UFC Vegas 81: About Saturday's Action...
Detailing the results and ramifications to emerge from this weekend's fight card at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas
Comeback City
Edson Barboza got battered for the first five minutes of his clash with Sodiq Yusuff, damn near getting finished over the course of a one-sided stretch that seemed like it was going to end the main event in a flash. But from that point forward, the Brazilian rallied and took the fight to Yusuff, orchestrating one of the best comebacks of the year.
Barboza clawed back into the fight in the second, wobbled Yusuff late in the third with a spinning wheel kick, and continued to chip away at the returning featherweight hopeful through the final two frames, leaning on experience and tenacity forged through more than 25 UFC appearances. He was busted up and swollen, but undeterred, resulting in a second straight victory and 18th career win inside the Octagon.
While this one was much different than last weekend’s main event, one of the key takeaways remains the same: this is why emerging talents have to go through tests like Barboza and Bobby Green before they can truly be considered contenders. Barboza proved too much for Yusuff on Saturday, and should continue to serve as a dangerous, resilient truth machine at the doors of the Top 10 going forward.
Quality All-Brazilian Clash
If you ever needed a reminder as to why flyweight is considered the deepest, most competitive division on the women’s side of the roster, Saturday’s co-main event between Viviane Araujo and Jennifer Maia should have done the trick.
For 15 minutes, the Brazilians went back and forth in the Octagon, with Araujo landing on the happy side of the results after earning the nod in each of the first two rounds from all three officials. Maia brought the fight to Araujo in the third, looking to push the action and find a finish, but came up short, with Araujo snapping a two-fight skid and Maia’s two-fight winning streak in the process.
We get all lathered up about fights having to carry jeopardy and divisional significance, but that doesn’t have to always be the case. This was a pairing between the No. 9 and No. 11 fighters in a talent-rich weight class, and while it doesn’t have championship ramifications, it was still thoroughly entertaining from start to finish.
It doesn’t really change much for either woman — they are who they are, and aren’t likely to move too much further in the ranks at this stage — but that didn’t take away from the technical skills they displayed and the enjoyment the fight delivered.
Beware of Dragon
Jonathan Martinez cut down Adrian Yanez on Saturday, pushing his winning streak to six with his most impressive victory to date.
From the outset, the Factory X man was focused on banging home heavy inside low kicks, and right away, it was clear that Yanez wasn’t primed to deal with them. Midway through the first, Martinez had Yanez limping and biting on every feint, and by the midway point of the second, he’d put him on the canvas twice in the frame, garnering the stoppage.
Martinez is one of those athletes that says very little and receives even less mention from fans and media, but he’s been on an absolute tear over his last six, looking more dangerous each time out. He was locked in from the jump here and looked outstanding, which should merit another step up in competition next time out.
On the flip side, this was a bad loss and bad look for Yanez, who has now suffered back-to-back stoppage losses in bouts against ranked opponents after winning five straight to begin his UFC run. He had no answers for what is widely understood as Martinez’ primary weapon, and had no Plan B when it was clear his initial approach wasn’t going to work. After a tremendous start, his next fight is now a critical assignment, and one that is going to dictate what the rest of his career looks like inside the Octagon.
Middleweight Pereira is a Problem
We talk all the time about middleweight needing fresh names and new threats. Enter Michel Pereira.
Forced up to the 185-pound weight class following a miss at welterweight this past summer when he was scheduled to face Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, Pereira made an instant splash in his new weight class, sparking out Andre Petroski in just 66 seconds. The first real right hand he threw landed flush and sent Petroski crashing to the canvas, where Pereira was quick to follow up and put him away.
“Demolidor” always looked massive at welterweight and still looked plenty big opposite a legit middleweight on Saturday, and he clearly brought his athleticism, speed, and power with him, which makes him an instant person of interest in the 185-pound ranks. This is one of those “get him in there with someone ranked next time out” situations for me because rather than having, say, Jack Hermansson facing Marvin Vettori, let’s get Pereira in there with one of them and see if he’s primed to command a place in the Top 10 right now.
Another Quality Win with an Asterisk
Christian Rodriguez handed Cameron Saaiman the first loss of his professional career in Saturday’s main card opener, out-working him in every facet in an entertaining three-round affair.
The trouble for Rodriguez is that for the second straight fight, his win carries an asterisk, as he lost the fight with the scale on Friday morning. Two fights back against Raul Rosas Jr., the 25-year-old Roufusport representative missed weight by 1.5 pounds, and this week, it was a full four pounds, and that’s after having to withdraw from this same pairing in July due to an injury.
There is no denying that Rodriguez is fundamentally sharp and someone that could grow into a player in the 135-pound weight class, but he has to show that he’s able to hit that mark consistently or else all the success, all the positives he’s putting on display in the Octagon will be all for naught. He once again apologized in his post-fight interview, as he should, but the more important thing is doing everything he can to not be in that same position next time out.
He’s not built to go up to featherweight and have sustained success, at least not with the same kind of upside he has at bantamweight, and he’s running the risk of shooting himself in the foot if he can’t get this under control right away.
Preliminary Card Thoughts
We really need to be more honest in our assessments of these athletes, man.
I get that Darren Elkins isn’t going to say he’s passed his prime and has zero chance to climb the ranks at this point in his career, but the broadcast team needs to find other things to say about a 39-year-old that got walloped last time out than “he’s trying to get back in the win column in order to make one more run at the top of the division.”
Elkins out-hustled TJ Brown in Saturday’s final prelim, taking advantage of the DWCS grad’s tactical mistakes to eventually find a submission finish in the third, but this wasn’t some kind of “the old man’s still got it effort” like we saw from Bobby Green last week. This was a durable, grimy vet getting the better of someone that is now 3-5 in the UFC and somewhat limited inside the cage.
While there are certainly fights out there for Elkins, he’s someone that should be fighting in this range from here on out, because if he tries to fight forward in the division, he’s going to get walloped again.
Women’s bantamweight really is in a weird place.
Tainara Lisboa could very well be ranked next week after registering her second consecutive victory and that’s not saying a great deal. While “Thai Panther” did enough to out-hustle Ravena Oliveira, there wasn’t anything too impressive about her performance against the promotional newcomer. She played to her advantage in top position in the first two rounds, and avoided taking too much damage when Oliveira finally started having success in the third, but again, there wasn’t really much that makes you excited about Lisboa going forward.
We’ve been waiting on a title fight in the 135-pound weight class since Amanda Nunes vacated the belt upon retiring at UFC 289, and overall, it’s simply a division that needs a youth and talent infusion in the worst way possible.
Figuring out where Terrance McKinney stands in the lightweight division is incredibly difficult.
Saturday night, “T. Wrecks” picked up a second straight first-round stoppage win, running through short-notice newcomer Brendon Marotte in 20 seconds, giving him five such victories in eight UFC starts. The trouble is that each of his three losses have come against three opponents that are genuine UFC talents, and he’s 0-2 in fights that make it out of the opening round.
There is clearly an abundance of athleticism and raw talent there, but the key for McKinney going forward is going to be finding a way to bottle that power and explosiveness, bolt on better conditioning and understanding of how to pace himself, and show that he can hang with more tenured names. He’s always capable of putting folks out, but we need to see him put all the pieces together against someone with a little more experience and an ability to take him a little deeper into things in order to get a real sense of where he fits in the 155-pound weight class.
Solid debut victory for Melissa Dixon, who out-hustled Irina Aleksseva to move to 6-0 overall.
The British newcomer got drilled and dropped early in the opening stanza, but was able to take control of the action from the ground, working around to Alekseeva’s back and finishing the round in a dominant position. Over the final two rounds, “No Mess” was in charge, getting the Russian to the canvas and continually progressing to places where she could attack. While a finish didn’t materialize, this was a quality effort for a newcomer fighting across the pond, and gets her moving in the right direction right out of the chute.
While most of the fight was contested on the ground, Dixon did well standing because she uses basics and clean fundamentals, and when you couple that with grit and tenacity, you’re going to have a certain amount of success. Right now, that should be enough to carry her to the Top 15 at bantamweight, perhaps even higher, so keep an eye on her going forward.
We always talk about how “there are levels to this,” but we usually reserve it for matchups between Top 15 opponents or prospects facing veterans. Saturday, we saw it in the clash between Chris Gutierrez and Alatangheili, which Gutierrez won by unanimous decision.
The ranked Factory X man used his kicks and movement to pick at “The Mongolian Knight” throughout, battering his lead leg and avoiding any big shot attempts coming back his way to earn a sweep of the scorecards. Gutierrez was never in trouble, never particularly bothered, and did well to control the action throughout and get back into the win column.
This was exactly how most anticipated this fight to go, as Gutierrez is a 15-20 guy in the bantamweight division, and Alatangheili is not. What’s interesting — perhaps only to me — is that this really seems to be where “El Guapo” thrives and probably needs to live, as he stumbled in his first assignment against someone ranked higher than him when he lost to Pedro Munhoz last time out.
Now, Munhoz is a divisional fixture that has been in title contention before and a tough out for anyone, but it’s telling (to me) that Gutierrez thrives in this range, and struggled opposite the Brazilian stalwart, which suggests that’s likely where his ceiling lies. That’s perfectly okay, of course, but also one of those things that needs to be acknowledged and discussed candidly whenever his next matchup is announced.
Emily Ducote hasn’t been as effective and successful as I anticipated when she came over from Invicta FC, but she got back on track with a unanimous decision win over Ashley Yoder in Saturday’s opener with scores of 30-27 and 29-28 twice.
There are pieces of Ducote’s game that are solid and she’s one of these competitors that really warms into the fight, but that’s also part of what holds her back a little. Her most effective round overall was the third, where she split Yoder up even further by throwing lead elbows, and I’d be interested to see if she and her team can figure out a way to get a couple rounds in early so that she’s lathered up and ready to launch right away. She has good strength, a quality grappling game that she rarely utilizes, and has fought a good slate — all that is missing is a little more consistently and a slightly quicker start.
For Yoder, this is a third straight loss and drops her to 3-8 in the Octagon, but she’s significantly better than that record suggests. This was her first appearance in more than two years after multiple shoulder surgeries, and despite eight defeats, she’s never been finished. Not sure she’s back for another assignment, but I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing her get one more opportunity after such a lengthy layoff and solid effort on Saturday.