The UFC returned to Fight Island last night with a bang, a card highlighted by two title fights with explosive conclusions, a flyweight bout that threatened to steal the show and a preliminary card slugfest that featured a UFC legend.
The UFC’s global expansion:
Throughout the broadcast, there was specific focus drawn to the incredible diversity of the fighters competing on under the UFC banner, with UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic being the sole American champion in the promotion’s twelve weight classes.
There was another country represented for the first time in UFC history during last night’s card, with Ludovit Klein being the first Slovakian to fight for the promotion. Despite missing weight in the scheduled Featherweight bout, Klein was able to secure a win for his home country by knocking out Shane Young in just over a minute.
The finishing sequence began with a snapping head kick that stunned the New Zealander Young and Klein would follow with an uppercut that dropped his opponent, causing referee Kevin Sataki to step in and stop the fight.
Jake Matthews stops the Nightmare:
Jake Matthews was only eleven years old when he watched Diego Sanchez win the first season of the Ultimate Fighter. Fifteen years down the line, the two men stood on opposite sides of the Octagon, prepared to do battle.
Throughout the three-round affair, Matthews defended intelligently against his unpredictable adversary, not allowing himself to be backed up against the fence where he may have been dragged into a brawl. In the striking exchanges that the men shared, the age discrepancy between the two was on display, as Sanchez would look just a tad slower than his opponent, which only helped Matthews to slip out of the way of Sanchez’s more powerful strikes.
Matthews would finally drop Sanchez thirty seconds into the third frame with a stiff right hand, but instead of waiting for Sanchez to get back to his feet and look for the finish, Matthews would drop into Sanchez’s guard and allow the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt to recover, a decision which was questioned by Paul Felder on commentary.
Nevertheless, despite a brief scare where Sanchez threatened to secure an armbar late in the fight, the decision was fairly straightforward for the judges, awarding Matthews with the unanimous decision victory.
Don’t run from Mean Hakeem:
The main card opened up with a Featherweight clash between Hakeem Dawodu and Zubaira Tukhugov, Tukhugov, who had UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in his corner began the brighter of the two, with his overwhelming speed pushing the tempo of the fight and winning him the first round in many people’s estimations.
As the fight drew on however, it seemed as if Tukhugov began to fatigue, a potential effect of Tukhugov missing weight for this bout. Dawodu was able to counter more effectively and the momentum of the fight swung in favour of the Canadian.
By the end of the fight, Tukhugov was resorting to simply staying out of the way of his opponent and not throwing any strikes, which drew incensed and expletive-laced protests from Dawodu. Dawodu would earn the victory via split decision.
Flyweights earn FOTN:
In the next bout on the card, Ketlen Vieira would prevent Sijara Eubanks from securing her second victory in the space of two weeks with a straightforward unanimous decision victory, a victory which may edge her towards a spot in the top five of the UFC Women’s Bantamweight rankings.
In the final non-title bout on the card, number seven ranked flyweight Kai Kara-France squared off against number nine ranked Brandon Royval.
The pace of the bout was electric from the word go, Kara-France dropping Royval thirty seconds into the fight with an overhand right, to which Royval would recover quickly and respond with a vicious spinning elbow as Kara-France rushed in to follow up on his knockdown.
After a spell on the ground, Royval would drop Kara-France again with a knee with under two minutes left in the opening frame. Royval would attempt to capitalise with a guillotine choke but Kara-France would slip out.
The fight would unfortunately not last much longer as thirty seconds into the second round, Kara-France would shoot in for a takedown and Royval would immediately lock up a guillotine choke with Kara-France still standing, the choke would force Kara-France to the ground and he had no choice but to subsequently tap out.
Blachowicz snatches UFC gold:
In the co-main event, Dominick Reyes took on Jan Blachowicz for the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, after Jon Jones vacated the belt to pursue moving up to the Heavyweight division.
The bout would determine only the third UFC Light Heavyweight Champion since 2011 as the 2010s were dominated by Jones and Daniel Cormier.
Reyes would come into the fight as the favourite after the admirable performance he put up at UFC 247 in a title bout against Jones, which he lost via a heavily contentious decision. However, Reyes would not put the same early pressure on Blachowicz that he put on Jones, instead respecting his Polish opponent’s powerful right hand, which as a southpaw, he was vulnerable to.
Blachowicz spent much of the opening round landing heavy kicks to Reyes’ lead leg and his body, leaving a nasty bruise and swelling on the right side of ‘The Devastator’.
In the second round, Blachowicz was much more aggressive in trying to get on the inside, which left Reyes constantly moving to avoid being trapped up against the cage and looking uncomfortable and unwilling to exchange with him.
The Polish fighter would break Reyes’ nose with a combination late in the second which forced Reyes to respond and following a wild exchange, Blachowicz would land a huge left hook which left Reyes completely wobbled and after some follow up strikes, the referee would call a stop to the fight, awarding Blachowicz the TKO victory.
Blachowicz is now the second fighter from Poland to win a UFC championship after former UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk.
Adesanya knocks out Costa to move to 20-0:
The stage was set for the main event, only the second title fight in UFC history where both men were sporting unblemished records.
The early stages of the fight were littered with both fighters taunting one another, both attempting to establish a mental edge in the fight. Despite this, it was clear that both men respected one another as neither man was eager to overextend and risk being caught by their opponent.
Adesanya spent the first round chopping away at Costa’s leg, doing considerable damage and gradually limiting Costa’s movement speed and the power of his kicks which was a technique that the Brazilian tried to utilise in the fight to little success.
In the second, Adesanya looked to take advantage of Costa’s compromised movement with head kicks of his own, which paid dividends halfway through the round as Adesanya would land a swift head kick that Costa took well but still opened up a cut over his right eye.
As the round wore on, Costa began to push forward, as he was being picked apart by Adesanya when he was trying to lean more on counter strikes. The frequency of striking exchanges between the two picked up considerably and with just over a minute left in the second round, Adesanya would land a left hook which dropped his opponent and finished the fight.
What’s next?
The UFC has three Fight Night events on Fight Island between now and UFC 254, those events will be headlined by Holly Holm vs Irene Aldana, Marlon Moraes vs Cory Sandhagen and Brian Ortega vs ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung.
The main event for UFC 254 has already been confirmed as the unification bout between UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Interim Lightweight Champion Justin Gaethje.
In terms of who is the next challenger for Isreal Adesanya’s Middleweight Championship, the Nigerian-born champion stated that if number three ranked Jared Cannonier can defeat former champion Robert Whittaker in what has already been confirmed as the co-main of UFC 254, he believes he will deserve the next opportunity.
For Jan Blachowicz, it seems as if he is set on challenging Jon Jones as it seemed as if Blachowicz was one of the names being rumoured for Jones’ next title defence before he vacated the championship. Blachowicz immediately called out Jones following the finish of his fight and again during his post-fight interview.
However, with Jones already intending to compete at Heavyweight, the chances of Jones making a U-turn to return to the Light Heavyweight division look extremely unlikely.
Full Card results:
Main Card
Middleweight – Isreal Adesanya (c) def. Paulo Costa via TKO (Round 2 – 3:59)
Light Heavyweight – Jan Blachowicz def. Dominick Reyes via TKO (Round 2 – 4:36)
Flyweight – Brandon Royval def. Kai Kara-France via submission (Guillotine, Round 2 – 0:48)
Women’s Bantamweight – Ketlen Vieira def. Sijara Eubanks via Unanimous Decision
Catchweight – Hakeem Dawodu def. Zubaira Tukhugov via Split Decision
Preliminary Card
Lightweight – Brad Riddell def. Alex da Silva via Unanimous Decision
Welterweight – Jake Matthews def. Diego Sanchez via Unanimous Decision
Catchweight – Ludovit Klein def. Shane Young via KO (Round 1 – 1:16)
Light Heavyweight – William Knight def. Aleksa Camur via Unanimous Decision
Early Preliminary Card
Heavyweight – Juan Espino def. Jeff Hughes via submission (Scarf hold, Round 1 – 3:48)
Light Heavyweight – Danilo Marques def. Khadis Ibragimov via Unanimous Decision
The Inbound Observer 