Sanabul Fight News: Week 3
UFC Fight Night 202 was a night of fights that not only delivered, but by far exceeded most of our expectations for levels of excitement and finishes. With 6 out of 11 fights being finished, we definitely got our money's worth for a Fight Night full of excitement that’s for sure.
If Bobby Green didn’t have the personality that he has, and the fun style that he has, there is a very low chance this fight would have ever gotten booked. I think for most people to look at both of these fighters' resumes, styles, and points in their careers, you’d have to be biased due to your love of Bobby to have picked him to win on Saturday night. Islam Makhachev is looking like he will be fighting for the title in 2022, whether he needs to run through Justin Gaetje first, or gets a title shot straight away.
For Arman Tsarukyan to have such a dominant win over such a phenom in the Welterweight division was definitely a statement that he is a force to be reckoned with moving up in the rankings at 170 pounds. Arman has lost one fight in his last 18 fights, and has finished 11 of them, his only loss in those fights coming to Islam Makhachev. Keep your eyes open for Arman moving into the top 15 very soon. In no way is Joel Alvares done either, sitting at 19-3 Joel is only 28 years old and can definitely put together another win streak in the next couple of years.
Priscila Cachoeira and Ji Yeon Kim put on a 3-round performance with an absolute bloodbath of a third round, Priscila taking the decision win but it definitely could have gone either way in my opinion. Priscila showed some incredible muay thai with a barrage of sharp elbows in the third round splitting Ji Yeon above the eye towards the end of the fight. It did seem a little odd for the UFC to give Priscila such a big fight on the main card after losing to Gillian Robertson and being called out for her controversial eye gouge but she proved why she deserved to be there on Saturday night.
Some other top performances came from Ignacio Bahamondes with yet another finish over Zhu Rong via Brabo Choke, giving all of the Jiu Jitsu fanatics something to admire, notching his first ever Submission win under his belt. Terrance McKinney impressed as well, sinking in a Rear Naked Choke in the first round as the betting underdog, “T. Wrecks” is now sitting at 12-3 in the Lightweight division, and is looking good to start getting some ranked opponents in his next 2 or 3 fights.
Looking ahead to March 5th we have the much awaited Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal card with a spectacle of a press conference coming earlier in the week. We can expect lots of trash talk from the two former-teammates as they hash out their differences and play some form of a character to build up the fight. Also featured on the main card and press conference will be Kevin Holland, Bryce Mitchell, Edson Barboza, Rafael Dos Anjos and Fiziev, and Greg Hardy. Some exciting prelims to look forward to this weekend will be Brian Kelleher and Umar Nurmagomedov, Tim Elliot and Tagir Ulanbekov, and Marina Rodriguez and Yan Xiaonan.
In other news Jiri Prochozka and Glover Tiexeira has been rescheduled for UFC 274 on May 7th, headlined by Justin Gaetje and Charles Oliviera, adding more madness to an already stacked card. Russian UFC Fighters may be in jeopardy of competing on the UFC London card due to recent political events, causing some of the fights on the card to be a little uncertain, including the main event of Alex Volkov and Tom Aspinall.
