UFC 238 is in the books, and it’s time to take stock in the evening’s performances. MMA Junkie looks at who’s up, who’s down and who’s flat after a night of action at United Center in Chicago
Stock Up: Henry Cejudo, Valentina Shevchenko, Tony Ferguson, Petr Yan, Aljamain Sterling, Alexa Grasso, Eddie Wineland.
Stock Down: Jessica Eye, Tai Tuivasa, Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Ricardo Lamas.
No Change: Yan Xiaonan, Darren Stewart, Nina Ansaroff.
Stock Up
Henry Cejudo
There’s an Olympian. There’s a guy who knows how to win. The guy who had his legs taken away in two rounds left the guy who took them unable to stand in the third. Cejudo was getting merked, and he adjusted mid-fight with the strategy to beat Marlon Moraes, a talented but fallible threat. All the silly WWE antics in the world don’t change the fact that Cejudo is a truly special athlete. History hasn’t been kind to champ-champs so far. But maybe Cejudo is the guy to turn it around, dominating both classes to cement himself as the GOAT. Why not be optimistic for once?
Valentina Shevchenko
Look at the current women’s flyweight ranks, and tell me who has a shot at the champ right now. There are fighters who might be able to last five rounds. There are a few who could give her a good fight a year or two down the line. There just aren’t any that look remotely close to ready right now. Shevchenko is head and shoulders above anyone at 125 pounds, and the longer she goes on like this, the more interesting a trilogy with Amanda Nunes looks.
Tony Ferguson
A weird, entirely legal ending obscured the more important point on Saturday night, and that’s the comeback Ferguson pulled off. Considering the headwinds he faced going into the fight, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if he’d lost a step. But it looked like another day at the office for one of the most creative combatants in the game. Give that man his title shot.
Petr Yan
Don’t let Yan back you to the cage, a directive that seems simple enough and yet so difficult to execute against the wily Russian. At the end of each round, he debuts a new sequence of strikes that surprises you, and you’re suddenly fighting for your life.
That’s the way things went for Jimmie Rivera, who despite all his talent couldn’t find a way to contain Yan. The 26-year-old’s mix of striking and wrestling looks pretty unbeatable. Even scarier, he’s got a youthful chin that can survive shots his veteran colleagues wouldn’t. A fight with Corey Sandhagen seems like the perfect crucible for a title eliminator. But the way Yan looks now, there’s nothing he can’t handle in the bantamweight division.
Aljamain Sterling
There have been times when it looked like Sterling relied on the get-out-of-jail-free card his wrestling gives him in fights. Throw a couple of high kicks, distract foe, and shoot. Well, the “Funkmaster” we saw on Saturday didn’t get one takedown, and he still dominated. It wasn’t in the way a young gunslinger might. There were no wild exchanges that would put Pedro Munhoz at an advantage. Instead, it was an educated approach to a dangerous opponent, and Sterling even threw in a little flair by inviting Munhoz to go kick for kick and punch for punch in the third. Sterling has picked up some big wins as of late and should get a shot at Cejudo, if there’s any meaning to divisions any more.
Alexa Grasso
Grasso didn’t have much time to adjust before she got tossed into the UFC against the best of the strawweight bunch. And why not? The talent she showed in Invicta FC made her every bit worthy of the buzz around her. She didn’t fare well against Felice Herrig and Tatiana Suarez. But against Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Grasso looked exactly like the young phenom on the way to a title shot. Favorable matchups will do that for you, of course. Kowalkiewicz’s attack played right into her hand. It was still an impressive sight, and she should get another crack at a division standout.
Eddie Wineland
Call it the power of the mustache. Wineland has been through so many ups and downs, so many injuries and triumphs and defeats, it’s hard not to homer for the former WEC champ. Maybe it was having his back to the wall with two straight losses, or the hometown crowd cheering him on, or Grigorii Popov’s just-happy-to-be-here vibe. Any way you slice it, Wineland looked like the guy who could give anyone in the bantamweight division trouble.
Next page: Stock down
Stock down
Jessica Eye
The flyweight division was where Eye first stood out when she submitted Zoila Frausto with a standing arm-triangle. It was where she looked reborn after a four-fight skid in the bantamweight class in which she competed because 125 pounds wasn’t an option. And after a brutal knockout at the hands of Shevchenko, it’s where she must walk a comeback road that now seems impossibly long. The shallowness of the flyweight pool works in her favor. But as long as Shevchenko holds the belt, she’ll be second fiddle.
Tai Tuivasa
The Mark Hunt disciple made a big splash with back-to-back knockouts and shooeys and quirky walkout music. Then he met Junior Dos Santos and got thoroughly outclassed. Against Blagoy Ivanov, Tuivasa looked good at moments. He also looked like he had trouble pulling the trigger, and that’s never a good thing when giants are swinging hammers at your head.
It’s too early to tell whether Tuivasa has room to grow or has reached his ceiling. He needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out some stuff.
Karolina Kowalkiewicz
The former UFC title challenger has some significant wins on her resume, none more so than ex-champ Rose Namajunas. But as of late, Kowalkiewicz has looked increasingly out of step with top contenders in the strawweight division. Against Grasso, she threw strategy out the window in favor of a slugfest she wasn’t winning. And rather than adjust, she doubled down and took even more damage. Tough as nails, and yet you have to wonder whether she can ever get back to the undefeated threat that rocketed up the ranks.
Ricardo Lamas
At this point, you have to be concerned for Lamas’ well being. Thing is, he’s still a world-class competitor and can probably beat half the featherweight division on any given day. He could continue to fight on after a knockout to Calvin Kattar, and he would pick up some more wins. He might also pick up some more brutal losses and sad reminders of his dropoff. Right now, Lamas looks like a veteran who’s been lapped by the next generation. The UFC will want to use him as a gatekeeper, and that’s a game you can only play so long.
Next page: No change
No change
Yan Xiaonan
Four straight wins is nothing to sneeze at in the UFC, and Xiaonan got it done against Angela Hill. That’s the best that can be said in a fight where Hill was consistently landing the bigger shots and nearly finished the fight in the first round. There’s a lot to like about Xiaonan’s aggressive attack and combination-heavy striking. She just didn’t come out of this one looking like much of a winner.
Darren Stewart
Two sweeps in two kicks? How powerful is Stewart? Hard to imagine anyone would want to take any uneccesary shots from the middleweight Jose Aldo, and so it makes sense that Bevon Lewis didn’t feel like marching forward and slugging it out. Problem is, that makes an otherwise exciting matchup one where we’re all checking our phones. Stewart needs good matchups to look good, and it’s tough to get volunteers when they’re guaranteed a limp home.
Nina Ansaroff
Staying on your feet against an Olympic-caliber wrestler should mean something. Ansaroff’s five-fight win streak was on the chopping block the second she signed to fight Suarez, and she still managed a moral victory of sorts in the third round. With 30 more seconds, she could have pulled a Derrick Lewis and shocked the world. That’s not the way this thing works, of course, but Suarez didn’t maul her the same way she’s done so many others, and that’s why she stays put.
For complete coverage of UFC 238, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
