UFC 140 results recap: Brian Ebersole vs Claude Patrick fight review and analysis

In an evening full of incredible upsets, wild finishes and unpredictability in general, of course there had to be one black spot at UFC 140 in Toronto, Ontario last night (December 10, 2011)

That bout just so happened to be the welterweight showdown between Brian Ebersole and Claude Patrick.

Ebersole had been a bonus hog in his two prior UFC fights, but this match left the hometown Canadian crowd rather unsettled and wishing more had transpired.

In the end, Brian Ebersole took a close split decision victory and was greeted with a chorus of boos for his effort.

So what did the "Bad Boy" do to win over the judges? And where do both welterweights go from here?

There isn't much to talk about this fight. Brian Ebersole came in with a gameplan knowing he'd have to likely utilize his wrestling primarily in this bout and he made an effort to try and take it to the ground repeatedly whether it was with clinch attempts or takedowns.

Patrick threatened repeatedly with submissions, almost every time with a guillotine choke but all this really did other than briefly bring a glint of excitement to the bout was give up position against the veteran wrestler.

As evidenced in the gif to the right, it may have looked dangerous at times, but Ebersole was completely fine and repeatedly gave the "thumbs up" to the referee whenever things looked dire.

The problem, though, was Ebersole didn't do much when he actually had top position.

Round two was spent primarily against the cage with Patrick being the aggressor on the inside and round three was a takedown battle where Ebersole repeatedly looked to put "Prince" on the canvas while Patrick countered with some tight guillotine chokes which again looked rough.

It wasn't pretty, in fact, it was pretty damn ugly, but the judges likely sided with Ebersole because Patrick's submission attempts weren't enough to make up for the brief although ineffective top position that Ebersole was able to obtain.

Honestly, the less said about this bout the better.

For Claude Patrick, there isn't much to learn from this fight other than perhaps he shouldn't be so quick to jump on the guillotine against an opponent who's well versed in submissions. If he wants to excite the fans and get another shot at the main card, he needs to be more aggressive with his strikes given the opportunity. His performance last night didn't leave much to be desired.

Possible future opponents for Patrick could include his original UFC 140 opponent Rich Attonito, who also lost last night. Other options could be fellow defeated prospect Papi Abedi or Matt Brown.

For Brian Ebersole, he's probably just happy to come away with a victory after a grueling affair. I'm sure he wanted to be more entertaining but it wasn't the type of matchup which drew Joe Silva's desired result. Ebersole knows he needs to be more exciting, but sometimes there's not much you can do.

With a victory, Ebersole is now 3-0 in the UFC and he should be moving up the UFC welterweight food chain. Don't be surprised to see "Bad Boy" draw someone along the lines of John Hathaway, the winner of UFC 141's Dong Hyun Kim vs. Sean Pierson or perhaps the winner of Mike Pyle vs. Paulo Thiago. We will simply have to wait and see.

So what did you think, Maniacs?

Did the judges get it right? Or did they value Ebersole's wrestling too much instead of Patrick's submission attempts and superior striking?

Opinions, please.

For complete UFC 140: "Jones vs. Machida" results, including blow-by-blow, fight-by-fight coverage of the entire pay-per-view (PPV) event as well as immediate post-fight reaction click here, here and here.

All gifs by Zombie Prophet via IronForgesIron.com.