Fantasy Picks Retrospective for UFC 152

A bunch of semi upsets surprises in my opinion.

I thought Spitsbing Bisping would backpedal counter punch his way to another decision. Surprisingly, he showed more of a takedown game, with some nice work against the cage and mildly improved takedowns. Is it enough to beat Silva? Hardly, but hey, at least Bisping looks different across consecutive fights.

Dunham has gone from at one point being a fight away from the title (then he got caught by Guillard early) to looking relatively flat this time around. I think getting quickly caught like that affected him mentally as he has looked somewhat tentative in the early goings against TJ Grant. Grant, very smartly adopted the Guillard "jump on him early" approach which clearly rattled Dunham in the early going.

Oliveira looked a bit more flat than usual (thanks according to Stitch to twisting his knee while warming up....sigh. Even when it doesn't cancel fights or cards, the injury bug/curse/hex/whatever shows up).

Brenneman looked worse than ever during his recent skid since halting the Rick Story hype train who was about to get a title shot if he won that fight.

Hamill won but its not even a moral victory. He struggled to not even put away a guy who looked as outclassed as that poor guy they dug up to face Okami on another absolute mismatch broadcast travesty on a main card.


Hettes showed his battering of Nam Phan was likely due to stylistic match-up, the aging of Phan, and Phan's inability to beat guys who are of the next generation. Brimage came out with the right gameplan, and Hettes lackadaisical start led to his being down on the cards with not enough time  and not enough urgency to walk down Mr. Brimage.

With the cancelled card weeks before this one, this card was and I am not usually that guy but atrocious.

The Hamill fight was barely worth a prelim based on the level of opposition to Hamill.
Belfort showed by he's always dangerous but he hasn't been a legit 205 lb's in YEARS.
Benavidez/Johnson answered a question no one but hardcore of hardcore fans cares about which is "who is the best 135 lb'er in the world (and I fight at bantamweight in MMA).