Something tells me Robbie Lawler’s win over Matt Brown didn’t put much worry in the mind of the champ Johny Hendricks. The fight was pretty much one-sided the whole way through, yes, but I doubt a plain old striking game plan is going to work against a seasoned wrestler like “Big Rigg.” Not like there weren’t moments where Lawler was trying to take his head off in there, but no way that fight should have seen the championship rounds. Sure, Brown is one tough dude, but he was a walking zombie for 20 minutes of that fight and should have been finished off at any moment. Oh but you know how MMA fans are… they will diss Brown and say he faked a nut shot to prevent the fight from being stopped before they say Lawler should have turned it up on Brown for the 20 minutes he was pretty much just surviving in there.  We’ll see how well that plan works against a wrestler who could both knock him out and take him down on a very regular basis in the rematch.

Trying to figure out what could be next for Anthony “Rumble” Johnson is a toughy. He had just beat a top 10 205 pounder in Phil Davis prior to obliterating Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in a matter of seconds this past Saturday. Now that he’s getting closer to the top of the heap in the light heavyweight class — where the top half of the rankings happen to be clogged up at the moment, it’s imperative that he stay active and not waste the momentum away by sitting out on the sidelines. The only problem is there aren’t really many opponents for him to face. I don’t think it would hurt to put him in there with a heavyweight next, since he’s already been there when fighting in the WSOF, and currently holds a win over Andrei Arlovski. A fighter like Brendan Schuab would match up well with Johnson. I like that Schuab is one of the more agile heavyweights, and Johnson is actually a pretty big 205er himself, and the fight could possibly bring some fireworks.

Dennis Bermudez made his performance of the night win over Clay Guida look like the easiest money anyone has ever made inside the Octagon, exploiting “The Carpenter’s” weak standup game before tapping him out in the second round. A fighter who has formed a 7 fight win streak since coming off the Ultimate Fighter show, Bermudez has brought enough attention to his name to deserve a nice step up in competition. I think a fight with Jeremy Stephens can bring the noise.

Bobby Green took it to Josh Thomson in a fight that could have went either man’s way on any day, but the judges probably tallied it for Green because of his constant forward pressure and non stop aggression throughout the fight. It did look like Thomson landed the harder punches in every single exchange that was made, but hey, MMA judges gonna judge MMA the way they want…. It was still a nice win for Green that should probably move him further up the rankings. If “Cowboy” Cerrone wants to reach his goal of six fights this year, then I’m sure Green wouldn’t shy away from a fight with him.

Full fight highlights for Lawler vs Brown are posted below.