10 Things I Like About UFC Vegas 45
From a crucial heavyweight main event to some compelling preliminary card pairings, the final UFC event of 2021 has plenty to offer and enjoy
This is weird.
Why am I feeling sentimental writing this?
It’s strange how that works, right? The end of the year comes around and we all reflect on the last 12 months, the highs and lows, good times and bad, and get a little misty-eyed (just me?) that it’s all coming to an end, even though I will literally be right back in this same spot in four weeks, writing the 10 Things I Like About UFC Vegas 46.
Still, this has felt like a really terrific year in the Octagon and a really cool 55 weeks figuring out the whole newsletter thing.
Yeah, I missed the customary one-year anniversary post last month, which I’m actually happy about because it means I’ve just been locked in on creating content and putting out my thoughts, rather than thinking too much about milestones and secondary stuff that doesn’t really matter all that much to me.
But it’s been an eventful year in so many different ways, and so here I am, feeling a little sentimental as I tap out 10 Things I Like for the last time in 2021.
Thank you all for embarking on this adventure with me and sticking around through everything — you’re the best, I appreciate you all so much.
Let’s get to it.
ESK
Massive Opportunity for Chris Daukaus
Chris Daukaus has a chance to close out the year by punching his ticket into the Top 5 in the heavyweight division as he headlines the final event of 2021 opposite recent interim title challenger Derrick Lewis.
It really is impressive what Daukuas has been able to do over the last 16 months, going from making his debut to being on the brink of contention by registering four straight stoppage victories, taking a step up in competition each time out. And he’s done it all while holding down a full-time job as a member of the Philadelphia Police Department too… until now.
Daukaus left the force officially on December 1 to focus on fighting full time, and it’s going to be interesting to see what a more rested, more singularly focused version of the elder member of The Fighting Dauki (Fighting Daukauses?) can bring to the table this weekend against Lewis and going forward from here.
Lewis is both a perpetually dangerous matchup and a guy that you can beat if you’re smart about how you approach things and stay committed to those tactics for the entire fight; fairly to do so could make you the next Alexander Volkov.
Daukaus has the style and skills to take this fight to Lewis and collect a statement win on Saturday, and I’m beyond excited to see how it plays out.
Big Potential Swings for Wonderboy
A win cements his standing as a Top 5 welterweight and one of the few established contenders yet to challenge Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title.
A loss puts him on a two-fight skid as his 39th birthday approach, likely prompting questions about whether he’s still able to hang with the top contenders in the division and where he fits going forward.
There is kind of a lot hinging on this fight for Stephen Thompson, which makes the fact that the doesn’t really think about it or worry about that stuff too much all the more impressive.
Thompson is one of those rare fighters where despite the fact that he’s below .500 over his last eight fights — he’s 3-4-1 dating back to his first title engagement with Tyron Woodley — he still feels like a viable threat in the 170-pound weight class, but I think that changes if he loses to Belal Muhammad on Saturday. Being one game below .500 is one thing, but falling two games down and losing a second straight, this time to someone that is not yet a contender, would invariably change the way people look at “Wonderboy.”
Maybe that only lasts until he gets back into the win column, or if Muhammad keeps pushing forward in the title chase, but it really feels like there is a lot at stake in this one for Thompson and I’m curious to see how things shake out.
Another Amanda Lemos Appearance
The Brazilian strawweight has been one of the more intriguing breakout competitors of 2021 for me because what she brings in terms of her power is something different than we’ve seen in recent years in the 115-pound ranks.
There haven’t been a lot of women landing crisp set-off right hands that put people down, and if Lemos picks up her third win of the year on Saturday against Angela Hill and pushes her winning streak to five in the process, there will be a lot more people excited about her heading into 2022.
I honestly feel a little bummed for Lemos heading into this weekend because as competitive as a fight with Hill should be and as much as this remains her highest profile pairing to date, the original matchup against Nina Nunes carried more upside from a rankings perspective, whereas she’s the higher-ranked fighter of the two here.
Now, rankings aren’t the be-all and end-all and beating Hill is a big feather in your cap if you can do it, but closing out the year with a victory over a Top 10 fighter would have created, in theory, a little more noise than beating Hill would.
Still, 3-0 in 2021 and five straight wins overall? That’s a great way to establish yourself as a dark horse contender heading into the New Year.
Ricky Simón’s Second Chance
Ricky Simón gets his second chance to climb into the Top 15 and establish himself as one of the top talents in the crowded bantamweight ranks this weekend when he takes on struggling veteran Raphael Assuncao, who enters on a three-fight skid.
Last time Simón was in this position, he faltered, riding a three-fight winning streak into a matchup against the returning Urijah Faber, only to get clipped and finished in 46 seconds. He then lost his next appearance against Rob Font, and was forced to regroup. He’s 3-0 since then, bringing him back to the cusp of claiming a spot at the big boy table, and it’s going to be interesting to see what he learned from those previous mistakes.
When he’s at his best, Simón plays to his strengths as a grappler, working inside to get the fight to the canvas, where he can either work towards a finish or just grind out control time from top position. Assuncao has good takedown defence and a solid jiu jitsu game, including a terrific guillotine, so Simón will need to be technically sharp, but if he can add to the Brazilian’s slide by extending his winning streak to four, he’ll put himself in a position to face either another veteran or a fellow emerging hopeful in the first half of 2022.
Bantamweight has been amazing for the last two years and next year is already shaping up to be an even bigger year in the 135-pound weight class. I love it so much.
Mateusz Gamrot’s Top 15 Opportunity
There are some fighters where you just know not to put too much stock in a single subpar effort because everything that came before it tells you that it’s an outlier.
That’s how I felt about Gamrot’s debut split decision loss to Guram Kutetaladze last October. It’s not that it was a terrible effort or anything like that, but it wasn’t what I was expecting from the former two-division KSW champ, so rather than write him off as being “not as good as advertised” or anything like that, I just waited to see what he did in his sophomore outing before coming to any kind of position on his potential in the lightweight division.
Gamrot hit Scott Holtzman with the kind of clean one-two that should have instantly made everyone sit up and take notice. If that didn’t get you, the 65-second kimura finish of Jeremy Stephens should have done the trick because it was quick, impressive, and a little nasty, and combined with his April win over Holtzman, was far more indicative of what I expected from Gamrot in the UFC.
Now he’s paired off with Diego Ferreira, who has his back against the wall a little after losing two straight and missing weight last time, with the winner likely to finish the year in the Top 15.
Whether he needed that first fight to get his bearings or just had an off night, the fighter we’ve seen thus far in 2021 is what I had expected to see from Gamrot when he transitioned to the UFC, and I anticipate we’ll see an even better version on Saturday night.
Featherweight Veterans Collide
When I talked to Charles Jourdain ahead of his fight with Andre Ewell on Saturday (more on that soon), he capped off his answer about how he sees it playing out and the like by offering the following:
“Plus, after my fight, I’m going to watch Cub Swanson fight Darren Elkins, so I need to be in shape for that, because that’s going to be intense.”
He’s right.
The meeting between Swanson and Elkins should be a tense, entertaining affair because every time they step into the Octagon individually, it’s a tense, entertaining affair, and now they’re stepping in there together. It’s the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups of featherweight fights — chocolate is good, peanut butter is good, and together, they’re just so good!
This is one of those bouts that doesn’t carry any real divisional significance and it doesn’t have to because after 44 combined UFC appearances, these two veteran stalwarts should already have the respect of the audience, and simply getting to see them continue to deploy their personal brand of violence is a joy each time it happens.
And now they’re facing each other.
No matter how this fight shakes out, I’m going to love every second of it.
Important Flyweight Clash
Sijara Eubanks looked like a contender at flyweight before she continually had trouble making the 125-pound limit and was dispatched to bantamweight. She returned to flyweight in July, making the weight without issue before mauling Elise Reed.
Melissa Gatto went nearly three years without competing, but then showed up in August and beat the bejesus out of Victoria Leonardo to establish herself as an intriguing addition to the division.
They face off on Saturday night and I have a sneaky feeling that we’re going to hear a lot more from the winner in 2021.
Let’s just be honest here: Valentina Shevchenko has thrashed everyone that has been put in front of her to this point at ‘25, so all it’s going to take is a couple quality wins and a little narrative momentum for a couple of these newer names and fresh contenders to land a shot, and each of these women will be able to make a case for such an opportunity next year if they win on Saturday.
What’s really cool about it (to me, at least) is that Eubanks offers something a little different than we’ve seen from other top contenders thus far in that she’s a powerful grappler with established grit and toughness, while Gatto is still only 25 years old, which means win or lose, she could still have a bright future going forward.
It’s not a title eliminator, but it could be a ticket to the Top 15 and a chance to land a date with an established contender in 2022, and that makes it must-see TV to me.
Crucial Matchup for Charles Jourdain
Saturday’s bout against Andre Ewell is the final fight on Jourdain’s current contract, which means he’s rolling the dice with his future this weekend.
While it’s not inconceivable that the UFC would still re-sign him even if he suffers a second straight setback because he just turned 26 and has an entertaining style, the talented French-Canadian could really use a victory, not only to give him a better bargaining position going into contract negotiations — with the UFC and anyone else that is interested in his services — but to avoid hitting the open market with just one win in his last five fights.
Jourdain has fallen short of expectations thus far in his UFC run, but I think that’s because the expectations were too high to begin with, which happens when you show up as a two-division champion with a flashy style and a fair amount of buzz.
He’s shown flashes every time out, win, lose, or draw, and feels to me like someone with the talent and skills to lock it all in and go on a good run, but I also might think that because I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Jourdain a bunch of times during his UFC career, like him, and want to see his potential instead of his flaws.
I think this is a good matchup for him on Saturday, and I’ll be really interested to see how it plays out and what happens next.
Big Bantamweight Matchup (at Featherweight)
This is one of those rare instances where I think last weekend’s title change in the bantamweight division actually lessened the stakes of this fight, simply because having a new champion on the throne that doesn’t have a history with the top contenders means fighters a little further down the rankings like Raquel Pennington and Macy Chiasson now have a little more ground to make up in order to fight for gold in the 135-pound weight class.
Now, that probably applies much more to Chiasson than Pennington, who previously got battered by Amanda Nunes and likely would have needed a real big name win to land another championship opportunity, but still — now that Julianna Peña is atop the division, all the top contenders are back to being viable contenders because she hasn’t faced any of them, and these two ladies need to keep making positive impressions inside the Octagon.
I really like this matchup because it’s the kind of test I want to see each woman pass before I’m ready to sign off on them being real bonafide Top 10 talents, even though the winner will very much be stationed inside the Top 10.
Pennington looked sharp against Pannie Kianzad, but can be a little sluggish and sloppy at times, while Chiasson is still developing and just needs to prove herself against veteran competition. The fact that it takes place at ‘45 doesn’t change anything about it for me today, but I reserve the right to change my thoughts on that once I see them opposite one another in the Octagon on Saturday.
Time for a Break
As much as I’m sentimental about this being the final UFC event of 2021, it’s also time for a break, and having three weeks without a fight card to dissect is going to be nice.
Now, I’m still going to be putting out a bunch of stuff between now and the first Fight Week of next year, but I welcome the chance to shift from the standard Fight Week serial pieces you’ve grown accustomed to here and into more feature stuff over the next three week.
If there are any subjects you want my thoughts on, drop a note in the comment section or hit me up with them on Twitter.
Enjoy the fights. Enjoy the holidays. Enjoy the break.
Thanks for an amazing year, you wonderful weirdos!