10 Things I Like at UFC 271
A championship rematch, top-end contenders doing battle, and last year's Rookie of the Year making her return? What's not to like about this weekend's pay-per-view in Houston?
UFC 271 isn’t as big as many UFC numbered events, which probably explains why, just a few days from the action hitting the Octagon, it feels like there isn’t that much buzz surrounding Saturday’s return to pay-per-view.
This morning, I shared that sentiment on Twitter and was met with many of the usual responses and reasons for that being the case — namely that the UFC has done a poor job promoting the event, main card is “just okay” — but I also got a couple, “I’m super-stoked” replies as well, which was heartening because there are times when I feel like I’m alone on an island when it comes to being jazzed about what’s on tap.
Listen: I know I’m an outlier when it comes to how much I love some of the deeper cuts on these fight cards, but Saturday’s card features an outstanding championship matchup that includes one of the most consistently entertaining competitors on the roster, a local fan favourite in a “likely to end with someone getting KTFO” co-main event, and plenty of other cool matchups and opportunities, so it’s surprising to me that there isn’t more excitement surrounding this card.
Hopefully what follows will help get you there.
This card is quite good.
These are the things I like at UFC 271.
Israel Adesanya is Fighting
People that have followed me and the various iterations of this series over the years know that there is a group of fighters that get the “… is Fighting” treatment because whenever they compete, I’m tuning in.
Doesn’t matter who they’re fighting, when they’re fighting, where they’re fighting — if they’re fighting, I’m tuning in.
It’s not just championship-tier talents either, but Adesanya is obviously one of the people on the list.
He has to be.
He’s “The Last Stylebender” and there hasn’t been a single fight of his in the UFC thus far that I’ve gone into thinking, “Meh, I’m not all that interested.” Even some of the ones you knew might not be great — the Anderson Silva fight, the Yoel Romero fight, the second date with Marvin Vettori — all carry that “but something bonkers could happen” element that makes me climb up to the edge of my seat and get that tingly sensation throughout my body as the introductions are taking place.
But it’s more than just the fact that Adesanya is a showman in the Octagon — he’s also a brilliant technician and tactician, while also being someone that can find that extra something when the chips are down and he’s in the thick of it, like in the Kelvin Gastelum fight.
The middleweight champion contains multitudes and I will always — ALWAYS — be excited to see him compete.
… And He’s Fighting Robert F@$%ing Whittaker!
I don’t know when people forgot that Whittaker is an absolute master-level fighter himself, but it seems like that has been lost somewhere since his first encounter with Adesanya.
It’s like that knockout transpired and all the fondness for Whittaker and his varied, nuanced approach and overall sharpness was transferred to Adesanya, leaving people to look at the former champion as this dude that got knocked out and little else.
Whittaker is at worst the second best middleweight on the planet, and even if you loathe the division like my guy Sean Sheehan, being the silver medalist when it’s Adesanya owning the top spot on the podium is a pretty good place to be. That said, he might be the best middleweight on the planet — we’ll find out on Saturday if that is the case — and regardless of where he stands in the hierarchy, it still seems weird to me that people have either forgotten how good Whittaker is or simply come to view his greatness as nothing all that great.
This is a dude that was down 0-2 to Romero and working on a bad wheel, yet still made all the right adjustments and won the fight. He’s the same dude that returned 11 months later and had an even more competitive, more captivating second-fight with Romero, landing on the happy side of a split decision verdict to maintain his place atop the division.
And regardless of what kind of revisionist history, “… but who has he really beaten?” nonsense you want to subscribe to about Darren Till and Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum, there aren’t a lot of fighters out there that have beaten that trio and Whittaker toppled all three in succession to work his way back to this weekend’s championship rematch with Adesanya.
Just because someone that is great came along and unseated him doesn’t mean that Whittaker still isn’t great himself.
This isn’t The Highlander — there doesn’t only have to be one outstanding fighter in each division.
Crucial Heavyweight Contest
The co-main event between Derrick Lewis and Tai Tuivasa is fascinating to me for a bunch of different reasons, including:
Lewis is one of those “doesn’t get enough credit for what he’s done” fighters because folks pay more attention to his big moment stumbles and comedic ways, but he’s 17-6 inside the Octagon and had a better career than a whole lot of people understand or recognize
Lewis walking out to “Tops Drop” in Houston is one of my favourite walkouts, and I’m glad I was able to experience him competing at home in person
Tuivasa feels like an evolutionary advancement from Lewis and the guy we always hoped Lewis would develop into in terms of being a surprisingly athletic heavyweight with terrifying power and strength
Someone is getting laid out, guaranteed
No matter who wins, the victor will be a key player in helping sort things out in the heavyweight division throughout the year
There are more reasons, but you get the idea.
The Next Contender Emerges
While nothing is ever guaranteed in terms of who gets the next title shot, it’s pretty fair to believe that barring the need for a trilogy fight between Whittaker and Adesanya, the winner of Saturday’s middleweight meeting between Jared Cannonier and Derek Brunson will have pole position in the race to challenge for the title next.
Cannonier has been really good since moving to middleweight, posting a 4-1 record with his lone loss coming against Whittaker, while Brunson has enjoyed a renaissance of late, rattling off five straight wins while derailing a couple hype trains and showing he’s improved as a fighter.
Stylistically, this one is fascinating to me not only because it’s got real “Striker vs. Grappler” elements, but the fact that it’s a three-round fight changes up the way each man can approach things. Cannonier is always best when he’s attacking right out of the chute, but with only 15 minutes to work, he can up that output and get after it with greater urgency than if this were a five-round affair, while Brunson doesn’t have to be as worried about grappling himself out because he only has to navigate three rounds.
While Brunson is the only one openly discussing his exit strategy heading into Saturday’s contest, Cannonier turns 38 in March, so even though he has limited mileage on his MMA tires, it’s still unlikely that he’s going to be out here competing for titles for too many more years, which means this could be the last best chance either of these guys have to earn a championship opportunity.
Pivotal Fights for Young Talents
Kyler Phillips and Nasrat Haqparast have each shown flashes of top-end potential during their limited time competing inside the Octagon, but every time it feels like they’re ready to take the next step, they stumble.
Saturday night, the tandem 26-year-olds face veteran challenges that will help determine where they stand in their respective divisions and what it reasonable to expect from them this year, and perhaps going forward throughout their careers.
Phillips is paired off with Marcelo Rojo, a gritty, experienced Argentinian who trains with a solid crew and pushed Charles Jourdain in a short-notice matchup at featherweight in his debut. Haqparast faces an even tougher challenge in Bobby Green, a stalwart in the lightweight division coming off a first-round stoppage win over Al Iaquinta back in November.
When I say these matchups could provide some understanding of what is reasonable to expect from these competitors going forward throughout their careers, it’s not because I don't think they’re capable of developing and growing and becoming better versions of who they are today in another two, three, four years — it’s absolutely possible and we have plenty of examples to support this type of development. But I also think we have a tendency to spend a lot of time waiting for talented young fighters with promise to turn the corner or take the next step, only to still be waiting for them to turn that corner or take that next step two, three, four years later.
And I think both Phillips and Haqparast are at that crossroads.
We’ve seen the flashes. We know the potential is there.
Now we need to see them start taking those next steps… at least I do.
Casey O’Neill: Year Two
The 24-year-old flyweight had an outstanding rookie year in the UFC, posting three wins and three finishes to crack the Top 15 and establish herself as one of the top young talents on the roster.
Now it’s time to see what she can do in Year Two.
One of the things I like about a lot and try to remember and speak about when looking at emerging fighters is that development isn’t linear and setbacks don’t have to be major blows to a young fighter’s career or future projections. I’m not saying that specifically because I think O’Neill is going to lose to Roxanne Modafferi on Saturday or anything like that, but simply because it’s a key thing to keep in mind and I don’t think we do as good of a job with that in MMA as experts and fans do in the major North American stick-and-ball sports.
I’m trying to be less results-based in my assessments of competitors (though results certainly matter) and paying closer attention to developmental pieces, like if they’re striking advances, they’re conditioning gets noticeably better (or worse), whether they move better inside the Octagon than they did in the past. Those are the things for me, especially with younger fighters still in the relatively early stages of their careers, that are going to be better indicators of where they might end up in a few years than whether they keep racking up wins or catch a couple losses.
O’Neill has the potential to do both things this year — make clear improvements and post meaningful victories — and I’ll be paying close attention to her every time she steps into the Octagon to compete, starting on Saturday night in Houston.
The Return of Alex Perez
Here’s what I wrote about Perez back when this weekend’s fight against Matt Schnell was supposed to take place in December at UFC 269:
Perez looked outstanding in his two wins prior to facing Figueiredo, choking out Jordan Espinosa and kicking the legs out from under Jussier Formiga, and he should still be considered a legitimate threat in the 125-pound weight class, but it also feels like he needs a monster effort on Saturday to re-introduce himself to the audience and re-establish his position in a division where a few new names have popped up already this year and (Cody) Garbrandt is set to enter own Saturday evening.
That actually feels even more true today, since Kai Kara-France used UFC 269 to establish himself as a contender while knocking out Garbrandt and is slated to battle Askar Askarov in what feels like a No. 1 contender bout later this year, while Brandon Royval earned a “cement my position in the Top 5” win a couple weeks ago.
Perez is a very good fighter who has gotten lost in the shuffle, and this weekend feels like an important opportunity to re-introduce himself to the UFC audience and re-establish himself as a legitimate threat in the flyweight division.
Intriguing Light Heavyweights
This could certainly fall under the “I Want to Know More About” heading, but it’s actually more of an “Okay, what are you going to show me this weekend?” situation than anything else for both William Knight and Carlos Ulberg, tandem light heavyweights each looking to make a statement on Saturday night in Houston.
Knight jumped at the chance to replace Ed Herman opposite Maxim Grishin this weekend, and enters on a two-fight winning streak. I described Knight as “a compact bundle of kinetic energy and explosiveness; 205 pounds of muscle and power, speed and athleticism, crammed into a five-foot-10-inch frame, where it honestly feels like all those elements are primed to tear him apart from the inside all at once” when I put together a feature on him this week for UFC.com and that’s a big part of why I’m so fascinated to see him fight a veteran like Grishin on Saturday.
He knows it’s a major step up, knows the result of this fight will tell him (and us) a lot about where he stands in the division, and is ready to challenge himself, and that excites me.
Ulberg garnered a ton of hype heading into his first UFC appearance, got into a firefight with Kennedy Nzechukwu, and got left slumped against the fence. Now it’s time to see if the highly regarded City Kickboxing man is going to be capable of sticking around at this level or if he is one of those guys that gets a chance because his mates are having success, but can’t live up to their standards and the advanced billing.
He’s paired off with Fabio Cherant, who has been stopped in the first round in each of his first two UFC appearances, but is better than those results suggest (I think?) and how this one plays out will go a long way to helping me shape my thoughts and feelings on Ulberg as a long-term member of the UFC ranks.
Additionally, light heavyweight is always a little short on interesting names, and both of these men has an avenue to being an exciting addition to the division, so I’m curious to see if they can show that this weekend.
Potential Comeuppance
Alexander Hernandez is really pissed off about his fight with Renato Moicano being part of the early prelims this weekend, telling MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck Jr. that the placement “incites such a rage in me so I’m coming to make a statement. I’m so fired up about that. I’m so pissed off and I’m so motivated, so I’m really eager to make a statement.”
Now, I understand his gripe — Hernandez is coming off a first-round knockout win and has more UFC experience than several of the fighters competing after him this weekend, and Moicano was a tenured featherweight contender before moving to lightweight — but seeing this story tweeted out last night and then reading Cub Swanson’s all-class response to it got me thinking about how the Fight Gods might not take too kindly to Hernandez getting all aggro about where his fight landed on the lineup sheet.
This is a coin-flip fight to me because Hernandez is an inconsistent talent, but him at his best is probably capable of catching Moicano with something sharp that ends the fight, and I really, really want to see if he keeps this same energy all throughout the week and into the fight on Saturday night, as well as how things shake out.
Karma is real, man, and this dude is tempting the fates.
Unheralded Talents Return
Douglas Silva, Sergey Morozov, and Jeremiah Wells are all coming off quality wins and are the kind of unheralded talents I’m always excited to see compete.
Silva and Morozov face each other in the second fight of the night, while Wells opens the show opposite Blood Diamond, the latest new arrival from the City Kickboxing camp, who is getting a little less hype than Ulberg did ahead of his debut, while still getting a bit of a CKB bump.
Fighters like these three always deserve more love and I hope they get it on Saturday night.