The UFC’s latest pay-per-view offering was the first to welcome fans back into the arena and they truly spared no expense to make it a memorable event, with three title fights topping the billing.
Weili Zhang and Rose Namajunas met in the co-main event in a fight that could decide the best Strawweight on the planet, Valentina Shevchenko was faced with arguably the toughest test of her Flyweight title reign in former Strawweight champion Jessica Andrade and Kamaru Usman looked to secure the second longest undefeated streak in UFC history when he settled a grudge in his rematch with Jorge Masvidal.
Brown lassoes the ‘Cowboy’ with one arm:
The featured fight on the preliminary card was a Welterweight bout, pitting the fan-favourite veteran, Alex ‘Cowboy’ Oliveira against Randy Brown.
‘Cowboy’ would begin the fight trying to attack the legs of Brown in an attempt to limit the impact of Brown’s height and reach advantage. The strategy looked as if it was paying dividends as with just over a minute gone, Oliveira caught Brown with a lead leg kick as ‘Rudeboy’ was advancing, which momentarily buckled the American.
Moments later, Oliveira would again throw the same lead leg kick, but this time Brown would anticipate it and looked to throw a right hook to counter but was off target. Then, seconds later, Brown would throw the right hook again and it landed flush, dropping the Brazilian.
Oliveira would defend himself and prevent the referee from stopping the fight but in his efforts to recover, he would give up his back to his opponent. The veteran then used the cage to climb back to his feet, but Brown remained on his back and after some hand-fighting, he was able to slip his arm under Oliveira’s chin and begin to initiate the choke.
Instead of utilising the conventional rear-naked choke, and using his other arm to stabilise the arm under the chin and deepen the choke, Brown simply reached behind Oliveira’s shoulder and used that to keep the choke in. Seconds later, Brown would drag his opponent to the ground, leaving Oliveira no choice but to tap out with just under three minutes gone in the opening round.
Don’t mess with leg kicks:
The trend of the leg kick, in particular the calf kick, has been a recent revelation in the world of MMA and the usefulness and danger of these techniques was made apparent in the first two fights on the main card.
The curtain-puller on the main card was a Light Heavyweight matchup between Anthony ‘Lionheart’ Smith and Jimmy Crute.
Smith would begin by fighting behind a solid jab, fighting on the outside and catching Crute whenever he tried to advance. Crute would respond by investing heavily in leg kicks to Smith’s lead leg, in an attempt to gradually make it difficult for Smith to generate power from his punches as he wouldn’t have that strong foundation under him to throw his punches forward with more venom.
In a cruel twist, however, with a minute left in the first round, ‘Lionheart’ would execute a perfectly placed leg kick right behind the knee of Crute and immediately, the Australian’s leg was compromised, as he fell down to a knee as he tried to put his weight down on his foot.
Crute would push through the pain and land a pair of takedowns as Smith rushed in to try to capitalise but before the second round could begin, the cage-side doctor would evaluate Crute’s walking and judge that he could not continue with the injury and Smith was subsequently awarded the victory via doctor’s stoppage.
The second fight on the main card would leave a much more bitter taste in the mouth of fight fans as the scheduled Middleweight rematch between Uriah Hall and former UFC Middleweight champion Chris Weidman would barely even start as just ten seconds into the bout, Weidman would throw a leg kick that was checked by Hall, the check appeared to completely break Weidman’s leg, stopping the fight immediately.
Once the unsettling nature of the injury had somewhat subsided, focus was drawn to the unfortunately coincidental circumstances of Weidman breaking his leg in almost the same way that Anderson Silva infamously did in his Middleweight title rematch with Weidman, in addition to the fact that Hall was Silva’s last opponent.
Hall appeared visibly shaken by the events and the only update that was given on the extent of Weidman’s injuries towards the end of the broadcast was that he would undergo surgery the following morning.
Valentina dominates again:
The first scheduled title fight of the night featured dominant UFC Women’s Flyweight champion Valentina ‘Bullet’ Shevchenko defending her title against former UFC Women’s Strawweight champion Jessica Andrade.
In the build-up to the fight, much was made of the explosive knockout power of Andrade, with many tipping her to be Valentina’s biggest challenge as champion.
What played out on the night, however, was an absolutely flawless performance by the ‘Bullet’ as when the fight was on the feet, Shevchenko was patient, and utilised her lauded striking accuracy to pick off Andrade with counters and quick jab-straight combinations to keep the Brazilian challenger on the outside, making Shevchenko’s reach advantage an even bigger factor.
And when Andrade was able to close the distance, Valentina would secure the body lock and take her to the ground with ease, landing five takedowns inside the opening frame, with three of them coming in a sequence as Andrade would do well to work back to her feet but the champion would not relinquish the grip on her opponent and would drag her to the ground again.
While it was clear that Shevchenko was winning the round, it was equally clear that Andrade was not being discouraged by the champion’s relentless grappling as she would repeatedly fire punches to the body of the ‘Bullet’, in an attempt to sap the gas tank of the champion in the later rounds.
Unfortunately for Andrade, the fight would not make it to the later rounds as in the second, Valentina would land a further two takedowns, tying the record for the most landed in a Women’s Flyweight fight with seven and after some solid grappling, would transition into a crucifix hold and would rain down strikes on the defenceless challenger until referee Dan Miragliotta was forced to call for the stoppage.
In her post-fight interview, Valentina would sum up the thoughts of fight fans around the world when she said, ‘And for everyone out there searching for my weakness, don’t waste your time, because there are none’.
‘Thug’ Rose shakes up the world again with emotional win:
The co-main event was a hotly anticipated fight for the UFC Women’s Strawweight championship pitting current champion Weili Zhang against a former champion in Rose Namajunas.
The excitement for this fight was at a fever pitch as in recent history, the Women’s Strawweight division in the UFC had been dominated by four women, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Jessica Andrade, Weili Zhang and Rose Namajunas and over the past few years we had seen every possible matchup between these four women, except for Weili vs Rose.
In the pre-fight video package, focus was drawn to Rose’s mentality after her shocking and violent loss to Jessica Andrade, where she lost the UFC Strawweight championship and the stark honesty of Rose saying that at that point, she was relieved to no longer be champion.
It was clear that ‘Thug’ Rose was ready to hold the gold again however, as while she made her walk to the Octagon, she was seen repeatedly saying ‘I’m the best’ to herself.
And it would not take long for her to prove it as just a minute into the fight, Rose would find her mark with a picture-perfect left high kick that knocked the champion out and helped Rose become the only woman in UFC history to recapture a championship.
With the support and encouragement from her partner, and Heavyweight fighter Pat Barry in her corner and the image of Rose in tears while cradling the title around her waist, it made for an extremely satisfying and emotional comeback for ‘Thug’ Rose.
Usman definitively ends Masvidal rivalry with KO:
All that was left to decide was the main event for the UFC Welterweight championship, the rematch between champion Kamaru Usman and challenger Jorge Masvidal.
The intrigue of this fight mainly came as a result of the circumstances surrounding the first meeting between the two at UFC 251. Usman was originally scheduled to fight Gilbert Burns but after Burns was forced out of the fight due to COVID-19, Masvidal stepped up on six days’ notice to fight Usman.
While the first meeting between the two ended in a dominant decision victory for the champion, there were questions about how the fight would look if Masvidal had had a full training camp to prepare and manage his stamina, especially because of the promise he showed in the opening round and the impressive takedown defence on show in the first fight with Usman.
It was clear that the Nigerian champion was keen to erase any asterisk that people had put over his victory over Masvidal as during the pre-fight introductions, Usman walked right up to the challenger as the two continued to exchange words.
Round one played out very patiently from both fighters, with neither man looking eager to take the risk of over-extending and getting punished by their opponent.
Masvidal looked to attack the lead leg of the champion but found himself on his back after he jumped in for a flying knee attempt and Usman took the opportunity to grab hold of the challenger and wrestle him to the ground.
The challenger would utilise the cage to get back to his feet and escape the champion’s clutches, but the round was clearly won by Usman, who even looked comfortable on the feet, finding his mark multiple times with the straight right hand.
That technique would prove to be the decider as just over a minute into the second round, Usman landed a stiff right hand that immediately saw Masvidal fall limp and, after some follow-up strikes to make sure, the referee stopped the fight.
The win extends Usman’s undefeated streak in the UFC to fourteen, good enough for second place in the all-time rankings, just two behind Middleweight legend Anderson Silva with sixteen.
What’s next?
The UFC’s next pay-per-view offering, UFC 262 is scheduled to feature two major lightweight bouts and a first-time ever clash in the co-main event.
Tony Ferguson will look to bounce back from his two-fight skid against Beneil Dariush, Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler will clash in the main event for the vacant UFC Lightweight championship and Leon Edwards and Nate Diaz will face off in the first ever non-title, non-main event five round fight.
In terms of what’s next for the fighters that featured on this card, in his post-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White was clear that a rematch between Kamaru Usman and number one ranked Welterweight contender Colby Covington is the fight to make at 170lbs.
He also said a rematch between Namajunas and Zhang would ‘make a lot of sense’, he shot down the idea of a third fight between Valentina Shevchenko and Amanda Nunes saying, ‘they should have their own legacies’ and revealed that he was meeting with Nick Diaz, who was in attendance for the event, to discuss a potential comeback fight.
Diaz hasn’t fought since a decision loss to Anderson Silva in 2015 that was overturned to a no-contest when both fighters tested positive for banned substances.
Full card results:
Main Card
Welterweight – Kamaru Usman (c) def. Jorge Masvidal via KO (Round 2 – 1:02)
Women’s Strawweight – Rose Namajunas def. Weili Zhang (c) via KO (Round 1 – 1:18)
Women’s Flyweight – Valentina Shevchenko (c) def. Jessica Andrade via TKO (Round 2 – 3:19)
Middleweight – Uriah Hall def. Chris Weidman via TKO (Round 1 – 0:17)
Light Heavyweight – Anthony Smith def. Jimmy Crute via TKO (Round 1 – 5:00)
Preliminary Card
Welterweight – Randy Brown def. Alex Oliveira via Submission (Rear-naked choke, Round 1 – 2:50)
Welterweight – Dwight Grant def. Stefan Sekulic via Split Decision
Middleweight – Brendan Allen def. Karl Roberson via Submission (Heel hook, Round 1 – 4:55)
Featherweight – Pat Sabatini def. Tristan Connelly via Unanimous Decision
Early Preliminary Card
Bantamweight – Danaa Batgerel def. Kevin Natividad via TKO (Round 1 – 0:50)
Lightweight – Rodrigo Vargas def. Rong Zhu via Unanimous Decision
Flyweight – Jeff Molina def. Qileng Aori via Unanimous Decision
Women’s Strawweight – Ariane Carnelossi def. Na Liang via TKO (Round 2 – 1:28)
The Inbound Observer 