Written by Scott Swerbinsky

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Last night was one of those events were you just couldn’t stop shaking your head. UFC 149 in my eyes had the potential to be an above average fight card. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Top to bottom, it was pretty painful to watch. I honestly don’t ever remember thinking to myself, this card stinks. I had that pop into my head a few times.

The main and co-main event were complete busts. For a card that had a ton of fighters pull out due to injury, I thought the UFC still did a great job lining up a solid night for mixed martial arts fans all over the world.

Renan Barao stepped in for current bantamweight title holder Dominick Cruz after Cruz went down with a torn ACL to fight Urijah Faber. Due to Cruz’s injury, the fight was for an interim belt.

Urijah Faber always seems to be fighting for a belt as he is one of the most likeable and marketable guys in the entire sport. After last night, it might be awhile before we see him get another title shot however.

Renan Barao simply dominated a fight that was pretty uneventful. It was a five round kickboxing match with no big punches landed. Faber once again fell victim to legs kicks like he did in the past in his title fight with Barao’s teammate, Jose Aldo.

Last night was the first time I can recall Faber looking flustered in the cage. He never really attempted a takedown. In the first round, he pushed the pace and was in Barao’s face but after that, he didn’t have a lot to offer. I had Faber losing rounds two thru five and round one could have gone either way. All three judges scored the fight for Barao and it wasn’t even close.

Like I have stated many times before, I am a huge Urijah Faber fan but he looked outclassed last night. It’ll be interesting to see who he gets matched up with next. He will need to rattle off a few impressive wins if he wants to get back in the title picture.

Barao’s next fight will be probably be with Cruz if he can fully recover in the next six months. If Cruz is out longer than that, Barao will be forced to put his interim belt on the line against someone else. Barao is a very dangerous guy and I look for him to keep that belt for awhile.

The co-main event was as close to a waste of time as you’ll see in the UFC. Hector Lombard was making his octagon debut after cleaning house over at Bellator. It seemed pretty clear that with a win over Tim Boetsch, Lombard would get a crack at Anderson Silva and his middleweight championship.

I’m still trying to figure out what was worse, the three rounds or the decision. Lombard is normally a very aggressive striker and stalks his opponents. Last night, he was laid back and was a counter puncher. Tim Boetsch did next to nothing but somehow got the victory via decision.

Lombard was far from impressive but he clearly won every round on my scorecard. Boetsch  was hesitant and danced and moved more than anything. Plain and simple, that fight sucked.

Full results:

Renan Barao def. Urijah Faber via unanimous decision (49-46, 50-45, 49-46) - to become interim bantamweight champion

Tim Boetsch def. Hector Lombard via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Cheick Kongo def. Shawn Jordan via unanimous decision (30-28, 30-27, 30-27)

James Head def. Brian Ebersole via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Matt Riddle def. Chris Clements via submission (arm-triangle choke) - Round 3, 2:02

Nick Ring def. Court McGee via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Francisco Rivera def. Roland Delorme via knockout (punches) - Round 1, 4:19

Ryan Jimmo def. Anthony Perosh via knockout (punches) - Round 1, 0:07

Bryan Caraway def. Mitch Gagnon via submission (rear-naked choke) - Round 3, 1:39

Antonio Carvalho def. Daniel Pineda via KO (punches) - Round 1, 1:11

Anton Kuivanen def. Mitch Clarke via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28

For those of you that read my articles, follow me on Twitter, or just BS with me know that I like to tell it like it is. You would also know that I very rarely badmouth a UFC card. This is one of those times, UFC 149 was awful. The three so called featured fights would have put a lot of people to sleep or swayed them not to order the next pay per view.

UFC on FOX is set for August 4^th and it can’t get here fast enough. I need a solid fight card to get this terrible taste out of my mouth.