Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Miesha Tate vs Sara McMann

Here's the match video of Miesha Tate vs Sara McMann from last night's UFC show. There were some complaints that this match was on the prelims. But Miesha said in an interview she asked for it to be on the prelims and typically the UFC likes to have a big match as the main event of the prelims. And this was a big match as both fighters want to get back into the title picture. The loser goes to Palookaville. Sara was favoured because she's an elite wrestler with an Olympic medal. She's also bigger than Miesha. I have criticized her lack of killer instinct. And Miesha has the ability to take a licking and keep on ticking against everyone but Ronda Rousey. I was not impressed with Sara's lay and pray win over Lauren Murphy. The one area where Sara has improved is her striking. And she tagged Miesha with an overhand right early in round one. A fighter with a killer instinct would gone for an immediate finish with ground and pound. We will never know why Sara didn't do that. Instead she just laid on her. I'll get to the scoring in a minute but that lack of killer instinct cost Sara this fight. It allowed Miesha to recover. I scored round one 10-9 for Sara but I thought it was a missed opportunity to finish the fight. Round two was a lot closer and was uneventful until Miesha took Sara down with 90 seconds left in the round and attempted a guillotine choke. Because the rest of the round was even, that was enough for me to score the round 10-9 for Miesha. Sara got a takedown at the start of round three but Miesha wound up in top position. And unlike Sara in round one, Miesha was active in top position. I've seen Miesha do lay and pray in the past. But she knew this was a close fight and she needed a big round. I scored round three 10-8 for Miesha. So I scored the fight 29-27 for Miesha. The judges scored it 29-28 and 29-27 for Miesha with the third judge scoring it a 28-28 draw. Miesha Tate wins by majority decision. Of course round two is the difference. All three judges scored round one 10-9 for Sara. Two of the three judges scored round three 10-8 for Miesha and the third one scored it 10-9 for Miesha which supports the theory that some judges refuse to score a 10-8 round no matter how dominant it is. Two of the three judges scored round two 10-9 for Miesha and Glenn Trowbridge obviously thought Sara did enough earlier in the round to win 10-9. He's responsible for the 28-28 score. Twitter complaints aside, Miesha Tate winning was the correct decision. Miesha went to the hospital afterwards with a broken orbital bone. Typically the recovery time of that injury depends on if it heals on its own or possibly requires surgery. It will be a couple of months before Miesha knows either way. I give her credit for coming back after round one. But remember Sara allowed her to come back. What a missed opportunity. Enjoy the video!