UFC 260 could go down as one of the most important events of the year as fight fans may have witnessed the end of a former champion, the birth of a new contender at Women’s Flyweight, the resurgence of a rising star and the prelude to one of the sport’s most important fights in its history.
‘Atomic’ becomes fourth Von Flue finisher:
The featured preliminary bout of the night was a Light Heavyweight bout between Alonzo Menifield and Fabio Cherant. Menifield entered the UFC with a perfect undefeated record but coming into this short notice bout, ‘Atomic’ had most recently suffered back-to-back losses to Devin Clark and Ovince Saint Preux.
Menifield would waste no time in pushing his opponent up against the fence and would soon land a strong double-leg takedown. Cherant would try to defend by threatening with a guillotine but as Menifield landed in side control, Cherant keeping hold of Menifield’s neck only served to open himself up to the Von Flue choke.
Menifield wrapped his arms around the back of Cherant and pushed his body weight down onto the choke and secured the submission victory in just over a minute.
Menifield becomes just the fourth fighter in the UFC to score a victory via the Von Flue choke, a fact that is even more impressive when you consider that this was only Menifield’s second victory via Submission.
Maverick puts on well rounded performance against ranked opposition:
The second fight on the main card was a Women’s Flyweight bout pitting number fifteen ranked Gillian Robertson against twenty-three-year-old prospect Miranda Maverick in her sophomore outing under the UFC banner.
Maverick showed her superiority on the feet early in the first, utilising effective leg kicks and landing efficient combinations while avoiding the Canadian’s attempts to grapple her. Maverick would punctuate her first-round performance with a pair of strong, well-timed takedowns.
The second round was much more competitive as Robertson was able to show the class that had landed her inside the division’s top fifteen as she was finally able to take Maverick down and she showed why the consensus going into this fight was a classic striker/grappler showdown as Robertson was able to stifle any attempts that Maverick made to get to her feet and take her back consistently.
Maverick ended the round strongly, getting to her feet with thirty seconds left and landing some strong shots but it looked as if the round went to Robertson.
Maverick would take complete control in the final frame as Robertson was clearly fatigued and Maverick would elect to take her opponent down and get some reps on the ground to finish out the fight.
The prospect was rewarded for her display with a unanimous decision victory.
The Suga Show comes back on the air in a big way:
The next fight on the card pitted the always game Thomas Almeida against the flashy ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley, who was looking to bounce back after suffering his first loss in his last outing to Marlon Vera.
The fight featured everything that makes O’Malley fun to watch as he just looked a step ahead at all times. O’Malley mixed his strikes up well, constantly feinting and switching his stance to keep Almeida guessing.
O’Malley would display his want to always end up on the highlight reel as he twice passed up on potentially fight-ending sequences to try to end Almeida with a clean strike. In the first round, ‘Suga’ landed a swift left high kick and followed it up with a right hand, reminiscent of the way he knocked out Eddie Wineland.
The combination dropped the Brazilian, but O’Malley hesitated momentarily to follow up with strikes to potentially finish it as he was looking for the ‘walk off’ KO.
O’Malley would finally finish the fight in the third round as he caught Almeida with a short-left hook as his opponent was advancing towards him and sent him to the ground.
O’Malley again hesitated to follow up but after it was apparent that referee Mark Smith was not stopping the fight at that point, O’Malley walked over to a dazed Almeida and landing a massive diving punch to his laid-out opponent to call another episode of ‘The Suga Show’ to a close and score himself a Performance of the Night bonus.
Luque beats Woodley in wild one round brawl:
Former UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley came into this fight on the back of three tough losses with the majority of the MMA community believing that this could be a pivotal moment in the career of ‘The Chosen One’ as his standing in the division would be a major question if he failed to beat the surging Vicente Luque.
Woodley would explode out of the starting blocks and immediately look to clinch Luque up against the cage, but the Brazilian was able to reverse the position.
As the two men broke away from the grappling exchange, Woodley landed an overhand right that stunned his opponent but as the former champion advanced to potentially finish the fight, Luque countered with a massive right hand of his own that almost sent Woodley face first to the canvas.
The next minute would be a wild brawl with both men landing back and forth but it was clear that Woodley was running on pure adrenaline and desperation as his legs were clearly wobbled and Luque was able to drag him to the ground.
Luque would immediately lock in a D’Arce choke that Woodley was unable to escape from and Luque was able to deal Woodley his first submission loss of his career and secure the Fight of the Night bonus in the process.
Ngannou becomes third African UFC Champion in career performance:
All that was left to decide was the main event. Stipe Miocic against Francis Ngannou. The greatest Heavyweight the UFC has ever known versus the heaviest hitter the sport has ever seen.
With the prospect of a showdown with Jon Jones on offer to the victor along with the obvious spoils, this fight looked to be one of the most important in UFC Heavyweight history.
Ngannou began the fight much more patiently than he did in their first outing, only throwing one or two shots at a time and not giving Stipe much room to counter. Ngannou would find big overhand shots early but the progress that ‘The Predator’ had made since his first UFC title shot was made very apparent as Miocic changed levels and looked to take Ngannou down.
Ngannou would fight off the attempt with raw strength and when Stipe tried again, the Cameroonian would sprawl beautifully to again deny the Ohio native. The challenger would use the sprawl to try to take the back of Miocic and as the champion tried to get to his feet, he was met with a tidal wave of right hooks as he tried to break away from ‘The Predator’s’ grasp.
The tempo would slow considerably towards the end of the first as it became clear to Francis that he was not going to be able to stop the resilient champion and needed to preserve his energy to avoid a repeat of their first meeting.
Any fans that were hoping for a stunning comeback for the champion were silenced within a minute of the horn to start the second round as Ngannou dropped Miocic with a jab, but the champion was able to fight back to his feet.
Stipe tried to stop the oncoming onslaught of the challenger with a counter right hook but Ngannou kept moving forward and landed a stiff left to drop the champion and finish the fight.
Francis Ngannou becomes the UFC’s third current African champion being a native of Cameroon, joining the Nigerian pair of Welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and Middleweight kingpin Isreal Adesanya to make Africa the continent with the most current champions in the promotion.
What’s next?
The UFC will host two Fight Night events before their next pay-per-view offering, both of which will be headlined by clashes between elite Middleweight contenders, Darren Till vs Marvin Vettori and Robert Whittaker vs Kelvin Gastelum.
The UFC’s next pay-per-view event, UFC 261 will be another blockbuster event headlined by three title fights, a distinction that is thankfully becoming a lot less rare in recent years. The three championship bouts will be dominant UFC Women’s Flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko facing her toughest test in the division to date as she faces former Strawweight champion Jessica Andrade; UFC Women’s Strawweight champion Weili Zhang will look to prove she is the best the division has to offer as she faces former champion Rose Namajunas and UFC Welterweight champion Kamaru Usman looks to definitively put his rivalry with Jorge Masvidal to rest in the second meeting between the two.
In terms of the status of the fighters who competed on this card, Vicente Luque was one of the few fighters who tried to play matchmaker on the night, calling for a bout against Nate Diaz. His opponent on the night, Tyron Woodley however, was left with plenty of questions over his future, albeit for all the wrong reasons.
In his post-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White, when asked about Woodley’s status in the promotion, did not explicitly say that the former champion was done but said ‘he’s thirty-nine and that’s four (losses) in a row…. yeah’.
When asked about the super fight that was on every fight fan’s lips following the event, Dana seemed to remain cautious towards the idea of Ngannou vs Jones as he cited Heavyweight contender Derrick Lewis as the fight to make but conceded that if Jones wanted to fight Ngannou, he could call and ‘we can make the fight tonight’.
The prospect of Francis Ngannou versus Jon Jones could prove to be one of the most important fights in combat sports history as Jones is considered to be one of if not the greatest UFC fighters of all time and if he can add Heavyweight gold to his resume, it would be hard to argue against his legacy.
Even taking the fight between the two men in a vacuum, the fight between the two would likely serve as MMA’s answer to Mike Tyson vs Muhammad Ali as Ngannou has already drawn many comparisons to ‘Iron Mike’ thanks to his freakish power and Jones is an extremely technical, confident striker who at times, seems untouchable, much like ‘The Greatest’.
Full card results:
Main card
Heavyweight – Francis Ngannou def. Stipe Miocic (c) via KO (Round 2 – 0:52)
Welterweight – Vicente Luque def. Tyron Woodley via Submission (D’Arce choke, Round 1 – 3:56)
Bantamweight – Sean O’Malley def. Thomas Almeida via KO (Round 3 – 3:52)
Women’s Flyweight – Miranda Maverick def. Gillian Robertson via Unanimous Decision
Lightweight – Jamie Mullarkey def. Khama Worthy via KO (Round 1 – 0:46)
Preliminary card
Catchweight (206.5lbs) – Alonzo Menifield def. Fabio Cherant via Submission (Von Flue choke, Round 1 – 1:11)
Welterweight – Abubakar Nurmagomedov def. Jared Gooden via Unanimous Decision
Light Heavyweight – Michal Oleksiejczuk def. Modestas Bukauskas via Split Decision
Featherweight – Omar Morales def. Shane Young via Unanimous Decision
Early preliminary card
Middleweight – Marc-Andre Barriault def. Abu Azaitar via TKO (Round 3 – 4:56)
The Inbound Observer 