Wrapping Up: UFC 249
SPORTS! WE HAVE SPORTS!!! And boy was it a good sport. UFC 249 promised to be one of the most spectacularly stacked cards, maybe since UFC 100. Uriah Hall’s bout with “Jacare” Souza was cancelled due to Souza testing positive for Covid-19. Even without the return of the absolute physical specimen that is Hall, the card more than delivered. After eight weeks of building, eight weeks of boredom, eight weeks of just wanting to see men and women punch each other in the face, we got to see these top tier athletes finally go at it. And I repeat, it fucking delivered.
So why don’t we go ahead and just break this whole thing down, fight by fight. And afterwards I’m gonna talk about the big picture implications of three different divisions.
Ryan Spann def. Sam Alvey: Spann defeated Alvey in a highly competitive fight that went the distance. He deserved the win, it was a fun fight. Spann might be able to soon break into the top fifteen in a talent starved light heavyweight division.
Bryce Mitchell def. Charles Rosa: So I want to keep most of these early fight breakdowns short and sweet, but holy twister from hell. Bryce Mitchell is the guy that nailed a twister submission and then called for camouflage shorts as a part of the Reebok kit. Mitchell is going to get those shorts, Dana White confirmed it. What Mitchell did was his best impression of an Auntie Annie’s pretzel stand worker in a mall. Rosa is a black belt in jiu-jitsu and Mitchell made him look like a blue belt to the tune of two 30-25 score cards and a freaking 30-24. Featherweight is stacked, particularly with young talent. Feel free to add a new name to that list.
Vicente Luque def. Niko Price: Luque looked great against a dangerous Niko price. The finish was good, Price’s face was bad. Overall not a whole lot of implications in this one. Just a solid fight. Maybe Luque can make some things happen at the bottom end of the welterweight rankings.
Carla Esparza def. Michelle Waterson: What a mess. There is no world in which two score cards should come back 30-27 and not be for the same fighter. The judging wasn’t even that terrible on this night but by god was it bad here. Yes I believe Waterson should have gotten the close decision victory but by god… fix the judging. Just, just fix it.
Aleksei Oleinik def. Fabricio Werdum: The old man still has some moves. The other old man does not. It seems we are long past the days of Werdum being one of the best UFC heavyweights of all time. But the story here is Oleinik looking as good as he ever has, and almost entirely on the feet.
Anthony Pettis def. Donald Cerrone: And the Cowboy “slide” continues. It was a good fight that Pettis deserved to win. Cerrone looked good but not good enough. Both men are significantly past their primes, and title shots are out of the question, but I will always be excited to watch either man fight.
Greg Hardy def. Yorgan de Castro: No Uncle Dana, I refuse to root for Greg Hardy. And I’m not gonna lie I didn’t get to see this fight, ESPN+ was acting up. From what I can tell I didn’t miss much. Though that whole, advice from the commentary thing was funny.
Calvin Kattar def. Jeremy Stephens: Elbows. Elbows raining from the sky. Jeremy Stephens did not even come close to making weight (150.5 lbs) and it just did not matter. The first round was relatively close. The round two started and Kattar just decided he was done messing around and hit Stephens with one of the nastiest elbows I’ve seen anyone other than Tony Fergusson throw. Keep in mind that thing I said about featherweight, we will come back to that. Oh, and as for the future of Jeremy Stephens? Based on his recent fights he probably gets booked against Bryce Mitchell next.
Francis Ngannou murders Jairzinho Rozenstruik: Ngannou is the boogeyman. He is Jason Voorheas. Ngannou is as good as it gets. Anthony “Rumble” Johnson step aside, there’s a new biggest hitter in the UFC. Give Ngannou a title shot. Do it. Do it yesterday.
Henry Cejudo def. Dominick Cruz: What a strange fight. The first round was close, so close that it really could have gone either way though I do lean Cejudo. Then, after another brilliantly technical round, Cruz and Cejudo collide heads, Cejudo is bleeding profusely, and ten seconds later Cruz runs into a knee from Cejudo and eleven unanswered strikes later a possibly drunk ref calls the fight off. Then Cejudo retired??? I really am not sure what to make of this. Cruz looked good but not like his old self, Cejudo looked amazing, the stoppage wasn’t the worst but at that weight class with that little time on the clock you probably should just let the fight go, and Cruz has now stated that the ref smelled like alcohol and cigarettes. Does anyone actually believe that Cejudo is going to stay retired? Yes. Because I do. I like this ending. Sure he was the king of cringe but Cejudo is absolutely going out on top. And with that, a moment of silence for the now absolutely dead, men’s flyweight division.
Justin Gaethje def. Tony Ferguson: We are just never going to see Khabib vs Tony. And if we do it’ll be the MMA version of May-Pac. I think if this fight happens ten times, each fighter wins five of those. That does not matter however, because in this world Justin Gaethje is the newly crowned baddest man on the planet. Tony will rebound, probably with seven straight wins, each more violent than the last. In the meantime, Gaethje is on a collision course with Khabib Nurmagomedov and what a freaking fight that will be. Gaethje leveled up in this fight and this may be the beginning of a truly terrifying era for the top contenders in the lightweight division. First Tony and now Justin? The future is here, and the future is violent.
IMPLICATIONS
Heavyweight: Give Francis a title belt. Don’t make him fight for it though. We don’t need anymore deaths on screen. I’m pretty sure the warrant for Ngannou’s arrest was issued Monday morning. Apparently Daniel Cormier may now be open to fighting Ngannou for the strap, and, YES PLEASE!
Featherweight: Oh boy is the future of this division stacked. Rumors are that Max Holloway is indeed ready for the rematch with Alex Volkanovski, which is amazing. That first fight was great and the second will no doubt be better. Don’t sleep on Max. We saw two young monsters in Bryce Mitchell and Calvin Kattar absolutely dominated in their matches. Calvin Kattar is a powerful, technical striker with skills on the ground and if I had to guess, is on his way to a fight with Frankie Edgar? Maybe? How good would that be? As for Mitchell, it is time to get a ranked opponent in the octagon. He has more than proven himself. Sodiq Yusuff, Ryan Hall, and Arnold Allen all have one loss and are spectacular up and coming talents as well. But I want Shane Burgos for Mitchell. I want Mitchell to get a vet. Maybe it is not the smartest move for such a young kid but I absolutely think he can handle it. Oh, and we still have Zabit Magomedsharipov and Yair Rodriguez in the top five of this division. And that’s a fight we need to see happen. Soon.
Lightweight: Tony vs Khabib is just never happening. It makes me want to cry. But we are supposedly going to get Justin Gaethje vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov on Fight Island. Lightweight is maybe the most top heavy division in the UFC and it’s amazing. Please give me Conor McGregor vs. Tony Ferguson or McGregor vs. Dan Hooker. And Dustin Porier is there too. It is absolutely spectacular how many brilliant match-ups there are in that top six. And as for that title fight, give me Gaethje. Something about him makes me think he could knock anyone in the world out. I will never doubt that man again.