10 Things I Like at UFC 266
Examining the elements that excite me about Saturday's loaded pay-per-view at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas
I love this card.
Even with the changes and some of the uncertainty surrounding a couple bouts, I love this lineup because it offers a little bit of everything I want to see in a pay-per-view event — compelling championship fights, meaningful bouts between contenders, a handful of prospects and question mark fighters — plus Nick Diaz fighting Robbie Lawler in the middle of the main card, which for me is like when my local sushi joint gives up free edamame with our pick-up orders; it’s appreciated, and we’ll eat it, but I like the stuff we ordered a whole lot more.
Anyway, after rattling off One Question for Every Fight yesterday, here’s a closer look at the things I like at UFC 266.
A Chance to Appreciate Alexander Volkanovski
I get that people think he lost one or both fights against Max Holloway, and that many of those people love the Hawaiian former champion and perhaps several other featherweights more than they do the current titleholder, but man — it’s impossible to me to not appreciate what Volkanovski has been doing and what he brings to the table every time out.
The Australian is 9-0 in the UFC and with a win on Saturday, he’ll become just the 11th fighter to earn 10 or more consecutive victories inside the Octagon, joining a collection of some of the greatest talents to ever grace the cage, and he’s done it while consistently working his way up the divisional ladder in one of the most competitive weight classes in the sport.
He’s won 19 consecutive fights overall, which is one of those things that I just think doesn’t quite compute to people because someone is always bound to say, “Yeah, but half of those came against dudes no one has heard of in Australia.”
Your point being?
I say this all the time, but you can only beat the people they put in front of you, and if beating 19 consecutive opponents were easy, more people would do it, at all levels. But it just doesn’t happen that much because this is a sport where something can always go wrong, anyone can get caught with a punch or stuck in a submission or screwed by the judges, and yet somehow, Volkanovski has managed to avoid all that and get his hand raised 19 times in a row, including nine times in as many UFC appearances.
And then there is the fact that he’s one of the smartest, most tactical, technical fighters in the sport — a guy that is equally as good being the aggressor as he is letting the fight come to him, and someone that has figured out how to maximize what he’s best at and stick to those things time and again.
Volkanovski is an absolutely stud and I wish more people talked about him as such. We rave and rave about so many of these competitors — some more deservedly than others — and he just kind of exists over in Australia, away from the noise, and people kind of forget to give him his due.
Hopefully that changes after this weekend.
A Big Moment for Brian Ortega
This is kind of what we’ve been waiting for with Ortega, right?
Nearly three years removed from his championship drubbing at the hands of Holloway, Ortega is back fighting for the title, but this time, he’s surrounded by a different team, has a different outlook, and a greater understanding of the sport. He’s a different fighter, a better fighter, and his performance against Chan Sung Jung last October showed that all his talk about learning the things he never knew in the past wasn’t just talk; it was real, and it made a considerable difference in how he fought.
Now here he is, ready to face Volkanovski after a six-month delay and a chance to build the rivalry on The Ultimate Fighter. He’s more prepared to fight for the title than he was against Holloway — a more complete fighter, a more confident fighter, a more balanced fighter — and on Saturday night, he gets a second chance to ascend to the featherweight throne.
Because he had that gnarly loss to Holloway, it’s like people forget he was the favorite heading into that fight; that he was viewed by some as a can’t miss talent who always found a way and had something different about him.
While that loss prompted some people to shift their opinions of him, the way he dealt with it all and responded last October only strengthened by belief that win or lose this weekend, Ortega is a special talent and capable of being a champion in the UFC.
He stumbled the first time he tried to claim championship gold, and I’m genuinely giddy to see him enter the Octagon on Saturday night and try again.
God I love this sport.
Valentina Shevchenko is Fighting
I get that some people aren’t particularly interested in seeing dominant champions being dominant, but I’m not one of those people.
Valentina Shevchenko is one of the most complete fighters in the sport today, and I love seeing her compete, as she’ll do this weekend against Lauren Murphy. She’s once again a massive favorite, and in all likelihood will steamroll the challenge to secure her sixth consecutive successful title defense, moving her into first place amongst all active champions in that regard, one ahead of Amanda Nunes.
I don’t know whether it’s the uncertainty that comes with so many of these other championship-caliber fighters stepping into the cage or simply being bored with her greatness, but it’s wild to me that more people don’t get more excited about seeing Shevchenko step into the Octagon.
You could make a case for her being the third-best female fighter of all-time right now, behind Nunes and Cris Cyborg. I know that sounds blasphemous to Ronda Rousey loyalists, but check the records, bud, as Urijah Faber once said, and you’ll see that she’s been as successful, if not more successful in the UFC than the promotion’s first female superstar.
Seeing someone from the pantheon level compete is always going to be exciting to me because eventually, their skills will decline or they will step away, and then we’ll be left wishing we got to see them fight one more time.
So personally, I’m going to savour every single opportunity I have to watch “Bullet” do her thing.
The Chaos Nick Diaz is Creating
As I said in the opening and countless times in the past, I’m not a big Diaz Brothers guy — I appreciate the energy they bring to a card, but have never been all that wrapped up in their mystique and appeal because at the end of the day, they tend to come up short in the biggest spots and always have excuses for why that is, and that just annoys me.
They’re unique personalities in a space with a lot of sameness, and they’re tough as shit, but I’ve just never been one to pray at The Church of the 209.
That said, I’m really enjoying the chaos Nick Diaz’s return is creating this week.
Between getting the weight limit changed for his fight with Robbie Lawler earlier in the week, the shadowboxing clip that has a ton of people really worried about whether he’s over the hill and about to get Holyfield’ed, and his candid interview with Brett Okamoto — which is absolutely tremendous, by the way — there are a lot of people that came into the week jazzed about their favorite anti-hero returning to action on Saturday night that are now seemingly afraid that something is going to go horribly wrong, like most of this is something new.
Diaz has never been shy about his dislike for fighting and that it’s simply a means to an end for him. And sure, he looks thicker and a little slow in that shadowboxing clip, but he’s also standing on a mark, throwing intentionally slow strikes for the pre-fight bumper that will run ahead of his fight with Lawler on Saturday, so reading too much into it seems hasty to me.
And honestly, did you really think there wouldn’t be some weirdness, some chaos from a Nick Diaz fight week?
This is how it always is, but I’m really enjoying seeing how many people forgot that during the six-plus years Stockton’s favorite son has been away.
Curtis Blaydes’ Crossroads Moment
It’s not that Blaydes’ fight on Saturday against Jairzinho Rozenstruik is a must-win in the sense that he’s going to be banished from the UFC if he loses, but the main card heavyweight clash does feel like the fight that will define the next couple year’s of the Elevation Fight Team member’s career inside the Octagon.
Blaydes is 9-3 in the UFC with one No Contest, and entrenched in the Top 10, coming into the weekend stationed at No. 4 in the rankings, two spots ahead of his opponent. But those three losses have come against two of the four men ahead of him in the heavyweight ranks — two to Francis Ngannou, and one, last time out, to Derrick Lewis — and it feels to me like the outcome of Saturday’s contest will determine whether the Chicago native is going to move forward as a legitimate title threat or spend the next couple years in more of a “guy holding a clipboard outside the VIP” kind of role in the division.
Let me be clear: there is absolutely nothing wrong with being the fifth or sixth or eighth best fighter in any division; it means you’re in the upper tier of talent in your respective weight class and there are very few fighters on the planet that are better than you, and legions that would trade places with you in a heartbeat.
But this is one Blaydes has to win if he wants to continue being considered a title threat without having to do some rehab on his image, because he’s already lost to the champion twice and getting stopped by Lewis, a dangerous, but limited fighter, could potentially put a cap on his prospects, especially if he falls to Rozenstruik on Saturday.
To his credit, Blaydes has historically done really well coming off a loss, winning six straight (five and the NC) and four straight following his losses to Ngannou, and has a very good opportunity to rebound this weekend, but this is a really important fight for the talented 30-year-old and I’m curious to see how he responds.
Another Pivotal Bantamweight Pairing
Bantamweight gets my vote for being the deepest, most talented collective in the UFC at the moment, and Saturday’s preliminary card finale between Marlon Moraes and Merab Dvalishvili feels like another piece of evidence to support that claim.
It’s also a really interesting fight.
As I said yesterday, it’s wild to me that Moraes only fought for the bantamweight title 27 months ago because it seems at least twice as long since he was burning his way up the division, finishing Aljamain Sterling, Jimmie Rivera, and Raphael Assuncao in consecutive fights. A big part of that is because he hasn’t looked good lately, fading quickly and getting stopped by both Cory Sandhagen and Rob Font to enter Saturday’s contest having lost two straight and three of his last four.
At the same time, it’s hard to dismiss someone because they lost to Henry Cejudo, Sandhagen, and Font, while beating Jose Aldo between those first two, especially when we’ve seen him be great in the past and he’s still only 33 years old. Would it really be a complete shocker if Moraes came out and finished Dvalishvili on Saturday by blasting him with a high kick or a knee when he changed levels?
The other side of this coin is the streaking Georgian takedown machine, who has piled up 20 takedowns in his last three fights, 32 takedowns in his last four fights, and 42 takedowns total during his current six-fight winning streak.
In a word, Dvalishvili is relentless, turning his conditioning into a weapon that he deploys through forward pressure and constant grappling, and he seems to prefer taking opponents down repeatedly more than taking them down once and keeping them pinned to the canvas. It kind of makes sense from a “then they can’t stall” and “man that’s got to be demoralizing” standpoint, and we’ve seen during his current run of success that guys end up looking exhausted and frustrated by the time the fight is done, while Dvalishvili is fresh and full of life.
He’s yet to face someone with Moraes’ pedigree and his lack of finishes — or even attempts to create a finishing opportunity — is a little worrisome, but he’s passed his last six tests with flying colours and it’s not all that difficult to see him continuing that run this weekend.
This is a fascinating fight in a fascinating division and one I’m really excited about seeing on Saturday evening.
Everything About Dan Hooker vs. Nasrat Haqparast
I like the “Veteran vs. Prospect” alignment.
I like the potential for violence.
I like that both are genuine good dudes that love — LOVE — stepping in the cage and putting on a show.
I like that they both managed to get their visa issues sorted and are most likely (crosses fingers, knocks on wood) going to be able to fight on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
I like that everyone that follows the sport just wants to see them compete, regardless of whether they make weight or have to weigh in or anything like that because they, like me, just love everything about this fight.
These is the kind of stuff that fuels my unwavering passion for this sport and telling the stories of these athletes, and why I continue to wish we spent a lot more time being unified in celebrating stories like this than we do posting about all the gossip and nonsense and bullshit and meaningless junk that generates traffic every day.
Not Knowing What to Make of Chris Daukaus
I love that after paying close attention to MMA for more than a dozen years, I still don’t know what to make of Chris Daukaus in terms of where he fits in the heavyweight division as he heads into his preliminary card pairing with fellow Top 10 heavyweight Shamil Abdurakhimov on Saturday night.
Daukaus turns 32 on Saturday and is 3-0 in the Octagon, with three first-round finishes. He’s 11-3 overall, 9-1 in his last 10 fights, and I’m genuinely not sure if he’s someone that has done well against overmatched competition or a legitimate person of interest in the big boy division, and that makes me so happy because it’s not something that happens too often these days.
Part of it is undeniably that Daukaus looks like a guy you’d run into at the hardware store or have over for beers on Sunday afternoon to watch the Eagles, and I mean that in the most loving, non-judgmental way possible. After all, I’m an out of shape 42-year-old with a scruffy beard and long hair who thinks the idea of having Chris and his brother Kyle over on a Sunday to have some beers and watch the Eagles sounds like a delightful way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
He is my avatar in the heavyweight division and I’m genuinely excited to see how far he can take this and where his ceiling rests.
Here’s how I see it: it’s like that shirtless side-by-side photo of Mac Jones and Cam Newton that made the rounds after Mac was declared QB1 for the Pats and Cam was released that said, “One of these two is the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots,” and every fibre of your being had to laugh because Jones looks like a nondescript frat bro that plays football in The Quad when he’s supposed to be at his Econ 304 lecture and Cam is a physical specimen.
But Mac is playing and Cam is not, and I’m trying to figure out if Daukaus is the Mac Jones in this division — the unassuming everyman who just goes out there and wins, often in more impressive fashion than you’d expect.
Another Chance to See Taila Santos
As I said in the opening to yesterday’s piece and many times in this space in the past, one of the reasons I get excited for each and every fight card is because I enter every event with a ton of questions that I’m looking to get answered, and the only way for that to happen, in most cases, is to see the athletes in question step into the Octagon and compete.
Taila Santos is a perfect embodiment of that for me this weekend, as she steps into the cage opposite Roxanne Modafferi in a fight that should, in theory, provide a little more clarity about where the 28-year-old Brazilian fits in the flyweight division.
Santos is 2-1 in the UFC and 17-1 overall, having lost her debut to Mara Romero Borella before rebounding with unanimous decision wins over Molly McCann and Gillian Robertson. Borella didn’t win another UFC fight after that victory, dropping four straight before being released. McCann lost her next fighter before securing a win a couple weeks back, and Robertson dropped a second straight decision following her loss to Santos, all of which adds up to not having a terrific sense of where Santos stands in the deep, but uneven 125-pound division.
Saturday’s fight with Modafferi feels like it should paint a more accurate picture of where the emerging Brazilian stands, but at the same time — and I say this with nothing but love and admiration for Modafferi — what does a win over the 39-year-old, consistently inconsistent pioneer really mean at this point?
While I think it shows you’re ready to face Top 10 competition, I’m not sure it says more than that, as I’m no more convinced Viviane Araujo is capable of beating anyone in the Top 5 following her win over Modafferi, the same way I’m probably not going to be confident in projecting where Santos’ ceiling lies if she grinds out another decision this weekend.
If she gets a finish, if she shows some improvements from her last couple wins, maybe that changes things a little, but this is more of a fight that will help determine where her floor is, not where her ceiling lies, which is still important.
More than anything, it’s a chance to get another look at an intriguing emerging talent in a competitive matchup against a game, experienced opponent, and fights like that are always going to be of interest to me.
A Tougher Test for Uros Medic
There are times when I wish the UFC would slow-play things a little more often, giving prospects a chance to build and develop before rushing them into big tests or keeping rising contenders on parallel paths towards the top of their divisions, rather than regularly booking them against one another, setting one back for no reason other than to move the other forward.
But then there are instances where I’m happy to see intriguing talents get a quality test pretty early on, and Medic’s fight with Jalin Turner is one of those instances.
It would be easy to give Medic another fight against another Contender Series alum with one UFC victory or someone with limited Octagon experience coming off a loss, but throwing him in there with Turner, who enters on a two-fight winning streak where he earned second-round finishes in both contests, is a much more meaningful pairing for the promising Kings MMA representative.
While this fight certainly won’t define what Medic’s career prospects look like long term, this is one of those early tests that will provide a greater understanding of what kind of upside he possesses and where he’s at in terms of his development and progression as a fighter. It’s a tough assignment against a more experienced, dangerous opponent, and how it plays out will answer a bunch of questions I have about both fighters, honestly.
And in this range in the lightweight division — or any division, really — that’s what I want to see: competitive matchups that allow me to get a better sense of what these athletes bring to the table, where they fit at this moment, and how far they could go in the future if they continue to develop.
I’m really intrigued by Medic as a prospect, and can’t wait to see what takeaways this fight with Turner provides.