Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweights Ryan Jimmo and Francimar Barroso scrapped last night (May 30, 2015) at UFC Fight Night 67 inside the Goiania Arena in Goiania, Brazil.
Heading into this bout, both men were at risk of being cut.
While that's normally cause for motivation, that may not have been the case for Jimmo. The Canadian has been quite outspoken about his troubles with his treatment and the Reebok deal. Jimmo's frank criticism of the promotion could potentially threaten his job security, but he could also be open to a change in scenery.
Still, a fight's a fight.
Things were less complicated for the Brazilian. Prior to this bout, Barroso had been a part of two dull fights that went the full 15 minutes. To ensure a future with the UFC, Barroso needed to win, preferably in an interesting way.
That didn't really happen.
After throwing some punches, Barroso forced his way into the clinch. He chained together a few takedowns, and while Jimmo defended gamely, he ultimately fell to a single leg takedown.
However, Jimmo was not down for long. The two worked from the clinch for a few moments before moving back into the center. There, Jimmo continued to work from the outside while Barroso tried to close the distance with punches.
All in all, the first round was quite close.
The fighters continued to exchange at a fairly tepid pace into the second round. Barroso continued to look for takedowns, but Jimmo's wrestling was up to the task, as the fight largely stayed vertical.
The biggest moment in the round just happened to be illegal. Barroso landed a truly brutal kick to the groin (watch the painful video here), sending Jimmo writhing to the mat. Initially, it looked like the fight was over, but Jimmo gutted it out and agreed to keep scrapping.
After another close round, Jimmo went back to his corner with a bruised face.
The fight slowed even further in the final five minutes. The less said about it the better, as neither fighter really pushed for the win despite the close nature of the bout. Ultimately, that ended up costing Jimmo, as Barroso earned the unanimous decision win.
Despite that, it doesn't really feel like a win for the Brazilian. He did an okay job pushing for the clinch but was generally ineffective overall.
Luckily, his opponent was too.
With both men content to stare at each other endlessly, this is yet another forgettable bout in Barroso's UFC career. Hopefully, he'll be forced to engage in his next fight, ideally against someone like Fabio Maldonado. Either way, Barroso still needs to do something memorable inside the Octagon if he wants to continue fighting there.
The only thing worse than being the winner of a terrible fight is to stand on the losing side. Jimmo's fights have historically been slow, but he's changed that around a bit inside the Octagon with some nice knockout wins.
This was a major step back, both in terms of performance and level of competition.
Between this fight, his criticisms of the UFC, and his poor track record in the promotion, Jimmo will likely find himself back on the regional scene after this fight.
Last night, Francimar Barroso defeated Ryan Jimmo in an uninspiring win. How high can the Brazilian climb in the light heavyweight division?
For complete UFC Fight Night 67 "Condit vs Alves" results and play-by-play click HERE!