UFC 274: 10 Things We Learned (PPV Edition)
A main card as intriguing and exciting as Saturday's merits a more detailed recap of what transpired and what it all means
Best Lightweight in the World, Hands Down
He may not have a championship belt at the moment, but Charles Oliveira is without question the best lightweight in the world… and it ain’t even close any more. Oliveira scored a first-round submission win over Justin Gaethje in Saturday’s UFC 274 main event, pushing his winning streak to 11 with the most impressive effort of an incredibly impressive run.
These two got after it right out of the chute, with both men taking damage and getting hurt almost immediately. Gaethje put Oliveira on the canvas twice, and in each instance, he had no interest in going to the canvas with the Brazilian submission ace. Oliveira stung Gaethje on the feet as well, rocking him a couple different times before dropping him with a right hand and diving to the mat to find a finish. While his initial triangle setup wasn’t there, he scurried to the back, sunk in the choke, and put Gaethje to sleep.
If there were any people still believing that Oliveira is the guy that used to look for exits back in the day, this should finally kill that sentiment dead. Gaethje smashed him with heavy shots and knocked him down a couple times, giving the Brazilian every opportunity to quit, but instead, he stood up and walked right back into the lion’s den.
He may not have a belt around his waist, but Oliveira is the uncrowned champion and the best lightweight in the world right now, hands down, no questions.
Lots of Options at Lightweight
The interesting thing about Oliveira not having the belt at the moment is that the UFC can really pick any of a couple different options and have a tremendous championship fight to promote.
Want to throw Michael Chandler back in there? Cool.
Streaking contender Islam Makhachev? Hell yes.
Former champ Conor McGregor? Not my favourite option (more on his future later), but it sells.
Former titleholder Rafael Dos Anjos? I wouldn’t be mad at that either.
Oliveira has looked so good, been so impressive over these last three championship fights that he’s a must-see attraction and the A-Side regardless of who he’s paired off against, including McGregor. And so we’re clear: “The Notorious” one would get waxed, quickly, emphatically.
What’s even more exciting is that the division is flush with talent beyond that group, with plenty of addition emerging names still climbing the ranks outside of the Top 15 that should mean we continue to get tremendous fights up and down the division for the next several years.
And New…
Carla Esparza is the new UFC strawweight champion, earning a split decision win over Rose Namajunas in a tense, controversial fight.
There wasn’t much action to pull from when putting together the scorecards between each round, as the familiar foes showed each other the utmost respect, opting to stay outside and take no risks. They landed very few strikes, and when Esparza did get in for a takedown attempt, Namajunas quickly scrambled her way free and retreated to safe space.
This was one of those fights where the scores — both officially and unofficially on Twitter — we all over the place and rightfully so. Watching live, I had the fight for Namajunas, 49-46 favouring the select few shots she landed in the first, third, fourth, and fifth to the brief wrestling moments Esparza managed, as none of them yielded damage or produced any real control time, positional advances, or submission attempts.
But it was a ridiculously difficult fight to score and one that will take a couple different re-watches in order to get a better sense of how the judges arrived at their verdict.
Right now, Esparza is the champ for a second time, the owner of a six-fight winning streak, and poised to get married next weekend.
Congrats to the new champ — on this win and her impending nuptials.
Questionable Cornering
The one thing that really stood out for me in the co-main event, both in real time and even more now that we know the final tallies, was the corner advice and direction from Namajunas’ side.
Each time “Thug Rose” returned to her corner, she was met by her fiancee Pat Barry and head coach Trevor Wittman, who told her she was doing great and presenting things like the fight wasn’t close. I get not trying to make your charge anxious or ratchet up the pressure too much, but in a fight as close, as uneventful as that, how can you confidently sit there and say she’s cruising and doing everything right?
What’s odd (to me at least) is that Namajunas showed in those few scrambles that she’s capable of dealing with Esparza’s grappling attacks, so why not open up a little more? Again, I understand not going all out and putting yourself at risk, but it certainly felt like Namajunas has opportunities and the greater weaponry at her disposal, and to lose your belt in a fight like that, where you really didn’t do too much of anything has to sting worse than making a mistake and getting caught.
I look forward to hearing from Namajunas and her team once the disappointment of the evening subsides.
Knockout of the Year
Michael Chandler hit Tony Ferguson with a front kick to the jaw that is unquestionably the current clubhouse leader and prohibitive favourite in the Knockout of the Year race.
Ferguson looked sharp to start the fight, dropping Chandler with a jab in the first, causing blood to leak from his nose and his right eye to give him problems throughout the remainder of the round. It wasn’t quite vintage “El Cucuy,” but it was clearly the best Ferguson had looked in years. When they came out to start the second, Ferguson circled off to the right with Chandler in pursuit, and the former Bellator champion uncorked a front kick up the middle that landed with vicious impact.
This wasn’t a quick snap kick like Anderson Silva’s famous finish of Vitor Belfort; this was Chandler punting Ferguson’s chin into orbit, with the former interim champion going out instantly and crashing to the canvas, where he remained, motionless, for a scary amount of time. Chandler celebrated, and Ferguson remained down, and when he finally got to his feet, he looked completely shell-shocked.
Chandler cut a quality promo afterward, calling for rematches with the main event combatants or a fight with Conor McGregor whenever the Irishman is ready to return, suggesting 170 pounds, which sounds lovely to me, but it’s hard to revel in the spectacular finish because of the impact it clearly had on Ferguson.
Post-Gaethje Fight Problems?
Messaging with my guy Harry Powell in the aftermath of the Chandler-Ferguson fight, he asked whether there was some kind of lingering impact on each man following their respective clashes with Justin Gaethje, and he might be on to something.
Ferguson hasn’t been the same since going nearly five full rounds with Gaethje at UFC 249, with that clash being the first bout in his current four-fight losing streak. Chandler went to war with Gaethje last November at Madison Square Garden, and looked a little slower and got dropped by the kind of shot that hadn’t previously dropped him. Gaethje didn’t put Chandler on the deck last year, but a clean jab from Ferguson sat him down on Saturday, and it’s worth pay attention to his future fights to see if there really something like PGFP impacting these competitors.
Duane Finley and I used to talk about the lingering impact of these epic battles and one-sided beatdowns all the time, wondering how a fighter would respond in the wake of a pummelling or getting put through hell, and more often than naught, they weren’t the same, nor could you expect them to be. Some eventually found their way back to good, but most struggled to recapture the greatness they displayed before those dogged battles, and I’m curious to see if Ferguson, Chandler, and others are dealing with the aftermath of sharing the Octagon with the human demolition derby that is Justin Gaethje.
Sometimes What You Want and What You Get Don’t Line Up
In the lead-up to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s fight with Ovince Saint Preux, the broadcast team outlined that he’d like to fight twice more — once in front of a crowd, for sure, and once more after that before calling it quits. During the fight, Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan fawned over Rua still being active, talking about how many of his contemporaries had already moved on, while Jon Anik referenced that his best year in Pride was 2005.
Rua may want to fight again, but I’m not sure if he’ll get the opportunity.
He dropped a split decision to Saint Preux on Saturday night in a tepid, lethargic contest where he spent the final 10 seconds backpedaling to open space, rather than engaging, even though it was a close fight. Facing the best possible stylistic matchup for him at this time — a low-output, 39-year-old distance fighter — he didn’t have much to offer behind a few inside leg kicks and the odd stray right hand.
“Shogun” was one of the best fighters on the planet during his prime, before dealing with major knee issues, but those days were nearly two decades ago, and there is no shame in accepting that your time has come. But Rua, like innumerable competitors in every sport, seems to be struggling to accept that reality, and I worry that if he does make the walk again, he’s going to end up with more than the smattering of bumps and bruises he picked up on Saturday against Saint Preux.
“Rude Boy” Really Coming Into His Own
Although he got caught with a short right hand in the first round, Randy Brown came out in the second and third fighting full of confidence and swagger, marching down and touching up Khaos Williams to kick off the main card by securing his third straight victory.
Now 13 fights and seven years into his UFC career, Brown is really starting to put things together, learning how to use his length and work behind his jab. He got clipped a couple times on Saturday — once in the first, and once more in the third — but he quickly shook out the cobwebs and got back after it, instantly clocking Williams with a clean right hand once he was back on his feet.
Brown is a perfect example of a fighter who has needed time and tests in order to mature and develop, and his build has been steady and enjoyable to watch. Each time he’s lost, he’s gone back to the drawing board, made adjustments, and taken another step forward. He might not be a world-beater or a future world champion, but he’s established a place for himself just outside the Top 15 and should continue to be an entertaining, improving talent to keep tracking there for the next couple years.
UFC 276 is Loaded
Following a lengthy video package on middleweight champ Israel Adesanya, the UFC announced the lineup for UFC 276 on July 2 and good lord does it look tasty.
In addition to Adesanya defending his title against No. 1 contender Jared Cannonier, the centrepiece of International Fight Week includes:
Alexander Volkanovski vs. Max Holloway III (for the featherweight title)
Sean Strickland vs. Alex Pereira
Andre Muniz vs. Uriah Hall
Pedro Munhoz vs. Sean O’Malley
Lauren Murphy vs. Miesha Tate
Jessica Eye vs. Maycee Barber
Dricus Du Plessis vs. Brad Tavares
Robbie Lawler vs. Bryan Barberena
You could give me those nine fights and those nine fights only, and I would be more than happy to spend the first Saturday of the summer watching the action, but we all know there will be even more goodness added to the lineup in the weeks to come.
Here’s hoping everything remains intact because that is an “Event of the Year” lineup already and it’s only going to get better. It so good, in fact, that I might have to consider booking myself a flight to “Sin City” to go check it out from press row.
Rough Night on the Comms
Saturday was one of those tough days for the commentary team; even Jon Anik slipped up, and that dude does not make mistakes… ever.
In addition to the usual assortment of early “that’s deep/tight” calls from Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier talking about scoring the rounds without knowing the scoring criteria, we had a bunch of informational and research mistakes from Cormier, promos for a movie produced by The Daily Wire starring Donald Cerrone and Gina Carano (yuck, to the whole thing), and too many tangents and personal anecdotes for my liking.
What makes the cringe-worthy parts so frustrating is that there are elements that are quality, but they’re too few and far between on nights like this to make a difference. This is the pinnacle of the sport, and there are too many instances where it doesn’t feel as clean and expertly discussed as it should be, in my opinion.
The co-main event was a mess to me, with the experts bemoaning the lack of action, rather than giving a detailed explanation of why it was happening. They called the fight based on what they wanted to see, instead of what was happening — and there was stuff happening, even if it wasn’t fluid action — and it was a missed opportunity to address the incredible stakes at risk and how that contributes to a fight like that one.
Call the action. Tell me what’s happening. Break down the stuff that people don’t know. Point out the key moments that folks might miss, and allow the action to play out rather than talking over everything all the time.
This was a rough night, but hopefully it’s just one bad night and we’re back to quality comms next time out.
Create your profile
Only paid subscribers can comment on this post
Check your email
For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.
Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.