UFC 274: 10 Things We Learned (Prelims Edition)
Recapping all the talking points and takeaways from Saturday's UFC 274 preliminary card
The Old Guy Has Still Got It
Francisco Trindaldo closed out Saturday’s preliminary card with a dominant performance against Danny Roberts, stinging the British welterweight multiple times on the way to collecting scores of 29-28, 30-27, and 30-26 to secure his second straight win at welterweight.
The 43-year-old Brazilian showed a ton of power, but limited Fight IQ in the second and third, connecting with big shots that caused Roberts’ nervous system to momentarily go on the fritz, only to follow up each time by looking to grapple. When he did, Roberts defended well and recovered, getting back into the fray when he appeared on the brink of being sent packing. Despite the questionable decision-making, Trinaldo got the job done and looked impressive in spurts, making this 43-year-old smile.
“Massaranduba” is one of those guys that has put together an excellent resume over the years, with Saturday’s victory giving him an 18-7 record inside the Octagon. He fought and beat a bunch of quality lightweights, and has now made the transition to welterweight, where he’s quickly established a place for himself in the middle class, where he can consistently deliver performances like this as a veteran presence and perpetual tough out.
Better Bout Orders Needed
I know I’m the guy that wrote a piece about fight quality trumping fight card placement not that long ago, and in terms of how we talk about the competitors and the stakes involved, that still holds true. But after sitting through Saturday’s prelims and seeing the most intriguing fights of the night take place before some less compelling contests, I think it’s time for the UFC to rethink how it lines up these fight cards going forward.
While I don’t think the lineup needs to go most important to least important from the top of the prelims down — in part because it’s hard to judge and measure importance in some preliminary card fights — but Tracy Cortez and Melissa Gatto shouldn’t have been on Fight Pass. Brandon Royval and Matt Schnell shouldn’t have been kicking off the televised prelims. Andre Fialho and Loopy Godinez needed to be showcased better as emerging talents working their way up the ladder in their respective weight classes.
A change in the main card lineup altered the complexion of the prelims on Saturday, with Randy Brown and Khaos Williams getting moved to the main card when the fight between Donald Cerrone and Joe Lauzon was scrapped, but that didn’t impact having Fialho, Godinez, and Cortez on Fight Pass / ESPN+ or Royval and Schnell hitting the cage before Macy Chiasson and Norma Dumont.
It feels like there is no rhyme or reason to the bout order many times, and that is what makes the need to fix it all the more important. Spotlight the competitors on the come-up or working into contention, no the longest tenured veterans or specific divisions. It won’t always work out perfectly, but more often than naught, it’ll likely be better than it has been of late.
Bad Cards, Bad Division
It might be time to just close down the women’s featherweight division once and for all.
Saturday night, Macy Chiasson scored the rare 30-27, 28-29, 30-27 split decision win over Norma Dumont, looking solid for two rounds, not great at all for the third, and prompting a lot of questions about the future of the weight class. If these are the best contenders in the division — and right now, they are — and the champion Amanda Nunes is occupied with her impending rematch against Julianna Pena, leaving no real future to plan for at the moment, why not just call it a day and close things down?
I love having the division and having as many weight classes as possible, when they’re properly stocked and properly built, and featherweight has never been properly built or properly stocked. There are a handful of fighters competing in the division on a sporadic basis and if more athletes aren’t going to be brought in to add depth to the weight class, what’s the point in carrying on?
As for those scorecards, I don’t really know what to say because 30-27 for Chiasson is preposterous. She got clocked by a couple clean, hard shots in the third by Dumont, prompting her to shoot and stall along the fence of the majority of the round. She landed three significant strikes according to UFCstats.com and while she had a ton of control time, she did nothing with it, and therefore shouldn’t be awarded the round.
But two of the three judges thought otherwise, which makes me sad, and a little frustrated.
Royval Wins a Wild One
The flyweight scrap between Brandon Royval and Matt Schnell was always going to be wildly entertaining and full of action, but somehow, they still managed to exceed expectations.
Schnell came out like a house on fire, taking the fight to Royval and dropping him, kicking off a gnarly grappling sequence that kept the fight on the canvas for the remainder of the round. Just when it seemed like the Louisiana native was in control, Royval initiated a scramble and found Schnell’s neck, diving on a guillotine and drawing the tap with a one-armed version of the familiar choke.
Royval has made six appearances in the UFC, each of them against a Top 10 opponent, and he’s one four of them, including each of his last two outings. While he’s not going to get the championship opportunity he called for following the win, it’s worth remembering that he did submit Kai Kara-France during his rookie campaign and that his loss to Brandon Moreno came in a bout where he suffered a gruesome shoulder dislocation.
The Factory X Muay Thai representative is an entrenched member of the upper class in the 125-pound weight class, and quicky becoming one of the most consistently entertaining fighters to watch on the entire roster.
Bad Decision Benefits Blagoy
Blagoy Ivanov returned to the Octagon and the win column on Saturday evening, edging out Marcos Rogerio de Lima on the scorecards to collect a questionable unanimous decision win.
Two rounds were clear — de Lima handily won the first, bombing away in combinations and touching up Ivanov, while the Bulgarian won the third, throwing and landing more throughout the frame as the two heavyweights slowed to a crawl. That means the fight came down to the second, and while Ivanov had some moments, it felt like de Lima did enough to garner the nod, and the reaction on his face after the decision was read suggested he felt the same.
This feels like a vintage 2010 decision, where the judges saw a competitive round and decided to reward the fighter moving forward for the majority of the round, which absolutely should not be how rounds are scored in 2022. It’s not how they should have been scored in 2010 either, but at least then you could still claim some naivite on behalf of the officials. Ivanov landed some good shots, but de Lima’s consistently seemed to have the great impact, and immediate impact is supposed to be at the center of scoring rounds.
No one is going to be too salty about the janky scoring, but bad judging should always be scrutinized and called out, and this was a bad decision.
As Anticipated
Andre Fialho put Cameron VanCamp to sleep midway through the opening round of their preliminary card clash on Saturday, giving him two first-round wins in four weeks and the clubhouse lead in the “Newcomer of the Year” race in the UFC.
There was a point prior to the finish where VanCamp landed clean and put Fialho on unsteady footing for a moment, but when he got a little too aggressive trying to follow up, the Sanford MMA man responded with a shot that stiffened VanCamp and settled him down. A minute later, a left hook detonated on the debuting fighter’s chin and the fight was over.
Not to take away from Fialho’s efforts — the finish was gnarly and he’s a legit talent — however this was the expected outcome of this fight, and if you want to argue otherwise, you’re being intellectually dishonest. The only reason you book someone like Fialho, coming off a first-round knockout win over a more experienced, more accomplished fighter than VanCamp on short notice like this is to get this kind of result, ideally.
Now, things go sideways in MMA all time (these things happen), but this felt like an old school WWF-style squash match from the jump and Fialho got it done as quickly as those old WWF Superstars matches featuring the promising new arrival taking on the local jobber. The Portuguese welterweight looks like a promising addition to the roster, and it will be interesting to see how things progress for him from here.
Still Streaking
Tracy Cortez continues to be unbeaten in the UFC and pushed her overall winning streak to 10 with a unanimous decision win over Melissa Gatto.
The Dana White’s Contender Series alum and Phoenix native got the better of the grappling exchanges in the first and third rounds, avoiding a number of submission attempts and setups from the Brazilian, who was active off her back throughout and the more effective fighter in the middle stanza. The key for Cortez, as my friend Harry Powell pointed out on Twitter, was the ability to land damage from her wrestling base, where Gatto was more interested in attacking submissions and trying to create space or scrambles.
It wasn’t a ton of damage, but it was enough to clearly win two rounds and keep her winning streak intact. Cortez works with a good team and can now learn from her beau, featherweight standout Brian Ortega, as well, so it will be interesting to see what kind of improvements she can make as she continues to progress.
This isn’t the last we’ll hear from Gatto either — she’s still only 26 years old, and has the raw tools to be an effective fighter in the UFC going forward; she just needs to refine things a little more in order to get there.
A Genuine Great Fight and A Need for More Penalties
Saturday’s flyweight scrap between CJ Vergara and Kleydson Rodrigues was the kind of back-and-forth battle deserving of the “great fight” praise erroneously bestowed upon last weekend’s clash between Natan Levy and Mike Breaden, as the DWCS alums went toe-to-toe for 15 minutes, with Vergara coming out on the happy side of the split decision.
This was a technical, entertaining battle where each man had their moments and momentum shifted on strong attacks, rather than exhaustion, with Rodrigues batting through getting hurt in the second and Vergara coming on strong down the stretch to narrowly edge him out on the cards.
In the third round, there were two instances where Vergara grabbed the fence in grappling exchanges — once when Rodrigues began to attack a calf slicer and take his back, and again to get himself off the deck and into an attacking position on the ground. Both times, referee Keith Peterson swiped at Vergara’s hand, but never considered penalizing him, either by taking a point or the position.
Something needed to happen — and referees need to be more comfortable penalizing fighters in those instances because it shifts the outcome of exchanges, if not fights. Everyone knows the rules and they’re given a refresher in the back before the fights start, so while I understand officials not wanting to insert themselves into the decisions, the fighters are bringing the penalties on themselves, and if there is no cost, there is no reason not to break the rules.
Keep a Close Eye on Loopy Godinez
After a strong rookie campaign in 2021, Loopy Godinez kicked off her sophomore year inside the Octagon in dominant fashion, rag-dolling Ariane Carnelossi for 15 minutes en route to a unanimous decision win and her second straight victory.
The Mexican-Canadian wrestler took the fight to the canvas early in each round, never really allowing Carnelossi back to her feet for more than a couple seconds in any frame. While the first was more control and short shots in close, the second and third featured more damage and ferocity from Godinez, who rocked the Brazilian with a couple clear rights in the second and slammed her to the canvas with force on multiple occasions in the third.
Still in the early stages of her MMA career, Godinez is showing marked improvements each time out, and is only going to continue to get better. She is a tremendous athlete with outstanding conditioning, tons of heart and toughness, and an extremely bright future inside the Octagon.
A Long Journey to Victory
Nearly three years after making his promotional debut and following both a No Contest verdict and a long layoff, Journey Newson finally picked up his first UFC victory on Saturday night, kicking off the main card with a clean, solid unanimous decision win over newcomer Fernie Garcia.
Following a competitive opening stanza, the more experienced Newson took control of the contest, stinging Garcia on the feet in each of the final two rounds, doing a good job of diversifying his attacks and forcing the Fortis MMA man to chase him around the Octagon. When it was clear that Garcia was unable to cut him off and yet still throwing low volume, Newson upped his output and worked to interrupt Garcia’s rhythm as often as possible, leading to a clean sweep of the scorecards.
This was a strong, workmanlike effort from the 33-year-old bantamweight to finally get things moving in the right direction.