The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, was home to a historic night of fights, with four (T)KOs, one submission, and six decisions, including one split-decision.
The originally scheduled co-main event of Max Holloway vs. Brian Ortega for the featherweight title was cancelled when Max Holloway showed up for fight week showing concussion-like symptoms which didn’t resolve themselves.
The new co-main event saw a gun-shy Francis Ngannou draw boos from the crowd for the first time in his career as he failed to engage. He landed just one strike in the first round, and the second and third rounds weren’t much better. At one point, Herb Dean had to warn both fighters for timidity. Joe Rogan even pondered if the bout was the worst heavyweight fight in UFC history. If there was an anti-fight of the night, this contest would have easily won and both guys would have been fined $50K each.
Performances of the Night: Daniel Cormier, Anthony Pettis, Khalil Rountree, Paulo Costa
Daniel Cormier made history by becoming the first-ever simultaneous light heavyweight & heavyweight champion. He became only the second man in UFC history to hold two belts at the same time, and did so by defeating the most dominant Heavyweight champion in the promotion’s history.
This was the ultimate redemption story for Cormier. His astonishing run at light heavyweight was overshadowed by losses to Jon Jones, which were complicated by Jones’ repeated drug test failures. That shadow meant Daniel Cormier was probably never going to be considered the best light heavyweight ever. By becoming a two-division champion, Cormier has transcended that argument.
Immediately after the fight, former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE Universal champion, Brock Lesnar, came into the ring, shoved Cormier and said “Francis Ngannou is a piece of sh*t … Stipe Miocic is a piece of sh*t” before saying to DC, “I’m coming for you motherf*cker!”
Lesnar still has at least 6 months of USADA testing to undergo before he can compete again in the Octagon, unless USADA finds some way to bend their own rules to give him an exemption.
Anthony Pettis notched an incredible return to form against the ultra-tough Mike Chiesa. Chiesa missed weight by 1.5 lbs for the fight, but the size difference didn’t help him in the face of Pettis’ risk-taking striking & grappling when the cage door closed.
Pettis said ahead of tonight’s fight that he was done modifying his striking to defend takedowns and was going to rely on his BJJ if he ended up on the ground. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. The first round was pretty back and forth, with Pettis springing up when he was taken down. The second round only lasted 52 seconds, and pretty much all of it was Pettis hurting Chiesa on the feet and then chaining submissions together until “Maverick” was forced to tap to a triangle/armbar combo. Pettis got $50,000 for his impressive return to form.
Khalil Rountree had an incredibly short day at the office, just 96 seconds, to be exact. The fight opened with Saki landing a three-kick combination on Rountree in quick succession, body-leg-body, but undaunted, Khalil just circled away, loaded up a straight left and put “The Rebel” right on his keister. Saki immediately turtled up into the fetal position as Rountree descended upon him like a ton of bricks, landing brutal ground-and-pound before the referee called a merciful end to the fight. Khalil gets the bragging rights for destroying a kickboxing legend and 50,000 smackers for his winning efforts.
Paulo Costa, aka the artist formerly known as Borrachinha, took Uriah Hall out in a fun fight. The first round was made even more interesting by Costa’s hands and feet being magnetically attracted to Hall’s cup. The second round saw Paulo revert to hitting Hall in the other head, and we got some great exchanges as both men rocked each other. Costa’s aggression won out, and Hall was forced to back up under the onslaught of strikes before finally succumbing to a huge uppercut followed up by some ground-and-pound. Costa made an extra $50K for his victory.
Fight of the Night: NONE
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