my thoughts -
Torres/Banuelos
poor fight, Banuelos kept backing up and getting on his bike and Torres was far too hesitant in getting more aggressive so he was content to stay on the outside and crush Banuelos' nose with jabs. Torres is a far better fighter than that, hoping he regains his killer instinct that Bowles and Benevidez beat out of him (btw, i'd rank both those guys, along with Cruz ahead of him atm Ben)
Ellenberger/Rocha
fight went exactly as i predicted. Rocha tried to run game with his far superior bjj game and Ellenberger used his wrestling background and solid striking to get the decision. Rocha is an absolute beast on the ground, his transitions and groundwork is almost unparalled in the WW division, only Shields and Penn have games to rival his. impressive on the ground but he didn't show much on the feet beyond some basic striking and a few flashy kicks and spinning backfists. If he can continue to improve his standup then he'll be a threat.
Ellenberger in contrast was awful on the ground but ran his striking and wrestling game to pick up the win. He really needs to improve his bjj game, he was impressive enough in limiting the damage and escaping from subs but Rocha transtitioned at will and could've been finished at certain points.
Jones/Bader
Impressive stuff from Jones. Glad i jumped on his bandwagon ages ago b/c he is on an absolute tear and i can see him giving Shogun a real handful in their title fight at 128. As impressive as Jones was, i was really disappointed by Bader. I did pick Jones to dominate but i thought Bader would show more than that. He looked intimidated, hesitant and put in a performance that was his worst in a long time.
Jones looked like he was breathing hard and heavy before the fight but looked composed far beyond his years in the cage once the bell rang. Very impressive and he has a great chance to beat a Shogun who is coming off a layoff. Will be a huge fight and his push to the moon continues.
Griffin/Franklin
Good fight between 2 aging stars. Griffin looked rusty but did enough to beat Franklin. Griffin showed good ground control when he got his takedowns and Ace as he has shown all his career, was not comfortable on his back and had nothing on the larger Griffin. Franklin didn't throw enough power shots imo, he has a killer right hook and Griffin, as Rogan pointed out, kept circling right into it. Griffin breaths fresh life into his LHW career, Franklin is left floundering and is really ony good for gatekeeping and 'marquee' fights.
Silva/Belfort
Outrageously sick front kick, i've never seen it thrown to the head before from memory. Thats about all that was good with this fight. Silva always spends the opening minutes gauging timing and doesn't engage. As Sonnen shown, you need to capitalise and throw off his timing. Still, Silva rolls on to a superfight with GSP that he'll be hard pressed to win imho. Will be a disappointing fight b/c my expectations are so massively high for it.
: @ the booing.
