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Phil MurphyESPN Video
ESPN MMA analyst Chael Sonnen fought three times for UFC gold. “The American Gangster” breaks down deciding moments from the best finishes at UFC Fight Night: Henry Cejudo vs. TJ Dillashaw.
Henry Cejudo defeats TJ Dillashaw by first-round TKO to defend his UFC flyweight title
Henry Cejudo came right out, and he was stalking TJ. TJ — even with his footwork and motion –was caught a little off-guard. All of the sudden, he’s got Henry Cejudo right in front of his face, throwing punches.
When TJ got dropped, I think a better move — in hindsight — would’ve been to play a little bit of the ground game, to stay down, wrap his legs around Cejudo and try to compose himself. It looked like he was still a little wobbly trying to stand. His legs looked a little out-of-place.
That said, I thought TJ was adequately defending himself. He was trying to wrestle; he had a hold of a leg. He was taking some shots, but he had full consciousness. The referee disagreed, and stepped in to wave this one off.
Paige had a tough first round, then came out in the second round full of energy. She was able to take Ostovich’s back and capitalize on strikes to the head. It looked like she was going to get a TKO.
Rachael starts to come out the back door, starting to get her hips high and shake off Paige. Rachael is looking for a reversal. The problem is Paige is able to stop a lot of her action by going back to the strikes.
Paige extends an arm with her legs around the body. She’s able to quickly extend Rachael’s arm in an armbar until it looked like she snapped the elbow.
Donald Cerrone defeats Alex Hernandez by third-round TKO
My whole life, I have heard about fighters slowing down the pace, but I’ve never actually seen it. I didn’t know what it means. Donald Cerrone slowed down this fight.
Hernandez did two times the work; he threw two times the punches, two times the kicks. But 80 percent of them missed. For Cerrone, there were no airballs. Everything is being blocked by the face of Alex Hernandez.
Before you look at Donald Cerrone’s head kick, you have to look at the setup. I’ve seen Donald Cerrone throw this on a number of people. Go back and watch the fight against Matt Brown. He’s going to set it up with the hand. He’s looking for his opponent to dip. His opponent dips into the kick.
Cowboy does this with his lead leg. It’s very rare to be able to generate that type of power with a lead leg. But he puts it behind the ear and puts his opponent to the ground.
Corey Sandhagen defeats Mario Bautista by first-round armbar
It starts with an inverted triangle. This is a very tricky move. As soon as this got locked on, I turned to Ariel Helwani and I said, “Should he finish this, this will be Submission of the Night.” That’s how rare it is to see.
And once you’re caught, you’re really stuck. However, Bautista pulls his head out.
Bautista took this fight on very short notice — and I have to say that, because it becomes a gas tank issue. How long and how far can you go? The relevance being: He just defended an inverted triangle — which in jiu-jitsu standards would be the highest level of black belt — and then gets caught in a basic armbar, which you would learn essentially on your first day.
But when you’re out of energy, you’re out of energy. Sandhagen extends Bautista’s elbow and forces the submission.