10 Things I Like at UFC Vegas 44
With 15 fights on tap, there are plenty of enjoyable elements to choose from this weekend
This feels like another one of those cards that contribute to my belief that fight fans care more about the big names, latest gossip, and peripheral stuff that takes place in the MMA world than the actual fights — a daunting 15-fight collection capped by an outstanding main event between Top 5 bantamweights, but with few established names or bouts carrying immediate significance slated to hit the Octagon first.
There are some hardcore darlings and a popular veteran or two, but on the whole, this is a card for those of us that are looking two or three or four fights down the road, eager to gain valuable intel on a host of emerging talents that are stuck in matchups that are tougher than most might realize at first blush.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still taking next week’s pay-per-view over this card every day and twice on Sunday, but the existence and impending arrival of a terrific card doesn’t diminish my interest in a low-key, long-term recon event like this.
And I hope more than a handful of people feel the same way.
Here’s what I like about Saturday’s card.
The Main Event
There’s no reason to try to come up with some kind of cute phrasing or quip about liking the headlining act; it’s a banger, everyone knows it, and I love it.
Font snuck up on people a little, stringing together his current run of success after stumbling in his highest profile bouts before this, but has always had the technical skills to reach this point. Aldo is Aldo, and looked even more like the Jose Aldo of old when he stepped in with Pedro Munhoz earlier this year.
What makes this one all the more compelling is that there are three distinct outcomes that would all be perfectly acceptable and amazing here:
Font rolls, turning in a similar effort to the beating he put on Cody Garbrandt, making it clear he’s in the title mix
Aldo rolls, turning back the clock again and showing that he has to be looked at like a legitimate threat as well
They beat the holy hell out of one another in a five-round classic that enters the Fight of the Year race and neither loses any ground in the division
There’s no way this fight isn’t awesome. Can it be Saturday already, please?
The Co-Main Event
Just like there was no reason to dance around my delight about the main event pairing, the same holds true here.
Brad Riddell is like “last year’s model” Alexander Volkanovski to me — he does everything well, has outstanding conditioning and sound technique, and is tough as nails; he just doesn’t have all the same bells and whistles and interest Volkanovski does at the moment.
Sticking with the car analogies, Rafael Fiziev is the cherry red Dodge Charger with the twin black racing stripes down the center of the body sitting on the lot — it’s flashy, it’s fun, it can do a lot of cool things…. but it can also get you in a lot of trouble and has moments (like his debut) where all that flash and fun and the cool stuff comes back to bite you in the ass.
The added cool wrinkle to this compelling clash of Top 15 lightweights is that they’re friends and have trained together in the past, which means they have a sense of what the other can do in there and what they like to do in there.
Lightweight is congested at the top end at the moment, so the road to contention is a little longer than it probably should be, but all that means is that we should see the winner of this one in a couple more quality Fight Night showcases next year.
Clash of Emerging Light Heavies
While I’m not usually a fan of pairing off up-and-coming talents when the fight doesn’t carry clear rewards, this actually feels like the right time to pair Jimmy Crute and Jamahal Hill against one another because after a handful of appearances each, it’s time to see which one of these two emerging light heavyweights is going to cement their place in the divisional hierarchy.
Crute is coming off a loss to Anthony Smith in a fight that felt like the quintessential “this is what happens to prospects at light heavyweight” pairing — he’d earned a couple impressive finishes after stumbling against a more veteran opponent, and was hustled back in there with another veteran, only to get kicked in the peroneal nerve, suffer a case of drop foot, and lose his second fight against a veteran talent.
Hill is coming off a loss as well, having rolled into the Octagon against Paul Craig a little too light and breezy and confident in his power and rolling out with his left arm dangling around, dislocated at the elbow. The Contender Series graduate earned three wins in 2020 and thought he was going to march undeterred to the top of the division, but the Scottish submission ace showed him otherwise.
And now they face each other to see which one will hold down their place in the hierarchy heading into next year and which one is going to have to take a good, hard look in the mirror and re-assess things heading into 2022.
Let me be clear: a loss here isn’t the end for either guy — Crute is 25, Hill is 30, and both have plenty of quality years left — but it should prompt a major reset and a little introspection before pushed ahead.
Everything About Allen vs. Curtis
First and foremost, I want to say I feel bad for Brendan Allen — for the second straight year, he’s had a Top 15 opponent withdraw from a fight and been paired up with a dangerous replacement opponent. It didn't work out well for him last year against Sean Strickland, and Chris Curtis is a handful this weekend as well.
With that said, I love this fight. I love everything about it.
I love that Allen gets the chance to get a third straight win and propel himself into the Top 15. I love that Curtis is taking another short-notice swing, looking to go from outside the UFC to inside the Top 15 in six weeks.
I love that Allen is coming off his most complete performance and that it was against another quality emerging talent. I love that Curtis trains with that opponent (Puna Soriano) and Strickland and each of the two guys that were initially slated to face Allen here, Brad Tavares and Roman Dolidze, making this a real “Allen vs. Xtreme Couture” type of situation like when Paul Craig was constantly getting thrown in against Fortis MMA guys.
And I love that no matter how this one shakes out, far more people should have a greater appreciation for the winner because both of these cats are legitimately talented middleweights with a chance to make further noise in what is an awkward division that constantly feels in a state of flux, at least outside of the upper echelon.
Another Manel Kape Performance
The flyweight division needs more top-end contenders and I think Kape has the skills to fill that role, but through three UFC appearances, it’s been hit and miss.
In his first two fights, he was too hesitant and it cost him both times, as he dropped decisions to Alexandre Pantoja and Matheus Nicolau. Argue all you want about who deserved the nod in the latter of those two, but neither of them were particularly active or working real hard to convince the judges or fans that they were clearly the better man that evening.
He finally got into the win column last time out with a first-round stoppage win over Ode’ Osbourne, but he missed weight by way too much for my liking, which taints the victory and has me sitting here waiting to see what he looks like tomorrow morning.
This fight with Zhalgas Zhumagulov is also a terrific measuring stick moment for Kape because the veteran from Kazakhstan is a tough out who looked great in his last appearance and trains with a great crew at American Top Team. He’ll be prepared and sharp and ready to roll on Saturday, and if Kape isn’t dialled in, he could wake up Sunday morning with a 1-3 record in the UFC and his place in the division in question.
This is a perfect matchup for a promising talent that really needs to hit all the right marks this weekend.
The Unpredictable Nature of a Cheyanne Vlismas Fight
Through two UFC appearances, Cheyanne Vlismas (formerly Buys) has ended one fight screaming mad, hollering about “Meet me outside” after getting “big brothered” on the ground by Montserrat Conejo and finishes another with a kick where everyone watching was likely screaming at their televisions for her not to throw it because it looked like there was no way on Earth she was going to time in right for it not to be illegal… until it was and it landed flush and knocked out Gloria de Paula.
Now she’s set to make her third appearance this weekend, taking on Mallory Martin, and I genuinely have no idea what to expect, which excites me.
Vlismas is a live wire and she has legitimate potential, but from the outside looking in, everything about her past year has seemed pretty chaotic and unsettled and I have no read on how any of that will impact her in this fight and going forward.
She started the year prepping for her UFC debut as a member of the Fortis MMA squad, debuting on the same card as her husband, JP Buys. After they both lost that night, they ended up bolting from Dallas and moved back to Las Vegas, where Vlismas had trained as an amateur and the early stages of her pro career. She beat de Paula, got a little attention for her “I was broke before this” comments after earning a bonus, and is now fighting under her maiden name again.
I don’t have any info and I’m not reporting anything; I just know that folks don’t change their last name back to their maiden name when everything in their personal life is going swimmingly. I also know she and JP have stopped showing up in the others’ Instagram posts of late, so make of that what you will.
Maybe everything this year has presented makes her get locked in and fight to her full potential; maybe not. I know Martin is a well-trained, still developing fighter with a little intrigue and upside, and more than capable of making Saturday a long night for Vlismas if she’s not fully focused on the task at hand.
I have zero sense of how this will play out and that makes me want to see it even more.
Seriously, can it be Saturday already or what?
Light Heavyweight Highlander Situation
Alonzo Menifield and William Knight aren’t exactly the same dude, but they’re pretty damn close, and as Christopher Lambert told us in The Highlander, “There can be only one.”
Menifield is coming off the most important victory of his career — a gruelling, dig-deep, grind it out decision win over Ed Herman in August at UFC 265. After having a string of quick stoppage wins through his first two UFC fights, the Fortis MMA member dropped two straight, fading hard once those bouts went passed the opening three or four minutes. But against Herman, Menifield was still fighting, still coming forward, still game in the late stages, which is the kind of developmental effort he needed in order to potentially take another step forward in the light heavyweight division.
Knight already showed he could go the distance in his debut win over Aleksa Camur, but he struggled in his sophomore outing against Da Un Jung, getting out-wrestled by the streaking South Korean. He rebounded with a dominant effort against Fabio Cherant two weeks after Menifield fought Herman, and now looks to topple his fellow Contender Series alum in order to continue his climb in the 205-pound weight class.
This feels like the kind of matchup where we’re going to see which of these two men learned the most from their struggles in the Octagon and which one is able to synthesize the lessons they’ve absorbed over the years into action inside the cage.
Menifield is the more experienced of the two and comes from the more established camp, while Knight has shown superior conditioning and more sustainable explosiveness. They’re going to come out swinging because that’s just who they are and what they do, but what’ll be really interesting to see is how each responds if those bombs don’t bring the festivities to an early halt.
A Quick Return for Claudio Puelles
Fighting for the second time in six months isn’t a particularly speedy turnaround and is downright glacial for someone like Loopy Godinez, but for Claudio Puelles it’s a welcome sign and significantly quicker than at any other point in his UFC career.
The Peruvian lightweight debuted on November 6, 2016. His sophomore appearance came on May 19, 2018. He made his third trip into the Octagon on September 21, 2019, and his fourth on June 5 of this year.
So that’s 18 months, 16 months, 19 months, and now only six months, so yeah, it’s a quick turnaround by his standards, and that’s a very good thing because Puelles looked great last time out and has won three straight overall.
As I said yesterday, I think he’s someone to keep close tabs on in the lightweight division because he’s still exceptionally young (25) for someone entering his fifth fight in the UFC, he has plus measurables and athleticism, and he trains with a great team at Sanford MMA, and if he looks sharp on Saturday against Chris Gruetzemacher, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Puelles get a little push in 2022.
This is one of those fights few people but me care about on Saturday, but I think it could turn out to be one we look back on as critical in a couple years.
I Want to Know More About… Azamat Murzakanov
Unbeaten newcomers are not uncommon in the UFC, but rarely are they 35 years old and four years removed from initially being signed and scheduled to compete inside the Octagon, but that’s the case this weekend when Azamat Murzakanov makes the walk for the first time to face Jared Vanderaa.
“The Professional” is 10-0 in his pro career, was signed and scheduled to face Joachim Christensen four-and-a-half years ago before being scratched, resulting in Dominick Reyes getting the call to the Octagon for the first time. Now, after wiping out Matheus Scheffel a couple months back on Dana White’s Contender Series, the Russian veteran is set to make his debut.
Murzakanov feels like one of those technically sound, well-rounded, “strong like bull” types that could waltz into the light heavyweight division and start making noise right away, but I just want to see it once before I purchase my seat on the bandwagon.
Vanderaa, who replaces Philipe Lins, logged his first three UFC appearances at heavyweight, will have a considerable size advantage here, but that only makes me more interested to see how things play out because if Murzakanov can manhandle a dude that goes by the name “The Mountain,” I might end up running to get my spot on “The Azamat Express.”
Fighter I Can’t Quit: Mickey Gall
What can I say, I like cool stories, and the possibility — slim as it might be — that Gall is finally figuring things out and putting it all together is too appealing for me to give up on him just yet.
His call-out of CM Punk all those years ago was perfectly timed and the best of the bunch — he was a 1-0 fighter coming off a win in front of UFC President Dana White, and he parlayed that moment into a chance to compete in the UFC. He handled Mike Jackson with ease, dominated Punk on the main card of a pay-per-view show, and then followed it up a couple months later by quickly choking out Sage Northcutt to move to 3-0 in the UFC.
Gall has struggled since then, splitting his last six fights while battling injuries and delivering some pretty uneven efforts in the biggest spots of his career, but he looked terrific against Jordan Williams in July, rocking him on the feet and choking him out in under three minutes, and he’s still a couple weeks away from his 30th birthday.
Would it be crazy if his early success and fame got to his head, resulting in some poor choices and decisions and squandering a few opportunities, only for Gall to turn things around and start building a little momentum now that he’s a little older, a little more mature? I don’t think so at all, and this weekend’s pairing with Alex Morono is a great opportunity to see if that could be the case.
And if his recent pattern of alternating losses and wins holds up and he gets thumped by another more experienced, more polished opponent on Saturday, I’ll be honest, it’ll probably be time to finally quit Mickey Gall.