10 Things I Like: UFC 257 Edition
Running down the elements that interest me and deserve discussing ahead of this year's first pay-per-view
The Persistence of Dustin Poirier
Everyone seems to be starting their conversations about this weekend’s pay-per-view and its main event talking about Conor McGregor, and I get it, but I want to talk about the man who will be standing in the red corner; the man who will make the walk last on Saturday night — Dustin Poirier.
This weekend marks the start of Poirier’s 11th year on the UFC roster. He’s been a title contender from the very start, when he stepped up on short notice and toppled Josh Grispi in his debut at UFC 125, and claimed the interim title in what is universally regarded as the deepest, most talent-rich, competitive division in the sport.
He’s 18-5 with one No Contest in 24 UFC starts, owning two wins over Max Holloway, and individual victories over Diego Ferreira, Jim Miller, Anthony Pettis, Eddie Alvarez, Justin Gaethje, and Dan Hooker, to cherry-pick a few key names.
He’s gone from being an emotional kid who could be baited into making mistakes to one of the most patient, level-headed competitors in the sport today, a shift that has coincided with his return to lightweight and his rise through the division, as well as his loss to McGregor in their first meeting.
What Poirier has done over the six years since their first encounter is incredible, and while the clips of his Irish opponent talking about how he slept him the first time and will do so again this weekend sound great and generate a ton of impressions and clicks, it’s Poirier’s overall lack of comments and happy exclusion from the pre-fight hype that speaks loudest to me.
I don’t know how this weekend’s main event is going to play out. I don’t know whether this new and improved version of Poirier will be able to defeat McGregor, avenging his previous defeat while simultaneously cement his place at the top of a lightweight division that seems destined to crown a new champion before the year is out.
What I do know is that what “The Diamond” has done — the victories he’s earned, the maturation and development he’s shown, the persistence it takes to spend a decade as a contender and dust yourself off following a handful of setbacks in the biggest moments early in your career — doesn’t get talked about enough.
We kind of take Poirier for granted because for the last 10 years, he’s always been there, stepping into the Octagon two or three times a year, constantly delivering entertaining performances against elite competition, and it needs to stop.
Fighters like Poirier — shit, men like Poirier — don’t come around often, and win or lose this weekend, I really hope we spend a little more time celebrating just how fortunate we’ve been getting to watch the 32-year-old grow up inside and outside of the cage over these last 10 years.
McGregor Season, Take Two
Conor McGregor liked the idea of fighting on the first pay-per-view of the year because it gave him an early start to what he envisioned as a “comeback season” — a year where he fought three times, ideally returning to the top of the championship heap and invariably reminding anyone that forgot how otherworldly talented he can be inside the Octagon.
He needed just 40 seconds to dispatch Donald Cerrone at UFC 246, registering his first UFC victory since becoming the “Champ-Champ” when he stopped Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 on November 12, 2016. His season was underway and everything seemed promising, until it wasn’t.
COVID-19 and the changes brought about by the global pandemic that continues to hang over the world scuttled those best laid plans.
Frustrated by being sidelined, McGregor took to Twitter to announce his retirement, again, and spoke about making a return to boxing.
When he offered to face Poirier in an exhibition bout with proceeds going to Poirier’s Good Fight Foundation, a rematch between the two materialized and McGregor’s plans for a comeback season were started anew.
The idea of McGregor competing multiple times this year is beyond exciting, especially if he goes out and delivers the kind of performance everyone knows he is capable of this weekend.
While fighting multiple times doesn’t necessarily hinge on a victory at UFC 257, McGregor on a two-fight winning streak is a different animal than McGregor coming off a loss — there are different fights available (or that make the more sense) and the verbose Irish superstar can continue musing aloud about championship opportunities and making history in the game, two things that ring a little more hollow if he’s coming off a loss.
I wasn’t all that excited about his return last January, mainly because I didn’t see Cerrone as a real threat — he’s a talented fighter and a decorated veteran, no doubt, but he’s never been on McGregor’s level (or the championship level at all, to be honest) and while I didn’t exactly see a 40-second drubbing that included shoulder strikes, the end result — McGregor by TKO — was precisely what I expected.
But I am excited now.
Poirier is a real challenge — the best challenge for McGregor at the moment — and “The Notorious” one will need to be at his best if he wants to earn a victory and kick off his second attempt at a comeback season in triumphant fashion.
Regardless of the outcome, I hope we get three fights out of McGregor in 2021 because he brings a different kind of energy to the sport than anyone else, and it would really suck to have him press pause, again, right when everyone is fired up to have him back in the fold once more.
The Perfect of Dan Hooker vs. Michael Chandler
This is a perfect fight in every way, shape, and form.
For Hooker, he gets to welcome a guy regarded as one of the very best lightweights competing outside of the UFC over the last decade and potentially get a marquee victory after landing on the wrong side of things against Poirier last year in their epic five-round clash.
A win keeps him in the mix at ‘55, and while it probably doesn’t score him a title shot, it would certainly solidify his place in any real or pseudo tournament that takes place in the lightweight division if and when Khabib Nurmagomedov relinquishes the title.
For Chandler, he walks right into a matchup against a Top 10 guy who is closer to being No. 5 than he is No. 10, if that makes sense.
It’s an opportunity to post an immediate impact victory and propel himself into the thick of the title chase, where, depending on how the UFC opts to book the division going forward, the former Bellator champion could be included in the four-pack of fighters engaging in a mini-tournament to crown the next champion. Win or lose, it’s a chance to show right out of the gate that he’s going to be an exciting addition to an already loaded division and get people hyped about seeing him compete again in the future.
For the UFC, it’s a win-win, as both Hooker and Chandler are action fighters on the cusp of contention, capable of being paired off with any of the other top names in the division, where any of those potential pairings would likely produce a thoroughly entertaining bout because they’re each allergic to being in non-exciting fights.
These are the kinds of matchups I hope we see more often going forward because this one is absolutely perfect.
I Want to Know More About: Ottman Azaitar
Azaitar is an undefeated 30-year-old lightweight who has earned first-round stoppage win in each of his first two UFC appearances, and who has been out of the first round three times in 13 starts.
He has three wins in under a minute, seven in less than half a round, and eight by way of T/KO, including his UFC wins over Teemu Packalen and Khama Worthy.
The win over Packalen didn’t do much for me; with all due respect to the Finnish veteran, he was simply a warm body stationed across from Azaitar in order to get knocked out, and that’s precisely what happened.
His victory over Worthy piqued my interest a little more, as “The Deathstar” is a seasoned regional talent and had earned back-to-back quality victories inside the Octagon. Like Packalen, he got blasted in short order by “The Bulldozer.”
Now Azaitar is set to face Matt Frevola in the kind of fight that should, in theory, tell us more about the unbeaten lightweight enigma.
Frevola is 8-1-1 as a pro, trains with a good crew, and has looked sharp in his last three UFC appearances, going 2-0-1 in those starts after getting slept in quick fashion by Polo Reyes in his promotional debut.
Right now, I’m not sure if Azaitar is simply a guy who has found a home for his devastating right hand a couple of times, or a guy with a devastating right hand who could be a problem in the lightweight division, and while this weekend’s main card assignment might not fully clarify things, I do believe we’ll all come away knowing a little bit more about the younger half of the only undefeated brother tandem in UFC history.
The Undeniable Energy and Potential of Amanda Ribas
Any time Amanda Ribas is on a card, on camera, or even mentioned, I smile, because the dynamic Brazilian strawweight is the type of individual that can have that kind of effect on people.
If you don’t believe me, watch this interview with Ribas following her UFC 251 first-round submission win over Paige VanZant and try not to smile:
Not only is her personality infectious, but she’s ultra-talented too, and this weekend, the emerging Brazilian gets the toughest test of her career opposite Marina Rodriguez, a fellow Brazilian who has put together a 2-1-2 record over her first five UFC starts while exclusively facing quality competition.
I think Ribas is the real deal — you don’t go 4-0 in the UFC if you’re not — Saturday feels like one of those “… and that was the fight when we knew for sure that (insert fighter name here) was going to be a contender for a long time” kind of bouts.
Rodriguez sits at No. 8 in the rankings, two spots ahead of Ribas, and is the kind of proven commodity every emerging talent must beat in order to take the next step forward in their careers. She presents different challenges than anyone Ribas has faced before and this would easily be the biggest victory of the 27-year-old’s career.
Looking at the divisional standings as currently constructed, I’d favor Ribas against everyone but the top two contenders in the division at the moment — that’s how good I think she is and how crucial this matchup at UFC 257 could be for both the strawweight division and Ribas’ path towards the top.
The main event is understandably getting a lion’s share of the attention heading into this weekend, but there are additional outstanding fights on the slate and this is very much one of them.
Your Latest Reminder of How Deep and Talented The Lightweight Division Is
I know that Azaitar and Frevola are lightweights and they’re a little further up the fight card, but that honestly has more to do with Azaitar’s connection to the region than anything else, given that neither are currently even what I would consider on the fringes of the Top 25 in the division.
But Arman Tsarukyan and Nasrat Haqparast? Those boys are good and very much in that 25-30 range in the 155-pound weight class, with ambitions to climb higher and the potential to do so in the not-too-distant future.
Tsarukyan is 24 and impressed UFC audiences with a game effort against Islam Makhachev in his promotional debut. Since then, the Armenian lightweight has collected decision victories over Olivier Aubin-Mercier and Davi Ramos to solidify his standing as one of the top up-and-coming threats in the division, even if the buzz around him has receded a bit.
Haqparast entered 2020 with a ton of hype and momentum after collecting three straight victories following his own debut defeat, capped by a second-round stoppage win over Joaquim Silva. He got blitzed and stopped in less than 90 seconds against Drew Dober in his first start of 2020, but rebounded nicely with a solid effort against Alexander Munoz in August to regain a little of the ground he lost in January.
It also doesn’t hurt that Dober followed up that win with another blistering effort against Alexander Hernandez to climb into the Top 15 either.
Now here they are, set to stand on opposite sides of the Octagon and battle it out to see which one takes another step further into the deep end of the lightweight talent pool and which one is forced to regroup and reset to begin 2021.
The depth of talent and constant quality matchups produced in the lightweight division never ceases to amazing me, and this matchup is your weekly reminder of both.
Note: yes, I know the main and co-main are being contested in the lightweight division, but this is about the number of quality matchups outside of the Top 15 that exist in the division, because every division can have great pairings within the Top 10.
Fighter I Can’t Quit: Sara McMann
I’m just always going to believe that Sara McMann is better than her record indicates, is better than people give her credit for, and is capable of making a run in the bantamweight division; it’s really as simple as that.
I actually see a lot of similarities between McMann and Holly Holm, who I spoke with a couple times last year, including a lengthy conversation about her incredible rookie campaign in the UFC and how that significantly impacted the expectations people had of her, as you would expect given that she knocked out Ronda Rousey and won the bantamweight title to close out her first year on the roster.
McMann was actually hustled into her championship opportunity even faster than Holm, landing opposite Rousey in her sophomore appearance in the UFC at UFC 170. She lost in 66 seconds after getting blasted with a knee to the midsection, and dropped two of her next three bouts after that as well. A three-fight winning streak was chased by a two-fight skid and a nearly two-year layoff as she gave birth to her second child before she return to action and the win column last January with a victory over Lina Lansberg.
The 40-year-old McMann is 6-5 in the UFC and it just feels weird to me to write off a legitimate world-class athlete after less than a dozen fights at the highest level, especially given the strength of schedule she’s fought and that there were obvious “rookie mistakes” that cost her in some of those contests.
Maybe I’m crazy and the Olympic silver medalist has already topped out as a fixture in the 7-12 range in the bantamweight division, but heading into her bout with Julianna Pena this weekend, I still believe we haven’t seen the best of McMann and will likely continue to believe it’s right around the corner until she walks away from the sport.
The Return of Khalil Rountree Jr.
I’m fortunate to get to speak with a lot of athletes, and most of the time, they’re really enjoyable conversations, but some of them just hit different.
Speaking with Khalil Rountree Jr. always hits different. My conversation with him a couple years ago about the way we rush to judgement with young, inexperienced fighters and change our opinions about them after each performance has lingered with me since we had it, and contributed to the great conversation we had earlier this week as he readies to return on Saturday against Marcin Prachnio.
After more than a year away and doing some seriously introspective work in that time, Rountree Jr. seems to be in a very good place heading into this weekend and is one of those still young, still developing talents that I could quite easily see putting it all together and going on a massive run kind of out of nowhere, and these are the types of fights where those “no one saw it coming” streaks tend to start.
Fighters don’t cobble together five, six, eight, twelve wins to become contenders beginning with championship assignments; it’s prelim pairings with dudes like Prachnio or Mike Rio or Will Chope or Kamal Shalorus that kick things off.
The 30-year-old feels to me like he’s turned a major corner, and I’m unreasonably excited to see what he can do when he returns on Saturday night.
Movsar Evloev is Fighting
Evloev was scheduled to fight at the start of December, but never made it to the Octagon; thanks COVID!
He’s back this weekend and instead of facing Nate Landwehr, he’s facing UFC stalwart Nik Lentz in an equally interesting, equally compelling clash that has prompted me to recycle what I wrote about the undefeated Russian featherweight prospect ahead of his postponed bout here, replacing all references to Landwehr with Lentz, just as the matchmakers did.
Enjoy.
I would like to think that I was one of the early riders on the Movsar Evloev bandwagon, having secured my seat when the undefeated Russian made his promotional debut in April 2019 with with a win over Seung Woo Choi.
Since then, the 26-year-old Evloev has added victories over Enrique Barzola and Mike Grundy to push his record to 13-0 and Saturday night, he takes on Nik Lentz in a battle that has the potential to be his coming out party.
Featherweight is capital L Loaded with talent at the moment, so it’s understandable if a guy like Evloev has slipped passed your radar, but you should really make a point of paying attention starting this weekend. Barzola and Grundy are tough outs and the kind of quality wins that emerging contenders pile up in the 12-18 months before they become a full-blown contender, like when Max Holloway beat Akira Corasanni and Cole Miller in the early stages of his march to the top of the division, and besting a battle-tested veteran like Lentz in what will probably be an exciting fight should elevate his status to a new level.
Evloev is another one of these emerging prospects that no one in the rankings has any interest in fighting. Part of that is because there is no real upside to facing an unranked opponent, but part of it is also that he’s a well-rounded, undefeated 26-year-old that could potentially make them look bad while usurping their place in the pecking order.
I think Evloev is the real deal and I’m looking forward to seeing that hypothesis put to the test again this weekend in Abu Dhabi.
First of Many Big Fights
One of the best silver linings to emerge from the misery that was 2020 is the knowledge that this year had the potential to feature A LOT of really big, really exciting matchups across the UFC.
We’re now two days away from the first pay-per-view of 2021 and that tentatively looks to be coming to fruition, as the slate of upcoming bouts is tremendous, and includes:
Alistair Overeem vs. Alexander Volkov
Cory Sandhagen vs. Frankie Edgar
Alexandre Pantoja vs. Manel Kape
Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns (for the UFC welterweight title)
Curtis Blaydes vs. Derrick Lewis
Dominick Reyes vs. Jiri Prochazka
Jan Blachowicz vs. Israel Adesanya (for the UFC light heavyweight title)
Amanda Nunes vs. Megan Anderson (for the UFC featherweight title)
Petr Yan vs. Aljamain Sterling (for the UFC bantamweight title)
Leon Edwards vs. Khamzat Chimaev
Ciryl Gane vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
Derek Brunson vs. Kevin Holland
Nina Ansaroff vs. Mackenzie Dern
(knocks on wood three times and whispers a quiet prayer to the MMA gods)
That’s a slate and if this event on Saturday goes as well as the first two events of the year have gone (and why wouldn’t it), the first few months of action inside the Octagon has the potential to wash away all the heartbreak and despair created by the cavalcade of cancelled or delayed fights and lack of appearances from marquee names we dealt with last year.
(whispers another quiet prayer to the MMA gods)
Here’s to a great event!