UFC Jacksonville: About Saturday's Action...
Recapping the results from Saturday's loaded fight card in Duval County and how they play going forward
Standout Performance, Still Undefeated
Ilia Topuria continued his unbeaten ascent up the featherweight ranks, dominating recent interim title challenger Josh Emmett over five rounds, collecting a clean sweep of the scorecards to move to 14-0 and establishing himself as a legitimate title contender right now.
After a patient, measured first round, Topuria began to distance himself from Emmett, his superior technical striking, swift jab, and sharp leg kicks chipping away at the veteran, leaving him increasingly bruised, bloodied, and battered as the fight progressed. In the fourth, the rising star dropped Emmett with a short left hook and tried to chase down a finish, but the Team Alpha Male representative survived before Topuria wisely put him on the canvas midway through the fifth to salt things away.
This was a major statement from Topuria, who is now 6-0 in the UFC and the top fresh contender in the 145-pound weight class. He has all the talent in the world, is poised, smart, and doesn't over-extend himself. He is the real deal, and the UFC could book him in a championship fight next time out if they were so inclined, provided Yair Rodriguez doesn’t dethrone Alexander Volkanovski, and it would be more competitive than I think folks believe at this moment.
Topuria keeps showing more and more, raising his levels each time out, and he could very well continue to do so all the way to the featherweight title.
Barber Keeps Getting Better
Maycee Barber turned in the best performance of her budding career on Saturday, bludgeoning Amanda Ribas in a bloody, high-impact battle between ranked flyweights.
“The Future” had tons of hype when she touched down in the UFC and won her first three fights, but folks started to abandon the bandwagon after consecutive losses to Roxanne Modafferi and Alexa Grasso. Since then, however, Barber has shown continual improvements and development, running her winning streak to five with her most dominant effort to date this weekend in Jacksonville. She’s learned to play to her strengths, use her physicality, and build trust and belief in her team and corners.
Barber is another in a long list of example of how we need to give fighters time to mature, figure some things out, make mistakes, and grow. We’re always in a hurry to hustle young athletes into the thick of things, but very seldom are competitors ready to be real contenders before their mid-to-late 20s, and there are very few UFC champions that aren’t 30-plus.
Those losses, that time to grow and build and learn from the crew in Sacramento have been so crucial in this improvement and evolution in Barber’s game, and now, several years after her dreams of breaking Jon Jones’ record as the youngest champion in UFC history came and went without her even being in contention, she’s working her way there as a more complete, more dangerous, more legitimate threat in the flyweight division.
Ugly Eye Poke, Dumb Reactions Follow
The fight between Austen Lane and Justin Tafa was just getting started with Tafa screamed in agony, covering his eye.
“You alright?” referee Dan Miragliotta immediately asked, as Tafa stood bent at the waist, having just had Lane’s entire finger driving into his right eye. From there, it just got more and more dumb, as Tafa told the referee and doctor that he could not see as blood streamed from his eye, which continued to swell by the second. Despite obviously needed to wave off the action, Miragliotta seemed focused on making sure Tafa took all five minutes allotted to him, as if suddenly his eye wasn’t going to be significantly compromised.
Thankfully, the right decision was made, but sweet merciful Jesus these fellas almost made a meal out of this.
Here’s the thing: when you hear “I can’t see at all” and the person’s eye is bleeding and swelling, just stop the fight, right then and there. We’re done. They can’t continue. Just call it. Tafa kept telling them he can’t see — he wasn’t asking for more time or a chance to continue; he just answered the questions being asked of him honestly, and even if he was trying to continue, take the decision out of his hands and protect him.
This stuff isn’t that difficult.
Keep Watching David Onama
The one question I had for the featherweight fight between David Onama and Gabriel Santos centered on how much Onama had grown in the 10 months since his brawl with Nate Landwher, given that he has plus tools and shifted to a new camp. Well, the answer was “A LOT” as the dangerous featherweight hopeful settled Gabriel Santos in spectacular fashion.
After defending a number of submission attempts and getting touched up little in the first, Onama settled in and found success in Round 2, clawing back on the feet and navigating more interactions on the canvas before stunning Santos with elbows in close. From there, he uncorked an uppercut that sent the Brazilian crashing down to the canvas in a heap.
Onama impressed in his short-notice debut up a division against Mason Jones a couple years ago, showed out in his divisional debut against Gabriel Benitez, and re-affirmed his standing as a promising, emerging talent in the 145-pound weight class. The 29-year-old is 11-2 overall and is the type of dynamic fighter that could continue making major strides with each successive camp and appearance.
“All In” Has Upped His Game
Brendan Allen faced down the moments that had previously caused him to falter on Saturday, taking some good shots from Bruno Silva in the early stages of the main card opener. Rather than wilt, the Louisiana native dug in and responded in kind, sting Silva and sitting him down before attacking a choke in transition and securing the finish.
This was an important performance from Allen, who has now won five straight, with the last three coming by way of rear-naked choke. Saturday’s bout had “trap game” vibes and looked like it was headed there, but the 27-year-old showed he’s addressed the mental and emotional challenges that resulted in earlier losses in these types of situations. He’s always been someone that projected as a top-end talent, but now he’s appears to be putting it all together, making himself an ascending contender to watch in the middleweight ranks.
The post-fight interview was a little all over the place — have two things you want to say, make them clear, and call it a day — but Allen has done enough to merit a date with someone stationed ahed of him in the rankings. It’s going to be interesting to see how much further “All-In” can push this run of success as the competition continues to get stiffer, but he’s looked sharp of late and could very well work his way into title contention with a couple more wins.
Preliminary Card Thoughts
Neil Magny did Neil Magny things in his “Mirror Match” with Phil Rowe, forcing “The Fresh Prince” to get into the kind of grimy, gruelling battle that has carried him to the most wins in UFC welterweight history and collecting another win along the way.
When Rowe let go of his hands, he did well, but as soon as Magny was able to put him on the back foot, the veteran claimed control of the action and had the greater success. What Magny does exceptionally well is constantly pick at you — he lands little shots in the clinch, throws good knees to the body, short uppercuts, and combinations when they’re in space. As much as Rowe had moments, Magny was the better man throughout, and rightfully got the nod.
*
Every time Randy Brown fights, I end up thinking the same two things: (1) Brown is a solid, serviceable fighter in the “Second 15” at welterweight, and perfectly designed for that role, and (2) I really wish Brown would do a little more.
Against Wellington Turman on Saturday, “Rude Boy” eked out a decision win in a fight where he started well, slowed, and barely hung on. If we scored this Pride style, Turman wins the fight, as he stayed on Brown into the third and busted him up there, hammering home short elbows in the clinch. Brown had salted away the first two frames and still came out ahead, but it was a perfect example, to me, of those duelling impressions I have about the tenured welterweight.
One other note from this fight: great to hear Jon Anik give TSN MMA reporter Aaron Bronsteter a shout out during Brown’s walkout, mentioning his reporting that Brown’s father would be able to watch him for just the second time on Saturday, as he is incarcerated. I’ve never understood why there aren’t more references and mentions like this during UFC broadcasts, as there is a ton of great reporting and information gathering being done that deserves to mentioned.
*
Day and night difference for Mateusz Rebecki from his first and second UFC appearances, as the Polish lightweight looked sharp in stopping Loik Radzhabov.
From the outset, Rebecki started banging home inside leg kicks, and he continued banging them home more and more as Radzhabov failed to address them. By the start of the second, the veteran from Tajikistan was barely able to stand, and Rebecki took full advantage, backing Radzhabov to the fence, smashing him with more leg kicks, and dropping him with a right hand that brought referee Larry Folsom in to mercifully stop the fight.
One other thing: Dominick Cruz initially, quietly balked at the stoppage, suggesting it was premature before Jon Anik jumped in and acknowledged it was more about the cumulative punishment, not the individual blow or Radzhabov being out. There was a point early where Cruz was terrific on comms, but he’s fallen a long way since then.
*
There wasn’t a lot to the strawweight fight between Tabatha Ricci and Gillian Robertson, which the former won by unanimous decision, which seemed to be slightly surprising to the latter, though I’m not sure why.
Robertson has been in the UFC for more than five years, with Saturday being her 15th appearance inside the Octagon. Somehow, in all that time, the Florida-based Canadian hasn't really made any strides in her striking, and it continued to cost her this weekend. When she can force grappling interactions, Robertson can find success, but as long as you don’t engage with her on the ground, she’s infinitely beatable, and Ricci followed that game plan to a tee in Jacksonville.
“Baby Shark” is slowly putting things together and has now won four straight, but she has miles to go before she is ready to share the cage with even the mid-pack set in the rankings, not to mention the elite of the 115-pound weight class.
*
I owe Joshua Van an apology. I didn’t think the relatively inexperienced 21-year-old would be able to jump into the Octagon on one week’s notice and out-work Zhalgas Zhumagulov, and I was all the way wrong, as the newcomer took home a split decision victory on Saturday.
This was one of those instances where I leaned too far into Zhumagulov’s experience in the UFC and minimized Van’s chances because of the level of competition he’d faced prior to this weekend. As it turned out, Van was more than capable and all my thinking that Zhumagulov was better than his record suggested wasn’t quite correct. Van deserved the nod in this one, looked sharp for a young newcomer, and is someone to pay close attention to over the next couple years as he continues to develop and improve.
*
This is going to make me sound like an asshole, but so be it: the fight between Chepe Mariscal and Trevor Peek was entertaining, but suggesting it’s a Fight of the Year contender is laughable to me.
As expected, this was two guys throwing hammers from the jump and trying to beat the holy hell out of each other throughout. Peek’s defence is to stop punches with his face. He throws everything with 100 percent power and the kind of wind-up you see from a kid being told they can take a swing at the heavy bag. Mariscal had good moments, and he was up a division on short notice, so it’s hard to knock him for anything here, but this was a chaotic slop-fest that shouldn’t, in my opinion, be mentioned alongside some of the elite, competitive battles we’ve seen this year.
*
Jack Jenkins and Jamall Emmers paired off for an entertaining, competitive, back-and-forth battle in the featherweight division. Everyone agreed it was close, everyone agreed it was a tough fight to score, and then when the judges totals were read aloud and Jenkins emerged victorious by split decision, Twitter lit up with a bunch of people having a difficult time understanding how that could be the case.
Close fights have weird scores, and that shouldn’t still be a surprise to people. Jenkins had moments in all three rounds, as did Emmers, and neither had a “no question that was his round” frame. This was just a good, competitive, entertaining scrap and getting salty about the scores being different than you anticipated is just weird to me.
*
Not to skip over Sedriques Dumas registering his first UFC victory in Saturday’s opener, but I really am curious about the decision-making of Cody Brundage and his team on taking this fight. A short-notice pairing when you’re on a two-fight skid is always risky, and then when you couple that with his wife being close to giving birth to their second child, you have to question whether his head was ever going to be in this fight.
I don’t know how these decisions are made, but this felt to me like a spot where Brundage’s coaches and management squad should have told him to sit this one out, rather than hustling into things without being fully prepared.