Georges St. Pierre's legacy is being affected by his fear of losing – St. Pierre regularly talks about his place in MMA history. At this point, he is looking like one who will go down as a respected, dominant champion that is not loved. The most loved fighters are the ones who finish fights and leave everything in the cage or ring. How often can that be said of St. Pierre? Even with the eye injury he suffered, St. Pierre should have done more to try to finish the fight. Of course this is the fifth fight in a row we can say that about.
Jake Shields needs to go train elsewhere for a little while – Cesar Gracie's camp has been great for Shields and his teammates the Diaz brothers and Gilbert Melendez, but Shields lacks the stand-up talent his teammates have. He should go to the Netherlands and train for a good six months in Dutch-style kickboxing with the likes of Ernesto Hoost and Alistair Overeerm. It may not make him a good striker (he lacks the talent for that), but it was help him be able to use his striking to get fights against superior strikers with good takedown defense to the ground like Jon Fitch does.
Mark Hominick will get another title shot at some point, and it will end the same way this did – Hominick earned a lots of respect from fight fans for continuing to fight with that hematoma on his head and then dominating round 5. That said, he only dominated against Aldo because Aldo was gassed. Hominick is good enough to earn a rematch after a few fights, but I don't think he has anything for the champ no matter what he does.
Jose Aldo is better than we all thought – I know that sounds weird after a fight where he was dominated in the final round, but Aldo was sick, reportedly had a difficult weight cut and, despite being the champion, was fighting in his UFC debut. He still may have some weaknesses against wrestlers, but nobody else at featherweight has any chance against him when he's right.
Lyoto Machida is not back yet – Yes, his footwork issues from the Rampage Jackson fight were corrected and he looked much more like the Machida that knocked out Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans to win the light heavyweight title than the tentative fighter that struggled in two fights with Shogun Rua. That said, Randy Couture lacked the athletic ability and quickness at his age to keep up. After the first round, I asked my friends who I was watching the fight with if the knockout was going to be one where Couture got clipped or was is going to be spectacular. We got our answer with an incredible knockout, but no answers about Machida because of Couture's obvious age-related athletic disadvantages.
It was a great career for Couture – There is no shame in getting beat like that. In fact, going back to the tradition of Japanese MMA, it was an honorable way to go out, getting knocked out by a younger and obviously superior fighter. Over his career, Randy accomplished lots and he truly deserves his place among the all-time greats despite his fairly pedestrian 19-11 record.
Trying to submit Ben Henderson is foolhardy – In my preview, I wrote that Henderson would win because Mark Bocek would try to submit him and fail, ultimately getting blasted by punches in the process. That is exactly how is happened. Henderson looked to be in danger of being submitted quite a few times during the fight and every time he calmly waited for an opportunity to escape, did so and then pounded Bocek immediately after the escape. One take away from this fight is that some submission attempts leave you vulnerable if the fighter escapes.
Bocek will be fine in the lightweight division – He a solid fighter that will continue to grow as a fighter and show he deserves his place on the roster. He might never be a title contender, but his solid jiu-jitsu will stop many in the coming months and years. This was just an awful matchup against a fighter that seemingly can't be submitted and has a pretty good stand up game.
Rory MacDonald is potential champion in the future – Only 21 years old, MacDonald looked incredible against Nate Diaz. In fact, his spectacular suplexes reminded me of watching Jon Jones fight Stephen Bonnar on the UFC 94 undercard. It will take MacDonald a bit longer than Jones did and he is no sure thing, especially with St. Pierre ruling the top of his division, but MacDonald is one to watch out for.
Nate Diaz should go back to lightweight – He doesn't have as large a frame as his brother Nick does and Nate can get thrown around against bigger, stronger welterweights. Combine that with a lack of takedown defense (or overconfidence in his game from the back if you choose) and it is a recipe for disaster at welterweight.
Jake Ellenberger is developing nicely – Maybe he should get that rumored fight with Jon Fitch as some point that never happened. Ellenberger seems like he would have as good a chance as anyone else at beating Fitch right now. That was a nice knockout or Sean Pierson.
Ivan Menjivar is a possible future bantamweight contender – I know that sounds insane considering he lost to Brad Pickett not long ago, but that was as much a function of getting acclimated to cutting to 135 pounds as anything else. It's amazing to think his first career loss was at welterweight to St. Pierre in St. Pierre's first fight. Also, his contendership is directly tied to his ability to finish opponents. He has finished 17 of his 22 wins and we all know Dana White loves fighters who finish, especially at the lighter weights where the lack of size makes KOs harder to come by.
Pablo Garza and his coaches are great planners – That is the only way to explain planning a flying triangle and then hitting it to finish a fight. Just a great job of breaking down an opponent and finding a weakness.
John Makdessi picked the wrong card to have a spectacular knockout – Makdessi dominated Kyle Watson and then setup and executed a beautiful spinning back fist knockout in the third round. On most other cards, this would have easily been knockout of the night, but not here with Machida's crane kick KO of Couture.
Next up for each fighter
St. Pierre should fight Nick Diaz. There are no other fights left for him a welterweight right now. With that fight happening, the UFC can figure out what to do with Carlos Condit, BJ Penn and Jon Fitch at the top of the division. As this point, Condit should probably fight the winner of Penn/Fitch 2 whenever it happens for the title shot after Diaz if he beats Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 132
Jake Shields should get one of the up and comers from the undercard. A fight against Ellenberger makes a lot of sense right now. Either that of the winner of Thiago Alves/Rick Story fight next month.
Jose Aldo seems to be being pushed into a quick title defense this August against Chad Mendes. Should be good.
Mark Hominick will get some time off and then I expect him in the Co-Main Event of a UFC Fight Night type card in Canada in the fall.
Lyoto Machida is in flux right now. He has fought most of the division's top fighters except Forrest Griffin. If Griffin beat Shogun Rua again this summer that should be the fight. Otherwise, I have no idea. Maybe Ryan Bader to see how he would do against a top wrestler as Evans looked to strike with Machida and paid for it.
Ben Henderson should keep moving up the card. At this point, the question is how high. The easiest thing would be if Anthony Pettis beat Clay Guida next month, then Henderson should fight Guida next.
Rory MacDonald has shown he's ready for a bigger test at welterweight. Give him the loser of Alves/Story or Kim assuming he loses to Condit.
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