UFC Vegas 48: About Last Night...
Tackling the takeaways and talking points from Saturday night's fight card at the UFC APEX headlined by Johnny Walker and Jamahal Hill
Light Heavyweight Contender & Clubhouse Leader
Jamahal Hill stamped himself as a contender in the light heavyweight division and the clubhouse leader in the Knockout of the Year race after felling Johnny Walker with a right hand to the temple just about three minutes into his first main event assignment.
For the first couple minutes, the two circled one another, offering sporadic shots as they measured their range and got a feel for the power coming at them. But Hill continued pressuring throughout, shifted to orthodox, and put a right hand on the side of Walker’s head, stiffening him up instantly and shutting off his power supply as he crashed to the canvas.
In just six fights, the 31-year-old Contender Series graduate has established himself as a legitimate threat in the light heavyweight division, having bounced back from his first and only loss with consecutive vicious first-round finishes. The road ahead is filled with even more difficult assignments, but Hill is brimming with confidence, carries a ton of power, and should get an opportunity to move further up the rankings in the not too distant future.
Can We Be More Patient Now? Please?
Folks really were talking about Walker potentially being a threat to Jon Jones after he started his UFC career with three straight first-round stoppage wins. It didn’t matter that the guys he beat hadn’t beaten any single ranked opponent and were largely beating up on cats that were either new to the UFC or didn’t stick around the Octagon very long.
He produced highlights and was charismatic, and folks talked about him as a potential threat to the greatest talent the division — and maybe the sport — has ever seen.
Walker is 1-4 since then and all the folks that were hyping him up following wins over Khalil Rountree Jr. and Justin Ledet and Misha Cirkunov jumped off the bandwagon a long, long time ago, skipping the mea culpa and rushing to needlessly hype someone else that has yet to prove themselves as elite competition.
I know there is nothing sexy or click-worthy about saying, “Fighter X has looked great, but let’s pump the brakes and see what happens when they fight someone with a little more experience and savvy,” but how many more examples do we need of over-hyped fighters that crash and burn well short of expectations and projections do we need before we actually change the way we talk about these athletes?
Daukaus Can Be a Problem
Kyle Daukaus had a frustrating year in 2021, dealing with fight cancellations, a loss to Phil Hawes, and a No Contest result against Kevin Holland. Saturday, the Philadelphia-based middleweight got 2022 off to a positive start, securing a first-round submission win over Jamie Pickett.
The younger half of The Fighting Daukaus Brothers dominated from the outset, putting Pickett on the canvas with ease, looking to work his jiu jitsu game. He got a little too aggressive earlier in the round, chasing a back-take that wasn’t quite there, allowing Pickett to wriggle away, but Daukaus chased him down, put him back on the deck, and started hunting for the finish. Late in the round, Daukaus locked up a D’Arce choke and just before the horn, Pickett tapped.
I’ve long believed that Daukaus can be a problem in the middleweight division, with consistent activity and further experience being the only things standing in his way. He has excellent size for the weight class, is a legit black belt, and exhibits a tremendous amount of poise in the cage, and if he can fight every four or five months, he has the tools and weapons to put together a solid little run in the 185-pound weight class.
This was a great starting point, and hopefully he can get back in there in April or May in order to try building on Saturday’s dominant showing.
Stop Giving Middling Heavyweights Quality Real Estate
Generally speaking, I don’t like saying stuff like this because it’s difficult as shit to step into the Octagon and fight, and I respect the hell out of every man and woman that makes that walk. But the UFC needs to stop giving middling heavyweights quality real estate because there are much more meaningful fights that would benefit from being placed further up the fight card.
Saturday night, Parker Porter and Alan Baudot worked their way through 15 minutes of moderate action, with the Connecticut native Porter securing the unanimous decision win.
This was far from the worse fight in UFC history, however neither of those men is going to make any real further headway in the division. Porter has won three straight, but there are few people that envision him turning this into a storybook run into the rankings. As such, wouldn’t it make more sense to showcase some of the younger, emerging names that competed on the prelims instead?
It’s not just this weekend either. As much as I love Andrei Arlovskli and appreciate his latest renaissance, his fight with Jared Vanderaa at UFC 271 felt like a down-shift to close out the prelims, and Jake Collier and Chase Sherman earned a comparable main card assignment on the first event of the year, hitting the cage after a pair of fights featuring Top 10 opponents squaring off against one another.
I know people like heavyweights. I know the hope is for some kind of highlight reel finish, but it feels like a waste to showcase big fellas that have already topped out instead of emerging talents with promising futures ahead of them.
Jim F’N Miller
The man with the most fights in UFC history is now also tied for the most wins in UFC history, as Jim Miller scored a second-round stoppage win over Nikolas Motta to earn his 23rd victory inside the Octagon in his 39th appearance.
Motta stung Miller early in the first, but the veteran did well to steady himself and fight wisely, working behind heavy inside low kicks and a variety of attacks, keeping the newcomer off balance. It was more of the same to start the second, but then Miller lunged in with a right hook that landed clean, and Motta was dead to rights. The veteran followed him to the canvas, unloaded a torrent of blows, and picked up his second straight stoppage win.
In his post-fight interview, Miller asked who else is doing it like he is right now, at his age, and the answer is “No one,” which is what has always made him special. As I said earlier in the week, he’s aged gracefully and understands his place in the ecosystem, while still remaining passionate, committed, focused, and dangerous. He’s not taking easy fights and working on the edges to earn decisions — he’s facing dangerous neophytes like Motta, emerging names like Joe Solecki, and other game veterans, wading into the fray and accepting whatever result may come.
His goal is to compete at UFC 300 and while it’s still a ways away (Summer 2024), I really hope Miller gets there because that would be something special. But even if he doesn’t, what the New Jersey native has done is already pretty special.
Well That Didn’t Go As Expected
You, me, and everyone else expected the middleweight main card opener between Joaquin Buckley and Abdul Razak Alhassan to be over in a hurry, with one of the two left looking up at the lights. Instead, the duo went 15 exhausting minutes, with Buckley coming away on the favourable side of a split decision verdict.
There were moments where the fight played out the way most anticipated, with each man throwing and landing big shots, but as the time ticked off the clock and the fight continued to progress, the energy reserves ran out and the fight got a little sloppy. Throughout the middle round, it seemed like Buckley was on his way to finding a finish, as Alhassan tired and his midsection was open, but “New Mansa” continued looking for the knockout blow, couldn’t find it, and tired himself out.
Personally, this felt like a fight that Buckley made more difficult and more tense for himself than it needed to be. Rather than chasing another highlight finish, there were ample opportunities to attack the body and legs of Alhassan, who gassed hard and threw very little in the second. But Buckley punched himself out a little and nearly landed on the wrong side of the results. He has some upside and you have to appreciate his power and diversity of strikes, but until he starts making better decisions, this is about as far as he’s going to climb in the middleweight division.
Preliminary Card Thoughts
There were some rocky moments, but David Onama never stopped pressing forward and secured a first-round stoppage win over tough veteran Gabriel Benitez in the final preliminary card fight of the afternoon.
Onama, who debuted up a division on short notice with a strong showing against Mason Jones, was someone a lot of folks were looking forward to seeing back down at featherweight, and he showed why on Saturday. Benitez attacked with his trademark low kicks and stung the Ugandan sophomore with a right hand that had him blinking heavily, but Onama never stopped moving forward and throwing smoke. As soon as he had Benitez hurt, the Glory MMA & Fitness representative put him away with the kind of multi-punch combination that would score you tons of points and drain your opponent’s health meter on just about any fighting game.
This performance — and knowing to be locked in for this fight — is why I pay attention to every fight on every card. If you just see Onama with a loss to Jones on his resume, you don’t know that it was a short-notice fight, up in weight, and that he gave the former two-weight Cage Warriors champ hell back in October. But if you watched it, you were looking forward to this one, and Onama delivered.
Stephanie Egger made a statement on Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas, dominating Jessica-Rose Clark in the clinch and showcasing her judo skills, dumping the Australian to the canvas and working through to secure a first-round submission finish.
The Swiss competitor controlled the action along the fence, making Clark pay for initiating the grappling exchanges early in the contest with a beautiful throw. While Clark popped back to her feet quickly, Egger quickly put her on the deck again, landing in side control and locking up a scarf hold, unloading a string of unanswered strikes. When Clark frantically looked to escape and create a scramble, Egger remained one step ahead of her, working her way to an armbar setup and securing the hold soon after, leaving Clark no choice but to tap.
Egger has now earned consecutive finishes after dropping her short-notice debut to Tracy Cortez, and established herself as someone to pay close attention to going forward with this performance.
Chas Skelly scored an impressive second-round stoppage win over Mark Striegl in the final fight of his career, dropping him with a knee up the middle and coffin nails on the canvas to seal the deal.
“The Scrapper” was a fringe Top 15 guy throughout the main period of his UFC career, serving as a perennial tough out and entertaining competitor over the course of a dozen fights. He got in there with a bunch of dangerous guys at ‘45, set the record for the quickest two wins in UFC history back in the fall of 2014 when he beat Tom Niinimaki and Sean Soriano 13 days apart, and now has the opportunity to go out on his own terms.
Fighters like Skelly often get swept aside and forgotten as their days of competing move further into the past, but he was a fixture in the featherweight division when it was really taking root in the UFC, and deserves to be remembered for a solid career that produced plenty of exciting moments inside the Octagon.
Gloria de Paula and Diana Belbita spent 15 minutes mostly trading on the feet, slinging hands and occasionally battling in the clinch during a competitive scrap between a pair of strawweights looking to build some momentum. When the scores were added up and the verdict was read, de Paula came away with a unanimous decision victory, earning 29-28 scores across the board.
Watching at home, I had Belbita doing enough to get the victory, with the possibility of a 30-27 score, though that’s while mixing in tweets and doing work here, so a re-watch would be required to provide an accurate, clean accounting of my official scorecard. That said, it felt to me like the Stoney Creek, Ontario resident landed the more effective shots throughout, throwing more volume and landing more impactful blows than de Paula.
The real takeaway from the fight, for me, however, is that we either need to have the commentators go through judges training or not speak about how you score rounds because the suggestions and opinions from Dominick Cruz and Paul Felder in this fight were not great, Bob.
Heading into his promotional debut, Chad Anheliger told me he didn't feel any pressure, viewing his fight with Jesse Strader and his forthcoming UFC career as a “feather in his cap” as he heads into the twilight of his career. That showed on Saturday as the Canadian veteran navigated a rocky opening round to draw level in the second and secure the finish with a beautiful counter left in the third.
The 35-year-old was 2-5 at one point in his career, but has now won 10 straight, including a terrific underdog effort to earn his contract last fall on the Contender Series and this finish of Strader. He was patient, measured, and effective when he opted to let go of his strikes, dropping Strader early in the second, mixing in knees in the clinch throughout, and then detonating a bomb to kick off the finishing sequence in the third. This was just a sharp, veteran effort from the UFC rookie, and a moment “The Monster” earned over all those years grinding away on the Canadian regional circuit.
Jonathan Pearce and Christian Rodriguez turned in an entertaining back-and-forth battle on the prelims, with Pearce securing a grimy decision win and the newcomer showing that he absolutely belongs at this level, coming in on short notice, moving up a division, and being an absolute handful for the entire fight.
Pearce is an improving fighter in the featherweight division with sound wrestling, slick grappling, and a tremendous ability to take a shot, as he showed Saturday, but Rodriguez was right there with him at every turn, coming up just short in each round while still giving a very good accounting of himself in his first UFC appearance. Craig Allan made a great comparison before the fight even started, likening this fight to David Onama’s debut against Mason Jones last fall, and I couldn’t agree more.
As solid and tough as Pearce continued to prove himself to be, this was ultimately a great showing for Rodriguez, who loses his unbeaten record, but proves instantly that he’s someone to keep tabs on going forward.
Mario Bautista turned in a sharp, professional effort in the opener against Jay Perrin, getting after him early and turning up the pressure and punishment the more the fight went on.
My question for this fight in Wednesday’s edition of One Question was “Is Mario Bautista a person of interest in the bantamweight division?” and I opened by acknowledging that I might have made a mistake leaving him off the Fighters to Watch list this year. I don’t want to overreact to a dominant effort against a short-notice replacement making his UFC debut, but right now, it feels like I made a mistake, as Bautista looked outstanding on Saturday afternoon. He mixed everything up well and continued distancing himself from Perrin more and more as the fight progressed, which is exactly what you want to see from a fighter in this situation.
The key to making me look like a complete idiot is what comes next. Bantamweight is an absolute shark tank, but if Bautista can turn in a performance like this against an established talent in the 135-pounds, it will be clear that he’s a fighter to watch, whether he made this year’s list or not.