I was out of town and couldn’t watch UFC Fight Night 161: Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Michelle Waterson until Tuesday night. I was able to avoid spoilers for all but one fight, thanks Jake for spoiling Niko’s fight. Since I hadn’t heard many spoilers, I wasn’t sure what the card would deliver. I knew there were some fights that would probably be entertaining. But after watching this event, I think the entire card delivered one of the most entertaining night of fights in a while. There were so many finishes, and the fights that weren’t finished early were entertaining. There wasn’t any laying and praying. This card showcased a lot of talent and a lot of the fun aspects of MMA.
BEST WINNERS
CUB SWANSON. Holy shit did Cub Swanson look good against Kron Gracie. Cub looked like he was having fun and it was the best he’s looked in a while. It’s obvious that Kron needs to work on some skills outside of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but Kron is one tough son of a bitch and Cub picked him apart for 3 full rounds. Cub’s boxing and footwork was beautifully artistic. He was able to get close to Kron, land a few combos then slip away before Kron could get a hold of him. Cub almost made it look easy.
NIKO PRICE. We’re almost at that point where there is nothing Niko Price can do that would surprise us. He now has two KO’s from his back. This guy loves to fight, and it shows in his style. He doesn’t care what position he is in; he will throw whatever he has at you. It’s hard to watch a Niko Price fight and not walk away with a new favorite fighter. Saturday night, he had the second up-kick KO in UFC history. That is something to be impressed by. He knocked James Vick into next week. It was scary how devastating that up-kick was. Niko should be climbing the rankings and should get a step up in competition coming off this win.
AMANDA RIBAS. I was flip flopping back and forth over picking Amanda Ribas and Mackenzie Dern. I went with Dern believing her more credentialed Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills would be too much for Ribas. Boy, was I wrong. Holy shit. Ribas looked great. She fended off takedown attempt after takedown attempt. Her striking was fast and precise. She looked like a real contender. She made Dern look like an amateur. Ribas has the skills to make some noise in this division.
MARVIN VETTORI. A couple of weeks ago, I picked Alessio di Chirico in his fight against Makhmud Muradov, and halfway through the fight, I was quite disappointed in his fight. Then I realized I was thinking of Marvin Vettori.Vettori had taken current middleweight champion Israel Adesanya to a split decision. It was a very close fight, and it put Vettori pretty low on the totem pole, whereas Adesanya had a rocket strapped to his back and he won the interim title 4 fights later. Vettori has now fought twice since the Adesanya fight. He beat Cezar Ferreira in July. Then this past weekend he absolutely dominated Andrew Sanchez. Sanchez had nothing to slow down Vettori. I don’t think Vettori was in trouble at all the entire fight. Vettori looked very good and he wants a rematch with Adesanya. He is a couple of fights away from that, but he is on a path that could lead him there. If he can keep improving and fighting with the energy and gas tank he did Saturday night, he should get his rematch sometime in the next year.
MATT FREVOLA. I always love seeing a Serra-Longo MMA guy get a win. It was sad not to see Serra or Longo octagon side, they were probably still recovering from Ragin’ Al’s loss to Dan Hooker and preparing for Chris Weidman’s light heavyweight debut this Friday in Boston. But the Steamrolla Frevola showed up and wanted to put a show on. Man, that guy is tough as fuck and willing to eat bombs and keep moving forward. I thought Pena won the fight, but I didn’t think this was a robbery by any stretch of the imagination. Round 1 was a toss up. Frevola was great the first half, Pena was good the second half. The 2nd round was all Pena. Going into the 3rd round, Frevola knew he needed a big round to get a win. It seemed Pena thought he had the decision locked up. Frevola fought with a frenetic pace and didn’t show any signs of slowing down. Frevola took the 3rd round and stole the win from an overconfident Pena.
DEIVESON FIGUEIREDO. Deiveson Figueiredo was stepping into the octagon with a man that took Demetrious Johnson to a decision. Granted, Tim Elliott lost the decision, but up to that point, Elliott was the most successful against Demetrious outside of his bantamweight loss to Dominick Cruz. Elliott was coming off a long layoff. He was let go by the UFC during the flyweight purge and he fought with an outside organization. But Elliott had been healing his knee. We weren’t sure which Elliott we would get in this fight. And we still don’t because Figueiredo took him out quickly. Figueiredo was touching Elliott up well. Elliott knew he couldn’t stay on the feet and went for a takedown. Figueiredo took his neck and caught Elliott in a vicious Guillotine for a first round submission win.
BEST LOSERS
KRON GRACIE. Kron Gracie couldn’t grapple, so he was at a huge disadvantage against Cub Swanson. But that didn’t stop Kron from fighting. Kron ate a lot of nasty body shots but didn’t slow down at all. He just kept moving forward. Not many people knew how Kron would handle a striker being able to avoid his grappling, and while he didn’t get the win, he held his own as best as he could. He didn’t seem to be affected by the body shots, which is remarkable. He was like a machine, just going forward. I hope he works on his standup game and some more creative ways to get the fight to the ground. He has a good future in front of him.
LUIS PENA. I had Luis Pena winning the fight. I thought he took rounds 1 and 2. Round 1 was so close that it could have gone either way, but round 2 was Pena’s. Pena was upset with the decision and I get it, but he must do better in the third round. He coasted, expecting to win. I don’t know if his corner told him he won rounds 1 and 2, but he did not come out for round 3 looking like a Violent Bob Ross. I don’t want to rag on him since he is in “Best Losers” section, but I had to get that out of the way. Pena looked good in the second half of round 1 and round 2. He looks like he trains with Khabib. He needs to get back into the gym with Khabib and work some more on keeping his energy up the entire fight. He has a promising future in the lightweight division, but he needs to take another step forward.
THOMAS GIFFORD. It’s hard to call him a best loser. Maybe he should be a “biggest heart” or something like that. This dude took a fucking beating. Mike Davis absolutely destroyed him. But to Gifford’s credit, he kept moving forward until he face planted into the canvas. It was hard to watch, and I agreed with Bisping that the ref should have called it sooner even if Gifford wasn’t out cold. It was a brutal beating, and I hope Gifford is ok, but damn he can take a fucking beating.
MY FIGHTER OF THE NIGHT
JOANNA JEDRZEJCZYK. She’ll always be Joanna Champion to me. Granted, that is because spelling her last name is an absolute fucking nightmare. Joanna is my favorite fighter, and has been for a while. I love her fight game. She is tough as hell, she has an amazing gas tank. Her striking is accurate and voluminous. Her takedown defense is incredible. I love her mind games. I think her downfall to Rose was due to an over confidence combined with too many Champion duties to truly improve while everyone else caught up to her. I believe, Joanna of Saturday night could beat Rose Namajunas. Michelle Waterson looked so small compared to Joanna. Joanna used that size advantage to push Waterson around. Joanna landed 226 strikes and was successful on 3 out of 5 on takedown attempts. This was one of Joanna’s best all around fights in a while. If I was champion Weili Zhang, I would be a little nervous that Joanna Champion might be making her comeback and Zhang is her target.
PERFORMANCE OF THE NIGHT
MIKE DAVIS. What a performance Mike Davis put on against Thomas Gifford. Davis was boxing circles around Gifford. Gifford touched him a few times, due to Davis being shorter and needing to get in close. But it didn’t seem like Davis was in much trouble at all. Davis’ striking was precise and crisp. You wouldn’t have thought he was the fighter taking the fight on 6 days notice. Davis was vicious and all of the shots Gifford ate in the first 2+ rounds added up and Davis landed a nasty punch that face planted Gifford for the walk off KO.
SAVAGE OF THE NIGHT
MARLON CHITO VERA. Chito Vera came out against Andre Ewell looking for a kill. He attacked immediately. Ewell looked flustered and tried to keep up, but he couldn’t. Chito fought like an absolute savage and ended the fight in the third round, when he finally caught Ewell and pounced for the finish. Chito’s win/finish streak is starting to turn heads and he should be moving up the rankings.
SURPRISE OF THE NIGHT
ERYK ANDERS. I will admit I was high on Anders after his first couple of fights. Then his last couple of fights got me off the bandwagon. Anders’ improvement halted and we saw the same fight over and over. He would stalk and throw power punches but wouldn’t change up angles or combos. He would gas out and lose. I thought this fight would go that way. Gerald Meerschaert is a pesky (annoying as fuck) fighter and has no issue standing on the outside and point fighting. Meerschaert tried to do that. But Anders didn’t tire out and kept throwing shots. Anders’ gas tank held up and he got the win.
MOVE OF THE NIGHT
NIKO PRICE’S RIDICULOUS UPKICK.
NOT FIGHT OF THE NIGHT
N/A – There wasn’t a fight that was boring enough to qualify for this.
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT
MATT FREVOLA V. LUIS PENA – It was insanely hard picking one fight. But this was the most back and forth and fun fight of the night.
Honorable Mentions:
CUB SWANSON V. KRON GRACIE
MIKE DAVIS V. THOMAS GIFFORD
ALEX MORONO V. MAX GRIFFIN