UFC Paris: About Saturday's Action...
Recapping the results and ramifications of Saturday's fight card at Accor Arena in Paris
‘Bon Gamin’ Delivers Again
For the second consecutive year, Ciryl Gane returned to the win column while returning to compete on home soil, delivering a masterful performance in dispatching Serghei Spivac in the main event.
Gane was always going to be the superior athlete and striker, but the question that hovered over this fight was how he would combat the clinch and takedown attempts of Spivac after being out-wrestled for a second time earlier this year against Jon Jones. While he looked a little panicked and hurried in defending the initial takedown attempts, Gane was successful in avoiding those entanglements, showing the work he’s clearly been doing to shore up that side of things. And in space, he absolutely battered Spivac.
After picking his spots and making reads in the first, Gane cranked up the intensity and volume in the second, putting extra steam on his punches and kicks, attacking the body and clearly hurting Spivac. Once he had “The Polar Bear” reeling, the French heavyweight swarmed, pounding out the finish along the fence.
Beating Spivac doesn’t erase the two wrestling-based losses of his career, but it’s a good indication that Gane is working to address those shortcomings, as he should. He’s such a superb athlete that if he can simply develop better early detection and quick ways to extricate himself from those situations, he should be able to have greater success going forward.
He looked like an absolute star tonight, and put himself back into the title conversation with a tremendous bounce-back effort at home for the second straight year.
Fiorot Keeps Things Interesting at Flyweight
Fighting for the first time since UFC 280 last October, Manon Fiorot collected her sixth straight UFC victory and 11th consecutive win overall, out-landing and out-pointing Rose Namajunas on the scorecards.
Fighting at home in France for the first time in her career, Fiorot was clearly the more physical, stronger of the two, getting the better of the striking exchanges while doing exceptionally well to keep Namajunas was having any success in the clinch or when searching for takedowns. A heavy clash of heads opened up a big cut on the right side of her head, but Fiorot was completely unbothered, only acknowledging it at the end of the bout when the cutman was working diligently to keep it from bleeding any further.
In her post-fight interview, “The Beast” called for the next title shot in the 125-pound weight class, and it’s going to be very interesting to see how things play out over these next couple weeks.
Alexa Grasso took advantage of Fiorot being injured following her win over Katlyn Chookagian last October by hustling into a championship fight and shocking the world by submitting Valentina Shevchenko. Erin Blanchfield used Fiorot’s absence to race to the top of the list of contender, submitting Jessica Andrade in February before out-working Taila Santos last week in Singapore. Grasso and Shevchenko run it back in two weeks, and then we’ll find out whether Blanchfield or Fiorot has next, and which one will be forced to be patient and wait their turn.
Saint-Denis Keeps Rolling
Benoit Saint-Denis was on the business end of one of the worst non-stoppages in UFC history two years ago in Abu Dhabi when he lost his debut at welterweight to Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos. Since then, it’s been all violence and all victory for the French “God of War.”
On Saturday night, the 27-year-old took the fight to Thiago Moises, cutting him open with a sharp elbow that set the crimson flowing in the first before pounding out a finish just prior to the midway point of the second round. While there were moments where Saint-Denis got a little loose and brawled too much — much to the frustration of his corner, who scolded him for it between rounds — the former paratrooper was simply too big, too powerful, and too punishing for Moises to deal with in Paris.
Four straight stoppage wins in the lightweight division cannot be overlooked or diminished, especially not when he’s taken a step up in competition each time out. Moises is a fixture in the “Second 15” and gave champ Islam Makhachev a stern challenge on his way to the title, and Saint-Denis blew through him on Saturday. He’s willing to wade into the fire and clearly has sharp finishing instincts, and he should merit another quality step up in competition next time out.
As someone that took up residency on “Saint-Denis Island” early on, allow me to welcome you to town; hit me up if you need any information about the area.
Give It Up for Volkan Oezdemir
I talk about this stuff all the time, but Volkan Oezdemir’s performance on Saturday highlights why.
The former title challenger, who has spent his entire UFC career facing ranked opposition, leaned on that experience and savvy to defeat newcomer Bogdan Guskov. He waited to find his shots, hurt Guskov, and then floored him with a follow-up shot before chasing him to the canvas, climbing into back mount, and finding the rear-naked choke.
While it’s easy to say, “He was just 6-6 coming into this one,” Oezdemir’s losses have come against two former champions, three athletes that have fought for championship gold, and a durable, Top 15 fixture in Nikita Krylov. He’s been in there with elite competition throughout his career, and although the results haven’t always gone his way, there is something to be said about facing that level of talent each and every time you make the walk.
We have to do a better job of appreciating athletes that fight such a difficult strength of schedule, rather than looking at them simply on the basis of their defeats.
Controversial Finish, Better Comms Needed
The featherweight clash between William Gomis and Yanis Ghemmouri was stopped abruptly in the third, when a borderline low blow was deemed legal and Ghemmouri’s refusal to re-engage instantly prompting him to halt the action.
First: it was a low blow — we see shots that jostle the junk called as low blows that earn fighters a brief respite all the time, and it’s my opinion that referee Loic Pora got this one wrong.
Second: Michael Bisping insisted that instead of stopping the fight, Pora should have urged the fighters to continue, but he had, multiple times, while Ghemmouri was turning away to adjust his cup and seek a pause.
Everyone makes mistakes and the ending of this fight was a mashup of miscues by both the referee and “The Count.”
The referee is the chief decision-maker in there, and if they say continue, you have to continue, and when you don’t, the fight is over, so while I understand Ghemmouri’s frustration, Pora was simply doing things by the book as he felt was right. Ideally, we would have gotten an instant replay where the bout could have been scored as a technical decision, having already completed two of the three scheduled rounds. Additionally, I hope someone points out to Bisping that the referee did instruct the combatants to continue fighting multiple times, because he clearly missed it in real time.
Hoist the Flags!
“The Last Pirate” Morgan Charriere made an incredible statement in his promotional debut, kicking off the main card in Paris by literally kicking the hell out of Manolo Zecchini.
The former Cage Warriors standout was patient out of the gate, happy to take his time and trade range-finders with Zecchini to start. But after one thudding kick to the body clearly hurt the Italian, Charriere refused to let him recover. He banged home another thudding blow that forced Zecchini to circle into space, then sent him to a knee with another kick to the midsection, and as he tried to clamber to his feet, Charriere hit him with one more for good measure, sending him toppling backwards and ending the fight.
Charriere is one of those competitors whose resume doesn’t quite reflect the true level of his talent, as if you don’t look at who he’s lost to, you can get distracted by his eight setbacks. But four of those defeats have come against serious talents Paul Hughes, Jordan Vucenic, Soren Bak, and Salahdine Parnasse, all of who could and should be in the UFC. Facing that level of competition has prepared him to thrive at this level, and Saturday’s effort showed his not going to waste any time getting acclimated and making a name for himself at this level.
Charriere is one to watch closely at 145 pounds.
Preliminary Card Thoughts
Taylor Lapilus parted ways with the UFC following a victory over Leandro Issa in September 2016 that ran his record to 3-1 in the promotion and 11-2 overall. Saturday evening in Paris, he returned, picking up right where he left off by handing Caolan Loughran the first loss of his professional career.
Now 31 years old and entering on a five-fight winning streak, Lapilus leaned on his speed and significant experience advantage to get the better of Loughran in a fight that only came together mid-week after some late changes. It was a patient, polished showing from “Double Impact,” who earned wins over Nate Maness and Wilson Reis, amongst others, during his time between UFC stops, and he looks poised to be an immediate factor in the middle of the featherweight division going forward.
Loughran gets full marks for dealing with the unfavourable late shift in opponents and having his moments, showing that he has upside and room to keep growing as he gets a chance to gain further experience at this level, but this was Lapilus’ night. He was welcomed as a superstar as he walked to the Octagon and cheered like a conquering hero when announced as a the victor, which should help carry him to bigger opportunities in short time now that he’s back in the UFC.
It’s becoming clear that Ange Loosa is incapable of being in boring fights, as “The Last Ninja” paired off with returning Irishman Rhys McKee in a wild welterweight affair on the prelims.
Loosa took the fight to McKee in the first and had him on the brink of being finished in the second, only for McKee to come racing back down the stretch in the third, hurting Loosa and opening a massive cut on his left cheek. The scorecards all fell in Loosa’s favour, rightfully, giving the Kill Cliff FC representative his second straight UFC triumph. Unlike the previous fight, this was one where the 30-27 score that was turned in was completely unacceptable, as McKee had Loosa hurt and backing up late in the fight after he did little to merit the nod earlier in the round.
Michael Bisping did his level best to call the fight for McKee and heap praise on the returning Irishman, who went 0-2 in his first tour of duty, with losses to Khamzat Chimaev and Alex Morono. He’s now 0-3 in the Octagon, and should get another opportunity, but the former Cage Warriors champion is now fighting in the middle of the 170-pound ranks and has to have more than that sharp final minute if he wants to stick around beyond his next fight.
Nora Cornolle got a little home cooking with a pair of 30-27 scores, but the French Muay Thai stylist certainly did enough to garner the victory over Jocelyne Edwards in her promotional debut.
The opening round was a “damage vs. control” frame, with Cornolle doing the damage and Edwards doing the controlling, while the second was clearly a Cornolle frame. In the third, the French newcomer landed the much better shots on the feet, but Edwards able to drag her to the canvas, take her back, and search for a rear-naked choke while roughing her up with short punches.
This is another one of those cases where people shout about wanting to see damage scored over control and then buck when Cornolle garners the decision. If the grumpiness stems exclusively from the two 30-27s, fine, but even if you flip that third round, she still takes home a unanimous decision win… and for whatever it’s worth, I scored in 29-28 for Cornolle.
Just a brilliant effort from Farid Basharat on Saturday in Paris, as the undefeated bantamweight prospect grounded and submitted Kleydson Rodrigues with relative ease.
Rather than mess with the explosive and quick Brazilian on the feet, Basharat wisely took the fight to the canvas, where he had a considerable edge. He transitioned to mount following his first takedown, and instantly returned Rodrigues to the canvas after he scrambled free and back to his feet. From there, he used short elbows and small movements to create the opening he needed to attack an arm triangle choke, floating off to the side and collecting the tap in the final minute of the opening round.
Basharat debuted with a good win over Da’Mon Blackshear and upped the ante with this one, showing more of his submission game while pushing his record to 11-0 overall. In addition to trying to chase down his brother Javid, who is 14-0 overall and back in action on September 23 against Victor Henry, Basharat went to Paris to prove he’s a serious emerging threat in the talent-rich 135-pound weight class, and he did that and then some by dispatching Rodrigues quickly and efficiently.
Former LFA bantamweight champ Jacqueline Cavalcante warmed into her fight with Zarah Fairn, settling in after a tepid opening stanza to continue distancing herself from the French veteran en route to collecting a unanimous decision win in her debut.
She’s just 26 and only seven fights into her MMA career, so there is plenty of time to grow and develop, and Fairn isn’t necessarily representative of the level of competition she’ll face going forward in the UFC, but all you can do is beat the person they put in front of you, and Cavalcante did just that. She gets full marks for debuting on Fairn’s home turf and works with a good team at Blackhouse MMA that should result in some solid improvements over the next few years as she continues to gain experience.
I understand the UFC wanting to give Fairn the opportunity to compete in Paris, but now that she falls to 0-4 inside the Octagon, it’s time to part ways with the 36-year-old. This is one of those instances where the fighter has been given every opportunity to succeed and come up short, leaving little reason to continue booking them to compete at this level.