UFC 197 FIGHT WEEK

As we touched upon last week, the UFC heavyweight division (265lbs) has started to rumble, starting with the March 20 UFC Fight Night card, after UFC196. In the main event, Mark Hunt KO’s Frank Mir in classic Mark Hunt fashion: with one punch.

Last week’s UFC Fight Night finished with four heavyweight fights. In the co-main event, Derrick Lewis TKO’d UFC-veteran Gabriel Gonzaga, while former UFC champion Junior Dos Santos stopped Ben Rothwell’s win-streak at 4 after a masterful striking performance.

As noted by Edwards and Woodley (in the video), JDS was able to keep Rothwell’s timing off and comfortability in the Octagon low. By keeping his boxing varied, going to the body with both hands across the duration of the fight allowed JDS to set up his dynamite right-hand. In addition to his boxing, JDS kept Rothwell stiff on his feet with his powerful push kicks.

Keep an eye out for the Heavyweight division after UFC 197, as two key heavyweight fights will occur on the Fight Night card prior to UFC 198, headlined by the UFC Heavyweight title fight.

Moving back to the present, many interesting fights occurred yesterday, culminated by Glover Teixeira vs former UFC Champion Rashad Evans fighting for the de facto “#1 contender” spot in the Light Heavyweight division. However, the buzz around the event came from the co-main event match-up between Lyoto Machida (former UFC LHWT champion) and Dan Henderson fell apart after Lyoto Machida declared that he (unknowingly) used a banned-substance out-of-competition.

Other fights on the card included John Dodson, who returned after losing in the title fight against UFC Flyweight (125lbs) champion Demetrious Johnson, taking on Manvel Gamburyan. This was Dodson’s return to Bantamweight (135lbs). Gamburyan entered the fight on a 2-fight win-streak at 135lbs, after dropping down from Featherweight (145lbs). John Dodson wasted no time, taking only 47 seconds to record a TKO victory via punches over Gamburyan. Post-fight, Dodson stated he’s ready to fight, “tomorrow, if that’s realistic.” He was also willing to entertain a rematch with TJ Dillashaw.

Bethe Correia returned after her brutal loss to then-Women’s Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. She faced Raquel Pennington, who entered the fight after avenging a loss to Jessica Andrade. Pennington was able to win a close (29-28)x2, 28-9 Split Decision win.

Michael Chiesa fought Beneil Dariush in a UFC Lightweight (155lbs) bout. Both men were undefeated in 2015 (2-0, 3-0 respectively). Chiesa (a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Purple Belt) submitted Dariush (a BJJ Black Belt) via a rear-naked choke in the 2nd round, for sure increasing his stock and extending his win streak to 3-0. This submission won Chiesa Submission of the Night honors.

22-0 Khabib Nurmagomedov fought short-notice replacement for injured Tony Ferguson, 13-1, CFFC Lightweight Champion Darrell Horcher (at 160lbs). This was the anticipated return of Nurmagomedov, the last man to beat current-155lbs champ Rafael dos Anjos, though that was almost two-years ago to the day (April 19th, 2014). Nurmagomedov was victim to a few injuries during the rest of 2014 and 2015. Nonetheless, he came back in a big way, getting his first TKO victory since January 2013. In the post-fight presser, Nurmagomedov likened his time injured as being in “jail,” and believes he’s ready for a rematch for the title.

Also in the post-fight presser, Chiesa suggested a potential meet-up against red-hot Tony Ferguson, after Khabib made a statement vying for his match-up against RDA. The lightweight (155lbs) division will continue to heat up in the near future. Also of note, in the Featherweight (145lbs) divison, Cub Swanson made a successful return to the Octagon, picking up a Unanimous Decision after suffering back-to-back submission losses to Frankie Edgar and Max Holloway back in November 2014 and and April 2015.

In light of Machida vs Hendo dissolving, #3 Rose Namajunas vs #4, undefeated Tecia Torres, at Women’s Strawweight (115lbs) met in the co-main event of the night. Namajunas came into the event on back-to-back rear naked choke submission victories. Conversely, Torres (7-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) was undefeated including a Unanimous Decision victory over Namajunas in 2013. Namajunas was able to scrap a (29-28)x3 Unanimous Decision to avenge her loss from three years ago. Look for her to vie for a title-shot soon.

In the main event, Rashad Evans was knocked out by Glover Teixeira, who has now put himself into the championship conversation. Teixeira finished Evans in just under 2-minutes, in a performance that would earn Knockout of the Night honors and $50,000. This makes the former champ 0-2 since his return in Oct 2015. Teixeira is now on a 3-fight win-streak, and is 3-1 since the last time he fought and lost to Jon Jones for the UFC Light-Heavyweight Title. In addition, he has finished his last three opponents, making Teixeira’s bargaining power high for another attempt at the title.

It was a very interesting card. For my UFC 197 preview, check out my update from last week: