Was it disappointing? Depends on who you ask? UFC 203

Well now it came and it went so quickly, but was UFC 203 all it was hyped to be? In my opinion...No, but I am one person and that is my opinion. Other people may have thought the fights were great. If you follow me on twitter, a bunch of friends were talking about the fights and enjoying for the most part. However I feel like they were missing something from it. Sure the championship fight was exciting, and maybe if Werdum fought Rothwell instead of Browne it might have changed things. Overall I felt the card was slow and mundane at best. The undercard fights I felt were the best part of the card, usually they are. The guys on the undercard want to show they belong on the maincard and they have worked just as hard. But let us get into these fights and talk about what happened (Spoiler Alerts):

Jessica Andrade vs Joanne Calderwood

Interesting match up with these two, I felt that Calderwood was doing a great job at first trying to keep Jessica away. However once the fight was taken to the ground Jessica showed everyone why she is so dangerous on the ground. I felt she controlled the fight and swarmed all over Joanne, letting her know there was nothing she could do to get away. When she finally was able to tighten in the Guillotine Choke, Calderwood has no choice but to tap.

Jimmie Rivera vs Uriah Faber

At one time Uriah was considered the bench mark of the UFC, it seems though those days have finally past him. Uriah looked sluggish in the fight, while Rivera looked like a future contender. Now I am not saying Rivera will beat Cruz, but what I am saying is he was scary good against Faber. Faber was being out wrestled, out stuck, and was dominated in the fight. Though I do like the California Kid and I was rooting for him, he might be heading down and slide after dropping to both Cruz and now Rivera. Hopefully the UFC can get him a fight that he can win and Faber can get his confidence back.

Mickey Gall vs CM Punk

There are two parts to this story, 1. CM Punk knew this was going to be an uphill battle and 2. Mickey Gall is the real deal. So let us start with the first point...CM Punk was in an uphill battle from the jump. He stepped out looking to strike with Gall, but Gall was not having any of it. He instantly took him to the ground and began to grind him out. Now I do have to commend CM Punk for having so much heart in this fight, he was fighting out of numerous submission attempts but Gall never let up. I think for me once I saw CM Punk take a shot to the face, it almost looked like a light bulb went off in his head and he knew this was bad. I had mentioned numerous times about CM Punk saying he was a white belt for life, and it seemed that showed against the brown belt Gall.

But we should not take anything away from Mickey Gall at all. This was a man who waited patiently for CM Punk to be ready, and when it came down to it...dominated a fight. It did not matter to him what anyone else thought, he put his game plan to work and made CM Punk tap out. A lot of people did not like what Mickey Gall had to say after the fight, but I am one of those who actually did. I like that he called out Sage Northcutt, I like that he is going to say what is on his mind, I like he is calling out whoever he wants. He is hungry and he is ready to take on the world, and I think he wants to grow as a fighter. I would like to see how fast this kid can rise to the top.

Fabricio Werdum vs Travis Browne

Have to be honest, this was a disappointing fight for me as a fan of Hapa. I am not sure what happened in the first round with him and his finger, but it was pretty severe to have him want to stop the fight. Now I am sure Travis was waiting for him hand to go numb so he could start landing some bombs, but this is not boxing. He was going to need a few more rounds till it happened. Now reports are coming out that he actually dislocated his finger and put it back in place during the fight. He is a tough but that would be pretty gnarly if it is true.

Now the fight itself was pretty boring due to the injury but, what happened after the fight was uncalled for. There were some kind of word exchange between Fabricio and Browne's coach, which ultimately led to Werdum push kicking the coach away and fights began to break out, it seem Browne was pretty chill though. It will be interesting to see what the UFC does about it, but I think the UFC needs to get Travis back in the win column and help him get his confidence back as well, after dropping the last two he is going to need it.

Stipe Miocic vs Alistair Overeem

Apparently there is some controversy to this fight, Alistair had Stipe deep in a chokehold and said he felt Stipe tap out. However after looking over numerous replays Stipe never showed a tap anywhere. Once they stood up and began to battle Overeem got caught and went down, ultimately getting TKO'd.

What made this fight so much fun was all the knockdowns that happened. I know most of my friends were calling out thinking the fight was going to be over with Alistair on top, but Stipe showed a lot of heart and kept holding on till the end. You have to love fighters who refuse to lose and want to put on a great show for their fans. Stipe is one of those guys who you not only have to beatdown to win, but you are going to feel like you have to kill him to win.

I feel Cain Velazquez is going to have a lot of his plate when he gets ready to fight Stipe, but Cain's wrestling could be the X-factor in this fight. Cain has excellent stand-up, and world class wrestling behind him. Stipe is going to have to be ready on all fronts to win this fight, especially with the Spinning wheel kick Cain has put in his bag of tricks.

I think the UFC has some work to do with UFC 206 going forward. It could also be that we have been spoiled with the last few events, that we needed to have a break. With UFC 204 (possibly the last fight for Dan Henderson win or lose) and 205 coming up we could see some fun times. I know for myself I am looking forward to next year with the anticipation of Ronda returning and Conor back in the Octagon.

What was your thoughts on the fights? You can leave comments here or tweet me out at cm_miller85 or getthekoblog.