What really mattered at UFC 236? Here’s a thing or five …
1. Poirier’s superpower? Resilience
For a while now Dustin Poirier has had the same tweet pinned to his Twitter page. It’s from November 2016, just a couple months after he was knocked out cold by Michael Johnson in a UFC main event, and it reads simply: “It’s all about perseverance.”
That’s not just a throwaway line for Poirier – it’s basically a philosophy. His whole career has been about perseverance, so it’s fitting that he’d have to gut his way through some rough stuff to claim a UFC interim title with a unanimous decision win over Max Holloway.
This wasn’t a domination by Poirier. This fight had some violent ebbs and flows, and there were points where he came close to losing it. But Poirier proves that sometimes you can make good things happen just through sheer will. That’s been the story of his career, so why shouldn’t it also be the story of his first UFC title victory?
2. In a firefight, Adesanya’s character is revealed
Up until his fight with Kelvin Gastelum in the co-main event, it still felt like there were some things we didn’t know about Israel Adesanya. We knew he was a slick and creative striker. We knew he could thwart some attempts to make him grapple. But we didn’t know exactly how much of him was style and how much was substance.
We got a lesson once Gastelum got in his face and tagged him with a right hook or two. There were moments in this fight where Adesanya was hurt badly.
In the final round, it would have been easy to fight not to lose, all in the hopes of a gift from the judges. Instead, Adesanya turned it up and nearly finished Gastelum in the fifth, somehow finding a reserve of energy and aggression even when the well seemed completely dry.
That’s a special kind of fighter. It’s a certain kind of person. Even if his belt may be of the interim variety, he can still wear it with pride. We all know he earned it.
3. Four men, two fights, zero losers
Looking at this card on paper, it seemed a little top-heavy. Yes, the two interim title fights seemed like guaranteed fun, but the supporting cast wasn’t going to knock anyone’s socks off. As it turned out, those top two fights were both incredible, and either of them would have been worth the pay-per-view price all on their own. Which, I guess, is what happens when you get four fighters together who all have the same stubborn dog living inside them.
Gastelum and Holloway might have gone home with losses, but you can’t call them losers. Not after that. I simply won’t allow it. What made these bouts so incredible was the will and the determination of all parties – not just the two that got belts at the end. We’d do well to remember that.
4. How did “Ya Boi” even make it to ya judges?
There was a moment in the second round of their fight when I couldn’t tell what the bigger threat was: Would Khalil Rountree Jr. kick Eryk Anders’ leg clean off his body, or knock his head clean off his shoulders?
Even the UFC commentary crew was talking like the only thing to do was for Anders’ corner to stop the fight and spare him more punishment. His coaches never seemed to seriously consider it. Anders made it to the final horn, somehow, but by then the outcome wasn’t the least bit in doubt. Rountree Jr. won with 30-26 scores across the board, though even he must have been surprised that it ended up requiring three full rounds of work.
5. Welcome to the ESPN+ era on pay-per-view … assuming you figured out how to order
As the pay-per-view broadcast started I saw a lot of the same screens pop up on social media. People had downloaded the ESPN app and were looking at the UFC 236 page, only to be told that they couldn’t order it there. What gives? Did these people want our money or not?
For me, once I figured out how to order on my laptop and make the purchase show up on my TV, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the broadcast. Only minor streaming hiccups, a good picture quality, and when I went back to re-watch some of the fights on a different device this morning it worked without issue.
Not bad at all. Then again, it ought to work for the money they’re charging. And hopefully enough people figured it out in time to catch a truly special night.
For complete coverage of UFC 236, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
