What a strange week of Fight Night cards in Jacksonville, FL. On the aggregate, both Wednesday’s event and Saturday’s went reasonably well. Glover Teixeira and Alistair Overeem scored big wins for all the old men out there. Drew Dober announced his entry into the lightweight elite—as did Dan Ige at featherweight. Song Yadong vs. Marlon Vera was every bit the war it was supposed to be, and Claudia Gadelha proved she’s still a tough out at 115 lbs.
But, both main events were made more unfortunate than thrilling by extenuating circumstances. Glover may have hit a home run for all the softball dads watching at home, but he did it by handing Anthony Smith two more rounds of severe ass whipping than was strictly necessary—breaking ‘Lionheart’’s face in multiple places in the process.