Last night we were blessed with three title fights on the same card. Not to mention, the prelims were fire as well. First off, the Bantamweight title was on the line after former champion Henry Cejudo retired after a victory at UFC 249. Petr Yan and Jose Aldo were chosen to fight for the vacant title. This fight was very close at the beginning with the first round going to Yan and second most likely going to Aldo. However, fatigue and possibly injury were a major factor in the third round in beyond as Yan clearly won both the third and fourth rounds. The fifth round was just honestly hard to watch. The ref did a horrible job and the fight should've been called at least a minute or maybe two earlier. Yan dropped Aldo early in the round with a few great punches and then just pounded on Aldo from the ground from there on out until the referee called the fight. Aldo took a very unnecessary beating and didn't fight back once. UFC President Dana White said, "It should have been stopped way sooner." I think everyone watching the fight could agree with that statement.
The next fight was between Max Holloway, the challenger, and Alexander Volkanovski, the champion, in the featherweight division. This was a rematch between the two after Volkanovski stole the belt from Holloway by unanimous decision at UFC 245. Holloway came out of the gate very strong winning the first two rounds easily. Throughout the entire fight, Holloway was the aggressor but Volkanovski definitely won rounds four and five. The third round was where the judges disagreed leading to a split decision. The champion Volkanovski won by split decision and the internet went wild saying Holloway got robbed. Personally, I don' think he got robbed. I think he deserved to win but didn't get robbed. I think Volkannovski won the third round giving him the 3-2 edge, but Holloway's round one and two wins were both stronger than any one of Volkanovski's rounds. It's an unfortunate outcome for Holloway as he was the better fighter in my opinion but Volkanovski deserved to win given how the scoring of UFC works. Despite the fact that Volkanovski has won both fights between the two, I'm really hoping for this matchup can become a trilogy.
The main event was way over hyped. It had so much potential to be an electric battle and it really seemed like it would be after the first round but it became boring very quickly. Jorge Masvidal looked so fresh in round one and in my opinion won the round. Only one judge gave him the win for that round though. The next four rounds were all Usman; nothing Usman showed however, particularly amazing or fun to watch. He just controlled Masvidal in the clinch for several minutes each round stomping on Masvidal's toes with some shoulder's to the chin occasionally. I can't imagine losing a UFC fight because the other guy was really good at stomping on my toes. That's how boring the fight was. Usman was like the Patriots offense in recent years. Lot's of running plays and check downs for solid yardage just to get down field and rack up first downs. Masvidal on the other hand is like the Chiefs offense, highly explosive and can score on any given play. Masvidal rarely got the opportunity to show what he had. If Masvidal was more fit (had to lose 22 pounds this week) and at least knew he had a fight months in advance instead of seven days, this would have been a much more competitive fight. However, for now, Usman remains the Welterweight Champion and will most likely fight against Gilburt Burns, Uman's original opponent, to try and defend the title for a third time. Masvidal said after the fight that he'll win a couple fights so they could run it back. That would be awesome.
All in all it was a spectacular night. Sorry for not blogging yesterday. These fights went on until about 1:40 in the morning. I'll be back tomorrow. Stay tuned.
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