It?s that time once again, fans and friends. Another major MMA event has come and gone, and it?s time for my unofficial ?Best Performance of the Night? award. Unfortunately, UFC 130: ?Rampage vs. Hamill? continues a trend that?s plagued the last few entries into ?BPOTN?. To summarize: it?s hard to pick the best performance from an underwhelming event. But in a sea of average-to-good fights, one stellar knockout rose up above all the rest. Here?s why Travis Browne took home ?Best Performance of the Night? for his utter devastation of Stefan Struve.
Let?s begin ?BPOTN? as we always do, fans and friends: by putting the situation into context.
Heading into this bout, Stefan ?Skyscraper? Struve was 3-1 in his four most-recent performances, and held an overall UFC record of 5-2. It?s true that Struve wasn?t a top-tier Heavyweight, but the same could be said of his opponent (more on him later). Fans of Struve could take solace in the fact that the only people to beat him in the UFC were Roy Nelson and Junior dos Santos, two very dangerous, very skilled fighters. Cynics of Struve loved to point out that both those losses came via first-round KO.
But when he was on, Stefan Struve was on. Even though he was a mountain of a man, Struve had done a good job of escaping being typecast as a ?freak show fighter?. His three-fight win-streak in 2009 proved that he had a lot of heart and grit, and also possessed some serious submission skills. His two-fight win-streak in 2010 proved that he had knockout power. Travis Browne was a threat, but Struve was in the process of pulling himself out of the mid-tier and this fight would have likely been his last mid-tier opponent.
But, as we all know, that opponent was Travis Browne. Browne made waves in his UFC debut when he defeated James McSweeney via first-round TKO, then he fought Cheick Kongo to a draw. Browne?s cynics kept harping on the fact that Kongo only lost because he was deducted a point for holding Browne?s shorts.
When the fight began, it became very apparent that the first Draw of his career weighed heavily on the mind of Travis Browne? but in the best kind of way: it motivated him to be the best fighter he possibly could be.
Struve and Browne would trade shots for much of the night, hitting each other solidly several times with both men not backing down. And just when it looked like the round was over, it happened: Browne nailed Stefan Struve right on the chin with a Superman Punch. The end result is that Struve was knocked out before he hit the ground, his body contorting mid-fall due to his massive size. A somewhat insightful (though mostly spiteful) fan on the internet recently remarked that Browne ?folded Struve up like an accordion?.
With this win, Travis Browne remains officially unbeaten in his Mixed Martial Arts career. Of his eleven wins, nine have been by (T)KO. Travis Browne has been to a decision only twice in twelve fights. His performance at UFC 130 definitely turned heads, and Browne has set himself up as a fresh new face in a division with a clearly-defined roster of top-level fighters. And that?s why Travis Browne gets ?Performance of the Night? for UFC 130.
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