Sanabul Fight News: Week 10
Surprise, surprise, another exciting Fight Night! Just because there weren’t many fan favorites or title implications on the line at UFC Vegas 52, it seemed as though the card was being a little bit underestimated by fight fans throughout the week. The card ending up delivering, obviously it wasn’t the most stacked card we’ve seen, but considering the lack of big names there was quite a bit of excitement throughout the matchups from some rising prospects and returning vets on Saturday night.
Mike Jackson and Dean Barry started off the card with a bang on Saturday night, with Dean throwing about 30 overhand rights in the first round, and getting three warnings from the referee for illegal strikes (Groin and Eye poke), we heard some pretty hilarious comments from Mike Jackson during the timeout to recover. Mike Jackson lost his first professional MMA fight to CM Punk in the UFC, and got his first pro win on Saturday night after a disgustingly deep eye poke ended up stopping the fight with Jackson unable to continue in the first.
Marcin Prachnio and Philipe Lins followed this exciting fight with a light heavyweight matchup, with Philipe making his debut in the weight class after coming down from Heavyweight. The first and second rounds were relatively competitive, both men throwing absolute bombs at the beginning of the second round, and Prachnio ending up looking a little dazed and tired throughout the round. Lins looked amazing after moving down a weight class and exposed Prachnio’s weaknesses with him being quite clearly gassed after the end of the first round, earning Philipe the unanimous 29-28 decision for an impressive Light Heavyweight debut.
With Preston Parsons coming off of a loss to Daniel Rogriguez in his UFC debut, he took on surging prospect Evan Elder. Preston came into this fight with 9 wins with 9 finishes via submission, ending the first round in a mounted arm triangle that Evan somehow managed to survive. The second round was completely dominated by Parsons, showing off some dominant grappling and multiple submission attempts, as well as some pretty flashy sweeps from guard, Preston impressed with his grappling all three rounds to take a very clear unanimous decision victory from the UFC debutant Evan Elder, who definitely impressed while moving up a weight class on short notice, both men will be dangerous in their respective weight classes and I look forward to seeing both of their next fights.
Tyson Pedro and Qileng Aori both ended up taking two quick finishes in the first round to prove their spots in their respective divisions. With Tyson Pedro taking on the challenge of Ike Villanueva in the Light Heavyweight division, he ended up winning with a powerful knockout that took Ike out on his feet, making a statement win in his return after almost a 4-year layoff. Qileng Aori proved his value to the UFC after starting off his career 0-2 to Cody Durden and Jeff Molina in the Flyweight division, he moved up and had a very dominant TKO victory over Cameron Else in the Bantamweight division, solidifying his spot on the roster at 135. Dwight Grant and Sergey Khandozhko ended off the prelims with a super fun war at Welterweight, Sergey ended up getting his 28th professional win with a TKO in the second round, finalizing his comeback in his first fight since 2019.
With Romanov and Sherman being scrapped off the card due to a minor injury in the camp of Sherman, Marc Andre-Barriault and Jordan Wright were moved up to the main card, and it paid off. Barriault was a little doubted by fans coming into this matchup due to his last fight ending in an unfortunate knockout loss, he proved that he is still a force to be reckoned with, finishing Jordan in the first round with a super tight mounted guillotine. I would look for Barriault to start getting closer to the top 10 of that Middleweight division with some guys like Edmen Shahbazyan or Chris Weidman.
The women's flyweight division had a highly anticipated matchup on the main card with Maycee Barber facing up against Montana De La Rosa. Maycee and Montana had a chess match of a fight with a lot of it being spent in the clinch against the cage, or on the ground. Maycee ended up winning the majority of the exchanges with some clean elbows and strikes overtop of Montanas guard in the clinch to win a unanimous 30-27 decision.
Baguettes and Poutine? One of the matchups fans were most excited for on this card was Lando Vannata and French/Canadian, Charles Jourdain, and it paid off. Charles and Lando had a super exciting first round with Lando landing a takedown on Charles, and Lando getting knocked down by Charles after getting back up. Charles ended up jumping on the neck of Lando and pulling guard with what seemed to be a compromised position with only one arm on the guillotine, but it ended up being tight enough for Lando to roll over on his side which gave Charles the angle to wrap it up and win via submission in the first. Charles definitely has proven himself to be a scary contender in the division after beating Andre Ewell and now Lando Vannata. I would look for Charles to break the top 15 after this fight and to start making some noise in the top of the division. With Charles calling out Edson Barboza, this could be an incredible fight to make with real Top 10 implications on the line.
Claudio Puelles and Clay Guida were even money in Vegas going into this matchup, it was really between the experience and wrestling of Clay and the grappling and athleticism of prospect Claudio Puelles. Claudio proved the hype behind his name was real after submitting Clay Guida in his first submission loss since Jim Miller in 2019. This win was very impressive and proves Claudio is a force to be reckoned with in the division moving forward. At only 26 years old, and 3/3 in the UFC so far, I’d look for Claudio to move into the top 15 as well in the lightweight division with his next fight.
The women's strawweight division had an extremely important main event with former champion Jessica Andrade and Amanda Lemos in a five rounder to see who will be next to fight for title contention. Amanda fought a good first round, but once Jessica got a hold of her in a standing arm triangle, she locked it in and didn’t give up, earning herself the first standing arm triangle in UFC history. During the post-fight interview, Jessica made it very clear that she is interested in the title as soon as possible. Considering her former champ status, and the fact that her and Champion Rose Namajunas are 1-1, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see that trilogy happen at some point in the near future.
