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Leading into the final week of 2011, the landscape within the UFC seemed pretty clear. All this changed with one event on December 30th 2011.
Previously, expectations included the winner of Lesnar versus Overeem to face champion Junior Dos Santos for the heavyweight title, and welterweight fighter Jon Fitch to receive a chance to fight the winner of Carlos Condit versus Nick Diaz for the interim title, while champ Georges St. Pierre recovers from injury.
But what we witnessed from the MGM Grand Arena was something spectacular. For a card with no title fight attributed, there were certainly implications created for the already stacked MMA landscape going into 2012. These implications are credited to the three standouts of the night.
1. Alistair Overeem
A highly decorated fighter with titles held consecutively within the K-1 Kickboxing Championships, Dream, and Strikeforce, Alistair Overeem debuted within the UFC still unknown to a North American audience. Facing favourite Brock Lesnar, it was a fight that was not anticipated to go past two rounds.
Unfortunately for Lesnar, he hadn’t faced such an efficient striker, and had already proved from his fight with Shane Carwin at UFC 116 that he didn’t like to get hit, though in that case he went on to keep the heavyweight title by catching Carwin in an arm-triangle choke.
In the end Overeem controlled the stand-up, finally landing a kick to the liver which brought Lesnar down, and then proceeded to throw follow up strikes until the ref stepped in.
Following the fight, UFC president Dana White himself admitted that he didn’t think that Overeem would overcome the bigger Lesnar, and was surprised at the fact that Lesnar played to Overeem’s strengths.
Overeem now moves onto a title shot with the current champion Junior Dos Santos later on this year, and although fans have been given a preview of what Overeem can do, Junior Dos Santos is thought to be the favourite going into that bout. This fight will be a striker’s match and will be one to look out for in 2012.
For Lesnar, he can now enjoy time with his family, with the announcement of his retirement.
2. Johny Hendricks
Before the UFC 141 card not much was known about Johny Hendricks. This was a fighter who had started out with the WEC in 2008, recording two wins (one via TKO, one via decision), before finally making his UFC appearance at UFC 101 against The Ultimate Fighter 7 champ Amir Sadollah in August 2009.
Of the seven UFC fights he had before the Fitch match-up, Hendricks had six wins and a loss to Rick Story via unanimous decision at The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale in 2010.
Fitch on the other hand has been a well known name around the MMA world since 2005, having 15 UFC fights under his belt, with one loss (against champ Georges St. Pierre in August 2008) and a draw with B.J Penn. Fitch’s method of fighting has polarised fans. Many consider him to be a ‘safe’ fighter, aiming not to lose via taking the bout to the ground and using what is commonly called ‘lay and pray’ – not working for submissions or not striking on the ground.
Going into this bout Fitch was outspoken about his desire to be next in line for the interim welterweight title shot, once the interim champion has been decided between Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz. It seemed that Fitch had been overlooking this fight in order to champion himself the next fight.
All this lasted 12 seconds in the cage, when Johnny Hendricks burst out of his corner and threw his first punch, which ended up sending a knocked out Fitch to the ground, waking up in time and in a confused state as he tried to wrestle referee Steve Mazagatti. Hendricks became the first fighter in nine years to finish Jon Fitch, earning himself the knockout of the night bonus and sending his competitor back into the mix of fighters working their way toward title contention.
While not much can be evaluated from a 12-second knockout, this will be a huge boost for Hendricks, and he will face higher calibre, big-name fighters within the welterweight division this year.
3. Jimy Hettes
Jimy Hettes went into his bout with Nam Phan with an impressive nine wins via submission (only one win in the UFC), while Phan went in as crowd favourite due to his legendary featherweight bouts with competitor Leonard Garcia, which showcased the quality of his striking. Hettes went on to do the unexpected, and that was to control the fight for the entire three rounds, almost catching Phan in a choke within the dying minute of the first round, and put on a technical display of grappling and overall ground game, eventually winning via unanimous decision.
For Phan this leaves him to go back and work on his skill set in order to progress through promotion, as two entertaining fights with Garcia won’t be enough to keep him within promotion if he suffers another loss. Hettes, on the other hand, will progress, and through more experience he will grow into an all-round accomplished fighter. I would expect to see Hettes within the top-tier fighters of the featherweight division going into 2013.
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