Boy Was I Off

Called both of the early fights wrong.

Mousasi appeared a bit off before the fight. Pasty and sweaty. Mousasi, who maintains an almost sloppy calm similar to Fedor, just got bullied around the cage by the stronger Mo. I thought he might win with an up-kick, but Mo took several of them in the gob and kept coming. Mo took the belt in a long, punishing fight, earning the decision. If the few fights he's had can earn anyone title bout, Mo earned the belt with this fight.

Aoki disappointed the shit out of me. I like Melendez, and think he's an excellent lightweight, but I've seen Aoki pull insane submissions in the Dream promotions. He's a savage if he gets a grip on you. Melendez continues to impress with the quality of his study of and strategy against opponents. He studied hard to wrest the belt from Thompson, and it was obvious he had done it again before last night's fight, refusing Aoki any opportunity to even start a submission. Melendez proved the smarter and stronger fighter, pummeling Aoki, who had no answer.

I missed the late fight as I had set my DVR for the scheduled time. MVN told me in an email that the fight was pretty good, but that Shields took it in the end. I had hoped to watch this fight, as Shields is an amazing fighter I think will go very far. I failed to realize that each bout was a title bout and would go five rounds, hence I didn't set the DVR to record more than the two hours scheduled.