The UFC had a busy three-day run this past week with three events in two different Las Vegas venues for a total of 36 fights.
During those events – UFC Fight Night 90, The Ultimate Fighter 23 Finale and UFC 200 – fans saw two new champions crowned, one interim title awarded, 10 knockouts or TKOs, and eight submissions.
Busy would be an understated way to describe the weekend for those who follow MMA.
Now that the three fight cards are behind us, it’s time to take stock of what happened during those events – not just who won or lost, but what those performances meant to the fighters, their weight divisions and the UFC.
Here are 10 observations from the three-day span of fights that began with Vicente Luque submitting Alvaro Herrera with a D’Arce choke at UFC Fight Night 90 and ended with Amanda Nunes capturing the UFC women’s bantamweight title with a rear-naked choke submission of Miesha Tate.
1. Good weekend for women’s MMA
It was a good weekend for the women’s divisions this weekend. Tatiana Suarez (4-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) defeated Amanda Cooper (1-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) to win TUF 23 and a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus on the TUF 23 Finale card. At that same event, Claudia Gadelha (13-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC) and strawweight champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk (12-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) earned “Performance of the Night” bonuses for a superb title fight.
At UFC 200, Julianna Pena (8-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) staked a claim for a bantamweight title shot with a win over Cat Zingano (9-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC), while in the main event, Amanda Nunes (13-4 MMA, 6-1 UFC) ran over Miesha Tate (18-6 MMA, 5-3 UFC) on her way to claiming the bantamweight title and a “Performance of the Night” bonus for her first-round submission win.
2. Former champions fared very well
At UFC Fight Night 90, former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez (28-4 MMA, 3-1 UFC) unloaded on Rafael dos Anjos (25-8 MMA, 14-6 UFC), claiming the UFC lightweight title with a dominant first-round TKO win.
On the TUF 23 Finale card, another former Bellator lightweight champ, Will Brooks (18-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC), earned a victory in his UFC debut, taking a unanimous decision over Ross Pearson (19-11 MMA, 11-8 UFC). Also, former RFA middleweight champion Andrew Sanchez (8-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) dominated Khalil Rountree (4-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) on his way to winning the light heavyweight portion of “TUF 23” by decision.
At UFC 200, Gegard Mousasi (38-6-2 MMA, 5-3 UFC), a former DREAM and Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, defeated Thiago “Marreta” Santos. Former UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw (13-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) avenged a loss to Raphael Assuncao (23-5 MMA, 7-2 UFC). Former UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez TKOd Travis Browne. Former heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar (6-3 MMA, 5-3 UFC) took a decision over Mark Hunt (12-11-1 MMA, 7-5-1 UFC). And former featherweight champion Jose Aldo (26-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) defeated Frankie Edgar (20-5-1 MMA, 14-5-1 UFC) for the interim featherweight title.
3. The early prelims delivered
At UFC 200, Jim Miller (26-8 MMA, 15-7 UFC), Mousasi and Joe Lauzon (26-11 MMA, 13-8 UFC) all finished their fights in the first round, with Lauzon and Mousasi earning “Performance of the Night” bonuses for their wins. The three fights lasted a little more than eight minutes combined.
The two other cards this weekend had similar setups, with UFC Fight Night 90 beginning with five consecutive fights ending by submission and the TUF 23 Finale kicking off with two first-round knockouts.
4. So, what does Brock Lesnar want to do?
International man of mystery Lesnar did what he set out to do: come back to the UFC after nearly five years and get a win against a tough opponent. Now we’re left to wonder if his UFC 200 win over Mark Hunt was a once and done thing or if he’ll return to the octagon.
After the fight, Lesnar said, “Brock Lesnar does what Brock Lesnar wants to do,” without clueing anyone in as to what Brock Lesnar wants to do.
If Lesnar does come back to the UFC, he put himself right in the heavyweight conversation with the win.
5. Losing while winning and winning while losing
When UFC light heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier (18-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) made the reasonable decision to fight smart against his last-minute replacement opponent, Anderson Silva (33-8 MMA, 16-4 UFC) at UFC 200, he found himself on the wrong side of the fans, who booed him without mercy after his decision win.
“It would have been catastrophic if I would have lost tonight, because I would still be the champion, but have lost to a guy that probably would have went down to middleweight and challenged for the belt, so I did what I needed to do.” Cormier said at the post-fight press conference.
As for Silva, who lost the fight 30-26 on all three judges cards, he stood in the octagon, basking in the cheers of the crowd after his one-sided defeat.
6. That bar is pretty high
The fight between Jedrzejczyk and Gadelha showed that a fighter can have the perfect game plan to take the strawweight title from Jedrzejczyk, but if that fighter can’t execute for 25 minutes they’re eventually going to get touched up from every angle.
Gadelha did a great job closing distance and utilizing takedowns to control the first two and a half rounds, but when her cardio began to fail, Jedrzejczyk came on like a whirlwind, landing punches, elbows and kicks to the head, body and legs of Gadelha, swinging the fight back to her favor.
With her unanimous decision victory over Gadelha, Jedrzejczyk raised the already high bar for any future challengers.
7. Superboy delivers
Heading into the TUF 23 Finale, Doo Ho Choi had a 2-0 UFC record with two first-round stoppages. He made it three straight when he decked Thiago Tavares (20-7-1 MMA, 10-7-1 UFC) in the first round, earning his second straight “Performance of the Night” bonus in the process.
Choi (15-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) also showed a comfort level on the mic, calling for the winner of the Cub Swanson vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri fight booked for UFC Fight Night 92.
8. Big rebound
Joseph Duffy
Joseph Duffy entered his UFC Fight Night 90 lightweight fight against Mitch Clarke coming off a loss to Dustin Poirier, and while a loss to a veteran like Poirier isn’t huge, a second loss in a row, well, that’s never good.
Duffy (15-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) wasted little time in answering any question about his viability as a 155-pound prospect, dropping Clarke (11-4 MMA, 2-4 UFC) on his face with a right hand and then finishing him via rear-naked choke. The entire fight lasted 25 seconds, making it the fourth fastest submission in UFC lightweight history.
9. Closing in on a record
When Gilbert Burns lost to Rashid Magomedov in November, he knew he was going to have to make a statement in his next outing. Burns (12-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) did just that, submitting Lukasz Sajewski (13-2 MMA, 0-2 UFC) by armbar in the first round of their UFC Fight Night 90 contest.
It was the third armbar submission of Burns’ UFC career, tying him for second all-time in the UFC, one behind Royce Gracie.
“I want to make the guys see how scary I am,” Burns said to the other UFC lightweights. “I can knock you out, I can submit you, and I can finish you.”
10. Assorted miscellany
• During the pay-per-view portion of UFC 200, Nate Diaz spoke to Joe Rogan about his upcoming bout at UFC 202 against Conor McGregor, when asked about McGregor, Diaz said, “In times of war, he ain’t even alive. I own all his (expletive).” And yeah, that was something.
• Those two times when Rountree took some time out of his fight against Sanchez to tell his mom to “shut up.”
• Lauzon pausing while winging all kinds of strikes to the head of Diego Sanchez to look at referee Mark Smith like, “You can stop this beating at any time, you know that, right?”
• Bruce Buffer going from white jacket to black jacket between the UFC 200 prelims and main card. It’s a little thing, but we noticed it, Mr. Buffer, we noticed it.
• The UFC production team rolled out some changes for UFC 200 like the gold canvas and the screens around the Octagon for video presentations. Some people liked the changes, some didn’t, but the effort to make the event something special should be appreciated.
For complete coverage of UFC 200, The Ultimate Fighter 23 Finale, and UFC Fight Night 90, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
Filed under: News, UFC