Sanabul Fight News: UFC 283
UFC 283 was an entertaining night of fights in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. With a brazilian fighter in each fight, and two championship fights on the card, fans were in for an exciting night of fights, and lots of finishes.
Daniel Marcos had a very strong performance in his UFC debut against Saimon Oliveira in the first fight of the night. Marcos made his presence known in the bantamweight division with some very strong strikes and toughness to finish Oliveira with a strong knee leading to a TKO. Josiane Nunes had a tall challenge ahead of her (literally) against an opponent who looked like she was 2 weight classes above her in Zarah Fairn. Nunes used her volume and explosiveness to put the pressure on Zairn for the second and third round after adjusting to the reach disadvantage and won a unanimous decision on the judges' scorecards.
Nicolas Dalby and Ismael Bonfim both proceeded to come through with massive wins of their own, against very strong opponents. Dalby won a very close split decision against the Brazilian Warlley Alves on his home turf, after a very fun stand up war that was evenly matched. Ismael Bonfim had an incredible performance against star lightweight Terrance McKinney, dominating Terrance on the feet in the first round and the second round until knocking him out with an unreal jumping switch knee that flattened Terrance McKinney flat on the mat, giving him his first win in the UFC and asserting himself as a massive prospect.
Cody Stamann had an impressive performance against Luan Lacerda, with the first and third rounds being relatively evenly matched, and Cody dominating the second on the feet. Stamann ended up winning on the judges scorecards with his impressive boxing and footwork, as well as quick standups the rare times he got taken down. Jailton Almeida impressed UFC fans once again against veteran Shamil Abdurakhimov with another dominating performance, with only one significant strike being landed against Jailton, he took Shamil down and smashed him for two rounds until the doctor separated the two men for the TKO.
Gabriel Bonfim and Thiago Moises continued the prelims with impressive stoppages of their own at home in Brazil. Gabriel got the second finish for the Bonfim family, with an amazing submission over Mounir Lazzez in the first round, showing they’re a force to be reckoned with in the UFC. Thiago Moises had a good battle against UFC newcomer Melquizael Costa, the veteran ended up submitting Melquizael in the second round and shut down the debut of surging Costa.
Bruno Fereira and Ihor Potieria finished off the prelims with two impressive victories, with each of the men pulling off impressive knockout finishes. Bruno Fereira pulled off the upset in his UFC debut against the surging Robocop with a stiff knockout in the first round that put Gregory Rodrigues right out on the mat. Ihor shut down Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s retirement party, knocking out the legend in the first round. Congratulations to Mauricio Rua on an incredible career, retiring as one of the biggest legends in MMA history.
The main card of UFC 283 opened up with a light heavyweight scrap between Paul Craig and Johnny Walker, in a striker vs grappler matchup that many fans were very excited about. Johnny Walker got the best of Paul Craig early in the first round, with Paul catching Johnny’s leg and Walker pounding on his head until dropping him and getting the TKO finish to assert himself once again in the Light Heavyweight division as a bad, bad man.
Jessica Andrade completely dominated her opponent Lauren Murphy in a flyweight bout to continue the main card, proving herself to be a top contender in the division, and potentially setting herself up nicely for a title shot, we haven’t seen someone look this threatening to Valentina in a while.
Gilbert Burns is coming into 2023 with something to prove, and he started it off right only 22 days into the year with an early finish over veteran welterweight Neil Magny, submitting him in the first round. Gilbert said in an interview with Sanabul that he is coming for a title shot in 2023, and wants three fights, and three finishes by the end of the year.
The stage was set in the co-main event for Brandon Moreno and Deiveson Figueiredo to have their fourth matchup that would decide the true winner of the series. The fight was close in the first round, but as it went on Moreno started to pull ahead with his volume, and advantage in the striking and grappling department. Moreno’s performance was very impressive, and he got the third round TKO victory after Deiveson could not continue in between the third and fourth rounds due to his eye being shut. With Brandon Moreno as the new flyweight champion, and Deiveson moving up to 145, we can finally see some new matchups at 125 in 2023.
Glover Teixeira and Jamahal Hill were set to face off in the main event, and fans everywhere (especially in Brazil) were super excited to see this matchup. The light heavyweight division has been a mess recently, and we finally had the chance to crown a victor and champion for 2023 on Saturday night. From the beginning of the fight it was clear that Glover was not going to be able to perform his gameplan on Hill, which was to try and get him to the ground. Hill was having none of it, constantly stuffing his takedown attempts and completely dominating Glover on the feet, he had clearly won every single round and was awarded the Light Heavyweight title in a unanimous decision that left Glover removing his gloves in the octagon to announce his retirement. With Jamahal Hill as the new champion, and the legendary Glover Teixeira out of the picture, the division was shaken up again to start off 2023.
