When I published the UFC 287 takeaways article back in April, I knew it would be the last pay-per-view that I was going to actively write about and publish within a week. I finally got to turn my writer brain off and just enjoy the sport we call mixed martial arts.
School is now back in session, and as a result, Crooke’s Cage is back as well. A lot has changed within the past five months, so to keep things short and sweet, I’ll only be discussing the pay-per-view headliners and looking ahead to the final three pay-per-views of the year.
1. The Funkmaster beats Triple C … at what cost? (UFC 288)
When Henry Cejudo beat Dominick Cruz in a controversial stoppage before heading into retirement, I would’ve told you that Cejudo was heading off into the sunset as one of the greatest to do it at 135—not only in the UFC but as an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling, too.
Who would have thought Cejudo would come out of retirement and be granted an immediate title shot against Aljamain Sterling? Some argue that Dana White is trying to do everything he can to bury Sterling’s already rough and controversial title reign. To illustrate how bad it is, the Prudential Center in New Jersey was booing Sterling. A hometown crowd actively wanted Cejudo to win and regain the title he never lost.
Sterling would win this fight on a split decision (two judges scored in favor of Sterling, one in favor of Cejudo), and for a while, I wasn’t completely sold on whether the Funk Master won that fight or not. I wasn’t sold on Aljo as champ after this fight, and unfortunately, Sean O’Malley would put down the Funkmaster in Boston at UFC 292 (more on that in a bit).
As for Cejudo, I firmly believe he’s one of the best to ever compete at 135 in any combat sport. Now we can look forward to seeing more of him in action down the road, perhaps against Merab Dvalishvili soon. Exciting times ahead!
2. The Lioness Sleeps Tonight (UFC 289)
Let me be clear about this card—Charles Oliveira’s injury postponing his duel with Beneil Dariush saved fans from a potential disappointment of a main event in Vancouver—it was originally booked to be Nunes vs. Pena 3. Thankfully, we did not get a letdown, but we did get pure dominance from Amanda Nunes. Still, the fight was not competitive.
This is no knock on Nunes and should be no knock on anyone throwing down in the Great White North that night. Canadian fighters won every single one of their fights that night, and Oliveira submitting Dariush in the first round was a reminder that “Do Bronx” wasn’t going anywhere.
As for Nunes v. Aldana, what we saw was virtually a masterclass from the person who is widely considered the greatest women’s mixed martial artist of all time. When the judges are scoring your fights as 50-44 and 50-43 in a “ten-must” system, you’re just really good. If Aldana had shown some aggression, this fight would’ve been more enjoyable, but it probably wasn’t meant to be. Nunes puts the gloves down before riding into the sunset, and we as MMA fans should be forever grateful.
3. International Fight Week: Belt Scramble Edition (UFC 290)
The UFC has a fun little promotion called International Fight Week in July, where all the MMA fans make the grand pilgrimage to Sin City to partake in what you might as well consider this sport’s equivalent of Comic-Con.
At the end of International Fight Week, you get another pay-per-view event, this time with two championship fights for the price of one. Alexander Volkanovski ends his hiatus in the featherweight division to unify the featherweight title against interim champ Yair Rodriguez. Meanwhile, Brandon Moreno is unfortunately booked into another series fight with Alexandre Pantoja. Moreno and Pantoja fought on The Ultimate Fighter (Pantoja won) and again in 2018 (Pantoja won again), but given that their duel on TUF was considered an exhibition, this was called “Moreno vs. Pantoja 2.” I get it, it’s confusing.
First, let’s discuss the co-main: Moreno vs. Pantoja 2. Both of these men gave their all in what can be considered a contender for fight of the year. Nevertheless, Pantoja did a little bit of backpacking throughout the fight, and being in control of Moreno allowed him to be less aggressive (despite the scoring system favoring aggression over body control). Pantoja won by a hugely controversial split decision, getting 48-47 scores in his favor while Moreno got a 49-46 score to end the latter’s second reign as flyweight. Both of Moreno’s reigns as flyweight king (excluding his unification bout with Deveison Figuereido) ended in his first time in the black and gold shorts.
But the fight that had us sold for UFC 290 was Volkanovski vs. Rodriguez. If you rewind to February, Alexander Volkanovski bumps up a weight class to fight lightweight champ Islam Makhachev in a gambler’s match: Makhachev’s belt for Volkanovski’s pound-for-pound king spot (which was then ignored by the UFC because Jon Jones came back). Before Volk took the stage, Yair Rodriguez beat Josh Emmett to claim the interim strap, and now we have a unification bout on our hands.
Rodriguez gives Volk the beans and gets a couple of good shots in, but by the third round, we see what the featherweight king learned from his failed lightweight title bid: how to wrestle effectively. Volkanovski wins by submission in round three and gets his pound-for-pound king spot back. Volk would share this ranking for a few weeks before getting bumped down by Jon Jones, who hadn’t fought since March.
4. Salt Lake City, Head Kick KO Capital of the World (UFC 291)
Man, there’s something in the (lack of) air in Salt Lake City. Last year, Kamaru Usman was put on a poster by Leon Edwards with a head kick that ended his title reign in a fight that Usman was running away with.
Fast forward to the present day, and the Delta Center is hosting a fight for the vacant BMF belt, as inaugural champion Jorge Masvidal would retire in Miami this past April. It would only take a minute into the second round for Justin Gaethje to put down former interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier in the same manner as the ending of the card a year before—head kick knockout.
While UFC 291 wasn’t a proper title fight, Poirier vs. Gaethje 2 deserves to have the distinction of being some form of a title fight. Expect one of these two to challenge either for the interim title or have a shot at current UFC lightweight champ Islam Makhachev next year or in 2025.
5. The Funkmaster is Dead, Long Live the Sugar Show (UFC 292)
August was a good month for UFC fans as they finally got the moment they were waiting for—Sean O’Malley fighting for the undisputed UFC bantamweight championship of the world.
The first round was surprisingly quiet, and the judge’s scorecards had it 10-9 on Sterling. Sterling would open the second round with an attempted takedown, only for it to be stuffed by the taller and not exactly prepared O’Malley. Sterling pushes the pace on O’Malley, O’Malley knocks down Sterling, and after a bit of a beating full of hammer fists, Marc Goddard steps in and O’Malley is the new UFC bantamweight champion.
This fight was pretty much the excuse Dana White needed to push O’Malley to the freaking moon—White would post the finishing sequence of the fight on every social media he had, which is something that he never did before now. Was this burying Sterling? Probably. Was it worth it financially? Becoming the highest-grossing event (outside of the NBA Finals) in TD Garden history suggests it was.
6. Upset in Australia (UFC 293)
Mixed martial arts is a weird sport.
By the numbers alone you’d think Adesanya would leave Sydney as the champion. Five rounds and twenty-five minutes later, Sean Strickland became the UFC middleweight champion and put Israel Adesanya’s title reign to bed.
Adesanya’s significant issue was deciding to fight in order to keep his belt rather than aiming to beat the man across the cage. This is now the second time he’s been caught as a result, and his reputation as a high-level fighter is in jeopardy. It’s a sign of the times when the middleweight title changes hands three times in a year, and this is a likely indication the title may end up changing hands more in the future.
7. What now?
We’ve reached the part of the year where the UFC can easily botch the back half of the year’s bookings, but thankfully, we know the immediate future is secure.
On Oct. 21, we will get UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi. Originally, the card was planned around the highly-anticipated rematch between current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and former champ Charles Oliveira. However, Oliveira would suffer a cut above the eye and would be forced to pull out of the fight. In fight math, this means that any rebooked main event for 294 would be inferior to Makhachev/Oliveira 2.
If you know Dana White, you know that’s just not how it works. The UFC would pull out arguably the biggest rabbit in the hat this year—booking the also highly-anticipated rematch against featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski just eight months after the first. Certainly not planned, but not unwelcome either. Volkanovski comes in on just eleven days’ notice for what is the biggest fight of his career—for the second time this year. Paulo Costa was also originally booked to face the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev, but with the former pulling out as a result of surgery, former welterweight champ Kamaru Usman stepped up to face Chimaev on just a week’s notice.
Madison Square Garden is set to host UFC 295 on Nov. 11, marking New York’s second potential banger in as many pay-per-view appearances. Current heavyweight champ Jon Jones makes his first title defense against Stipe Miocic, a former champ and the man widely considered to be the greatest heavyweight in UFC history. Alongside that comes a co-main event of the former middleweight champion Alex Pereira against former light heavyweight champion Jiří Procházka, making this the third title fight in a year where the title was vacant—UFC 282 and UFC 283, respectively.
UFC 296 rounds out the year with two title fights in Las Vegas, as Leon Edwards makes his second title defense against the returning Colby Covington for the UFC welterweight championship. Edwards’ last defense was the trilogy fight against Kamaru Usman, whereas Covington enters as a former interim champ in his second undisputed title fight.
There is potential for trouble on the horizon, however. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) threw the MMA community a curveball by simultaneously announcing Conor McGregor’s return to the drug testing pool alongside their incoming split come New Year’s Day 2024.
Between excellent booking and the deal between Endeavor, the UFC’s parent company, and the WWE to merge into TKO Holdings, UFC fans are in for a treat to finish out the year.
