UFC London: About Saturday's Action...
Detailing the results and offering immediate thoughts on everything that transpired inside the O2 Arena on Saturday in London
Statement Made
If there were any questions about whether Tom Aspinall was fully recovered from the knee injury that had sidelined him for the past year and ready to get back to being a contender, the British heavyweight answered both questions emphatically with one swift right hand down the pipe against Marcin Tybura in Saturday night’s headliner.
Aspinall was bouncy and active from the outset, throwing a head kick immediate, almost as if to signal that his knee was perfectly fine, before putting Tybura on the canvas with as clean a right hand as you’ll see. He swarmed and didn’t stop throwing until referee Marc Goddard pushed him aside, at which point he scaled the fence and celebrated with a look of joyous relief on his face.
It takes a lot to go right back to the place where you suffered a bad injury and shine like that, and the fact that Aspinall looked that good against a sturdy veteran like Tybura should serve as a reminder that he’s the genuine article and likely to challenge for championship gold in the next two years, if no sooner. His plan of watching the Paris main event between Ciryl Gane and Serghei Spivac, then facing the winner makes a great deal of sense, even though he’s already demolished Spivac before.
If you asked me to predict who sits atop the heavyweight division two years from now, Aspinall would be my pick.
Stoliarenko Silences London
The crowd at the O2 Arena was all lathered up after Molly McCann walked out and was introduced, but Julija Stoliarenko quieted them down in under two minutes, taking the fight to “Meatball” before taking her arm in under two minutes.
Stoliarenko raced to the center to meet McCann to start the fight, and used her length to keep the Liverpool native off-balance in the early stages. As soon as she committed to closing the distance and putting McCann on the deck, the skill gap between the two was on full display, as the Lithuanian black belt quickly transitioned from the back to attacking the arm, extending the limb and collecting the tap in a rapid chain of actions.
In speaking with Stoliaranko prior to this fight, she was ultra-confident that this move was going to be a major turning point for her career, and for tonight at least, she was correct. This was an outstanding effort from the veteran grappler, who should get another chance to shine in the not too distant future.
For McCann, this is a colossal setback that once again underscores her limitations, and likely left her with ligament damage in her left arm. Too much was made of her wins over Luana Carolina and Hannah Goldy last year in London, and her deficiencies on the ground remain a glaring issue that have never really been addressed. She undeniably popular, but the fact that she carried a number next to her name after those wins last year was laughable at the time, and looks even more egregious now.
Still Moving Forward
Nathaniel Wood picked up his third straight victory since shifting to the featherweight division, earning a hard-fought win over Andre Fili in a tremendously entertaining back-and-forth battle.
The Brit got stung 30 seconds in, but rallied quickly, hurting Fili and trying to chase down a finish, leaving the Team Alpha Male member with slice over his left eye. In the second, the American got the better of things, sitting Wood down before hitting him with a series of knees to the head and riding out the round in top position on the canvas. But Wood steadied himself and landed the more significant blows down the stretch, securing a clean sweep of the scorecards to garner the victory.
There is probably a limit to how far up the ranks Wood is going to climb as he’s slightly undersized for the division, but he’s game as can be, quick with his hands, and a well-rounded, experienced competitor. Consecutive wins over Charles Rosa, Charles Jourdain, and now Fili make it clear that Wood is a capable “Second 15” fighter at ‘45, and it remains to be seen how much further he can push it.
Another step up in competition should be coming, most likely against a Top 15 fighter, and no matter who it’s against, it’ll be well worth watching because every one of Wood’s fights are worth watching.
Paul Craig, Interesting Middleweight Addition
Scotland’s Paul Craig (and his new hair) made a successful move to middleweight on Saturday, collecting a second-round stoppage win over Top 10 staple Andre Muniz.
The popular “Bear Jew” more than held his own with Muniz when the fight was on the feet, and showed his class on the canvas when they went to the ground. He floated through a quality sweep attempt by Muniz to remain in top position, and eventually worked his way to mount, where he opted to unload with strikes rather than hunt for submissions. As the blows kept coming down, the referee was forced to intervene, halting the action with 20 seconds remaining in the round.
Craig is an interesting addition to a division that feels in flux at the moment — he brings a unique skill set to a weight class short on dynamic grapplers, and his striking has continued to come along with each appearance. We were talking about Muniz as a potential contender prior to his loss last time out, and now Craig will be a ranked fighter with no reason to go slow in his new division.
Get him in there with a Top 10 opponent and let’s see what we’ve got.
Nothing of Consequence
With all due respect to Fares Ziam and Jai Herbert, there was nothing of consequence that came from their lightweight matchup on Saturday’s main card.
Ziam came away with a unanimous decision win, garnering scores of 29-28 twice and 30-27 once to register a second straight win, but this was a largely uneventful fight that, more than anything, tells me this is about as high as we can expect the 26-year-old from France to climb unless something significant changes going forward. This was a low-volume striking effort with very little damage done in the clinch as well, which are the two areas where I would have expected Ziam to have success.
The 35-year-old Herbert didn’t do a ton either, and yes, the similarities between them made it a tough stylistic matchup, but as I said earlier in the week: if Ziam was going to be someone to pay real close attention to in the future, we needed to see it here… and that didn’t happen.
Five and Counting
A dominant third round and clean sweep of the scorecards delivered Lerone Murphy a fifth straight UFC victory, as “The Miracle” out-hustled Joshua Culibao in a competitive featherweight bout that turned one-sided.
Murphy took control of the contest in the second half of the second round and then really took over in the third, tickling Culibao’s liver with a perfectly placed kick that put him on the canvas, and keeping him there through to the end of the fight. While he wasn’t able to connect on any of the submission setups he looked at, Murphy dominated the final frame and ran away with the decision.
Fighting on his 32nd birthday, Murphy cemented his place as an intriguing figure in the 145-pound weight class just outside the Top 15. He’s unbeaten in his career and has posted consecutive wins in London this year, which should be enough to earn him a date with someone ranked next time out. There needs to be a sense of urgency here for Murphy and the UFC, honestly, as we don’t know where his ceiling rests, and it’s past time that we see him in there with the kind of opponent that will help everyone figure that out more.
Marcos Stays Unbeaten After Close Contest
Daniel Marcos moved to 15-0 overall with a split decision win over Davey Grant in the opening bout of the main card, carrying two rounds on two scorecards as a result of landing the more high impact blows in the final stanza… at least I think that’s the case.
Grant was the more active and diverse fighter in the first, mixing attacks to different levels and offering much more than Marcos, who didn’t land his first head strike until more than a minute into the second round. But the Peruvian UFC sophomore opened up Grant with a couple shots in the second, using lead elbows at times, and continued to connect with the bigger shots in the third. Folks in the building and online weren’t necessarily happy with the verdict, but it was a close, competitive battle and I have no issue with the decision.
There were a lot of people that were very high on Marcos heading into this contest, and Im not sure I see why at this point. He’s solid, no doubt, but he’s also already 30 years old and the limited output offered here isn’t going to work against more seasoned, more powerful foes further up the divisional ladder. It’ll be interesting to see who he gets paired off with next, as that will not only afford us another chance to see where he fits I the 135-pound ranks, but potentially give us an idea of how the UFC views him as well.
Preliminary Card Thoughts
The lightweight clash between Jonny Parsons and Danny Roberts that turned into the final preliminary card fight devolved into a mad, sloppy brawl that fittingly ended with a coffin nail to the back of the head.
Both men tried to fight technically in the first, but the longer the bout went, the more their technique deteriorated, which created opportunities for Parsons to connect with heavy shots that put Roberts on baby deer legs. While the British veteran tried to fire back and take advantages of Parsons fatiguing, “The Sluggernaut” continued to unload and connect, putting Roberts on the deck once more and closing things out right before the horn in the second.
This is one of those fights where some folks will rave about it being a “great fight” where I look at it and think “Not Great, Bob!” as it was too messy for my liking. Entertaining? Sure, I suppose, but not the kind of bout I personally would be heralding as Fight of the Night, which is could very well garner at the end of the night.
One last thing: Roberts might have the most memorable, demonstrative reactions to getting clipped of anyone I can recall — his legs just stop working properly and once he’s stung, it’s like he’s incapable of taking another confident step again. It’s so wild to see.
Joel Alvarez did what he was supposed to do under the circumstances, but his submission win over Marc Diakiese doesn’t feel as sound as it will look on paper.
The towering Spanish lightweight did well throughout and seemed to have things moving in the right direction before the two men clashed heads late in the frame, with Diakiese taking a head butt to the back of the head. He paused and looked to the official, who urged them to continue, and Alvarez capitalized, swarming Diakiese, dragging him to the canvas, and locking up the fight-ending choke.
It’ll be interesting to see if Diakiese and his team appeal the decision, and if anything becomes of it, as the impact of the blow clearly changed the course of the fight. All that being said, I liked what I saw from Alvarez here and it affirmed that he’s very much capable of competing in the lower third of the Top 15, if not slightly higher. Diakiese looked good in portions and should continue to be a fixture in the mid-pack of the 155-pound weight class as well.
So Mick Parkin looks like he might be a real heavyweight prospect to watch.
The Sunderland man claimed a unanimous decision win over Jamal Pogues on Saturday, showing good poise and patience while mixing his shots well en route to a clean sweep of the scorecards. There was never a point where he was bothered in there, and he did well to stay on Pogues throughout, never allowing him back into the fight once he started to grab control.
Unbeaten in six fights coming in, Parkin is the best heavyweight to graduate from Dana White’s Contender Series in my opinion. He’s a natural heavyweight while still being in good shape, showed the ability to work at a steady clip for 15 minutes after never having gone the distance before, and trains with excellent partners, which should continue to serve him well going forward. I was very curious to see how he would look here, and he did not disappoint.
Just so we’re clear: Jailton Almeida won as a light heavyweight and only moved to the big boy ranks once he got to the UFC, so don’t come for my head on that one.
Good effort from Makhmud Muradov, who halted a two-fight skid with a unanimous decision win over Bryan Barberena.
The veteran middleweight mixed things up exceptionally well, picking at “Bam Bam” from space and landing clean shots that sat him down multiple times, while mixing in timely takedowns and control in the grappling exchanges as well. He couldn’t find a finish, but that has more to do with Barberena being a tank with a ridiculous ability to take punishment. This was a strong effort to get him moving in the right direction again.
For Barberena, this went pretty much as I anticipated — he showed his toughness, showed his want and desire, but is simply out-sized and out-gunned against the athletes in the upper half of the 185-pound weight class. There are winnable fights for him at middleweight, but this wasn’t ever going to be one of them, and now he’s on a three-fight slide.
The women’s bantamweight division is in a very weird place right now.
Ketlen Vieira earned a unanimous decision win over Pannie Kianzad by taking her down and controlling her on the canvas for the first two rounds before “Banzai” won the third by reversing position and doing solid work from the top for the remainder of the frame as her Brazilian counterpart faded. This was No. 4 against No. 7 in the division, and for the first 10 minutes, we the gap between the two is greater than three rankings places suggests.
But we also saw that Vieira isn’t quite at the same tier as the top contenders in the division, either; at least not in terms of her conditioning. Right now, it feels like Julianna Pena, Raquel Pennington, and Mayra Bueno Silva have separated themselves from the pack, with Irene Aldana factoring into the mix as well. Vieira is a contender based on her place in the division, but I’m not sure I’d pick her against any of those athletes at this point.
Hopefully the next couple months will bring some clarity to how the division lines up, and we get a better sense of how all of these competitors measure up against one another.
Yanal Ashmouz clearly suffered an arm injury in the opening round of his bout with Chris Duncan, and for the rest of the contest, it was framed as a badge of honour that the compromised fighter continued to go out there.
As I tweeted out during the fight, I think we need to stop doing this. No one questions — or no one should question — the toughness and heart these men and women possess; they’ve chosen to earn a living fighting inside a cage. What we should do, in my opinion, is want to see these athletes compete when they’re healthy and advocate more for fights being halted when someone is clearly compromised.
Ashmouz argued with his corner between rounds, and it felt to me like his way of giving them an opening to stop the fight. Seldom will an athlete actually articulate that they want a fight stopped, but he was fixating on his wrist each time he went to the stool, and he wasn’t going to beat this version of Duncan, who was dialled in from the jump, with one hand.
Yes, he survived, and knowing he did so with just one arm is something, but why is he being sent out there to defend himself with just one arm in the first place?
Good bounce-back effort for Bruna Brasil, who bounced Shauna Bannon from the ranks of the undefeated in collecting her first UFC victory.
A graduate of Dana White’s Contender Series, Brasil got whacked by Denise Gomes in her debut earlier this year, but appeared much more settled on Saturday in London. She landed the better blows throughout each of the first two rounds, and was able to stem the tide when Bannon did start to rally by dragging the fight to the canvas in each of the final two frames. While it wasn’t a blistering effort by any stretch, it’s always good to get things moving in the right direction and set a foundation to build on in the future as she did here.
As for Bannon, the touted Irish newcomer showed that she is really green and has fundamental elements that she needs to improve if she wants to have success at this level. Pushing in the third is a positive, but she lacks power and needs to bolster all the weapons, learn to make it all work together quickly or else her time on the roster will be limited.
Jafel Filho turned in a gutsy, convincing effort in his sophomore appearance inside the Octagon, rallying to submit Daniel Barez in the first round.
The Brazilian got stung to the body multiple times and sent to the canvas twice, but each time Barez opted to let him up in hopes of continuing to attack and find the finish. Instead, Filho fired back and got Barez moving backwards, at which point he changed levels and put the Spaniard on the deck. From there, the Nova Uniao representative worked his way into mount, set up and arm triangle choke, and pulled the tap out of Barez almost immediately.
After pushing Muhammad Mokaev last time out, Filho now gets himself moving in the right direction, showing that he’s someone we need to continue keeping tabs on going forward in the flyweight division.