UFC 290: 10 Things We Learned (Main Card Edition)
A full-scale look at the results from the UFC 290 pay-per-view fights and the ramifications of those outcomes
And Still!
Alexander Volkanovski remains the top man in the featherweight division after collecting a third-round stoppage win over Yair Rodriguez in the UFC 290 main event.
From the outset, the Australian was a step ahead, turning to his grappling to ground Rodriguez and rough him up from top position. He was able to control the dynamic challenger and neutralize a great deal of his offensive arsenal, and then when it looked as if Rodriguez was settling in on the feet, Volkanovski planted a counter hook on his chin that left the challenger reeling.
Volkanovski chased him down, blasted his midsection, and dumped him to the canvas, pounding out the finish.
Here’s the thing: this was a freakishly dangerous fight against an explosive striker who just showed he’s slick of his back, and Volkanovski made it look easy. Even when Rodriguez landed — and he had some good moments in the third — the champ was unbothered, acknowledging the shot and stepping back into the fray.
This was a fight that highlighted the stuff Volkanovski spoke to me about earlier in the week — that desire to continually raise the bar for the division and elevate his own levels each and every time. He showed that on Saturday, and he’ll show it again the next time out, regardless of who he faces.
Here’s the Thing About Volk…
Volkanovski wasn’t supposed to be this guy.
It’s easy to revise history and change stances on people once they’ve reached the summit and achieve greatness, but the Australian was unheralded when he touched down in the UFC. Nobody outside of his home nation was checking for him heading into his promotional debut. He was stationed on Oceanic cards for his first four appearances, competing before the debuting Israel Adesanya at UFC 221, where he mauled Jeremy Kennedy and started generating a little buzz.
Even after he pushed his record to 7-0 in the UFC by adding wins over Darren Elkins, Chad Mendes, and Jose Aldo, he wasn’t forecasted to test Max Holloway. He was more like the “next guy in line” after successfully defended against Brian Ortega and Frankie Edgar, and then he won the title and he has yet to relinquish it.
This is a technical, tactical, driven fighter whose belief and work ethic is off the charts, and there is zero complacency either. He really will be back in the gym as quickly as he can, and will be as focused on turning in a dominant effort against the next challenger, which is most likely Ilia Topuria, whenever they face off.
The dude is special, even if none of us saw it coming.
And New!
Alexandre Pantoja is the new UFC flyweight champion, collecting a split decision win over Brandon Moreno to give Brazil another UFC titleholder.
This was an absolute epic battle and a tremendously difficult fight to score, outside of the first two rounds, which went to Pantoja and Moreno respectively. The Brazilian seems to have earned the edge for his superior work in the grappling department, as he was able to advance to back mount and force Moreno to defend and scramble multiple times in each of rounds three, four, and five. While he was never close to finding a submission, never mind threatening a finish, the ability to get to Moreno’s back seemed to rule the day for the two officials that scored the fight in favour of the champion.
Recapping the action and writing this feature makes it difficult for me to score fights in the moment, but my impression as I watched was that Moreno won the fight, so I’m going to have to watch it back on Sunday or Monday (or both) with the commentary muted and my focused devoted to the action in order to deliver clear, detailed thoughts on how I scored the fight.
Regardless of how you saw things, this was an instant classic and feels like the new frontrunner in the Fight of the Year race.
What a Goddamn Night
I’m throwing this one in here rather than the end of this 10-piece because I want people to think about as we move into the non-title action from Saturday night.
This was one of those special events that we shouldn’t just move on from, shouldn’t just chalk up as another quality pay-per-view event; this was different and we should be sure to remember it as such and discuss it as such going forward. We had four fights end in under 40 seconds (a UFC record), and a Fight of the Night between Dan Hooker and Jalin Turner that didn’t earn Fight of the Night honours because the flyweight title fight was ridiculous, plus a new middleweight title challenger emerged, a bunch of young talents showed out on the prelims, and Bo Nickal showed he’s got hands.
Sitting at home I had the butterflies that usually accompany being in attendance, and I can only imagine what it felt like being in the building in Las Vegas. We cannot take this stuff for granted or not celebrate the truly special evenings when everything comes together to produce an outstanding evening of action inside the Octagon.
‘Stillknocks’ Still Rolling
Dricus Du Plessis is your next middleweight title challenger after earning a second-round stoppage win over Robert Whittaker in the final non-title fight on Saturday.
The South African contender stole the opening stanza by grounding Whittaker and splitting him open with a slicing elbow, and then maintained his his output and torrid pace into the second, chasing down the former champion and getting him out of there with a flurry of heavy shots along the fence. This was an absolutely tremendous performance that highlighted Du Plessis’ physicality, power, and conditioning, as he came out pushing the action and never let off the gas.
I didn't think Du Plessis had this in him — I really didn’t — and he proved me and many others wrong. He looked sharp, despite his awkward striking mechanics, and deserves full marks for becoming just the second person to beat Whittaker at middleweight. This was one of those fights that forces me to really re-examine my assessment of ‘Stillknocks’ because wins like this resonate and merit that kind of consideration.
Plus he’s got a huge fight on deck now.
UFC 293: Adesanya vs. Du Plessis
Provided Du Plessis is healthy and able to compete on September 10, he’ll be headlining the UFC’s return to Sydney, Australia in a battle with middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
The two men have engaged in a war of words on social media since Du Plessis defeated Derek Brunson earlier this year, and poured gas on those fires in the Octagon on Saturday, setting the stage for a potentially fascinating showdown in the fall. Adesanya re-claimed the belt in April and wanted a fresh challenge, and now he’s got it in the form of the South African powerhouse, who clearly wasn’t bothered by the interaction after his victory.
On first blush, you have to favour Adesanya as he’s the champ, the taller and longer of the two, and carries more sudden power than Whittaker brought to the Octagon. But Du Plessis is a live, live, live dog — a confident, motivated, focused threat brandishing serious power and a readiness to put himself in harm’s way in order to find the success.
The lead-up to this one could get ugly, but from a fighting standpoint, the matchup is delicious, and if the rest of the slate between now and September 10 wasn’t so good, I’d be wishing it was already September right now.
Dan Hooker Isn’t Human
Dan Hooker took a baseball bat to the head in the second round of his clash with Jalin Turner that would have dispatched the vast majority of men to the Shadow Realm. But Hooker? He stayed upright and started firing back almost immediately, taking the fight to Turner and nearly finishing the fight in that very same round.
“The Hangman” claimed the split decision victory after 15 minutes of chaos in the kind of performance that makes you wonder what the hell this dude is made of, for real.
We talk all the time about toughness and grit and those types of things, but this was another level of ability to absorb punishment and stay locked in. Seriously, Hooker ate Turner’s shin and would have won the fight in the same goddamn round if he had three more seconds to finish the rear-naked choke that he had locked in deep. Even when Turner came out pressing to start the third, Hooker was able to weather the blows and respond in kind, claiming his second straight victory since returning to the lightweight division.
Don’t Write Off Turner Yet
Despite the setback, Turner is still someone to keep an eye on at 155 pounds.
Just about everyone else falls over if they get hit with that high kick and some of the other hellacious blows he landed on Hooker would have earned him a victory, so the fact that he wasn’t able to put away a dude that is an absolute savage with inhuman abilities to take punishment doesn’t lessen his stock, at least not for me.
Turner just turned 28 a couple months ago and has run into the difficult tests that come with trying to force your way into the Top 10. He has incredible raw materials for the division, has shown he’s a Top 15-20 talent, but now he needs to go about the business of fine tuning things in order to ascend to that next level.
We’ve seen this story many times over — a rising star hitting a rough patch before making some adjustments and ultimately taking the next step. Turner is more than capable of doing that, and now it’s just a matter of seeing if that’s how things shake out.
Nickal Has Hands Too?
So it turns out that Bo Nickal isn’t just a wrestler.
Saturday night, the three-time National champion from Penn State knocked out short-notice replacement Val Woodburn in just 38 seconds, and it wasn’t a one-punch, lucky-shot type deal either. The first overhand right that stunned Woodburn was impressive, and the two lefts that put him on the canvas were clean — pull counters that landed flush and took Woodburn off his feet before Nickal smashed home a coffin nail.
We knew his grappling skills were off the charts and still improving, but now the 27-year-old has shown that his hands are developing too. He’s surrounded himself with a great team, has the drive, work ethic, and focus to be great — he’s shown that on the collegiate wrestling mats — and is clearly carrying all that with him into his mixed martial arts career.
Yes, this was a matchup with a short-notice replacement who was expected to get beaten handily, but I don’t think many people saw it happening that way.
Go Slow With Bo
I know there is a ton of hype. I know people want to see him hustled up the ranks and thrown in with name brand opposition. I want the UFC to go the other way with Nickal, despite how impressive he’s looked and the buzz surrounding him.
Here’s what I said about how the UFC should approach things with Nickal in my preview of this event at OSDB Sports:
To be clear: the UFC should continue booking Nickal the way they have so far — he has four pro MMA appearances, and no amount of hype or collegiate wrestling success is able to replace actual experience in the Octagon and years of training in MMA. He turned 27 at the start of the year, and if he can stay healthy and log another fight this year, and then two more in each of his Age 28 and Age 29 campaigns, you’d potentially have a fighter that is 10-0 that has properly worked his way up the divisional ranks as he readies to turn 30.
Give him incremental steps up at every turn, but don’t do anything drastic; there is no need. The performance on Saturday was amazing, no doubt, but it shouldn’t change the approach. He’s two fights into his UFC career and should be facing someone similar next time out, either running it back with Tresean Gore if he doesn’t require surgery and a lengthy layoff, Sediques Dumas following his win a couple weeks ago, or Josh Fremd should he beat Jamie Pickett at the end of the month in Salt Lake City.