UFC on ESPN+8 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 in Sunrise, Fla.
Stock Up: Jack Hermansson, Mike Perry, Glover Teixeira, Cody Sandhagen, Roosevelt Roberts, Takashi Sato, Angela Hill.
Stock Down: Ronaldo Souza, Andrei Arlovski, Court McGee.
No change: Greg Hardy, Alex Oliveira, John Lineker, Jim Miller.
* * * *
Stock up
Jack Hermansson
What’s that old saying? Fortune favors the bold? Just a few short weeks ago, Hermansson was just another middleweight in the pack. Talented, sure, but just kind of plugging away over in Europe and not making as much headway as he might have liked. Then came an opportunity to fight former Strikeforce champion ‘Jacare’ Souza in a main event on short notice. That’s a tall order, but one Hermansson didn’t hesitate to accept. And with a hellacious performance in which he connected on 148 significant strikes, Jack proved himself a “Joker” in nickname only, and a contender through and through, square in the 185-pound conversation.
Mike Perry
For so long, “Platinum” has seemed to have all the tools for stardom. A quirky-but-real personality, enough of a bad-boy streak to stand out in this era where trash talk gets you ahead, and oh, by the way, he hits like a truck. He’s also been maddeningly inconsistent. But Saturday night, he went toe to toe with a game competitor in Alex Oliveira in a matchup that was every bit as exciting in reality as it sounded on paper. Perry weathered adversity, showed a good gas tank, and was just the right mix of reckless and smart to defeat a fighter like “Cowboy.” With wins over Oliviera and Paul Felder in his past three outings, Petty seems well on his way to living up to his considerable potential.
Glover Teixeira
If you compete at a high-enough level for long enough, you hit a sweet spot as you age in which perhaps you’re not quite as fast and nimble as you used to be, but you make up for it in fight-honed smarts and game planning. Such was the case for the ageless Teixeira, who knew Ion Cuteleba would come out throwing everything but the kitchen sink in their light heavyweight bout, but then would probably fade. That’s exactly what happened, as Cutuleba pummeled Teixeira early, but then tired as Teixeira poured it on and earned the submission win. The Danbury, Conn., resident turns 40 this year, but with three wins in his past four fights, don’t count him out any time soon.
Cody Sandhagen
Every up-and-coming prospect has their sink-or-swim moment, a moment that’s all the more perilous when you’re in the shark tank that is the bantamweight division. Cody Sandhagen rose to the challenge in his matchup with the uber-tough John Lineker. Lineker is one of the pound-for-pound hardest hitters in the game, and he wasted little time letting Sandhagen know. But Sandhagen gave it as good as he took it, and he also showed great poise during Lineker’s best moments, when he trapped Sandhagen in a choke in the fight’s closing seconds. The scorecard could have gone either way, but Sandhagen got the nod, proved he belonged and is now 4-0 in the UFC.
Roosevelt Roberts
Sometimes, you don’t need to have a fast finish to make an impression. Sometimes just dominating for 15 minutes will do the job. That was the case for 25-year-old California lightweight Roosevelt Roberts in his main-card opener against Thomas Gifford. Roberts basically just clobbered Gifford from bell to bell. That was the first time the former Dana White’s Contender Series competitor went the distance after winning his first seven fights by finish. He also showed poise on the mic, issuing a callout to Matt Frevola.
Takashi Sato
If you turned your head from the screen for a moment, you might have missed Japanese welterweight Takashi Sato win his UFC debut. Sato dropped a left straight down the middle in the second round, which dropped Ben Saunders. Then he followed up with a violent string of elbows that spelled the end of one of the sport’s toughest customers. That’s 13 finishes in 15 career wins from a competitor we hope gets back into the Octagon sooner rather than later.
Angela Hill
Now this is the fight we’ve been waiting to see from Hill ever since she returned to the UFC. The former Invicta strawweight champion replaced Jessica Penne on short notice against Jodie Esquibel. You wouldn’t know it was short notice, though, because she looked completely at ease in the cage, landing punches in bunches and mixing in kicks en route to a unanimous-decision victory. That snapped a two-fight losing streak, and maybe one of MMA’s most entertaining Twitter personalities is finally ready to make her run.
Stock down
‘Jacare’ Souza
Is giving Souza “stock down” fair? Maybe not, but the fight game rarely is. Souza accepted a tough late replacement in Hermansson, to his credit. But this might go down as the fight in which Souza finally looked old, as he took shot after shot after shot from a foe hungry to prove he belongs in the main-event spotlight. That’s two losses in his past three, and three in his past five for a fighter who has long been on the doorstep of a title shot, but now is on the doorstep of age 40.
Andrei Arlovski
Yes, we know. Arlovski has been counted out before. But when he rebounded from his first career rut, he was in his early 30’s, and now he’s 40. The former UFC heavyweight champion appeared to be the victor in his prelim bout against Augusto Sakai. But the points style he’s employed in recent years is subject to the sort of decisions which were rendered by the judges on Saturday night, a split decision not in Arlovski’s favor. That’s three straight losses (all decisions), seven of nine, and no real clear path back to the top for one of the sport’s most resilient warriors.
Court McGee
We take no joy in writing this one. McGee is a credit to the sport, and what he’s accomplished with his life in breaking an addiction and staying clean in a business as rough as fighting is truly admirable. But “The Ultimate Fighter 11” winner simply doesn’t seem to be evolving. McGee prefers to fight at a certain pace and range in the standup. Ten of his past 11 bouts have gone the distance. Sometimes it works, sometimes it backfires. His split-decision loss to Dhiego Lima was the latter, as Lima took advantage of just enough openings to take the win. That’s three losses in his past four fights, this time in the show’s curtain-jerker.
No change
Greg Hardy
Yeah, we get it. The UFC and ESPN really, really want to make Hardy’s fight career a thing. And we also get that he can hit really, really hard. This time, it was Dmitrii Smoliakov’s turn to serve as target practice, as Hardy did what we know he can do. Until we see him in something other than a 1980’s “Superstars of Wrestling” squash match, though, we’re not going to put him in the “Stock Up” category.
Alex Oliveira
At this stage of the game, Brazil’s “Cowboy” is probably not getting a UFC title shot. But does that matter? When Oliveira’s name is announced for a fight card, you know you’re highly likely to get a wild, fast-paced, all-action battle, one Oliveira may or may not win but will probably be in the running for “Fight of the Night.” That was the case at UFC on ESPN+ 8, as Oliveira and Mike Perry engaged in a barnburner. Olveira came up short this time, but we’re sure his next fight will be exciting, and the next, and the next …
John Lineker
When you go toe to toe with one of your division’s hottest of hotshots and come out one round away on one judges’ scorecard from getting the victory on a strong “Fight of the Night” contender, can you truly be called a loser? Not if you’re Lineker after his outstanding battle with Sandhagen. Lineker finished strong, nearly submitting Sandhagen in the fight’s closing moments. And while he didn’t quite get the nod, don’t count out a fighter who is 8-2 in his past 10 just yet.
Jim Miller
Every Miller fight, at this point, is a joy in and of itself for longtime fans. At UFC on ESPN+ 8, Miller stepped into the cage for his record 32nd octagon appearance and took on an upstart in Jason Gonzalez. Miller quickly took Gonzalez to school and finished him with a rear-naked choke in just 2:12 for his record eighth submission in UFC lightweight competition. Miller, who brought his family with him to the fight, acknowledged he doesn’t have too many more fights left in him. So he’s not going on a run toward a title, which is why we’re not putting him in “stock up.” But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the remaining days of Miller time in the UFC while it lasts.
For more on UFC on ESPN+ 8, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
