If you’re like me and watch an absurd amount of mixed martial arts
each week, you probably wished there was some sort of rating
system, so you’re not forced to sit through a boring decision
waiting for something to happen. We at Sherdog have decided to
start rating each fight from every
Ultimate Fighting Championship card to solve that problem. If
you happen to miss an event, check back here every week for ratings
so you can pick and choose what bouts to watch and which ones to
skip.
Fights will be ranked on a 5-star scale. 0 stars being one of the
worst matches I’ve ever seen, 1 is below average, 2 is average, 3
is above average, 4 is exceptional, and 5 stars is an all-time
great bout. Ratings will be given based on competitiveness,
showcase of skill and technique, finishes, and the story and
heightened drama of the contest. However, just because a fight is
one-sided doesn't mean it will receive a bad rating.
Max
Holloway vs.
Brian
Ortega, for example, would have scored high for Holloway’s
showcase of technique and the overall drama seen despite it being
one-sided domination. With that out of the way, let's get into this
week’s bouts.
Both men were throwing bombs to open the first round before a groin
shot halted the action. Once the fight was started back up,
Rencountre secured a double leg takedown but Stewart was able to
get back to his feet. Rencountre wanted nothing to do with
Stewart’s striking and immediately took him down again before
locking up the rear naked choke for the win. Nothing too crazy
happened in this fight and it was a quick finish, so I’m giving it
2.5 stars.
Vegas odds suggested this was going to be a competitive bout but
instead we saw
Geoff Neal
put on the best performance of his career and dominate Muhammad
from bell to bell. Neal landed a couple of clean left straights in
round 1 but it was his clinch striking that won him the stanza.
Muhammad had a bit of a resurgence, landing some nice counters to
the body that seemed to slow Neal down, but Neal was never in
serious trouble. In the final round, Neal picked up the pace and
dropped Muhammad to the canvas multiple times with a head kick and
his favorite left straight while taking an angle to his right.
Muhammad somehow recovered and spent the last seconds of the fight
looking for a knockout, but Neal remained calm as always and
coasted to take home an easy decision victory.
This card had a lot of questionable underdogs that wound up coming
out on top and Bermudez was one of them. The first round was rather
close before Bermudez landed a takedown in the final minute and
landed some nice elbows. Knowing he had the grappling advantage,
Bermudez looked to take the fight to the ground early in the second
and spent a good amount of the stanza in top position but didn’t
land much offense. Edwards knew he needed a finish, but he was
still unable to defend the takedowns and Bermudez spent most of the
final round in top position and landed 21 ground strikes. Bermudez
ended up taking home an easy 30-26 unanimous decision victory and
put on a decent performance in the last of his career.
Cory
Sandhagen put on one of the best performances of the night when
he finished
Mario
Bautista with an armbar just three minutes into the fight.
Sandhagen opened the bout attacking the legs of Bautista and then
out of nowhere he lands a beautiful flying knee that dropped his
opponent to the mat. Bautista miraculously recovered and slammed
Sandhagen to the ground, but the crafty grappler locked up a
triangle on the way down and eventually switched to an armbar for
the finish. The back and forth action along with a quick finish and
a perfect flying knee make this a 3-star fight.
Not much to say about this fight since it was such a quick finish
and Moreira was basically done after the first exchange. However,
the sound of Menifield’s right hand that finished the contest is
enough to give this a slightly above average rating and is
definitely worth your time.
Continuing the trend of underdogs winning, “JoJo” Calderwood
dominated UFC newcomer
Ariane
Lipski to win her second fight in a row. Whether it was on the
feet, on the ground, or in the clinch, Calderwood looked incredible
wherever the fight took her and showed Lipski that there is a major
difference between the UFC and regional promotions. Lipski still
put up a hell of a fight and was never going to quit but
Calderwood’s experience was too much for the young prospect to deal
with.
Our first 4-star rating goes to none other than “Cowboy” Cerrone.
As if the veteran hasn’t done enough to make him a first ballot
Hall of Famer, he went out there and finishes a hyped prospect and
put on the best fight of the night. Just as it seemed Hernandez was
picking up the pace, Cowboy stunned him with a couple of
combinations to end the opening round. “Cowboy” picked up where he
left off and started to land punches and knees to the body from
clinch with ease before stunning him again with an elbow. He then
landed his favorite rear head kick that dropped Hernandez to the
ground and finished the fight with some strikes. “Cowboy” is
already seen as one of the greatest to ever step in the cage and he
is still taking out young prospects with ease at 35.
Although nothing too rememberable happened, a 39-year-old Teixeira
getting dropped and immediately recovering before submitting
Roberson a minute later is enough to make this a 3-star fight.
People were saying Teixeira was a shot fighter after his loss to
Alexander
Gustafsson in 2017, but he has gone 2-1 since against top
opponents with both wins coming in the first round.
The opening was stagnant with Ostovich laying in top control to
edge out the round and VanZant playing defense. “12 Gauge” knew she
had to pick up the pace and reversed a takedown attempt to take
Ostovich’s back and started unloading with ground and pound. For a
second, it seemed Ostovich had the opportunity to slip out, but Van
Zant locked up the armbar and forced her opponent to tap
immediately.
If you’re a fan of grappling heavy MMA fights this one if for you,
but nothing special, enough happened to give this anything over an
average rating. Ortiz was able to outstrike Benavidez 93-37
throughout the fight, but he couldn’t stop the takedowns and spent
a lot of the fight on his back. Ortiz did look good in the second
and won the round in the eyes of most, but Benavidez was able to
get the fight back to the ground in the following stanza and
squeaked out a unanimous decision.
Not much to say about this fight. I’m a big fan of both men, but
Gillespie spent the entire first round wrapped around Medeiros
against the cage with almost no action and the second was much of
the same before the finish. Gillespie is definitely a contender you
want to keep your eye on but there was nothing special about this
performance.
Not much happened in this fight and it couldn’t have ended any
worse with Crowder winning via disqualification due to an illegal
knee from Hardy. This gets an average rating for the feeling
throughout the fight that it could literally end at any moment with
both men swinging for the fences and Crowder calling Hardy a bitch
just seconds before the DQ.
This fight and the controversial quick finish were an absolute
disaster for the UFC and was oddly reminiscent of the first UFC on
FOX card. All credit to Cejudo for stunning Dillashaw in an awkward
exchange and taking advantage of the moment, but nothing
exceptional happened and the fight ending strikes weren’t
devastating, as shown by T.J. jumping right back to his feet.
However, this is the UFC and it only seemed fitting for the main
event of the first card on a new station to end quickly after
months of hype.
