hardy bag of trash and now bludgeoning Augusto Sakai. Or did Uncle Dana have an impolite ‘exit stage left’ message pre-saved to feed Sakai’s twitter inbox? My guess however, is that the UFC couldn’t care less who won this fight and was fully ready to dump whoever lost. Harsh, I know, but when have they ever been nice about cutting someone?

5. Dammit Sam Alvey! How is this guy still invited to the party? His signature ‘I don’t care if I win or lose cuz nothing can keep me down’ smile has expired on its warranty. He’s become that pestering fight before the boss level that makes no sense in order of challenger difficulty, but the video game designers throw him in there every time just to screw with you or waste your time. Are you going to beat him? Most likely! Can he get lucky swinging them wild bungalows because you got cocky after having beat him 47 times in a row? Ugh, Yes. That’s not the point of this though. When you haven’t won in 5 freaking years, and your last win was a sad split decision, you’ve got to go! Who beat him this time? I don’t know, frankly I don’t care. I’m not smiling anymore.