About Last Night at UFC Vegas 24...
Addressing the biggest talking points and takeaways from Saturday fight card at the UFC APEX
Robert Whittaker Rolls, Merits Championship Opportunity
Here’s how good Robert Whittaker looked on Saturday night:
Kelvin Gastelum looked orders of magnitude better than he did against Darren Till, Jack Hermansson, and Ian Heinisch, pressing forward throughout, landing some good shots, and eating some big attacks without much issue, and he still lost every single round.
From the outset, Whittaker was the quicker man, countering well, hitting combos when Gastelum came with singles en route to sweeping the scorecards and earning his third straight victory. After hurting Gastelum in the first with a right high kick and some clean punches, “The Reaper” remained technical and tactical, picking his spots, moving well, and doing everything he needed to do in order to secure the victory and cement his standing as the No. 1 contender in the middleweight division.
It’s going to be interesting to see what happens next, however, as reigning champ Israel Adesanya has shown little interest in running it back with Whittaker, whom he beat for the title less than two years ago, earning a second-round knockout finish. Unfortunately for “The Last Stylebender,” his two best options at the moment are both fighters he’s defeated in the past, and he’s going to have to face someone.
Adesanya may not be all that keen on running it back with Whittaker, but after a dominant effort on Saturday night and a third straight victory overall, I’m even more interested in seeing those two share the cage once again.
As for Gastelum, he has nothing to hang his head about here — he took the fight on short notice, hung tough throughout, and showed, even in defeat, that he’s still a legitimate Top 10 middleweight. While the resume looks a little shaky at the moment with four losses in his last five fights, they’re all against legitimate contenders and he gave a good accounting of himself against Whittaker.
A little rest, a little reset, and Gastelum will be back.
But Saturday was Whittaker’s night, and he should be the next man to challenge for the middleweight title.
Andrei Arlovski: Still Kicking
Over the years, we’ve written Andrei Arlovski off as “cooked” three times — once following his Affliction / Strikeforce losing streak, again when he dropped five straight in 2016 and 2017, and again when he went 0-3 with a no contest over a 10-month stretch between June 2018 and April 2019.
Saturday night, the 42-year-old former heavyweight champion got back into the win column, earning his third win in four fight by outlasting and out-hustling Chase Sherman on short notice.
After falling behind early, Arlovski started varying his attacks a little more, chopping down Sherman’s lead leg and landing with greater frequency as the two heavyweights traded hands. While Sherman continued marching forward, Arlovski worked a sound stick-and-move approach over the final five minutes to salt away the win.
While we rightfully fixate on champions, contenders, and prospects, this is one of those times where you have to give the old hand Arlovski his due — he’s been fighting professionally since 1999, has logged 53 appearances overall, and just picked up his 20th UFC win, becoming just seventh man to reach that marker.
Here’s to the old dude!
Jacob Malkoun Fights Smart, Secures First UFC Win
Australian Jacob Malkoun secured the first UFC victory of his career on Saturday night, wrestling Abdul Razak Alhassan for 15 minutes to sweep the scorecards with 30-27 tallies across the board.
While not the most explosive or dynamic fight, you have to give Malkoun props — he identified a glaring weakness in Alhassan’s game and exploited it, closing the distance early and dragging him to the canvas repeatedly, sucking the power out of his punches and getting himself back into the win column. As simplistic as it sounds, there are still a lot of people in the UFC that fail to execute this way when the opportunity is there, so for a relatively inexperienced fighter like Malkoun to recognize the best approach and implement it from Jump Street is impressive.
If there is one critique of his performance, it’s the number of failed submission attempts he threw up, some of which looked close and he just couldn’t complete, while others were attempts when nothing serious was there. It didn’t cost him on Saturday, but could in the future, so Malkoun will either need to tighten up his grips or make wiser choices when he’s diving on holds going forward.
Building Block Win for Tracy Cortez
Contender Series graduate Tracy Cortez pushed her record to 3-0 in the UFC and winning streak to nine with a hard-fought split decision win over Justine Kish.
After missing weight on Friday, the Arizona native gutted things out on Saturday, starting well before fading a little, only to rally down the stretch and secure the victory. She showcased improved striking and her grappling was solid throughout, using her takedowns to slow any momentum Kish tried to build and control things on the canvas.
This was the kind of fight I was hoping to see when I wrote about Cortez in 10 Things earlier in the week — a competitive, gritty battle against a solid veteran that wasn’t going to stop getting in her face, and the 27-year-old Fight Ready representative handled it all well. She still has plenty of room to grow — and needs to deal with whatever caused her weight miss — but this was another step in the right direction and the kind of fight that will pay long term dividends in her continued development.
Luis Pena Squeaks Out a Win
Fan favorite Luis Pena landed on the happy side of a split decision verdict against Alexander Munoz on Saturday night, turning up the pace in the third round to earn two frames on two cards to get back into the win column.
Pena, who carried a lot of buzz into his UFC career after a brief stint on Season 27 of The Ultimate Fighter, fought like he was in complete control throughout, even though Munoz had a great deal of success over the first two rounds, landing at a greater clip and mixing in a handful of takedowns. But “Violent Bob Ross” starting finding a rhythm and upping his output in the final frame, showing the weaponry that makes him an intriguing prospect.
The 27-year-old is now 5-3 in the UFC and certainly has upside, but for someone that spent the whole week talking about unleashing “Version 2.0” on Saturday, there wasn’t anything different about his performance — he still doesn’t use his length effectively, he still was too hesitant throwing hands, and he was still acting like he had things in the bag when the outcome was very much in doubt, even when he was busting up Munoz in the final round.
I know that sounds harsh — and it is — but here’s the thing: Pena could be a dangerous fighter at lightweight because of his size and his weaponry, but he’s not there yet, not even close, and I’m not convinced he’s ever going to get there.
I hope he proves me wrong, but this fight gave me more reasons for concern than reasons for excitement going forward.
Preliminary Talking Points
Many hoped the heavyweight preliminary card finale between Alexander Romanov and Juan Espino would provide some big boy grappling and an exciting close to the early slate. Instead, it became a slog and ended with a technical decision following an inadvertent low blow early in the third round.
There were certainly some fun exchanges, both striking and on the ground, but this one will be remembered for the direct shot to the pills Romanov took 65 seconds into the final round. The unbeaten Moldovan was rendered unable to continue, struggling to get back to his feet even after his five-minute grace period, resulting in an early trip to the scorecards.
As much as this was a disappointing ending, it was a quality educational moment for judging / rules nerds like me because this was the first time in some time that we dealt with a technical decision, and it was handled perfectly by all parties.
Jessica Penne and Loopy Godinez engaged in a 15-minute back-and-forth battle late in the prelims, with Penne returning to win column following a four-year hiatus.
The former TUF bronze medalist consistently looked to clinch and grapple, climbing onto Godinez’ back multiple times, struggling to connect on any meaningful submissions, but controlling the action for stretches. In space, Godinez had quality moments, and threw Penne to the ground violently several times as the veteran looked to climb her body for a submission.
The judges were split, with two of the three officials seeing things in favour of Penne, who wins for the first time since claiming the TUF 20 bronze medal with a win over Randa Markos in December 2014. While not the result Godinez was hoping for in her promotional debut, this should be a strong building block for the Mexican-Canadian prospect, who is only going to keep improving as she gains more experience.
Veteran middleweight Gerald Meerschaert got back into the win column in familiar fashion, snatching up a guillotine choke midway through the first round, putting Bartosz Fabinski to sleep.
Fabinski made the mistake of leaving his neck out as he went to take the fight to the ground, and Meerschaert pounced, transitioning into a mounted choke before finishing almost perpendicular to his Polish opponent, who went from defending to Dreamland in a hurry. Coming off consecutive first-round knockout losses, this was a huge bounce-back effort from the Milwaukee native, who has finished all seven of his UFC victories to date and registered 29 stoppages in 31 career wins.
Workmanlike effort from Austin Hubbard, who got back into the win column with a solid victory over short-notice replacement Dakota Bush.
The newcomer was game and battled throughout, but Hubbard’s relentless pace and sharper decision-making were the difference, as the Elevation Fight Team member took advantage of the majority of the grappling exchanges and showed a little more polish throughout, resulting in a clear decision win. While he’s alternated losses and wins throughout his first six UFC starts, the 29-year-old lightweight has consistently shown toughness and tenacity, and is developing into one of those fun guys to have in the middle of any preliminary card types every division needs.
Tony Gravely got the night of action in the Octagon started in impressive fashion, collecting a second-round stoppage win over Anthony Birchak.
The former East Coast regional staple showcased improved hands and his trademark sticky grappling, dropping Birchak in the first and controlling the majority of the frame before cracking home a left hand early in the second to secure the finish. Now training at American Top Team, the 29-year-old wrestler has won two straight after losing his debut to Welsh standout Brett Johns.
Bantamweight is flush with talent and making headway is hard, but consecutive victories and a quality resume before arriving in the UFC makes Gravely an interesting dark horse in the division and someone that should earn a solid step up in competition next time out.
The night got off to a disappointing start as it was announced that the co-main event between Jeremy Stephens and Drakkar Klose was cancelled due to a late injury to Klose. Twitter lit up with complaints, criticisms, sad reaction GIFs and photos, and a handful of jokes.
What there weren’t many of were well-wishes for Klose, who was injured seriously enough that he was unable to compete.
I get that we all have different reasons for tuning in, different bets made and DFS rosters entered, and losing a fight sucks, but man — the reactions to Saturday’s kick-off news were a quick, clear reminder that a significant portion of the audience cares far more about their own entertaining and investment in these fight cards than the athletes competing inside the Octagon.