Cheick Kongo Defeats Paul Buentello

They finally figured out what to do with Cheick Kongo. Just have him fight guys with as little knowledge of grappling as he does. For the love of God don’t have him face another wrestler. We don’t want to see Kongo on the mat like a beached whale.

Oddly enough, Cheick is one of the most gifted physical specimens in the entire organization. He’s certainly got the building blocks to be a great athlete. He just needs to grow as a mixed martial artist. Did we see any growth tonight? Well, that’s hard to say.

Yes, he beat the hell out of Paul Buentello. He had little trouble taking him down. For Kongo, It must have been a nice change of pace. However Paul is one of the most one-dimensional fighters the sport has ever seen. He’s been around for years, so it’s not like he hasn’t had time to learn. He just doesn’t want to go to the ground…ever.

It’s no surprise that Joe had a lot of trepidation about Kongo’s strategy. He didn’t elaborate too much, but it’s clear that Cheick can’t fight like this against a lot of other UFC heavyweights. Just imagine Kongo trying to take down Cain Velasquez, Shane Carwin – or The Champ Brock Lesnar. What’s more – Kongo didn’t showcase any lethal ground and pound. The culmination of his attack was a barrage of elbows to the butt and thigh area.

But, if the UFC keeps putting Kongo against the right guys…it won’t really matter. Not everyone can be a UFC champion.

On a side note – I had no idea what the “playing the game” rule was until tonight. At one point, Kongo was rightly docked a point for kneeing Paul in the head while he was in a downed position. At the time, Paul had one knee and hand on the ground.

However later in the match Kongo had Paul in a similar position and he kneed him in the head AGAIN. But, this time, Paul was “playing the game”. The referee decided that Paul was putting his hand on the mat on purpose. Paul was in a semi-standing position when he was getting attacked and put the hand down to milk the rules. Earlier, when Kongo lost a point, Paul was still in the process of standing up and got kneed before he was able to stand.

It makes perfect sense, I just had NO idea the rule existed. What other crazy rules are these people hiding from us?!

Next Fight: Junior Dos Santos vs. Gabriel Gonzaga

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