Not at all. It was a great tactical grappling match between Lytle and Hughes. I thought Matt was going to attempt the far side arm bar sooner, or the Kimura from North/South. He wasn't so set on throwing elbows from the side control postion. He seemed intent on securing the arm under his legs prior to opening up. Lytle did a good job defending, but he seemed to preoccupied with the guillotine, and should have recovered full guard instead. The UFC audience just needs to get better informed about the ground game.
I think this was a case of the audience and a fighter having different objectives. Matt was very conservative from sidecontrol and didn't commit fully to subs for fear of losing position. The few times he did commit were at the end of rounds. This was smart fight strategy, but didn't make for an exciting fight.
The fans, on the other hand want to see an exciting fight whether it's good strategy for a certain fighter or not.
As an aside, I disagreed with Eddie Bravo's statement that Matt's passing was advanced Black Belt level.
Lytle was playing the half-guard game with a hook in as opposed to figure fouring the trapped leg. His objective being to elevate Hughes, and put him back in guard or reverse the position. The best way to beat that type of half-guard is to drop your inside hip on the hooking leg and slide the knee through. Matt didn't seem to know this. He passed by raising the hooked leg. He got away with it because his base is amazing, but it wasn't technically correct.
Towards the end of the fight, I thought Lytle should've tried to roll away and give his back. At the point, there was nothing to lose.
Lytle wasn't too crafty from the bottom of side-control, either. I have a little trick that often works well. I leave the far arm hanging a bit, if my opponent takes the bait and attacks it by bringing the arm over that was previously trapping my head, I shoot my arm up and towards his near hip and then shrimp back to guard.
