After the sensational event that was UFC 261, this fight card had plenty of expectations to live up to.
What occurred was almost the exact opposite of the UFC’s last pay-per-view offering as while UFC 261 had a breakneck pace with every fight on the main card being finished inside two rounds, every fight on this card before the co-main event was decided by the judges, aside from a controversial stoppage in the featured bout of the preliminary card.
Carolina triumphs in all-Brazil Flyweight clash:
An intriguing clash on the preliminary card on this event was the clash in the Women’s Flyweight division between the explosive Poliana Botelho and Dana White’s Contender Series alum, Luana Carolina, who would unfortunately miss weight for this bout.
The opening round was nothing but positives for Botelho. She would consistently find a home for her front kick to Carolina’s body from her rear leg and after a good combination, Botelho would land a solid takedown.
Botelho would finish the round by imposing excellent shoulder pressure on Carolina as she attempted to get past her guard, which she eventually did, ending the round in the mount position.
Carolina would come out for the second round much more aggressive, however, and after a period of clinching up against the cage, Botelho would shoot in for a takedown. Despite this, Carolina was able to reverse the takedown and land on top, in control.
Carolina would end the second round attempting to grind out Botelho and stifle her with her grappling.
The third round would play out much like the second, Botelho would shoot for another takedown and while it looked as if the two would land in side control with Botelho in the dominant position, Carolina was able to roll and reverse the takedown attempt again, landing in Botelho’s guard.
From that point, it would be almost complete domination on the ground for Carolina as she would pass guard and try to take Botelho’s back. Despite clocking over three minutes of ground control time in the third round alone, Carolina was not able to secure a submission and would be forced to settle for a split decision victory on the judges’ scorecards.
That being said, it could be considered as a curious performance for Botelho, as she was winning the striking exchanges but seemed to always be the one initiating the grappling exchanges, which would ultimately be her downfall as Carolina began to grow into the bout and Botelho fatigued.
A foul-ridden featured prelim:
The featured bout on the preliminary card was a fight in the Women’s Strawweight division between veteran Randa Markos and Luana Pinheiro.
Markos would explode out of the starting blocks, advancing towards Pinheiro, who would counter with a right hand and when Markos tried to push the Brazilian against the cage, Pinheiro would counter with a slick hip throw to send the Canadian to the canvas.
Pinheiro would continue to utilise her judo with a series of forceful takedowns throughout the opening round and would even show some skill in her striking, with a perfectly timed leg kick as Markos was loading up a strike of her own to sweep the leg out from under her opponent.
The issues would start just halfway through the opening round as Pinheiro caught Markos with an eye poke while trying to throw a jab, and it looked for a moment that the cage side doctor would call the bout off there, as there was a lengthy check to see if Markos could continue, as Markos even suffered a cut to her eyelid because of the foul.
After being examined, the fight was allowed to continue and the fight would restart much like it did at the beginning of the fight, with Markos rushing in with aggression and Pinheiro countering with a throw.
Unfortunately, what was shaping up to be a statement performance for Pinheiro was halted as with just forty-five seconds left in the first round, Markos would land a kick from her back to Pinheiro, who was also grounded, making it an illegal strike.
The kick clearly rocked Pinheiro and it was judged that she could not continue, ruling the contest a bittersweet victory for the Brazilian via disqualification.
Cutelaba and Jacoby draw after weigh-in tussle:
One of the fights that benefitted from some last-minute hype going into this event was the Light Heavyweight bout between Ion ‘The Hulk’ Cutelaba and Dustin Jacoby. This was in no small part to their heated weigh-in stare down, at which Cutelaba grabbed Jacoby by the back of his neck before the two men were separated.
When the fight actually started, it was no surprise to see the Moldovan ‘Hulk’ start the fight immediately swinging for the fences.
The story of the opening round was just a swarming performance by Cutelaba, as the Moldovan utilised his combat Sambo background to continuously wrestle his American adversary to the ground.
While Jacoby was able to get to his feet quickly after each takedown, Cutelaba would not relinquish his grip and it was only a matter of time before he would attempt to drag Jacoby to the ground again.
Cutelaba would cap off a dominant first round with a flurry of brutal elbows with Jacoby pressed up against the fence, leading many, including Michael Bisping on commentary to believe that Cutelaba had done enough to secure a 10-8 round, putting him firmly in control of the bout.
In the opening round of the fight, Cutelaba landed eight takedowns, securing a personal best for the fighter.
However, in the opening two rounds, it was clear that Cutelaba had expelled a lot of his energy in the first and thus, the second and third rounds were considerably more competitive, with Jacoby able to defend Cutelaba’s takedowns much easier, sprawling out of the attempts and denying the Moldovan any more opportunities to impose his will on the fight.
The majority of the rest of the fight would play out on the feet, with the striking exchanges between the two men being too close to call, big shots being landed on both sides and both fighters showing impressive resilience.
As such, when it came time for the judges’ scorecards to be read, it wasn’t a shock to hear Cutelaba and Jacoby receive respective 29-28 nods by individual judges, with the third scoring the bout 28-28, ruling the fight a split draw.
A good night for Georgia:
In the opening fight on the main card, top fifteen ranked contenders in the Bantamweight division squared off as Merab Dvalishvili took on Cody Stamann.
Both men came into this fight with reputations as two of the division’s best wrestlers, with Dvalishvili holding the record for the most takedowns in Bantamweight history with forty-one.
It was clear that despite this, both men had adequately prepared for wherever the fight would take them as Stamann had the perceived boxing advantage but was still confident enough to grapple with the Georgian and Dvalishvili was utilising a strong uppercut to deter Stamann from changing levels instead of welcoming the grappling of the American.
That was not the only striking technique that Merab leaned on in this fight as in the second round in particular, he made a habit of throwing a jab-straight combination and then changing levels for a takedown.
Overall, the fight played out like a true advertisement of mixed martial arts, every discipline was in favour of and setting up the next attack, with both fighters transitioning between boxing and clinching, to kickboxing and judo seamlessly.
Ultimately, it would be Dvalishvili who would outlast Stamann, as his relentless pace and pressure proved to be too much to handle. Stamann tried to keep the fight standing for spells but Dvalishvili would always find a way to close the distance and initiate the grappling, landing a few highlight reel takedowns en route to a unanimous decision victory.
It would take Giga Chikadze considerably less time to secure his victory in his Featherweight co-main event against the revered Cub Swanson.
Swanson would start the bout by controlling the Octagon, putting Chikadze on the back foot and as noted by Bisping on commentary, putting himself in close range to nullify the kicks of the Georgian.
However, Chikadze would land a swift one-two to push Swanson back and almost immediately would throw a high kick to set up the finishing sequence.
Chikadze would then land a devastating liver kick that left Swanson doubled over and, after some follow-up strikes, referee Jason Herzog would be forced to stop the fight with just a minute gone in the first round.
In his post-fight interview with Paul Felder, Chikadze said that he would like to follow up his performance by being granted a bout against Max Holloway or the man that Holloway beat in his previous fight, Calvin Kattar.
Prochazka violently puts himself in title picture:
All that was left was the main event, between top-five ranked Light Heavyweights Dominick Reyes and Jiri Prochazka. It was quite surprising to see Prochazka come into this bout as the favourite as while Reyes’ last two fights were for gold at 205lbs, this would be Prochazka’s second fight under the UFC banner altogether.
That being said, that could easily be attributed to the immediate intrigue that has surrounded Prochazka since he entered the UFC, with his unique style and propensity to push the pace in pursuit of the finish.
This was on full display in this bout as from the word go, Prochazka marched forward towards Reyes, keeping his hands low and backing Reyes up, forcing the former title challenger to go for a takedown two minutes into the opening frame.
In an impressive display of strength, as Reyes threatened to move into mount on the ground, Prochazka would explode his hips off of the canvas to push Reyes off of him and bring the fight back standing.
The Czech fighter would continue to be aggressive for the remainder of the round, keeping Reyes almost exclusively up against the cage and landing shots that would have finished a lesser man.
Prochazka would not slow his pace in the second round and Reyes would gradually try to land his counter left hook when Prochazka would get particularly aggressive. Eventually, Reyes found his mark, temporarily stunning his opponent, but as he advanced to try to capitalise, Prochazka shot in for a takedown.
Reyes would counter with a guillotine attempt, which Prochazka would escape, and the fight would move back to the feet once more.
Prochazka would again pressure Reyes up against the cage and after an exchange, would throw a right elbow, which would glance his opponent, before Prochazka would spin, using his momentum from the first strike to follow up with a spinning back elbow with his left to put Reyes out cold.
In terms of what is next for Prochazka after such a statement win, UFC President Dana White had previously announced his intention to grant the winner of this fight a title opportunity against whoever is still holding the UFC Light Heavyweight championship following UFC 266, as champion Jan Blachowicz is already scheduled to defend against number-one contender Glover Teixeira.
Full Card Results:
Main card
Light Heavyweight – Jiri Prochazka def. Dominick Reyes via KO (Round 2 – 4:29)
Featherweight – Giga Chikadze def. Cub Swanson via TKO (Round 1 – 1:03)
Light Heavyweight – Ion Cutelaba and Justin Jacoby fought to a split draw
Middleweight – Sean Strickland def. Krzysztof Jotko via Unanimous Decision
Bantamweight – Merab Dvalishvili def. Cody Stamann via Unanimous Decision
Preliminary card
Women’s Strawweight – Luana Pinheiro def. Randa Markos via Disqualification (Round 1 – 4:16)
Featherweight – T.J. Brown def. Kai Kamaka via Split Decision
Catchweight (128.5lbs) – Luana Carolina def. Poliana Botelho via Split Decision
Women’s Strawweight – Loma Lookboonmee def. Sam Hughes via Unanimous Decision
Middleweight – Andreas Michailidis def. KB Bhullar via Unanimous Decision
Featherweight – Felipe Colares def. Luke Sanders via Unanimous Decision
The Inbound Observer 