About Last Night at UFC Vegas 26...
Running down the takeaways and talking points from Saturday's fight card at the UFC APEX
Big Win for Marina Rodriguez
Tapped to headline for the first time on short notice, Marina Rodriguez secured a second straight victory with a dominant decision win over Michelle Waterson on Saturday night.
The Brazilian took charge early, using the first to figure out her range and get a gauge for what Waterson could offer in return, and then turning up the output and intensity in the second and third, leaving Waterson with a bloody lip and limited options. While the long-time Jackson-Wink MMA representative controlled the fourth after securing a takedown, Rodriguez was back to being the aggressor in the fifth, continuing to press forward even after getting kicked in the face and stung to the body, leading to a unanimous decision win with scores of 49-46, 49-46, and 48-47.
Rodriguez had a breakthrough effort at the start of the year in Abu Dhabi, scoring a second-round stoppage win over rising star Amanda Ribas, and puts herself in the title conversation with her efforts in Las Vegas on Saturday. Now 4-1-2 inside the Octagon and coming off consecutive victories over Top 10 fighters, a date with someone in the Top 5 is the only matchup that makes sense for the Thai Brazil representative next.
Waterson deserves a ton of credit for her toughness and tenacity, as she was out-gunned throughout, but never stopped pressing, having her best moments in the final two rounds. Unfortunately, she’s an undersized strawweight and has always struggled against bigger opponents, and it was more of the same here.
Folks wondered why this bout was put together at the 11th hour and installed as the main event, but the women showed why on Saturday night, combining for a terrific 25 minutes of action that elevated Rodriguez into the title conversation.
Short Notice, Showing Out
Alex Morono registered the biggest victory of his UFC career on Saturday, turning a short-notice opportunity into a first-round stoppage win over Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in the co-main event of the evening.
Subbing in for Diego Sanchez, Morono came out aggressively, taking the fight to Cerrone from the jump. After several minutes of trading blows, “The Great White” made some good adjustments and reads, landing a big overhead right that made Cerrone stumble backwards. Morono chased him down and pour on the punishment, never allowing him to recover, prompting referee Marc Goddard to step in and halt the action.
While this was a tremendous positive moment for Morono, it’s obviously the opposite for Cerrone.
Now winless in his last six, the 38-year-old is going to have to sit down and think long and hard about whether he wants to continue competing, because after dropping four straight to elite competition, he’s now come up short in consecutive bouts against opponents a little further down the rankings. He talked about dropping to lightweight and going on another run before the fight, but that seems highly unlikely now, as the 155-pound ranks are deeper and more competitive than the welterweight waters.
The main talking point coming out of this contest is going to be Cerrone’s uncertain future, but make no mistake about it: this was a massive performance for Morono and one that hustles him back to the fringes of the Top 15.
Classic Neil Magny
Whether you want to call it “Death By A Thousand Cuts” or “Drowning Someone with Pace and Volume,” you have to applaud the way Neil Magny has figured out how to play to his strengths and carve out a tremendous career inside the Octagon.
Saturday night, the welterweight veteran turned in a vintage performance against Geoff Neal, using his movement and high-volume output to get back into the win column and hand the Fortis MMA product his second consecutive loss. Following a close opening frame where Neal appeared to get the better of things, Magny turned up the pace in the second and kept his foot on the gas in the third, connecting on numerous clean, short punches as Neal looked for an opportunity to respond. Whenever he did, Magny responded quickly and in combination, frustrating Neal and securing the victory.
This is the kind of performance that has made Magny one of the most successful welterweights in the UFC and a long-tenured member of the Top 10. He’s the entrance exam hopefuls need to pass in order to establish themselves as legitimate contenders, and it’s not an easy exam, as Neal found out on Saturday.
We understandably fixate on big names and drama every week in this sport, but man — you have to tip your cap to a consummate professional and Top 10 fixture like Magny for what he’s been able to accomplish and the record he’s put together thus far.
A Stern Warning… and No Points Taken
The most interesting piece of the heavyweight clash between Marcos Rogerio de Lima and Maurice Greene was the lecture that referee Herb Dean gave to both parties before the start of the third round.
Following a round where Greene’s long fingers repeatedly got close to de Lima’s eyes and the Brazilian cracked the American with a right hand after the horn, Dean brought each man to the center of the Octagon during the interlude and gave them each a stern talking to like he was a disappointed parent that wanted no part of their children’s excuses, but didn’t want to really punish them either. Both men were warned for their infractions, but neither were penalized, because of course they weren’t.
As for the fight itself, de Lima secured a clean sweep of the scorecards, putting Greene on the canvas in all three rounds and never letting him get up, controlling him on the mat for more than four minutes in both the second and third rounds. It was a good, veteran win for the Brazilian, but nothing that will change his position in the heavyweight ranks.
Comeback City
Gregor Gillespie did a little “I can barely stand” wobble as he got up off the canvas and walked back to his corner following the first round of his massive lightweight clash with Carlos Diego Ferreira, which makes it all the more impressive that the returning wrestler didn’t need to make the walk back to his corner again.
After landing on the business end of the grappling in the first, Gillespie recovered between rounds and took the fight to Ferreira in the second, punishing the Brazilian with his pace. Ferreira, who missed weight by four pounds, couldn’t keep up, fading more and more as the round progressed, with Gillespie feeling it and responding accordingly. As Ferreira flattened out on the canvas, Gillespie unloaded from back mount, prompting the stoppage.
This was a tremendous victory for the talented New Jersey native, who had been on the sidelines for 18 months following his first-round knockout loss to Kevin Lee last time out. The 34-year-old is a handful in the lightweight division and this should land him another ranked opponent, probably someone in the Top 10, next time out.
Phil Hawes Keeps Moving Forward
Former Uber-prospect Phil Hawes continued his post-hype march up the middleweight ladder, securing a unanimous decision win over Kyle Daukaus on Saturday to push his UFC record to 3-0 and extend his overall winning streak to seven.
A D-II wrestler with explosive power in his hands, Hawes looked great in his debut drubbing of Jacob Malkoun, but struggled last time out against Nassourdine Imavov, eking out a majority decision win. This weekend, however, “Megatron” turned in the best overall performance of his brief UFC career, taking some good shots, showing an improved gas tank, and putting more of his arsenal on display to grind out a very good win over another solid middleweight upstart.
Hawes was hyped to the gills when he first transitioned into MMA, but struggled when he was hustled into the deep end a little too early. He’s retooled, gained a ton of experience, and is now starting to show why so many people were so high on him in the first place, and this weekend’s win over Daukaus should move him a few places higher in the pecking order in the 185-pound weight class heading into a summer showdown with Deron Winn.
(Yes, Hawes already has his next fight booked; it’s weird, but it’s been happening a little more frequently lately.)
TUF’s Trizano Back with a Victory
Following nearly two years on the sidelines, Michael Trizano returned to action and the win column on Saturday evening, securing a unanimous decision victory over L’udovit Klein in a fight that was much closer than the scores suggest.
Trizano was the aggressor for the majority of the bout, pushing forward, trying to corral Klein against the fence while the Slovakian sophomore constantly circled out. Each athlete had their moments, with both landing some clean, flush blows, and Klein mixing in late takedowns in the first and second. In the third, Trizano clipped Klein and latched onto a deep guillotine choke in the final 20 seconds, getting in deep only to have the final horn sound.
When the bout ended, I tweeted that the scores could be all over the place and while I disagree with the 30-27 for Trizano, you could see it coming because for whatever reason, the judges on Saturday were giving credence to forward pressure and “aggression,” which, so we’re clear, is a secondary criteria that shouldn’t be considered unless the effective striking and/or effective grappling is dead even.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks on the scorecards, with more than a few head-scratching tallies being turned in. Hopefully this is something that gets addressed and remedied because these men and women work far too hard to have bad judging cost them the results they deserve.
Turtle Power!
Junyong Park pushed his winning streak to three by handing middleweight prospect Tafon Nchukwi the first loss of his career, putting together a fundamentally sound, well-rounded effort from start to finish.
Park started well, establishing the jab in the first round, interrupting Nchukwi’s rhythm. After taking a pair of low blows in the second, the South Korean upstart snatched up a guillotine choke late in the second, locking it up tight only to have time expire. In the third, “The Iron Turtle” went to work, putting Nchukwi on the canvas and opening him up with strikes, leaving him awash in his own blood.
This was an outstanding effort from an unheralded name in the 185-pound weight class, giving Park a third consecutive UFC victory while stealing some of the hype that carried Nchukwi in to the Octagon on Saturday.
Welcome to the UFC, Carlston Harris
Guyana is 1-for-1 inside the Octagon, as newcomer Carlston Harris put Christian Aguilera to sleep just beyond the midway point of his debut in the opening fight of the night on Saturday.
Entering on a three-fight winning streak, the 34-year-old hurt Aguilera with a left hand that turned the Californian into a panic wrestler. Harris stuffed the head and attacked the choke, locking in a deep anaconda choke that put Aguilera to sleep and made his UFC debut a successful one.
This was a slick debut from a seasoned new arrival, and instantly makes Harris someone to keep an eye on going forward. The way he defended Aguilera’s takedown and swiftly locked up the choke was expert and one of those things that can set individuals apart as they look to work their way up the divisional ladder.
Harris isn’t your typical UFC freshman; this effort proved that and has me very interested in seeing what he does for an encore later this year.