There’s not really a nice but honest way to put it, but this event was not great. When it comes to practicality, it certainly served its purpose. This was mostly lower-ranked fighters trying to develop and move up with a few ranked talents attempting to make big waves in their respective divisions. For the fans in attendance, it must be fun to at least get the live UFC experience. For those at home without that ambience, much less so.
The most fair and praiseworthy takeaway things were this:
a) The event was on Fight Pass, which made the pacing far more bearable than on FS1. No need to sit through advertising avalanches that routinely kill momentum on basic cable cards. It’s something of a relief that it worked out this way.
b) Some of the fights that seemed like they would be uglier slogs on the main card ended in finishes. That’s a great thing, because these matchups were not very aesthetically enticing when announced, and would have been torture to sit through if they went the full length. Another minor but sweet mercy.
At least any bitterness should be rinsed out with UFC 206 following up.
- Winners
Derrick Lewis – This is not the most praiseworthy performance. Lewis was slower and more plodding, looking more to end the fight with a definitive killshot than actually trying to set anything up. He learned nothing from having his kicks caught, which ended with most of those attempts leading to him on his back. No jabs, no cutting of angles, no setups, and looping hooks that whiffed often. While it takes two to tango, Lewis’ approach to this fight did him no favors either. Lewis has a lot of work to do before his next fight, because anyone in the top ten can take him down and embarrass the version of him that showed up tonight. He reverted to the archetype of the guy that got tired of boxing and decided to make money in MMA, and that could have cost him big. The saving grace here was that at least he got a dominant finish, even if this fight would have been a loss had it been anywhere else on this card as a three-rounder. As far as standings go, he moves up in the top ten discussion, but not by very much since there hasn’t been much activity recently at the top of that division.
Francis Ngannou – Four straight wins in the UFC, all of them finishes. And a submission, of all things! Totally didn’t see that one coming, and much credit to his crew for going over that one before the fight. They must have seen some tendencies from Hamilton’s game at the last minute that allowed for them to plan on and capitalize on the opportunity when it came. The puzzling thing here is this: why wasn’t this something they trained for during fight camp? Oh, well. Can’t argue with the results, really. This man really is one of those rare gems that heavyweight has needed for some time. Still a bit raw, but definitely showing himself to be a threat. No one should doubt his legitimacy, and within the next few events he could very likely also be bumped up to top ten status.
Corey Anderson – After a split decision loss to Shogun Rua in May, Anderson bounces back big with a brutal finish. Using his bread and butter, Anderson wrestled O’Connell and gets himself a nice confidence boost, and a slight bump up in the top ten as well. A timely win for another tough fighter that’s still developing and has a ton of upside.
Gian Villante – Villante came out looking great for parts of this fight, but basically beat up a fighter that was made to look old in the second round. Another good bounce-back win for Villante, who lost his last bout to Ilir Latifi (destroyer of worlds) back in March. It’s not all champagne and roses – Villante got dropped by a diminished fighter near the end, even if only for a second. That’s something that shouldn’t be happening at this stage in his career, but here we are. With recent developments just outside of the top ten, he should be able to make it up to maaaaaaaaybe the #10 slot at most.
Justine Kish and Ashley Yoder – That fight was so, so, so much more fun than I could have ever imagined it being. Kish worked her Muay Thai and frenetic pace with relentless pressure to make Yoder work for absolutely everything. Meanwhile, Yoder fought back with everything she had and worked her grappling and superior positioning to get some strikes in when she could, and she made it count. This fight had a little bit of absolutely everything – good striking, great grappling exchanges, reversals, submission attempts, clinches, fence work, etc. Big ups to both of them, because they earned massive props here.
Randy Brown – I keep telling people not to sleep on guys that came up through Ring of Combat. Great performance by Brown, who showed a great deal of pacing and maturity here. He fought smart, defended well when he needed to and broke his opponent to get the finish. The only disappointing thing here was that we didn’t get more of a Muay Thai showdown with 4oz gloves, but that’s not something to get upset about.
Gerald Meerschaert – This is another odd one, because you’d think he should have been in the UFC by now. His record now stands at 25-8 overall, and he makes a nice impression by stamping his UFC debut with a smooth anaconda choke finish.
Andrew Sanchez got a good win against an experienced fighter and improves his win streak to 4. Not much of note other than his use of standup and ability to outwork his opponent with cardio and good control. Shane Burgos seemed helpless for part of the first round but came back big with the left hand finding a home repeatedly in the second round. From there he was confident and controlled the pace to a decision win. Marc Diakiesse also used his wrestling and control from guard to chip away at Frankie Perez, even if it wasn’t the fight we would have wanted to see from them. Ryan Janes stayed one step ahead for most of his fight against Keith Berish, handling his opponent with superior striking and timing. Juliana Lima also used her controlling grappling to overpower JJ Aldrich and win a more tactical battle in the end.
- Losers
Shamil Abdurakhimov – Abdurakhimov lacks certain tools, but he’s not a stupid fighter. He’s shown since his ProFC days that he’s patient and willing to wear his opponent down to eventually beat them up on the ground or submit them. He’s not the most dynamic striker in the standup department, and he handled this fight with the right mindset (until he straight-up refused to engage at all) against a tough boxer. In the end, it was him that got brutalized on the ground. This puts him back out of the top 15, but that doesn’t mean he can’t climb back up. After all, he lost his UFC debut to Timothy Johnson last year and made it to the top 15 after wins over Walt Harris and Anthony Hamilton – both by decision. Heavyweight is just that unpredictable. Still, he loses whatever traction he had gained here.
Anthony Hamilton – Despite being 15-6, Hamilton continues to alternate wins and losses in the UFC. That leaves him at 3-4 in his UFC runs, with three of those losses being finishes. Not sure what else is out there for Hamilton unless he gets cut, but he’s a good wrestler that pushes a heavy pace and revels in making his opponent quit. He may stick around and get another chance at things.
Saparbek Safarov – When you come into the UFC with an undefeated record and all of them are finishes, there’s usually an expectation that you’ll at least look decent in your UFC debut. I’m not sure if Safarov came into this fight hurt, but he didn’t look like he was in fight shape (and I don’t just mean his physique – that’s not the ultimate indicator of stamina). Are we sure this guy is only 30? He seemed to have hurt his shin when kicking Villante and catching a forearm for his troubles, but went back to that well later in the fight to wince in pain again. All in all, this was very strange. Another fighter that loses what little steam he came in with.
Brian Camozzi – Rough night for Brian in his debut loss, but we can’t be too hard on him. This fight isn’t an indicator of his overall skills and abilities, but he’s going to have bounce back big to get out of the bottom-to-mid portion of his division after this.
Sean O’Connell – Brain trauma is real, people. O’Connell’s been getting brutalized in some of his UFC losses, such as the losses to Ilir Latifi, Ryan Jimmo and now Corey Anderson. And who knows how much damage he took in that war against Steve Bosse? He’s definitely not going to be taking any more damage in the UFC, since this is his third straight loss and puts his UFC record at 2-5 overall. He’s unquestionably cut, but I seriously hope he stops fighting, or at least doesn’t take much more damage from here on in.
JJ Aldrich – She didn’t look like the experienced fighter that she is (she has a pretty robust amateur resumé) and got smothered against the cage for most of her fight. Still, she showed a degree of urgency in the final round to make the most of it. Still only 24, she has a lot of upside as well. She’s definitely getting another shot.
Joe Gigliotti lost his UFC debut to Trevor Smith, and now this loss puts him at 0-2 in his UFC run. He’s almost guaranteed to be sent packing after that finish. Trevor Smith gets outworked and drops to 4-4, and it’s up in the air whether or not the UFC decides to keep him around. Tiago Trator drops to 2-2 in the UFC in a disappointing showing that showed him winning by control early but having a full paradigm shift once he tasted some of Shane Burgos’ power. He got stung a few times with it and wasn’t the same after that. Frankie Perez seemed to have run out of options in his fight, not being able to get as much done from his guard as he would have wanted to. Even though this drops him to 1-2, he might get another shot based on his style and tenacity. Keith Berish did not look great in his second UFC fight, and his first UFC bout was a submission loss to Robert Drysdale. That loss had been overturned due to Drysdale failing a post-fight drug test, but it may still lead to Berish getting cut in the end.
Mightiest Daddy 
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