Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC

I don't think anyone can really be watching the heavyweight division for top quality fights any more. The division is stacked with veterans who would have been put out to pasture in any other weight class, and any time one picks up a knockout win—no matter how tenuous it looks—it's “x is BACK!” Even the great but thoroughly past it Fedor Emelianenko, praise him, is making hints of a comeback after perhaps seeing how easy it is to break the top ten in that class.

I suppose there are worse things to be doing on a Wednesday evening than watching two giants swing wild until one falls down. Perhaps UFC 189 has just spoiled me. Or perhaps the leaps forward in technique and strategy, and the fresh crop of contenders we see at every weight class except heavyweight has.

Todd Duffee was part of the 'new breed' for a while. Back around the time that all heavyweights were going to be three hundred pound giants or super athletes from other sports. Well while Brock Lesnar folded under the pace of a two hundred and thirty pounder, Shane Carwin's body fell apart under its own weight, and any two hundred and sixty pound man with a hint of athletic prowess went to sports with real money available, Todd Duffee's personal downfall came courtesy of Mike Russow's right hand, sealed with the Hammerfist of Doom.

It was a shame, because Duffman had been lighting Russow up. He'd been shifting, taking angles, and genuinely doing stuff which made me sit up and say “That's very interesting...” about a heavyweight. Since then? Not so much. He rushed Alistair Overeem, and got knocked out. He's beaten three opponents in his UFC return and never gone more than two minutes. And last night he tried to rush Frank Mir too.

The result was one of the ugliest brawls I've ever seen. Mir swung himself off balance with every punch he threw. And Duffee?

I would hope that no one needs me to explain why swinging, straight armed, and with your non-punching hand out so that you look like a helicopter, is not a good idea. Still struggling? Just watch the counter—straight down the middle.

In fairness to Frank Mir, it was a nice counter while he was clearly hurt, but it came so easily because Duffee was, as the old timers would say—and I hate to use this phrase because I hate having cause to in the top fighting promotion in the world—“swinging like a bum.”

While I'm reluctant to call “career rebirth” on Mir just yet, I will say that this riposte-to-counter, along with his beautiful set up—hooking off the jab—against Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva might suggest that Mir's boxing is genuinely improving.

Two factors went some way towards saving the card for me. The first was the performance of Tony Ferguson against Josh Thompson. From the get go it was front kick, front kick, feint the front kick, and it worked okay for the first round. The wonderful thing about front kicking a lot is that you can start lifting your knees up as you step in and opponents get really confused. The old Joe Schilling shift: raising the right knee, then placing it down into a southpaw stance and throwing the left straight, has been a staple of Schilling's brilliant kickboxing career and it all builds off of throwing the front kick out early and often.

In spite of all the stance shifting, Ferguson wasn't tremendously effective in the first round. There was a lot of punching with one leg up in the air, but it didn't really do much. It was when Ferguson stepped in with a double hand trap to right elbow that he sent Thompson into a daze. From that moment on, Thompson was in survival mode. A nice left elbow sliced his forehead open, and another right elbow cut open the other side of his head later in the bout.



Beautiful elbows but notice that massive over-commitment on the second one.

Ferguson continued his streak, and looked pretty damn good doing it. He wasn't perfect: the somersault he repeatedly attempted might have been cool in the moment, but four or five times just looks forced. The other thing which he kept doing through his constant stance shifting was ending up facing completely the wrong direction after a strike. Sometimes he was side stepping off, and it looked great and worked perfectly. Other times he just seemed to be massively overcommitting to blows. Not something you want to be doing against guys with a strong stand up game.

A final nice touch? Maybe the UFC's first successful cartwheel kick.

Alan Jouban lived up to his reputation as a slow starter wonderfully by trying to jump right on his opponent in round one, and getting knocked down in the process. While a betting favorite, Jouban seemed thrown off by Matt Dwyer's height and length. It was only when Jouban began to commit to body blows that he was able to wind Dwyer and have more success with high kicks.

At the end of the second round, Jouban dived into a cartwheel kick and seemed to connect pretty well on Dwyer. It ended up almost giving Dwyer back control, but it was still pretty cool. The cartwheel kick is not something we can say “every fighter should be doing this!” about like front snap kicks and side kicks to the lead leg, but they have some pretty cool upsides.

The most significant of which is that, because it raises the hips up in the air, one may bring a kick down on the head or neck of a taller opponent.

To see this kick in action, check out the Saenchai, an all time Muay Thai great who is still going and fighting much bigger men. Unless he's pulled it off very recently and I haven't heard, Saenchai has never won a bout by KO with the cartwheel kick.



Sparring sessions aside.

But then, Andy Hug never knocked out a single opponent in K-1 with his axe kick... didn't mean it wasn't working. Like the axe kick, there's no common sense, agreed upon defence and counter for the cartwheel kick, it's just scary and dangerous, and it can open up opportunities for more fundamental kicks as Hug's axe kick did.

Jouban got the decision, despite a rightly deducted point for a blatantly illegal knee. While I'm very fond of Jouban's style, seeing Dwyer throw him off so much leads me to believe that could Dwyer learn a nice front kick, some low line straight kicks, a good uppercut, and a decent jab for his orthodox opponents, he could be a force. He was doing pretty well by swinging almost straight arm blows in against Jouban.

Overall, the card was pretty poor and had very few stand out moments. But then, not every night can have a Lawler versus MacDonald.

Check out these related stories:

UFC San Diego Quick Results: Mir Takes the Bull by the Horns

The Ecstasy and Agony of Robbie Lawler versus Rory MacDonald

UFC 189: How McGregor Stole Mendes' Wind