UFC Vegas 44: One Question for Every Fight
From the main event to the opening bout of the evening, there is something interesting about each pairing on Saturday's fight card
The last time I wrote an entry for this series, my current hometown of Abbotsford was newly flooded, with travel east towards Chilliwack and Hope impossible.
Two weeks later, there have been two more atmospheric rivers pass through the region, dumping more rain onto our already water-logged area, resulting in travel east remaining closed, and a State of Emergency being declared for the city and surrounding parts of the Fraser Valley. What makes all this more challenging, is that while these rare massive downpours are apparently done (I’m skeptical now because we’ve had three in two weeks), it’s not like it ever stops raining for more than a couple days out here at this time of year, so it’s really difficult to forecast when the waters will start to recede and when the infrastructure that has been destroyed throughout the province will begin to be repaired.
I do want to give a shout out to Dana White and UFC Canada for shedding some additional light on this and making a donation to the United Way of British Columbia yesterday; it really meant a lot to see and I encourage anyone that can contribute to do so because every little bit helps and there are a lot of people and places reeling from this.
Anyhow, having a fight card — a sneaky good fight card at that — to fixate on and prepare for has been a welcome distraction, so here’s a look at the questions I have heading into Saturday’s event.
Rob Font vs. Jose Aldo
Q: Is Rob Font the most underrated Top 5 fighter on the roster?
If the answer isn’t a resounding “YES!” it’s at least, “Man, he just might be” because talk about a dude that doesn’t get enough respect and attention for what he’s accomplished inside the old Octagon.
There are a couple things that work against Font:
Limited Activity: between injuries and dealing with USADA bullshit, he’s fought just five times in the last four years, losing the first one and winning the last four
Bad Timing with Opponents: he’s the guy that beats a guy so handily, so thoroughly that folks want to sit down and drill deep on what’s wrong with the dude he just whooped
If Font was out here posting two wins a year or five wins in a two-year span, he’s probably already faced an Aljamain Sterling or Cory Sandhagen or TJ Dillashaw, but because he was limited to one fight in 2019 and 2020, the New England Cartel member has kind of been on the periphery of the title picture, despite having the skills and resume to merit inclusion.
Additionally, guys like Marlon Moraes and Cody Garbrandt got the benefit of the doubt still heading into their fights with Font, but once he tuned them up, that was when everyone started to really question what was wrong with those guys, as if the answer couldn’t have just been “they were forced to share the Octagon with Rob Font.”
Furthermore, not enough people that have been falling all over themselves to heap praise on current Bellator bantamweight champ Sergio Pettis, who defends his belt on Friday against Kyoji Horiguchi, seem to remember or acknowledge that Font beat him handily too, in his own backyard no less.
Making a second start and a second straight headlining appearance this weekend certainly helps, and if he goes out and dominates Aldo the way he did Garbrandt in May, Font will go from underrated to “about to fight TJ Dillashaw for the No. 1 contender spot” in a real hurry.
Brad Riddell vs. Rafael Fiziev
Q: Will the winner be a title contender in 2022?
This is a terrific fight between a pair of Top 15 talents, two guys that are on the ascent and have a lot of people that follow the sport religiously pretty excited, myself included. Riddell is 4-0 in the UFC and on a seven-fight winning streak overall, while Fiziev has won his last four after losing his debut, including back-to-back wins over Renato Moicano and Bobby Green.
And yet I’m not sure if the winner is going to be involved in the championship chase next year.
Part of that is because things at the top of the division are crowded and have been a little slow-moving this year, which means all those folks that really established themselves as contenders this year will be vying for title shots next year, leaving people like whoever wins this one playing the role of Beneil Dariush or Islam Makhachev next year.
But part of it is because for as good as each has looked at times, I haven’t seen that definitive performance from either that has me convinced either one is going to roll into the Octagon and beat Dariush or Makhachev or Rafael Dos Anjos, who are the kind of guys you have to beat right now in order to be considered a title contender. That’s a tall mountain to climb and not getting to the summit is understandable, and I’m not yet convinced either of these two will get there… which is why I love this fight.
This is a great way to start taking those big steps forward that each of them needs to start taking if they want to get there, and could position the winner for one of those more high profile assignments to begin their 2022 campaign.
Plus it should be a lot of fun to watch on Saturday night.
Clay Guida vs. Leonardo Santos
Q: Does anyone have a better gig than Clay Guida?
I used to joke when I was growing up that I didn’t want to be a star shortstop for the Toronto Blue Jays or any other Major League Baseball team. Instead, I wanted to be the backup catcher, maybe even just the guy down in the bullpen; I would be a part of the team, not have to do too much, and would be making money playing baseball while getting to be around the game at the highest level.
Clay Guida kind of feels like the backup catcher of the UFC to me — a guy that pops in a couple times a year, and regardless of how those at-bats and appearances go, he’s going to stick around for another year… and another year… and another year after that too because he’s a beloved personality, tireless worker, and does just enough from year-to-year to not force the team to move on.
Guida is 16-15 inside the Octagon, and just 7-10 over the back half-plus of that 31-fight run. I’m not a big “judge people by their records” guy because records don’t tell the full story about anyone, however you have to admit Guida doesn’t get nearly the same kind of scrutiny for his inconsistent results and below-.500 mark over the last 10 years.
Yet two or three times a year, you can count on “The Carpenter” making the walk, getting slapped up by his brother in the prep point, and letting out a monster burp in the corner between rounds. He’ll be out there in the cage, hair flying everywhere, bouncing around, chasing takedowns, and no matter the outcome, he’ll be back 4-6 months later to do it all again.
That’s a pretty sweet gig.
Jimmy Crute vs. Jamahal Hill
Q: Who takes a step towards fulfilling their promise?
Both Jimmy Crute and Jamahal Hill have looked, at times, like future contenders in the light heavyweight division. They have also, at times, looked like they still need more time and seasoning.
Such is life when you’re competing in one of the more shallow divisions in the UFC.
Now they square off on Saturday in a dynamite matchup where each is coming off a loss where they were left dealing with a gnarly injury — Crute with drop foot, Hill with a dislocated elbow — and looking to earn the kind of win that makes you start thinking about them as future contenders again.
But are either one of them capable of actually getting there? Will either one of these men become a legitimate title threat in the next two or three years?
Much like the Riddell-Fiziev fight, this one has the potential to tell us a lot about both participants and at least provide more insight into a potential answer to that question, which is why it’s such a compelling matchup.
If I had to tab one of them to get there, it would be Crute, simply because he’s younger and we’ve already seen a more varied collection of offensive weapons from him, while Hill turned 30 in May and is still a little too green to hang with the best in the 205-pound weight class in my estimation.
Honestly, I’m not sure either gets all the way there, but I’m happy to be wrong and eager to see how this one plays out.
Brendan Allen vs. Chris Curtis
Q: Can Chris Curtis do it again?
Can Chris Curtis go from outside the UFC to knocking on the door of the Top 15 with two wins in six weeks? That’s what on the line this weekend when he steps in with Brendan Allen, once again stepping up on short notice when not one, but two of his teammates (Brad Tavares, Roman Dolidze) were forced to withdraw from the pairing.
The fact that Curtis is even in this position is wild. He’s already maxed out this year and made himself one of the most interesting stories of 2021 in the span of a handful of weeks, and now he gets the chance to topple another promising emerging middleweight and put himself on the cusp of cracking the rankings, if not in the Top 15 with another win.
I don’t know if he pulls it off, but I do know that Curtis is uniquely prepared for these situations.
As a veteran with more than 30 fights — and more importantly, more than half-a-dozen losses — he’s seen every possible scenario that could be thrown at him, and isn’t in there fighting to protect his record or his place on the roster; he’s just in there to mix it up and see what happens. He doesn’t lose any ground with a loss, and that makes him a live wire, just like he was in his fight with Hawes.
Allen is a very good fighter — big and strong, very good on the ground, improving standup, really sharp when things are clicking — but the one guy that beat him in the UFC was in Curtis’ corner for his win at MSG last month, and you can be sure he’s picked Sean Strickland’s brain and made the most of his two weeks to prep for this fight with a coaching staff that is very familiar with what Allen brings to the table.
This is such an intriguing fight.
Bryan Barberena vs. Darian Weeks
Q: Does anyone not love a good Bryan Barberena scrap?
I caught up with Bryan Barberena for a story this week, and as we talked about his penchant for getting into these grimy, dirty, endlessly entertaining scraps like the one he had with Jason Witt in July, he hit me with the simplest explanation for why it seems to be the way things tend to shake out for him inside the Octagon more often than not:
“They call me ‘Bam Bam’ for a reason”
I was at Barberena’s fight against Chad Laprise in Montreal at UFC 186 and have been a fan ever since. I’m genuinely confused when people are even non-committal about him because what’s not to love?
Every time he steps into the cage, you know you’re getting something memorable in one way or another, and really, isn’t that what we’re here for? He’s not going to suddenly become a title contender, but not everyone needs to be a title contender – we need dudes like “Bam Bam” that get out there and get after it every time out, kicking off main cards and filling out loaded prelim slates in fun, gritty battles with like-minded individuals.
He was supposed to face Matt Brown this weekend before “The Immortal” tested positive for COVID. When we spoke, I told him he felt like the successor to Brown to me, which he really seemed to like. Brown put together one really good run there, and maybe Barberena can do the same, but mostly, I think they both are guys you just end up being excited to see compete every time out because you know that every time, they’re going to leave all of themselves out there in the mud.
Maki Pitolo vs. Dusko Todorovic
Q: Can Maki Pitolo recapture his Contender Series form?
Maki Pitolo carries a three-fight losing streak and a 1-4 record inside the Octagon into his middleweight must-win against fellow struggling Contender Series graduate Dusko Todorovic on Saturday night.
Pitolo did well in stretches of his fights with Darren Stewart and Julian Marquez, but then made technical mistakes that gave his opponents the chance to choke him out. In each instance, I found myself wondering, “Why is he wrestling in the first place?”
The 31-year-old Hawaiian is an undersized middleweight, which is why he went down to welterweight for his promotional debut, but that didn’t go so well. He then missed the mark in his next scheduled appearance, and moved back up to ‘85, where he’s seemingly abandoned (or at least is downplaying) the things that feel like his best attributes to me.
It was Pitolo’s speed, volume, and diversity in the striking department that produced the overwhelming effort against Justin Sumter that earned him a UFC contract in the first place, and I’m really curious to know if he can get back to that here, because that has always felt like his best path to victory. He has good hands, sharp hands, quick hands, and because he’s undersized, avoiding the clinch and throwing those hands should be the only thing he’s looking to do when he’s in there.
Some of his struggles can certainly be chalked up to the level of competition and those technical mistakes, which fall under the Fight IQ umbrella, but I really want to see if Pitolo can fight his fight and how that translates before labeling him a guy that just can’t hang at this level.
Manel Kape vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov
Q: Can Manel Kape get it all the way right?
A couple weeks ago after Joel Alvarez ran through Thiago Moises, I tweeted out the following:
The same applies to Manel Kape, who fights for the fourth time this year on Saturday, but is still looking to get it all the way right for the first time.
After losing his first two appearances — one by unanimous decision, the other by split decision — “StarBoy” scored his first victory last time out, finishing Ode’ Osbourne with a flying knee late in the first round. Unfortunately, he missed weight by three pounds, which, when you’re competing at flyweight, is a bigger deal than when you’re fighting at ‘85 or 205.
Kape is one of those guys that carried a ton of hype when he first arrived in the UFC and he hasn’t quite put it all together yet. The talent is there for him to become a contender, but thus far, even with the first-round finish of Osbourne last time out, it has been a little underwhelming, and I’m curious to see if he can put together a complete performance Saturday against Zhumagulov, a solid professional that won’t go away easy.
Jake Matthews vs. Jeremiah Wells
Q: Will Jake Matthews ever take that next step?
I spoke to Jake Matthews ahead of his UFC debut many moons ago and several times since, so to say I’ve been an avid observer of his career would be an understatement. Now 27 and already 15 fights deep into his career inside the UFC cage, I still find myself wondering (clearly) if “The Celtic Kid” can graduate to being a Top 15 guy in the welterweight division?
He has the physical pieces you want to see — good size, fluid movement, natural power — and there have been flashes of real upside, but it just hasn’t quite translated into the kind of run that carries you into the rankings. Each time he’s gotten things moving in the right direction, he’s run into a superior grappler — first it was Anthony Rocco Martin, and most recently, it was Sean Brady.
Losing to the newly minted Top 10 welterweight is no big deal — everyone has thus far — but it makes Saturday’s fight with Jeremiah Wells more important from a developmental standpoint than maybe some are recognizing.
Wells is a 34-year-old veteran with big power, coming off an upset win in his debut. He’s playing with house money right now, much like Chris Curtis, and is going to come out looking to cap off a terrific year by taking Matthews out. The Aussie has to be acutely aware of that and not let it happen, and if he can get his hand raised with a dominant effort, that would be even better.
It’s wild to think that Matthews is still just 27 and this is the time most contenders start putting it all together and making a run, so it’s not like this is do or die or anything like that, but if he’s going to challenge for a place in the Top 15 in the near future, starting another run on Saturday feels like a must to me.
Cheyanne Vlismas vs. Mallory Martin
Q: What can we expect from the “Warrior Princess” this time out?
In her first UFC appearance, Cheyanne Vlismas got dominated on the ground by Montserrat Conejo, showing more fight after the final bell than she did for long, long stretches of the contest.
In her second outing, she knocked out Gloria de Paula in a minute flat with a kick that was inches away from being illegal, but instead ended up landing perfectly.
Now, heading into her third appearance, I have no idea what to expect.
She was supposed to fight a couple weeks back against Loma Lookboonmee, but was scratched for undisclosed reasons. She up and left Fortis MMA and moved back to Vegas following her debut loss, and is now going by her maiden name again, which means in addition to a wild first year in the Octagon, there has been a bunch going on outside the cage as well, all of which combines to make her a complete wild card this weekend against Mallory Martin.
Vlismas has flashed potential throughout her career, but she gives off a bit of an “agent of chaos” vibe too, which makes it hard to forecast how things will play out for her both this weekend and beyond.
Maybe she thrives in those instances. Maybe it means this fight could be coming at the wrong time. I have no idea, but I’ll be tuning in Saturday in an attempt to get a better understanding of what the answer is and where she goes next.
Alonzo Menifield vs. William Knight
Q: Did anyone else instantly think of Big E when this matchup was announced?
I genuinely tried to work this into my Fight-By-Fight Preview, but thought better of it, because (a) I knew not enough people would get it, and (b) I didn’t want to piss off my editor (Hi Tom!), so I figured I would save it for here instead.
May I present to you WWE champ and MMA fan Big E:
Alonzo Menifield and William Knight are big dudes, built like trucks, that hit like a ton of bricks, and Saturday night, they’re going to get in the Octagon and try to beat the hell out of each other.
It won't quite be the two big meaty men bumping meat Big E joked about above, but I mean, it’s going to be close.
Additionally, it’s going to tell us more about each of these light heavyweight hopefuls, both of whom are coming off good performances last time out. One will take another step forward with a victory on Saturday and I really am curious to see which one of them it is… but I also couldn’t help but laugh and think of Big E as soon as I saw this matchup on the slate.
(BTW: Woods’ laughing is what really makes the clip)
Claudio Puelles vs. Chris Gruetzemacher
Q: Is anyone else keeping an eye on Claudio Puelles?
Claudio Puelles debuted in the UFC on November 5, 2016, losing to Martin Bravo. He’s only fought three times since, winning all three, and only turned 25 in April, which means he reached the UFC when he was 20.
Normally, when dudes reach the UFC at 20, we all freak out, because that is not how this shit is supposed to work, but because he was on TUF: Latin America and he lost and he didn’t fight again for a couple years, folks just forgot about CP (yeah, I’m calling him CP now) and never came back around to him.
But here’s the thing: he dominated Jordan Leavitt last time out, and Jordan Leavitt looked very good in his debut and was unbeaten going into that fight. Puelles hasn’t fought in nearly two years, but rolled into the cage and completely out-hustled “The Monkey King” for three rounds, running his winning streak to three and his record to 10-2 overall.
Now this athletic, six-foot-tall lightweight who trains at an elite camp (Sanford MMA), got to the big stage at a freakishly young age and is coming off a very good win is ready to step back into the Octagon and I feel like I’m the only person that is jazzed to see what he does next.
I’m calling it now, friends: Claudio Puelles is someone to pay attention to the in lightweight division.
Jared Vanderaa vs. Azamat Murzakanov
Q: Can Azamat Murzakanov be the Sergei Makarov of the LHW division?
Only older folks like me that like hockey will immediately get that reference, but so everyone knows what I’m talking about, here goes:
Sergei Makarov was a world-class hockey player and one of the stars of the Russian national team back in the ‘80s. When Russia finally started allowing its top players to play in the NHL in the late ‘80s, Makarov showed up in Calgary, who had drafted him in 1983, as a 31-year-old “rookie” and posted 24 goals and 86 points in 80 games, earning the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.
The league subsequently instituted a “Makarov Rule” that says you have to be 26 or under to qualify for Calder consideration.
Azamat Murzakanov is making his UFC debut on Saturday at the tender age of 35, but he’s the type of fighter that could, potentially, have a Makarov-like impact in the light heavyweight division. He’s polished, well-rounded, and unbeaten in 10 fights, most recently mauling Matheus Scheffel on Dana White’s Contender Series to earn a UFC contract, four years after he was first scheduled to compete inside the Octagon.
Paired off with former heavyweight Jared Vanderaa, I want to see if “The Professional” can put together the kind of performance that earns him an expedited ascent up the divisional ladder and if he can be one of those “older rookies” that has an immediate impact in his new surroundings.
Alex Morono vs. Mickey Gall
Q: Why is this the second fight of the night?
This one is genuinely confusing to me for a multitude of reasons:
Morono is on a two-fight winning streak and walloped “Cowboy” Cerrone earlier this year
Gall is coming off the best performance of his career
Gall hasn’t been this low on the fight card since his promotional debut
This fight carries far more divisional significance (at least to me) than at least a handful of the 13 fights that will follow it
Maybe it’s just one of those things where the bout got added to the lineup late and folks are told they’ll be in certain positions and the UFC has to honor that, but man — I think the winner of this ends up in a position to face others in the 16-30 range in the welterweight ranks in 2022, with another good win or two getting them close to challenging ranked fighters, and yet we got a host of debutants and less accomplished folks following them into the Octagon this weekend.
Weird.
Louis Smolka vs. Vince Morales
Q: Will Louis Smolka ever find some consistency?
Louis Smolka has alternated wins and losses since returning to the UFC five fights ago.
Now 30 years old and kicking off the card this weekend, it feels like “now or never” for the clearly talented Hawaiian to start putting together a little wining streak and make a little headway in the talent-rich bantamweight division.
It’s never been a question of skill with Smolka — he clearly has quality weapons and natural gifts that make him an intriguing competitor — but he’s been plagued by mental lapses and critical mistakes, often leading to quick finishes that deaden what little momentum he’s able to build from fight-to-fight.
He’s coming off a solid effort last December against Jose Alberto Quinonez and was slated to face Sean O’Malley earlier this year before being forced out with an injury, which I’m sure was a tough pill to swallow, and can put himself in a good position to get another step up in competition next time out with a second consecutive quality performance against Morales this weekend… but can he do it?
This is the fight where it has to click because — and I mean this with no disrespect to Morales — this is a fight he should win, as the advantages all stack up in his favor, and if it doesn’t happen here, I’m not sure he will ever get another chance to work his way too far up the divisional ladder again.