10 Things I Like at UFC Vegas 43
Contender statuses being determined, a young gun with a stern test, and a whole bunch more have me psyched for Saturday's fight card
Here we are again, just a few days away from another classic “Spencer Card” hitting the UFC APEX.
Spencer Cards, for those that are just joining us, are events the majority of fans see as containing two, maybe three interesting fights and then a whole bunch of “take it or leave it” matchups, where I tend to see a chance to make more reads on athletes that are still new to the UFC or figure out where certain competitors fit within the hierarchy of their respective divisions.
They’re cards like last weekend’s offering or Saturday’s fight card where the main event is getting the attention it deserves, folks are curious to see the co-main event, and then there are one, maybe two other names that have piqued their interest, whereas I’m over here pumped up about the first fight of the night and everything that follows.
And it’s always still kind of wild to me that so many people are so quick to skim over cards like this because history has shown time and again that events like this eventually have an impact on championship races and produce contenders, sometimes immediately, and many times a few fights down the road.
Time will tell of this turns into one of those UFC on FOX Orlando deals where we look back and marvel at the freakish depth talent that competed on that card in three or four years, but for now, I’m excited, as always, and these are the things I like most about Saturday’s event.
A Perfect Main Event
The matchup between Ketlen Vieira and Miesha Tate is perfect — it’s the exact right fight for each woman at this point in their careers, while also serving to produce some clarity in the bantamweight title chase, and stylistically, it should be entertaining to see how things play out.
Vieira is coming off a questionable split decision loss to Yana Kunitskaya in February. She’s been on the cusp of contention for a couple years, but has been slowed by injuries and a couple losses, giving this pairing a slight “now or never” feel. She’s only 30 years old and the division isn’t particularly deep, so there is time for her to rebuild and get back here again if she falters, but you only get so many kicks at the can, and if she’s ever going to connect, now would be a good time.
Tate returns after recording a third-round stoppage win over Marion Reneau in her first fight in more than four years this summer. She looked good — better than most expected I would argue — and instantly became an interesting figure in the division she briefly ruled back in the day. But dispatching a veteran with one foot out the door and toppling a budding contender in her prime are two different things, and so like Vieira, the former champion Tate needs this one to really solidify her place in the hierarchy.
As far as how it plays out, I’m interested to see if either can impose their will on the ground or if their shared preference for grappling cancels out any going to the canvas and produces a striking battle. Even there, I’m not sure who holds the advantage, as Tate profiles as the more fluid, more natural athlete of the two, but Vieira carries more power and suddenness.
Everything about this fight is intriguing to me and I can’t wait to see how it unfolds.
A Similarly Sublime Co-Main Event
The co-main event between Michael Chiesa and Sean Brady is equally wonderful, though for different reasons, obviously.
For starters, you have to give Chiesa a ton of credit for taking this fight because Brady is one of those “not a lot of people lining up to fight him” guys, and yet here’s “Ol’ Mav” coming off a loss, jumping into a super-dangerous fight in hopes of delivering a big effort that gets him back into the win column and cements his place in the Top 10.
At a time when a lot of folks are squatting on their rankings and only interested in fighting up, Chiesa understands that coming off a loss leaves him fewer options, and that this is the best way for him to get right back to where he was prior to losing to Vicente Luque back in the summer. It’s risky as all get out, but given how much we’ve moaned about people not taking certain fights, he should be getting far more love for diving into this dangerous matchup on Saturday.
Additionally, this is precisely the kind of fight Brady needs right now, after earning four wins in as many starts to begin his UFC tenure and push his record to 14-0 overall. While I was looking forward to his twice-cancelled bout with Kevin Lee earlier this year, I’m even more pumped to see him get an even greater step up in competition because as abundantly talented as Lee is, he’s never proven himself at welterweight.
Chiesa has, and therefore we know what beating him means, if that is how things should play out on Saturday.
And while that little bit of trepidation that permanently lives inside of me every time there is a chance the UFC ends up in an “… and now we don’t have any new contenders” situation (Chiesa just lost to Luque, so his upside in the division is capped for the moment) is still there, I think there are enough fresh pairing options in the Top 15 that things will work out just fine no matter who gets their hand raised this weekend.
Fighter I Can’t Quit: Rani Yahya
I love me a specialist. I love me an under-appreciated veteran that has far more wins and a much better record than you remember. Put them together and you’ve got yourself someone I most definitely cannot quit.
Rani Yahya is 12-4-1 with one No Contest in the UFC.
He made his promotional debut nearly a dozen years ago with a win over Mike Brown, has never lost consecutive contests inside the Octagon, and is still out here submitting hopefuls at least once a year despite turning 37 in mid-September.
It doesn’t matter that he never put together the requisite wins to become a contender and probably had his best wins even before reaching the UFC because if you can compete at this level for a dozen years and win two-thirds of your fights, you deserve recognition, especially when you’re one of the last legit specialists competing in a sport where highly skilled generalists have taken over.
Yahya’s fight with Kyung Ho Kang on Saturday doesn’t have any real divisional significance, though both are great measuring stick opponents for the band of emerging talents working their way up the bantamweight ranks at the moment, but it’s a chance to give some love to a couple stalwarts that have simply handle their business and been steady professionals for a number of years, and we don’t do that enough.
Another Flyweight Depth Finder
In advance of last weekend’s clash between Cynthia Calvillo and Andrea Lee, I called the fight a “depth finder” in the flyweight division, arguing that everyone outside of the top one or two contenders in the 125-pound ranks felt fairly interchangeable to me — anyone could beat anyone and it wouldn’t surprise me — and that the outcome of that fight would both prove that to be true and provide a little clarity about where the two stood in the division.
Last Saturday, Lee dominated Calvillo, earning a second-round stoppage win that catapulted her into the Top 10 and dropped Calvillo four spots in the rankings.
This weekend, Joanne Wood (nee Calderwood) and Taila Santos engage in a similar contest, with a similar feel, that should produce a similar opportunity to re-think where everyone stacks up going forward.
Wood is coming off a dicey split decision loss to Lauren Murphy (that propelled Murphy into a title shot) and has historically struggled in big spots, while Santos has rattled off three straight victories, most recently out-working Roxanne Modafferi, to establish herself as a Top 10 talent. Given that champ Valentina Shevchenko has already dispatched the four top-ranked contenders (plus No. 8 Jessica Eye), it’s not inconceivable that an emphatic victory for either woman could carry them into a title shot next time out.
I love this particular matchup and these types of fights, and can’t wait to see who emerges victorious on Saturday.
Stern Test for Adrian Yanez
Adrian Yanez is one of the top emerging talents on the UFC roster — a 27-year-old bantamweight with three straight stoppage wins (and bonuses) since earning his contract with a 39-second knockout on Dana White’s Contender Series.
He’s this week’s Fighter to Watch and his pairing with Davey Grant is one of the fights everyone is most looking forward to this weekend because it’s the exact type of matchup the up-and-comer from Houston needs to win in order to take the next step forward in his career and prove he’s capable of competing with the best in the 135-pound weight class.
What makes it even more awesome is that Yanez is fully aware of this and it’s why he was pumped to get this assignment, as he told me when we spoke earlier in the month for the piece embedded above:
“It’s not an easy fight. It’s never an easy fight against him and it’s always going to be one of those — it’s a style that I love. I love being able to push the pace and have someone that’s going to stand there and trade with me… I have immense respect for him. Now I’m starting to fight those guys that I know, and they’re people I’ve watched when I was outside the organization… He’s not ranked in the Top 15, but if you beat Davey Grant, it puts you up there.”
The fact that Yanez clearly gets it only makes me like him more, and makes me all the more excited to see him and Grant get after it on Saturday… and they will get after it.
Emerging Talents Collide
There probably aren’t a lot of folks checking for the featherweight clash between Tucker Lutz and Pat Sabatini, but let me tell you how much I’m looking forward to seeing these two get in there and mix it up this weekend.
Lutz needed two victories last season on the Contender Series to secure a contract, and then pushed his winning streak to a dozen with a unanimous decision win over Kevin Aguilar in his promotional debut. He’s a no-flash, all-fundamentals fighter that profiles to me as a Pat Healy-type that doesn’t wow you anywhere, but it sound everywhere, and could cobble together enough wins to quietly work his way into the Top 15 somewhere down the road.
A two-time champ under the CFFC banner, Sabatini has collected victories in each of his first two UFC appearances, surviving an early knockdown where he was close to being out to snatch up a heel hook submission finish over Jamall Emmers last time out. Like Lutz, the 31-year-old isn’t going bringing anything that jumps off the screen at you, but he’s well-trained, well-coached, and well-rounded, and another one of those cats that could work towards the Top 15 in the next couple years.
Getting the timing right on pairing off emerging talents is tricky, but the matchmakers nailed this one. Both are still early in their UFC runs and it makes sense to have a “Which one moves forward?” matchup like this here as it provides a clearer picture of where each one currently stands and moves the victor ahead a couple steps without costing the vanquished too much ground.
I Want to Know More About… Natan Levy
Once again tying things back to One Question, I mentioned yesterday how I didn’t have a good sense of what to expect from the debuting Levy, who earned his contract with an impressive in on the Contender Series last year, but has been out of action since, and hasn’t exactly fought great competition on his way to the UFC.
As Chad Dundas would say, “He looks good getting off the bus,” but we’ve seen plenty of folks that look the part, but don’t measure up, and he’s stepping in with someone in Rafa Garcia that has beaten quality talent before arriving in the Octagon, and enters hungry to snap a two-fight slide.
This is an instant “show me what you’ve got” situation for the 30-year-old Levy and how he does this weekend will form the basis for how we rate and project him going forward.
No pressure.
Emerging Talents Collide 2: Strawweight Boogaloo
Loma Lookboonmee has been solid through her first four appearances in the Octagon, posting a 3-1 record where her only setback came in a short-notice fight against Angela Hill where “Overkill” jumped in late creating a “well this isn’t what you want to see for an inexperienced sophomore” situation for the Thai fighter.
Loopy Godinez has been the most active fighter on the UFC roster this year and in history, as Saturday’s bout will be her third in 43 days, and fourth of the year; it would have been her fifth if she could have landed the Sarah Alpar fight she volunteered for following her debut loss to Jessica Penne.
Lookboonmee dominated Sam Hughes last time out, making it clear that she was ready for a step up in competition, while Godinez needs to be fighting in her natural weight class and needs to post a win against someone that isn’t a short-notice replacement fighter. Not to take anything away from her effort against Silvana Juarez, which was outstanding, it’s just fighting all the time is cool, but you have to beat some folks with a little clout every now and again as well.
Each is still relatively early in their respective careers, but have flashed upside, and in a competitive division like strawweight, getting them in there opposite one another now when there is ample time for whomever lands on the wrong end of the results this weekend to regroup and rebuild is critical. This should be a competitive, entertaining clash of styles and the winner should be considered one of the top emerging talents in the 115-pound weight class going forward.
Terrance McKinney’s Sophomore Appearance
When you win your promotional debut on short-notice against a seasoned veteran in seven seconds, there are a lot of people that will be eagerly awaiting your return to the Octagon.
McKinney finally makes his return on Saturday, squaring off with Fares Ziam in a “tougher than you probably realize” pairing between talented, young lightweights, and all eyes will be on the neophyte who made waves in June by blasting through Matt Frevola to pick up his first UFC win and fourth first-round stoppage finish of 2021.
Yeah — he’s already won four fights this year, and none of them has lasted more than 76 seconds.
What I’m most interested in seeing, however, is what McKinney can do and has to offer when he doesn’t get Ziam out of there in expedient fashion. Maybe he finishes him early and keeps this crazy run going, but the more likely scenario is that this lasts more than 90 seconds and McKinney has to show that he’s far more than a one-shot finisher, and the thing is, everyone says his wrestling is significantly better than his striking.
So I want to see it; I want to see all of it.
I want to see more of McKinney in general, because he’s got a tremendous story, an abundance of confidence and upside, and I want to see specifically how he deals with a long, rangy, slightly more experienced fighter like Ziam this weekend.
An Important Opener
I was super-intrigued by last weekend’s opener in the light heavyweight division between Da-Un Jung and Kennedy Nzechukwu and it delivered, with Jung collecting an impressive first-round stoppage win to move to 4-0-1 in the UFC.
This weekend, I’m going to make sure to be comfortable and focused when the action gets rolling because I want to get another look at Luana Pinheiro, who takes on Sam Hughes in the opener.
The Brazilian looked very good in the initial stages of her debut opposite Randa Markos before it was halted following an illegal upkick, and her blend of aggression and athleticism really pique my interest, especially in a still developing division where high-level athletes who exhibit as much fluidity as Pinheiro did (in a limited sample, admittedly) last time out.
She was supposed to be fighting Jessica Penne here, which would have been an even better opportunity to get a read on where she stands in the 115-pound weight class just two fights in, but the former title challenger withdrew for undisclosed reasons, resulting in Hughes stepping up.
I’m intrigued by Pinheiro’s upside and really want to see what she brings to the table this weekend to help determine if I’m too high on her or not high enough.