UFC Vegas 41: Emerging Talents Get Another Chance to Shine
A host of promising fighters are back in action on Saturday night, looking to position themselves for bigger and better heading into 2022 on another fight card too many are dismissing too quickly
This weekend’s fight card is another one of those offerings that a ton of people that get paid to cover this sport are going to moan about and say contains very few interesting matchups or stories, which is true only if you’re focused on the absolute biggest names in the sport exclusively and don't pay attention to those working their way up the ladder in their respective divisions or the veterans that add depth and experience to all these weight classes.
Yes, I sound like a broken record, but I will continue to play this tune as necessary because every fight card features a couple fighters that have quietly strung together a two, three, or four good wins, or an established name looking to build off a strong performance, or a second chance to get a look at a quality prospect that may have stumbled out of the gate, and yet each time a card like this rolls around, the build up to Saturday features a lot more instances of people that cover this sport dismissing talented competitors, interesting matchups, and compelling stories and it will just never make sense to me.
The argument is always that the UFC should reduce the number of fight cards it puts on and load up all of its shows with more established names, but seeing the way so many fighters and fights get brushed off as being unimportant or uninteresting or featuring unknowns, I genuinely don’t think it would be possible for the promotion to put on more than two events per months where the unpleased masses would be satisfied with the matchups being offered — not because the UFC is short on talent, but because the bar for whether a fight is worth watching or a given athlete is someone to pay attention to has been set so high that only a very small percentage of fighters and fights would qualify.
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My assumption is that most fans and media members will only be mildly intrigued by this weekend’s co-main event between Grant Dawson and Ricky Glenn, even though Dawson is unbeaten in the UFC (5-0) and riding an eight-fight winning streak overall, while Glenn is a durable and dangerous veteran returning after registering a 37-second knockout win in his last appearance in June.
It is, in my opinion, the exact kind of fight that should be stationed as the penultimate pairing on a card like this — a chance to get the emerging Dawson a little more shine, give him a little bit of a push, but also test him against a solid, experienced hand like Glenn, especially when he was originally slated to face Carlos Diego Ferreira, who is currently stationed at No. 11 in the rankings, before the Texas-based Brazilian was forced out of the contest.
Winning five straight in the UFC is extremely difficult and another victory this weekend should land Dawson opposite a ranked opponent next time out, at which point there will be a whole of people scrambling to learn more about the talented 27-year-old prospect fighting out of the emerging Glory MMA & Fitness team helmed by James Krause.
It’s not just Dawson that has put in the performances to merit greater attention from the media that so often dismisses these events, and therefore this opportunity before him.
Jessica-Rose Clark turned in the best performance of her career last time out, walloping Sarah Alpar and collecting a third-round finish in her second fight back at bantamweight. She’s been sidelined since after blowing out her knee in the contest, but she’s won four of her last six overall, showed real meaningful growth and development in that September 2020 engagement, and is the kind of scrappy, experienced competitor that can serve as a truth machine towers the lower third of the rankings, taking on rebuilding veterans and emerging hopefuls alike while trying to work her way up the divisional ladder at the same time.
Veteran featherweight Alex Caceres is arguably on the best run of his 11-year UFC career, entering Saturday’s event on a four-fight winning streak where he’s shown greater focus and consistency. “Bruce Leeroy” may be the bigger name in this fight, but his opponent, Seungwoo Choi, is someone folks should really be paying attention to this weekend.
The 28-year-old South Korean dropped his first two UFC appearances, but has won three straight since, most recently earning a first-round stoppage win over Julian Erosa, who has earned finishes in each of his three other bouts since returning to the UFC for a third time. And here’s the thing: his first loss came to Movsar Evloev, who is undefeated and sitting at No. 13 in the rankings, and the second came against Gavin Tucker, who is a tough sumbitch who won two more after that before falling to a Top 15 fighter in Dan Ige last time out.
In a division loaded with promising young talent, Choi is another name to track because if he continues performing the way he has of late, he’s going to be in knocking on the door of the Top 15 himself in the not too distant future.
Last summer, after Junyong Park scored a dominant unanimous decision victory over John Phillips, I jokingly asked why no one was freaking out about his impressive performance given that so many people were utterly blown away when Khamzat Chimaev mauled the one-dimensional Welshman a few months earlier. Prior to that fight, Park defeated Marc-Andre Barriault, who is unbeaten since, and after it, “The Iron Turtle” thoroughly outworked Tafon Nchukwi, with the majority decision verdict a testament to bad judging and not a reflection of his effort in the Octagon.
He’s got a solid assignment against Brazilian finisher Gregory Rodrigues on Saturday, and if he picks up a fourth straight win this weekend, he’s going to be another fighter from this card that lands opposite an established, potentially ranked opponent next time out.
There are also two more youngsters competing on Saturday night that fans should be keeping an eye on going forward, Mason Jones and Jeff Molina.
Jones was a two-weight titleholder under the Cage Warriors banner before moving to the UFC, entering with a perfect 10-0 record before clashing with Mike Davis in a competitive, entertaining, back-and-forth fight in his debut and landing on the wrong side of the results. He returned four months and change later and was dominating Brazilian veteran Alan Patrick through the opening seven minutes before an eye poke brought the fight to a halt, resulting in one of this year’s five No Contest verdicts.
The duo was initially slated to run it back, but Patrick was forced to withdraw and has been replaced by newcomer David Onama, an 8-0 finisher from the Glory MMA & Fitness crew who is moving up a division and making a quick turnaround after registering a first-round stoppage win on October 8.
Molina graduated to the UFC following a strong showing on the Contender Series last season, and in his promotional debut, “El Jefe” instantly established himself as an action fighter to track in the flyweight division. Locked in a close fight with Chinese newcomer Aoriqileng through two rounds, Molina landed more significant strikes in Round 3 (127) than the duo had combined to land in the opening two frames (121), out-landing Aoriqileng by 70 strikes to run away with the decision down the stretch.
Did I mention he just turned 24 in the summer and also trains with Dawson and Onama in Lee’s Summit, Missouri under the watchful eye of Krause?
He’s already got the toughness and tenacity you can’t teach, plus naturally quick hands, and an eight-fight winning streak overall. As he continues to fill out, continues to gain experience, continues working with this burgeoning all-star team in “The Show Me State,” Molina could blossom into a Top 15 fixture in the strawweight division.
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Believe me, I know there are a lot of events taking place right now — both simply within the UFC and in totality when you factor in everyone and everything else — and it makes keeping track of all the emerging talents and intriguing stories difficult… but that’s the job; at it is to me.
As someone who writes about these events every week, penning serial pieces like Fighters on the Rise and One Question for Every Fight, I don’t feel like I’m doing my job to the fullest if I don’t know who these men and women are, how they got here, and where they might go, and it is genuinely surprising to me how many of my contemporaries do not feel the same.
I get that not everyone has to or wants to cover everything from top to bottom, and many people really do only care about the top-end talent and a handful of personal favorites, which makes sense and is understandable — I just wish they communicated that piece of it more often, rather than slamming so many of these events and dismissing the athletes competing on these overlooked and undervalued cards.
Seven of the 12 current UFC titleholders began their careers fighting on the prelims, while a couple others were on the main card of shows that were largely ignored, and all of them took seven or more UFC appearances to reach the summit of their respective divisions, meaning there was a point for just about every one of them, save for perhaps Rose Namajunas, who was showcased on The Ultimate Fighter, were somewhat unheralded, preliminary card talents, even if only for one fight.
We need to write about, talk about, and show an interest in these cards and the athletes that populate them, not just the marquee names and numbered events, because there is talent on these shows that people are being told to ignore and are being told aren’t worth their time, and that’s just not the case.
They may not be stars now, but they could be in a couple of fights, at which point everyone will want to know why they’d never heard of Grant Dawson or Seungwoo Choi or Jeff Molina before and the unfortunate truth will be because many of the most prominent voices in this space told them not to bother or couldn’t be bothered themselves.