What mattered most at UFC on ESPN 1 in Phoenix? Here’s a thing or two …
1. A bad knee or a good punch?
The weird and sudden ending to the main event is one of those things that allows everyone to see what they want to see. Did Cain Velasquez’s knee simply give out? Was the injury prone former champ once again undone by his own physical fragility? Or was it that uppercut from Francis Ngannou that buckled Velasquez’s knee? Is the powerhouse heavyweight really that powerful, even with short, sneaky shots like that? (For the record, my take is yep, it was the punch.)
In the end, of course, it doesn’t matter. Ngannou won. Whether his wrestling has really improved or not, Ngannou is headed back up to the top of the division, where his takedown defense will no doubt be tested again.
And Velasquez? He returns home to grapple with the question of just how much MMA his body can stand. Athletes don’t typically get less injury prone as their mid-30s give way to their late-30s. They don’t usually get faster or better either. It could be that we’ve already seen his best years as a fighter. It could be that he spent most of them in the doctor’s office.
2. That commentator guy can fight a little bit
Is Paul Felder ever going to be a UFC champion? Honestly, I doubt it. But he exists right at the intersection of tough and skilled that makes him a problem for just about anybody in the lightweight division when his game is clicking.
He did just enough to edge out James Vick, and the though of him in a cage with Justin Gaethje soon is enough to make fight fans salivate. And no, just because he broke his arm on a spinning backfist apparently doesn’t mean he won’t throw one or two per round. We’ve got to respect that, even if we might not understand it.
3. ‘Fight of the Night’ was an easy choice this time …
Turns out, yeah, maybe it was a pretty good idea to put Vicente Luque and Bryan Barberena on the ESPN card. Forget fight of the night, this was an early contender for Slobberknocker of the Year. Don’t let the three-round struggle fool you, though. Luque is a serious talent, and the heat he was bringing early in the fight would have finished most UFC welterweights. It’s just that Barberena has a head like a cinder block and the stubbornness to put it to work.
4. A Gracie wins by – you’re never going to believe this – submission
Did that look familiar to anyone else? That little fake knee stomp kick, then barreling in to close the distance, following inevitably by a takedown and a quick submission? It’s been a long time since a Gracie has made the family trade work that well in the UFC. But Kron Gracie’s first-round finish of Alex Caceres was the type of debut that gets people excited for the newcomer with the familiar last name. Now we just wait to find out how far you can go in today’s UFC relying on those same old tricks.
5. Remember back when Renan Barao was a ‘monster’?
If anyone’s in danger of forgetting how cruel this sport can be, or how steep the fall from the top can get, just look at the cautionary tale of Renan Barao. A few years ago he was the best bantamweight in the world, riding a winning streak that stretched all the way back to the early days of his MMA career. Then he lost one fight. And pretty soon it was like he couldn’t stop.
Barao’s brutal knockout loss at the hands of Luke Sanders was his fourth consecutive defeat, and his sixth in his last seven fights. He went from headlining pay-per-views to getting starched on the prelims. He’s 32, and lately he looks like he’s done. But that’s life in this sport. One day you’re the monster. The next you’re just another victim.
For complete coverage of UFC on ESPN 1, check out the UFC Eventssection of the site.
