UFC 269 Aftermath: Geoff Neal, Kai Kara-France, and Other Important Talking Points
The championship fights and main card chaos deserves a ton of attention, but so do some important developments from the litany of additional outstanding fights that went down Saturday night
Oh, what a night!
Mid-December out in Sin Cit-y
What a very special time indeed
What a fight card
What a night
Yes, I just started this piece by paraphrase a song that was released four years before I was born, which means it was released before everyone that competed inside the Octagon on Saturday night at UFC 269 was even close to being born, and yet it still seems fitting giving what a magical night it was at T-Mobile Arena.
Charles Oliveira navigated early rough waters against Dustin Poirier before climbing on his back and securing the submission finish early in the third round, solidifying his place atop the division and silencing his last critic in one fell swoop. After many viewed him as a placeholder when he claimed the vacant title by stopping Michael Chandler in May, the 32-year-old Brazilian made it clear on Saturday night that he is the apex predator in the 155-pound weight class at the moment.
He could still end up as the betting underdog in his future fight with Justin Gaethje, which should come next.
The Conor McGregor loyalists will declare him D.O.A. in a theoretical pairing with their Irish lord and saviour, which certainly could materialize because money.
The Khabib Nurmagomedov set will make a point to ensure everyone knows they think the retired former champion would have handled “do Bronx” with ease and project Islam Makhachev to do the same should he eventually share the cage with the Brazilian finisher.
But for now, arguing against Oliveira’s legitimacy as champion and overall standing as a world-class talent is simply an exercise in contrarianism, which is never in short supply in the MMA space.
One fight before Oliveira cemented his place atop the lightweight division, Julianna Peña shook up the world, making good on every one of her pre-fight promises by taking the fight to Amanda Nunes and dethroning the long-reigning champion, forcing her to quit in the second round.
Writing that sentence still feels surreal even though I’ve watched the second round back multiple times and know it all to be true. The debates about where Peña’s win ranks in the pantheon of all-time UFC upsets will never be all the way settled (personally, I have it at No. 1, but that’s just me) and things could flip “back to normal” if the two run it back next year, but right now, there is a new bantamweight queen and that is absolutely wild.
Those are the headlines, the lead stories from Saturday night’s event, with Sean O’Malley’s continued ascent and Cody Garbrandt’s continued decline serving as the secondary talking points coming out of UFC 269, but there was a whole lot more that deserves greater attention coming away from the final pay-per-view event of 2021, and I want to take some time to address them here.
Geoff Neal Back in the Win Column (and Sayif Saud’s Cornering)
This time last year, Neal was preparing to face Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in the last main event of 2020. He entered on a seven-fight winning streak, sporting a perfect 5-0 record inside the Octagon with quality wins over Niko Price, Belal Muhammad, and Mike Perry. He was an emerging finisher many saw as a potential contender getting his first main event opportunity, and he stumbled.
Then he stumbled in his next fight after that as well, dropping a unanimous decision to Neil Magny in a fight where he never seemed to get out of first gear, never really seemed to trouble the long, rangy Top 10 stalwart, and a lot of people asked to get off the Geoff Neal bandwagon.
But Saturday night, Neal claimed a split decision win over Santiago Ponzinibbio in the final non-title fight of the evening, taking in every word of Fortis MMA leader Sayif Saud’s sharp between-rounds instructions to claim the third round and the victory.
I want to highlight this effort because last August, Neal almost died, and I think we kind of forgot that. At the very least, we didn’t factor it in enough when reviewing those losses to Thompson and Magny.
That’s not to take anything away from those two athletes or an attempt to make excuses for the Dana White’s Contender Series graduate, but he went from septic to standing in the cage with a Top 5 fixture in four months. Five months later, he lost to another rankings mainstay. Now, more than a year removed from being on death’s door, he gutted out a good win over a game veteran in Ponzinibbio, and I tend to think this effort on Saturday night is far more indicative of what Neal actually brings to the table than what we saw in those two defeats.
He’s back to being an intriguing name to watch in a division where the current champ has disposed of the established contenders, and positioned himself for another marquee assignment with his win on Saturday.
And I just want to make one more mention of Saud’s cornering because while I’ve joked on Twitter and in this space at times about how a conversation with “The General” can fire anybody up, that was a master class in knowing what your fighter needs to hear and delivering it in a way that it’s going to get through to them, and something many others in that position could learn from.
Kai Kara-France’s Victory
Listen, I know Garbrandt is the bigger name and the way things have played out for him as we near the five-year anniversary of his magical effort against Dominick Cruz to claim the bantamweight title has to be discussed, but we can’t leave Kara-France out of all these post-fight conversations.
The 28-year-old New Zealander waited for his opening and then kicked in the door, putting Garbrandt on skates midway through the round. After getting a little ahead of himself, the former Ultimate Fighter contestant slowed down, picked his shots, and put the former bantamweight titleholder out.
Now, I don’t know if Kara-France is going to get the championship opportunity he was calling for after the fight, but I also think he shouldn’t be fighting someone like Manel Kape as Daniel Cormier suggested either, firstly because “DC” is clearly just trying to rep for one of his guys, but also because there is no reason to pick off a possible contender in a division where exciting contenders are in limited supply.
Personally, I think you get him in there with Askar Askarov, who has been out of action since March and missed weight ahead of his last fight, ideally on the same card as the championship trilogy fight and sort out the next title pairing on the same night.
Tai Tuivasa is Getting Good, Man
It’s easy to get caught up in everything else that surrounds a Tai Tuivasa appearance and victory — walking out to “Barbie Girl” by Aqua, doing a shoey on the Octagon wall as soon as the fight is stopped, doing several more on the way to the back, his general gregariousness and lovability — but don’t sleep on the fact that “Bam Bam” is becoming someone to keep close tabs on in the heavyweight division.
This was the most professional effort of Tuivasa’s career — a patient, measured finish of Augusto Sakai where he stayed within himself in the first round, taking what he was given and not chasing anything too wildly, before recognizing when he has the Brazilian hurt in the second and never letting him off the hook.
Because he’s been around for a minute and had a quick rise and equally quick fall over his first six fights, it’s easy to forget that Tuivasa is only 28 and only recently truly committed himself to being a mixed martial artist, rather than someone that steps into the Octagon looking to get into a fist fight and will take whatever comes his way. He’s built a team around himself in Abu Dhabi and mixes in work with the crew at AKA, where he’s sure to get put through the wrestling paces.
Tuivasa has now earned four straight wins, all by stoppage, and should have a number next to his name when the rankings update. I asked ahead of the event if he could join the ascending pack in the heavyweight ranks, and he answered with a resounding “YES!” on Saturday night.
If I’m one of these veteran dudes in the lower half of the rankings, I want no part of Tuivasa in 2022.
Forgetting About Andre Muniz Shouldn’t Happen
Let me start by saying this has nothing to do with Shaheen Al-Shatti, who is a good friend and terrific writer, and everything to do with the very truthful statement he tweeted out after Saturday’s final early prelim:
We shouldn’t be forgetting about people like Andre Muniz; not with the sheer volume of content that is being produced on a weekly basis and the vast number of platforms dedicated to covering this sport. It just can’t happen, and yet it does, all too often.
Muniz, who submitted Jacare in May, breaking his arm in the process, earned his fourth straight UFC victory and third straight armbar finish on Saturday night, drawing a tap out of Eryk Anders before reaching the point of snapping his arm. He’s won eight straight overall and 16 of his last 17. How a guy with that kind of resume, coming off what he did to Jacare in May, gets forgotten is beyond me, and the kind of thing that sends me into one of my moods when I see it happen.
Because it keeps happening.
Yes, the schedule is a lot. No, he doesn’t have a big personality or social media presence, and he hasn’t exactly been entrusted with prime spots on major cards through his first four UFC assignments, but he became the first person to submit Jacare in MMA competition in the final preliminary card fight at UFC 262 earlier this year, which should be more than enough to get the people that cover this sport, write about this sport, talk about this sport to remember your goddamn name and make sure others are paying attention before you add another win to your resume, that kind of feels like a massive miss to me.
And no, this isn’t just because I talked about Muniz being forgotten on Wednesday in One Question, reiterated those thoughts on Thursday in 10 Things, or am looking for any kind of “Way to go, Spencer!” moment because I know those aren’t coming — it’s because I genuinely don’t understand how fighters like this get forgotten by so many people, while copious amounts of time and attention are committed to gossipy nonsense that has zero impact on what transpires inside the Octagon.
We have to do better.
Speaking of which…
How Did So Many People Not See Erin Blanchfield Coming?
Erin Blanchfield established herself as one of the absolute best prospects in the UFC on Saturday night, physically dominating Miranda Maverick on the canvas for three rounds en route to her second straight victory inside the Octagon.
This was a coming out party for the 22-year-old rising star, who entered the contest with a 7-1 record, a win over Kay Hansen, and a legit grappling resume.
The fact that Saturday was the first most people heard of Blanchfield or a massive eye-opener about her skills in the cage is another one of those “Well then what in the #@$% have you been doing if you haven’t been looking into the talented emerging talents on the UFC roster?” moments for me because, isn’t that a big part of the job?
Blanchfield instantly setting fire to ESPN’s Top 25 Under 25 list the same week it was published is both delicious and disappointing all at once, and yes, I know saying that makes me a bit of an asshole; I’ve accepted that about myself.
Much like with Muniz, this isn’t about me and the things I wrote — Fighter to Watch, One Question, 10 Things — but rather wanting the coverage of this sport and its athletes to be the best it can possibly be, and having Blanchfield at No. 20 in that list, given the names listed ahead of her, was a giant indication to me that the people responsible for putting the list together didn’t do their research.
That makes me sound like Dominick Cruz, and I’m cool with that too.
I went on a little Twitter rant late in Saturday’s prelims about this stuff, and I’ll distill it down to its essence here:
I want to see the sport covered with as much detail and care and passion as possible, and all too often, it feels to me like that doesn’t happen, and that bothers me.
Part of it is because there are people that are on top of this stuff that aren’t getting recognized for the work they’re doing and the insights they’re offering up on a regular basis, but the bigger piece is that it just appears to result from a lack of effort or interest, and that inexcusable to me, especially knowing how many people there are doing the work on smaller platforms, with smaller audiences, and much greater care and none of the shine.
Maybe my standards are too high, and I wouldn’t be so frustrated if I would lower them, rather than wishing with every fibre of my being that the bar could be universally raised.
But I mean, if a random schmuck like me can see this stuff and write about this stuff, maybe it’s not my standards or expectations that need to change?