10 Things I Like at UFC 272
If you're not genuinely excited for this weekend's fights, I would really like to talk to you about what it is you like about mixed martial arts and what you're expecting from an event
Earlier this week when I tweeted out the link to my Fight-By-Fight Preview on the UFC website, I did so by calling back to one of the catcher pieces of early ‘00s pop music:
Good luck not singing “Hollaback Girl” all day now. You’re welcome.
Gwen Stefani tracks aside, I do think this weekend’s fight card is outstanding, even without a championship fight in the main event and a couple other changes impacting the lineup.
As I said yesterday, this feels like one of those cards that folks that get nostalgic of “The Good Ol’ Days” would have pointed to as one they enjoyed immensely “back in the day,” but now that it’s upon us, it feels like everyone is cranky because Colby Covington’s schtick has worked so well over the last couple years that he’s risen to the point where one of his many feuds can headline a pay-per-view sans title.
I’d understand the frustration and disappointment if we weren’t at least partially responsible for him being the way he is on camera.
While so many others seem noncommittal and unbothered either way, I’m all-in on UFC 272 and can’t wait to see how things shake out.
Genuine Intrigue in Main Event
I think I know how the main event between Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal is going to play out. The logical side of my brain is pretty convinced that it has figured out the beats of this matchup and what we’ll see on Saturday night, but every time I get ready to accept that the vision in my head is how this thing will actually go down, a little voice in the back of my head whispers, “… but what if Masvidal catches him?"
That’s the piece of this that has me so intrigued.
I think we all expect Covington to come out, push the pace, wrestle, and make Masvidal expend all his energy fending off takedowns and moving backwards as much as possible. He’s told us that’s the plan and there is no reason not to believe him, because while Covington talks a whole lot of nonsense about a whole lot of things, he knows who he is as a fighter and plays to his strengths every time out.
But Masvidal is crafty and has good defensive wrestling. He’s experienced. He knows Covington’s tendencies. He seems to have a real genuine interest in winning this fight, which sounds dumb to say about a guy that fought for championship gold in each of his last two contests, but you can tell when Masvidal is actually locked in and playing the part of being locked in, and he’s actually locked in here.
Last time that happened, Ben Askren got deaded and Nathan Diaz got smacked up.
I think I know how the main event is going to unfold, but I’m not certain, and that is always going to get me even more excited than normal.
Further Lightweight Clarification
We’ve been getting little bits of information about how the lightweight division lines up over the last few weeks, and that is going to continue Saturday with Rafael Dos Anjos taking on Renato Moicano.
It’s fitting that Moicano is the one who ultimately landed opposite the former champion, as he’s now the second lightweight from the UFC 271 main card to make a quick turnaround against an even tougher opponent. Last weekend, Bobby Green jumped in opposite Islam Makhachev just a couple weeks after dispatching Nasrat Haqparast, and now Moicano, who submitted Alexander Hernandez following Green’s win in Houston, does the same against Dos Anjos here.
While everyone would have preferred the original matchups because they would have produced even greater clarification about how the division lines up, these last several weeks have given us a strong indication about where Green, Moicano, and Makhachev stand in the hierarchy, as well as another glimpse at youngsters like Ignacio Bahamondes and Terrance McKinney. Saturday’s co-main event clash between Dos Anjos and Moicano will do the same, providing us a second look at RDA since returning to the division he once ruled, and giving his countryman a chance to collect a second impressive victory in as many months.
I will always enjoy and appreciate setups like this, even if the original pairings get changed.
Bryce Mitchell’s Biggest Test Yet
Seeing fighters take the proper steps up the divisional ladder is one of my favorite things about this sport.
As much as I get why everyone gets excited to see some upstart dive head-first into the deep end of the talent pool in their respective division as quickly as they can, especially if they’ve been putting up dominant efforts to start, I’m much more interested in seeing competitors work their way forward step-by-step. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and I’m way more interested in seeing emerging fighters get through each mile as it comes, rather than rushing ahead and stumbling, especially in the deeper, more competitive divisions.
Mitchell is taking that next step on Saturday, returning after more than a year on the sidelines to square off with Edson Barboza in a bout that will tell us more about where the Arkansas native fits within the featherweight ranks.
He’s looked very good so far in piling up five straight UFC victories, moving forward another rung each time out. In his last fight, he out-grappled Andre Fili, which re-established a new baseline for the 27-year-old former Ultimate Fighter contestant, and now he steps in with Barboza, who is the perfect litmus test for a guy like Mitchell at this point in his development.
Barboza has fought one of the toughest schedules of anyone in the UFC and he doesn’t lose to bums. If you beat him, you’re a Top 10 guy and folks need to pay close attention to you; it’s as simple as that, which is why this is such an important fight for Mitchell and compelling fight for the audience this weekend.
Make or Break for Kevin Holland
I’ve written quite a bit about Kevin Holland over the last couple years, with these being the two most lengthy pieces:
The Kevin Holland Conundrum
The Conundrum Continues
I enjoyed writing them, but I also hated writing them because Holland is one of those guys that I think has all the talent in the world, but just doesn’t care enough to make the most of it, and that kills me, because I couldn’t fathom making that choice if I were in the same position.
Think about what he told Brendan Fitzgerald this week: he didn’t want to earn a UFC contract in his Contender Series win because he was scared of USADA because if he couldn’t smoke weed, he didn’t want to fight at the highest level in the sport.
Some of that is a lack of education about how USADA works, but some of that is also just a choice that will never make sense to me, and that feels like a perfect encapsulation of Holland’s last couple years in the UFC. He has a ton of talent, a terrific build to be successful, and I just don’t know that he actually wants it enough to put in the work to be the best possible version of himself all the time, which is why his fight Saturday against Alex Oliveira feels like a “make or break” situation.
To be clear: I don’t think Holland is getting cut if he loses, nor am I advocating for that to happen. What I do think, however, is that if he doesn’t turn in a dominant performance following a rough 2021 and dropping down a division, the days of anyone believing Holland will blossom into a potential contender will be over.
And that seems like a colossal letdown to me, and so I want to see if this shift to welterweight and the struggles of last year prompted Holland to tighten things up or if we’re just going to get a slightly smaller version of the guy that was happy to be stuck on bottom, talking to Khabib against Derek Brunson last year.
I hope it’s the former, but my gut tells me it’s going to be the latter.
Critical Lightweight Clash, Part V
We knocked out the first three Critical Lightweight Clashes last week, and the co-main event this weekend is No. 4, meaning Saturday’s matchup between Jalin Turner and Jamie Mullarkey is No. 5 and I honestly cannot wait.
Turner has won three straight, and four of his last five in the UFC after debuting up a division against Vicente Luque, which tells you a great deal about the makeup of the towering lightweight from California. He’s earned stoppages in 100 percent of his victories, is long and tall and rangy for the division, and went through some challenges early in his career that I believe have him positioned to have a much smoother run of things now that he’s starting to make some headway in the UFC.
Mullarkey dropped his first two fights in the Octagon to Brad Riddell and Fares Ziam, but he’s since earned consecutive stoppage wins over Khama Worthy and Devonte Smith. He’s put in work with Alex Volkanovski and the Freestyle Fighting Gym crew, as well as UFC vet Ross Pearson, and seems to really have found his footing after stumbling out of the gates. He’s the kind of experienced guy that I could see quietly putting together a four, five, six-fight winning streak built on upsets and surprising efforts, kind of like how Darren Elkins was a perpetual pain in the ass at featherweight for all those years.
There is always a ton of competition for position in the pecking order in the lightweight division and this is just another compelling battle to see who takes a step forward and who has to hold steady as Q2 of the 2022 fight calendar gets underway.
Marina Rodriguez is Fighting
The Brazilian strawweight contender is someone I’m always going to be excited to see step into the Octagon.
I think it has gone a little under the radar, but Rodriguez has shown a great deal of improvement and development since arriving in the UFC and beginning her run with a majority draw opposite Randa Markos. Her defensive wrestling is better and her work off the bottom has improved dramatically. She’s also figured out how to weaponize her pace and shown in her last two fights that she has the ability to go five hard rounds without slowing down.
Fighters like that are always going to intrigue me, and then when you add in that Rodriguez has steadily worked her way into title contention in the most competitive division on the women’s side of things, you have the makings of a must-see attraction for me.
As much as I’m not a huge fan of this matchup with Yan Xiaonan on Saturday — Yan is coming off a lopsided stoppage loss to Carla Esparza, while Rodriguez has won three straight — the chance to see the Brazilian Muay Thai stylist do her thing again outweighs any objections I have to the pairing.
Fighter I Can’t Quit: Kennedy Nzechukwu
Because I have a pretty solid relationship with Sayif Saud and have talked with numerous members of the Fortis MMA crew over the last handful of years, I’m always going to root for them to succeed, which certainly contributed to why I am going to keep riding for Nzechukwu each and every time he makes the walk to the Octagon.
Maybe it never comes together for him, but every time I ready to watch him fight, I think about the best possible version of the 29-year-old light heavyweight and think, “That dude could be terrifying if he put it all together.”
Nzechukwu, who takes on Nicole Negumereanu on Saturday, is just 11 fights into his professional career and is still green. He’s still figuring out how to best deploy his weapons inside the Octagon, how to move and conduct himself inside the Octagon, and how to carry the success he has in the training room into the Octagon on Fight Night. Some people never figure that stuff out, and maybe he’s one of those guys, but this is one of those cases where I would rather still hold out hope that the talent we’ve only seen glimpses of thus far starts making longer, more frequent appearances than cut bait too early.
Saturday’s contest will go a long way to helping push me in one direction or the other.
Grudge Match II: Electric Boogaloo
Before the main event grudge match goes down, Maryna Moroz and Mariya Agapova are going to be locked in the Octagon across from one another and I cannot wait to see how it all plays out.
We haven’t seen Moroz in action in a shade under two years, but she had a lot to say about Agapova when the Kazakhstani flyweight departed American Top Team, and now she’s going to have to get in there and deal with an angry and talented opponent looking to make her pay for the things she said. In her best moments, “The Iron Lady” has shown solid boxing and general toughness, but the time off is a question mark and her willingness to stand-and-trade in boxing range could be a problem as well.
Agapova asked for this matchup following her win over Sabina Mazo, got her wish, and has made no bones about how badly she wants to punch Moroz in the face. As I said yesterday, if she can contain her emotions and fight with the poise and patience she showed last time out, I think she can get all the vengeance she is seeking and maybe another bonus for her efforts, but that’s a big ask given that she is genuinely pissed off and out for blood.
This has the potential to go any number of different ways, but all of them should be entertaining, so make sure you’ve got your drinks refilled and your snack situation sorted before this one pops off.
I Want to Know More About Umar Nurmagomedov
Right now, Umar Nurmagomedov has a one-fight sample size in the UFC, and while that one fight produced a pretty impressive victory, I want to see him make the walk a couple more times in order to get a better read of his talents, of his upside, and of where he fits in the bantamweight division at the moment.
Submitting Sergey Morozov last January was a very good opening effort, and now he’s stepping in with Brian Kelleher in what is a terrific sophomore pairing for a fighter most anticipate will prove to be a contender somewhere down the line.
I talked to “Boom” ahead of this fight and he’s eager to get in there and see how Nurmagomedov does with a little more pressure on his shoulders, which is something I’m eager to see as well. Kelleher is the kind of well-rounded and game veteran that will give anyone fits if they’re not full locked in and sharp on Fight Night, but also someone that isn’t too far up the divisional ladder that this matchup feels like a bridge too far for the 25-year-old Nurmagomedov.
It’s the correct next step and a great opportunity to get a better understanding of where he stands and just how far he might be able to take things in the next couple years.
Absolute Crackin’ Opener
You want to give me a meaningful, competitive light heavyweight punch-up to start a pay-per-view night, I am all the way here for it!
Michał Oleksiejczuk is someone that has intrigued me since his debut win (turned No Contest result) against Khalil Rountree. While there have been some hiccups along the way, the 27-year-old Polish prospect has showcased outstanding boxing, including some of the best body work in the business, while slowing figuring things out inside the Octagon.
All Dustin Jacoby has done since returning to the UFC roster is go 4-0-1 through five entertaining fights, establishing himself as an intriguing veteran dark horse in a division where extended unbeaten streaks are uncommon. He’s always been a talented striker, but during this second tour of duty, he’s shown the maturity and understanding that only comes with experience, as well as the faith in his own skills and abilities to navigate whatever rough patches he may encounter.
It’s honestly been one of the cooler stories to watch over the last year and change, and I’m surprised more people haven’t been talking about it.
Right now, they’re standing in each others way.
Saturday afternoon, they’re going to be standing across from one another, looking to kick off UFC 272 with a bang, and that makes me smile.