As far as international expansion efforts go, we’ve seen Zuffa put on events in various locales around the world in the last few years, and it’s always great for any organization to make a major impression on their first visit.
So with the UFC setting up their inaugural Croatian event, it really helps that they had some young and exciting fighters on the card along with two established heavyweights at the top and regional favorites peppered across the card. On paper, it’s the perfect FS1 card – showcases prospects and gives them experience and exposure in the process, sorts out the pecking order for the middle and bottom of the division and has a solid fight in the main event that could shape the immediate future of the top of a division.
Winners
Junior dos Santos – Didn’t get to make my picks this week in the staff picks for the event, but I really thought that Rothwell was going to win this bout. Most of the staff agreed and a lot of fans and other media did as well – and nobody can be faulted for that. It’s a testament to two things: the more recent performances of dos Santos – especially that dreadful last fight – and the unexpected rise of Rothwell rattling off wins against fighters that he theoretically probably should not have beaten. Junior looked shot against Overeem and got knocked out for his troubles, got battered against Miocic that had him looking terrible in the end of a fight he won, and that was all after the unholy drubbing of his life that he took at the hands of the Mexican demigod of death and cardio extremes Cain Velasquez in their second bout. He had been looking so bad that many fans and media alike were contemplating whether or not he should retire for his own good. Instead, he took a more composed approach, worked the body and had essentially an extended boxing match that showed him to be methodical and in better shape than in recent outings. It wasn’t a return to form where he would look like the man that knocked out Mark Hunt and Cain Velasquez, but he looked more than just less shot. He was in great shape and fought smart despite still showing some defensive lapses, but proved he’s not done yet.
Derrick Lewis – I have to admit that prior to him joining the UFC, I had not seen Lewis fight before. That said, there wasn’t anything in his game that I was really all that impressed by, either. His wins over Jack May and Guto Inocente were pretty brutal, but his ceiling became very evident and came crashing down in his loss to Matt Mitrione. This time he took on Gabriel Gonzaga, a BJJ ace that sometimes forgets he’s a BJJ ace. Lewis slept him with the right hand of doom, though and continues to look fantastic in his finishes. I still think that his limitations will pretty much always be there, and facing a more composed and technical striker like a Roy Nelson would really expose his flaws again. That said, I love what he’s doing so far and hope he shores up his defensive grappling even more to keep improving and proving doubters like me wrong.
Mairbek Taisumov – It wasn’t that long ago that Taisumov was in M-1 pulverizing the notorious Niko Puhakka’s legs before making his way to the UFC. Since then, he’s had brutal finishes in every fight other than his decision loss to Michel Prazeres and his decision win over Tae Hyun Bang. There’s a reason why people that are really into the Russian MMA scene nerd out hardcore over this guy, and he’s racking up one of the best highlight reels in recent memory.
Alejandro Perez – OK, I’m gonna guess not many of you guys saw the first TUF Latin America, and nobody’s going to hold that against you. There were still some good fighters from that show, and the best thing about it is how much better they’ve gotten since the show. Diablito is a great example of it, and his improvement is noticeable in some of the smaller details. He’s training with AKA in San Jose and looks like he did the adequate prep work needed to defend against a dogged leglock hunter like Entwistle (yes, more on that later on). His positional awareness when Ian went for heel hooks was just great, and even the split-seconds of hesitation showed that the gears in his head were still in motion. Perez never stopped working and got another win to put him at 3-1 in the UFC.
Bojan Veličković and Alessio Di Chirico – Both guys end up as winners here. Not the most technical showcase from beginning to end, but they looked great for so much of it and kept coming. Two years from now, these guys are going be doing pretty well for themselves. Not saying either guy is going to be a champion, or even a top ten guy, but we just saw two younger guys with a lot of potential put on very a fun fight.
Zak Cummings notches another win snapping Nico Dalby’s undefeated streak, and he looked very measured with his counter game and had a very bread and butter approach to the fight until it got wild, and that was fun. He’s now quietly 5-1 in the UFC. While not at risk to becoming a household name, he’s a dependable fighter that really seems to dig deep and enjoy what he does.
Cro Cop – Hey, brother got a nice bit of applause from his home crowd. Shame his career ended with the controversy it did, but he’ll always be a hero to many. Too bad he still dresses, well… like a guy that can’t dress.
Jared Cannonier, welcome back to the UFC. That was absolutely brutal, and watching him walk calmly over slowly after dropping Asker was pretty scary. Then the finish came, and showed he wasn’t about to ease up too much. Big way to make people forget about the debut loss to Shawn Jordan. Maryna Moroz had another scrappy battle with a lot of back and forth grappling exchanges that weren’t the most technical, but had some fun bits. Damian Stasiak got the last laugh after the minor scuffle at the weigh-ins with what was probably the deepest choke I’ve seen in ages. That was deeper than Miesha’s choke on Holm, and it was beautiful. Lucas Martins gets a decent win, albeit a somewhat controversial one
Losers
Ben Rothwell’s stock takes a pretty big hit here, as it seemed like a reasonable conclusion that a win over dos Santos would likely put him in place for a title shot, and it would be almost guaranteed if he got a finish. Rothwell’s submisison game as of late was working against two opponents that shot in on his legs in consecutive bouts, but dos Santos doesn’t do that, so another gogo choke was out of the question. Rothwell’s offensive wrestling isn’t that explosive and most of his success was when he was able to rush Junior and get him to back up against the fence, so there go more of his offensive options. As for the counter game, everything he threw was a day late and a dollar short as Junior brutalized the body more and more later on. Worse still, it seemed he was a but gunshy on some counters while still in range. It wasn’t the most terrible loss, but it sets him back just a bit and showcased some flaws that we hadn’t been reminded of lately, especially the inability to change tactics during the fight. Ben’s a smart fighter and probably knows he has some work to do. Time will tell whether or not he can make the necessary improvements to get back into the title picture in such an unpredictable division.
Gabriel Gonzaga – Guys, we should probably start to worry here. This was probably the scariest loss we’ve seen for Gonzaga since the Shane Carwin fight, and he’s now been finished with strikes 9 times in his professional career. That’s 9 out of 11 losses on his record. This does not count the concussions in training. He seems fine, but nobody should be taking too many of these, and Gonzaga seemed content to grab Lewis and make him carry weight in an effort to exhaust him and implement his game, which was the smart money. Lewis didn’t let that happen, and Gabriel got slept. It’s sad, and he might not even get cut after this loss. That’s even sadder.
Ian Entwistle – Remember Rousimar Palhares? How could you forget? To the uninitiated, grapplers like Palhares appear to be a one-trick pony. It’s the same lazy accusation that gets lobbed at Ronda Rousey from time to time. What people that actually grapple acknowledge and respect is that these fighters are exceptionally good at setting up that trick. That and the fact that they can abandon it at a moment’s notice and work hard to get something else. Entwistle goes into heel hook mode and doesn’t want anything else. Not even turning to a kneebar like Palhares did to Fitch, but just grabbing on for dear life and getting to the point where he forgets he’s not in a grappling match, but an MMA fight. This is the second fight he refuses to bail on a leg submission, the first being his UFC debut against Daniel Hooker in June 2014, where he got beat even worse than he did in this event. He now stands at 1-2, and may get cut after this loss as well.
Igor Pokrajac – Oof. Rough day at the office here. Quick recap – Pokrajac’s last UFC run ended after four losses and a no contest, after which he racked up three straight wins on the Euro circuit (two TKOs and a submission). Now he comes back and doesn’t look that great in a fight against a very durable opponent. The worst part is taunting a guy because a punch he landed didn’t hurt much, only to get staggered moments after. It’s going to be very difficult to predict what they do with him next.
Robert Whiteford – Tough break for the affable Scot, but under different circumstances he’d be yet another fighter that likely wouldn’t suffer much from that loss. Unfortunately, he’s now 2-3. The bravado shown in this fight may not be enough to save him.
Cyril Asker got the business. Didn’t even get a chance to showcase much of his skillset, but the loss says more about Cannonier’ brutality than anything else. Filip Pejić was another fighter that took a tough loss, but he’s young enough to learn from this and not face major consequences over. Damir Hadzovic got a brutal welcome as well. Marcin Tybura didn’t look bad, but didn’t look that good either. That sort of thing could work against a fighter in the UFC. Don’t believe me? Go ask Jared Rosholt how he spent his weekend.
Neither
Francis Ngannou – It’s a shame when a guy has a loss on his record due to a stoppage like that, especially a guy like Curtis Blaydes who could have otherwise continued fighting. Fighter safety being of the utmost importance, though, it’s hard to be upset at this. Neither fighter really steps back or forward here, as the whole thing was rather anticlimactic and they’re both still very raw, although Ngannou showed some great conditioning and takedown defense for the most part.
Jan Blachowicz won the fight, but it doesn’t really feel like it got him much. Sure, he improves to 2-2 in the UFC and snaps a two-fight losing streak, but it doesn’t seem to do much else, at least for now.
Timothy Johnson also gets a win that doesn’t do much either, although he improves to 2-1 in the UFC in a division that gets really nebulous once you go past the top 12-15.
Cristina Stanciu looked better than I thought she would although her cardio took a hit later on. Strawweight is still a division that’s being fleshed out, and they could use someone like her. She should be fine.
Mightiest Daddy 
Leave a comment