Volkanovski closed the defeat against Islam A month ago, it seemed that we had learned the name of Islam Makhachev's next opponent. Brazilian Charles Oliveira destroyed Beneil Dariush and expectedly challenged the UFC champion from Russia.
The promotion was in no hurry to announce a rematch in Abu Dhabi. After all, another star fighter, the Australian Alexander Volkanovski, wanted to get even with Islam. But before talking about a new trip to the lightweight division and a potential meeting with Khabib Nurmagomedov's successor, the undisputed featherweight champion of the promotion needed to eliminate the threat of interim champion, Mexican Yair Rodriguez.
UFC 290 Main Event got off to a dull start. The favorite quickly read Rodriguez and began to fight a larger opponent, taking the first two rounds. In the third, the Mexican perked up! He began to interrupt the Wolf and successfully keep the dominant champion at a distance. But then there was an episode that became decisive: the athletes collided heads, and Yair hardly returned to the fight.
Moments later, he misses, begins to back away and eventually gets beaten to a technical knockout.
The best featherweight of all time has dealt with another contender. Wolf's five successful defenses — what's next? Of course, the fight for the second gold with Makhachev. And if Oliveira fails to overtake, then either the exam of the undefeated Spaniard of Georgian origin Ilia Topuria, or a meeting with the bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling, who, after settling the scores with Sean O'Malley, wants to move up to a heavier weight.
The UFC has a new Brazilian champion Fans, as, perhaps, the leadership of the UFC, are tired of the showdown between the king of the “flyers” Brandon Moreno and Deiveson Figueredo. Four face-to-face meetings in title bouts are, of course, history, but the flyweight division did not deserve more stagnation. He has a new legitimate contender — the Brazilian Alexandre Pantozha, who twice defeated Moreno (the first Victoria without a record), followed the belt of the first UFC champion from Mexico.
The second most important event of the 290th numbered tournament turned out to be hot. All 25 minutes, the fighters seized the initiative, arranged exchanges in the stance and stopped a step away from the submission on the ground … The victory could have gone in any direction, but in the end the judges chose the applicant.
Pantozha's triumph by split decision is a well-deserved result. But, apparently, Alexander will have to confirm his superiority over Moreno again in the title rematch. ;hd=2″ width=»100%» height=»100%» allow=»autoplay; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture;» frameborder=»0″ allowfullscreen=»»>
Never again a boring trilogy The official middleweight division challenger, once again ruled by Israel Adesanya: South African flamboyant Drikus Du Plessis against former champion Robert Whittaker. Many wanted the African to emerge victorious from this fight, because his feud with Izzy is growing day by day, and another meeting between Rob and Adesanya is unlikely to sell many pay-per-view broadcasts (PPV).
However, due to less experience and the level of opposition, Du Plessis opened as a clear underdog.
Well, Drikus upset the bets. He did not notice Rob, sending the Reaper to a technical knockout in the second round, and won the sixth victory (five ahead of time) in six fights under the auspices of the UFC. It was undoubtedly the best fight of Du Plessis' career: we haven't seen Whittaker so uncompetitive in a long time.
And after that there was a sterdown and a verbal skirmish with Adesanya, who entered the octagon. And again, because of someone who has a great affiliation to the Black Continent, we are waiting for the African battle before the end of this year.
Hater Makhachev was not shut up, but beaten. It's amazing how Dan Hooker talks a lot and shows little in a cage. With four losses in six fights, Volkanovski's New Zealand friend is non-stop slinging mud at Makhachev, who, according to the «truth-teller», put himself on drips during the weight race before the fight with Alex. Neither the UFC nor the doping fighters were impressed by Hooker's raving, but Dan did not let up and continued to provoke the Russian champion, whom he lost by one wicket in 2021.
However, in Las Vegas, the New Zealander won. And he won beautifully: he lost the first part of the fight to Jalyn Turner, survived the knockdown, but at the end of the second round he reversed the course of a tough confrontation and, bleeding and closing his eyes to a broken arm, took the fight by split decision.
Hopeless battle of the undefeated The story of the American Bo Nikal is unique. The guy with three professional fights burst into the UFC and before his debut was called by journalists one of the future stars of the league. It is difficult to understand how the promotion machine works to promote the stars, but at the moment it is as early to talk about the potential of a high-class wrestler as it was early to crown the young Mexican Raul Rosas Jr., who lost in his second fight in the league and quickly disappeared from the radar.
Bo won the second fight in the main MMA promotion. He lost an opponent this week as Trezean Gore pulled out with an injury. On short notice, undefeated debutant Val Woodburn came out and got hit by a skating rink. There was not even a ground floor: the total favorite knocked out an unknown opponent in 38 seconds and continued the parade of finishes at UFC 290.
Nikal is now 5-0, but the real test for Bo is yet to come.
The Merciless's last appearance In the main fight of the prelims, the farewell chord was played by the illustrious veteran Robbie Lawler. The American is already 41 years old, the great battles against Carlos Condit, Johnny Hendrix and Rory MacDonald (for the bloody batch with which the American was included in the UFC Hall of Fame) are long behind — before this weekend, the ex-league champion had five defeats in the last six fights. Perhaps it was worth stopping earlier … But better late than never. Today, Lawler knocked out Nico Price in the first minute of the fight and walked out to the stadium chanting «Robbie! Robbie!».
* * *It is worth noting that at the end of the show we saw four fights at once with finishes in the first minute. In addition to Nikal and Lawler, Mexico's Jesús Aguilar (17 seconds) and Brazil's Denis Gomez (20 seconds) were quick wins.
In total, out of 13 fights on the card, nine ended ahead of schedule. Awesome!
BONUSES
- Best Fight of the Night: Moreno vs Pantozhy;
- Best Performance of the Night: Gomez and Du Plessis.