Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC

An iffy night of fights came to a spectacular conclusion at UFC Fight Night 88 as Cody Garbrandt downed Thomas Almeida in the finest performance of his young career. The knockout almost expunged the memory of the high number of ho-hum fights that went the distance on this card and certainly justified talk of Garbrandt as a contender as he picks up the first meaningful name on his record. Meanwhile, in the co-main event, the long time bantamweight champion, Renan Barao picked up his third loss in four fights while testing himself at the new waters of featherweight. It seemed as though the power of Jeremy Stephens in the pocket and his strength in the clinch were too much for the bantamweight champion though visible improvements from both men make this a more meaningful fight than one which simply tells us Barao is done or can never compete effectively as a featherweight.

In our pre-fight examination of Garbrandt versus Almeida we discussed how both men seem to specialize in exactly the area that their opponent often suffers. Garbrandt doesn't like being crowded or swarmed, and is rather one dimensional in his striking—looking only for right hands and left hooks—but he does counter excellently through small windows and his punching form (while not always “perfect”) is crisp, economical, and almost effortless. Almeida absolutely excels at swarming opponents and has a huge edge on striking variety but has a horrible habit of eating crisp counter punches, especially in the early going, due to his dangling non-punching hand and his tendency to lean deep to each side as he swings.

Almeida made the curious (or disastrous) decision to stand back and not try to crowd or pressure Garbrandt at any point in the fight. Garbrandt looked so flustered when Marcus Brimage, a much more limited striker with a significant reach disadvantage, got in his face and yet Almeida stood back, throwing the odd kick and attempting to counter when Garbrandt threw his own. It might have been an interesting idea because Garbrandt does try to kick a fair amount and almost always telegraphs them, except kicking isn't the meat of Garbrandt's game on the feet so as Almeida sat back, Garbrandt was able to work comfortably from outside.

As Garbrandt leapt in with a seemingly hopeless flying knee, Almeida threw back loopy punches with a deep lean and it became apparent just how large the gaps in his punching form are. Before he could recover his guard he was tagged with a swifter right hook from the recovering Garbrandt.

That same deep lean on Almeida's right hand was punished again a minute later with a left hook into a right uppercut. The same as caught Henry Brionnes leaning deep to his left and wobbled him.

Almeida resumed, doing little at range and Garbrandt stepped in with his usual right straight into shifting left hook. The long right served perfectly to close the distance and he was able to weave up and connect the left hook from in close. Some shifts are designed for chasing, but the right hand into the weaving left hook is one which is perfect for when the opponent throws back.

Now, we could lament Garbrandt's complete absence of a jab, but once again he didn't need it. And to say he is right hand happy would overlook the subtleties in that. A right hand can travel numerous different paths—more so than the three basic terms 'straight' 'uppercut' and 'hook' can ever really capture. When you watch many of these fighters who come to MMA with a decent amateur boxing pedigree (I am thinking specifically of Stipe Miocic, Cody Garbrandt and Albert Tumenov) you will notice that even their right 'straight' can come in a number of different ways. One of the keys to sneaking in good right hands is to play them both across the shoulder (this can be done with overhands, slightly angled straights, straights from a slight side step, or straights, hooks or overhands thrown as a counter to the opponent's jab), and inside the shoulder—the straight straights. For instance Garbrandt threw a lot of rights that arced over Almeida's shoulder and forced his guard up:

But also needled him with some good straights through the center:

After running in behind arcing rights a few times throughout the bout, it was a poking right straight which snapped Almeida's head back (while his back block Garbrandt from the camera) which set off the rush to the fence which saw the fight's end. But nothing of note connected until Almeida swung back from the fence and a perfect right hook caught him across the jaw and sent him to the mat.

What does this fight tell us? Well, Garbrandt looked good. As samey as he can be on the feet, he used the same couple of tools nicely to strike through different holes. His left hook has always been a tremendous weapon and easily one of the best at bantamweight, but his right hand carried the fight this time around. Unfortunately we didn't get to see him tested against the kicking game, which he has shown glimpses of difficulty with in the past, but at bantamweight there's a few good kickers to come.

For Almeida? The attitude has always been that his wanting defense doesn't matter quite as much because of his aggression forcing errors and passivity against even top notch opponents. Whether it was a strategic decision or a mental misfire to stand back in this bout, he didn't benefit from any sort of pressure on Garbrandt and where that would hide some of his defensive flaws, out in the open they were served up on a platter. He's been getting caught by guys like Yves Jabouin, Brad Pickett and Anthony Birchak in his last three fights so it is probably time to consider working to tighten up his defense even if it is only to make the task of getting in opponents' faces less punishing on him.

The other fight worth writing about was Renan Barao's featherweight debut against Jeremy Stephens. Now I have been hard on Barao ever since he was bantamweight champion and being marketed as the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, but I am not going to write him off based on this loss. I was actually very impressed by Barao's work in the first round—kicking with his left leg and looking passable in the brief spells in the pocket which punctuated his light footed sharp shooting. Both signs of something new. Even a stance switch was thrown in there. He was also mixing in level changes as a threat well.

he problem was that in the second round Barao became a great deal more predictable. His takedown attempts were woeful even at bantamweight—consisting of bending forwards at the waist and running after his opponents' hips—but he was skirting with danger against Jeremy Stephens who throws a dozen uppercuts a round and who has very solid takedown defence. When Barao finally got hit with a big punch as he stepped in, it was the T.J. Dillashaw bouts all over again. When Barao gets hurt rather than trying to recover or get on his bike or tighten up his defence he simply throws back. His work in combinations is sloppy at the best of times as his elbows bow out and he leans forwards at the waist, but doing it while his ears are still ringing from a heavy punch is doubly dangerous.

At this point “past the first punch Barao” is becoming the “high altitude Velasquez” of my writing but he is simply not going to achieve the true highs of this sport again unless he can establish the discipline to sharp shoot with the occasional combination—as he did in the first round of this fight—or learn to tighten up his striking in the pocket. His choice to fight there out of stubbornness is doing him zero favors. With all that being said I have seen plenty of educated fight fans saying they gave the fight to Barao and it was far from a blow out. A decent showing from both men and a glimpse of Barao trying to improve, even if he got dragged into a rougher fight than his coaches planned to.

Not much else of great importance happened but it was an okay night of fights. The king of the spoilers, Rick Story came back from a lengthy lay off and beat yet another hot prospect in Tarec Saffiedine. Jessica Eye versus Sara McMann was a dull affair. And Bryan Caraway bested Aljamain Sterling after suffering through a full nelson in the first in a performance which highlighted just how bizarrely limited Sterling's hands are for a Ray Longo fighter. But we've got the incredible UFC 199 card coming up on Saturday and you can't live at eleven all the time.

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Fight Night 88 Quick Results: Garbrandt KO Tops Action-Packed Card