Sanabul Fight News: Week 4
UFC 272 was an incredible night of fights, with Colby Covington doing what he does best and pressuring Jorge to a decisive win, the king of arkansas making a statement on the main card, and Kevin Holland making his debut at welterweight, we were in for a treat on March 5th with an exciting night of fights in Las Vegas.
In the early prelims Dustin Jacoby started off the card strong with a great win in the light heavyweight division, earning a 29-28 unanimous decision win over Michal Oleksiejczuk in a very exciting striking matchup between the two men. Ludovit Klein and Devonte Smith had a barn-burner of a fight, each of the men showing some incredible striking technique and Ludovit demonstrating outstanding takedown defense after accepting the fight on less than two weeks notice. With his cardio and power lasting all three (busy) rounds with a dangerous Devonte Smith, Ludovit took home a well earned decision win to bring his record up to 18-4, at only 27 years old Ludovit is a stud to keep an eye out for in the Featherweight division.
One of the most exciting fights of the night involved Tim Elliott and Tagir Ulanbekov in a chaotic matchup that took place on the feet as well as on the ground with Tim Elliott involved in some controversial glove grabs that Khabib was not happy about in the corner of Tagir. Tim Elliott showed some next level transitions and takedown defense, mixing in some takedowns of his own and slick striking to secure a unanimous decision over the teammate of Khabib and Islam Makhachev to hopefully move up in the flyweight rankings.
Marya Moroz took a quick 2nd round submission over Mariya Agapova, raising the Ukrainian flag after a dominant first round and an early arm-triangle submission in the second. Marya had an incredibly touching post-fight speech about her family and country being affected by the war in her home-country of Ukraine, and performed extremely well. Despite the bad blood between her and Mariya, the two ended up hugging and being friendly in the octagon after the winner was named.
Yan Xionan and Marina Rodriguez made a statement for Women’s MMA on ESPN during the prelims with a next-level technical battle with Yan Xionan pushing the pace with the speed while Marina pushed the pressure. With the pair landing over 110+ Significant strikes, this was a battle to remember with Marina Rodriguez coming out with a win over a very impressive opponent in Yan Xionana who took an unfortunate strike to the groin area in the first round which looked quite painful and significant. This likely puts Marina in a good spot to find for the title next, which may require another title eliminator while Carla Esparza awaits her matchup with champ Rose Namajunas.
Kevin Holland proving he can make weight in a healthy way and perform well at 170lbs is a big move in the welterweight division. Stopping Alex Oliviera in the second round after a first round ending off with Kevin in a Rear-Naked Choke while smiling and throwing up two thumbs, is a statement for Kevin Holland that he is here to stay in his new division. Kevin looked excellent and speedy at his new weight, motivated, and comfortable on the ground. Kevin called out Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in his post-fight interview, which could lead up to an exciting matchup for a legendary welterweight to help move Holland up in the rankings.
The camo shorts made a debut on Bryce “Thug Nasty” Mitchell in his first big-name fight against Edson Barboza, dominating Edson Barboza on the ground for the first round after knocking him down with an overhand right, Bryce led to dragging Edson into deep waters in the second round, mounting him, and generating a total of 110 ground strikes in the first two rounds, to Edsons’ zero. Bryce mounted him again in the 3rd, dominated Edson once again and ended the fight with 180+ ground strikes to secure the unanimous decision over legendary featherweight Edson Barboza. During Bryce’s post-fight interview he pledged to donate half of his fight purse to unprivileged children in his home of Arkansas.
When the co-main began, you could tell who had a full camp right off the bat. Rafael Dos Anjos looked a lot sharper, hurting Moicano with some good shots and taking him down to dominate him for the first on the ground. The second round was a bit more of a standup affair as Moicano found success defending the takedown and trading strikes with RDA as he opened up, only to be taken down later in the round and dominated again for the rest of the round. With Moicano taking a barrage of hits in the third round, he and his corner were seemingly too tough for his own good, Renato is an incredible warrior and professional to be able to accept that fight on a weeks notice, Renato was cleared to start the fourth round after the doctor had to check his vision between rounds. Marc Goddard told Renato Moicano before the start of the fifth round that he had 30 seconds to show him that he was still in the fight, Rafael seemingly took it easy on Moicano out of respect for his opponent. Renato finished the five-round co-main event with a barrage of punches, seemingly breaking Rafael's nose and showing how much of a warrior he truly is.
Brothers. Friends. Partners. Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington were in each other's corners for years, but when their relationship went wrong, it got dirty. One of the most anticipated bad blood fights occurred on Saturday, and was a sight to behold. Colby seemed to dominate the first round of the fight, getting Jorge down and having him defensively grappling, as well as some of the second and most of the third round as well. Colby puts on a pressure unlike anyone else in the UFC, Jorge did everything you are supposed to do to defend against Colby, but it was impossible for him to get away from his relentless pressure. Jorge took the majority of the damage in the fourth round apart from a couple good spurts as Colby let off of the pressure a little bit going towards the end of the round. The result was a dominant unanimous decision win for Colby Covington to put a stamp on the rivalry, Jorge’s stock dropped quite a bit in my opinion.
