The welterweight division is one of the most talent-rich collectives in the UFC, and two of the top fighters in the 170-pound fold collided when Rory MacDonald and Tarec Saffiedine squared off at Fight Night 54.
The 25-year-old contender has been labeled the future of the welterweight division since he made his promotional debut back in 2010. In the four years since he emerged onto the scene, Ares has backed up every bit of the hype behind him, winning eight of his 10 showings inside the Octagon. Furthermore, most of those bouts have come against a constant stream of top-ranked talent, including impressive performances in his two most recent victories over Demian Maia and Tyron Woodley.
That caliber of success put the British Columbia native within striking distance of a title shot, but he faced a tough task on Saturday night against Saffiedine.
While the Belgian striker may have been traveling under the radar for the majority of his professional career, that doesn’t take anything away from the dangers he brings to the table. The last man to hold the Strikeforce welterweight title has won eight of his nine showings since 2010, including his current run of four consecutive victories coming into Fight Night 54. Facing a fighter of MacDonald’s status provided a huge opportunity for Saffiedine, and a win would have propelled him to the front of the line.
The stakes were high going into the main event at Fight Night 54, and it was all MacDonald once the action got underway. The Firas Zahabi-trained fighter’s pressure and accuracy proved too much as he knocked out Saffiedine in the third round and made a clear case for a title shot in the process.
The co-main event between Raphael Assuncao and Bryan Caraway held some weight of its own. The Brazilian veteran had been hovering around a potential shot at the bantamweight title for most of 2014 and needed a victory on Saturday night to keep his championship hopes alive. On the flip side, Caraway has quietly crawled up the 135-pound ladder, and a victory over Assuncao would have been the opportunity to make a huge jump up the rankings.
Assuncao had everything to lose going in, and he fought that way. The rising contender worked an efficient game plan to cruise to his seventh consecutive victory and take one step closer to the title shot he’s been chasing.
That said, let’s take a look at the good, bad and strange from Fight Night 54.
The Good
MacDonald has been carrying the burden of expectation for quite some time, and it is something he’s been wearing well over his current run.
Ares has won eight of his last nine outings including three consecutive bouts after beating Saffiedine on Saturday night. The 25-year-old stalked the former Strikeforce champion around the Octagon and laced him up with combinations throughout the first two rounds. MacDonald used his length to implement his offense while keeping the Belgian striker at bay until he planted a left uppercut on Saffiedine’s chin and brought an end to the fight early in the third round.
With the win, MacDonald carved out his place as the next man in line for a shot at the welterweight title. Champion Johny Hendricks and No. 1 contender Robbie Lawler will step in for their rematch at UFC 181 on Dec. 6, and it only makes sense for MacDonald to face the winner in early 2015.
Speaking of title shots, they are tricky business on the sport’s biggest stage, and few fighters have come to know this as well as Assuncao. The scrappy Brazilian has managed to keep a perfect record as a bantamweight and has won seven consecutive bouts since making the switch in 2011. The 32-year-old Team Ascension representative picked up his most recent win on Saturday night as he battered Caraway for 15 minutes in the co-main event at Fight Night 54.
Yet, despite how impressive Assuncao has looked during his current streak, there is a bit of a logjam in the title picture at 135 pounds. Champion T.J. Dillashaw—whom Assuncao holds a victory over—will most likely face former titleholder Dominick Cruz in his next outing. The Dominator re-emerged from a three-year layoff at beat the brakes off Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 178 last month. This means Assuncao might have some extended time on the sidelines if he wants to wait for a championship opportunity, and that’s an option he just may choose.
During the broadcast for Fight Night 54, Assuncao’s friend and former teammate Brian Stann mentioned multiple times during his commentary duties that the Atlanta transplant would wait for his title shot if need be. It will be interesting to see if that turns out to be the case, but it’s hard to deny a big opportunity to a man on a seven-fight winning streak.
Mitch Gagnon has become one of the brightest prospects in the bantamweight division, and that hype is only going to amplify in the wake of his performance at Fight Night 54. The Ontario native ran like a buzz saw through Roman Salazar, securing a first-round victory via rear-naked choke. Granted, Salazar took the bout on five days’ notice, but it was an impressive showing regardless. Gagnon’s win makes it four straight for the surging bantamweight, and he’ll likely draw a bigger name in his next outing.
Elias Theodorou may be known for his good looks, but it turns out The Spartan can fight as well. The Ultimate Fighter: Nations winner picked up his second victory under the UFC banner by grinding out Brazilian powerhouse Bruno Santos on Saturday night. The bout wasn’t a pretty affair by any means, but Theodorou had the gas tank to outlast Santos to pick up the unanimous-decision victory and keep his undefeated record intact.
A strong performance can get things back on track for a fighter, and Daron Cruickshank put himself back into the win column on Saturday night. The Detroit Superstar had a strong offensive showing against Anthony Njokuani, peppering the veteran striker throughout their three-round tilt at Fight Night 54. When the final bell sounded, Cruickshank picked up the unanimous-decision victory and has now been successful in three of his past four showings.
Olivier Aubin-Mercier wasn’t successful in his bid to become the next Ultimate Fighter, but the Firas Zahabi-trained fighter bounced back in his lightweight debut on Saturday night. He put on a solid performance against Jake Lindsey, as he pushed the pace and battered The Librarian with punches and kicks in the opening round.
The second frame was looking like more of the same until Aubin-Mercier locked on the rarely seen sankaku jime submission, which forced Lindsey to tap. While Aubin-Mercier competed as a welterweight on The Ultimate Fighter: Nations, he looked sharp at 155 pounds, and it will be interesting to see what the UFC throws at him next.
Making your UFC debut on five days’ notice is a tough assignment by any measure, but Chris Kelades proved up to the task at Fight Night 54. The 33-year-old Canadian put on a gritty performance to outlast scrappy Irishman Patrick “Paddy” Holohan en route to picking up the unanimous-decision victory. While the SBG Ireland representative came out strong in the opening frame, Kelades battled back to turn the tide and take the final two rounds.
The end result was an impressive inaugural showing for Kelades in front of his hometown crowd. He’s a solid new addition to the flyweight division.
Pedro Munhoz may have stumbled in his promotional debut back in February, but the former Resurrection Fighting Alliance bantamweight champion has been all business since. The 28-year-old Brazilian picked up his first UFC win over Matt Hobar back in May and then only needed 39 seconds to submit Jerrod Sanders at Fight Night 54.
The two fighters went through a brief feeling-out period before Sanders shot in and Munhoz made him pay for it. As Sanders stood to shake Munhoz off, the Team Black House fighter locked in the fight-ending choke and picked up his second consecutive victory under the UFC banner.
While Albert Tumenov may have one of the worst nicknames in MMA, “Einstein” has been looking like a beast as of late. The 22-year-old Russian picked up his first win inside the Octagon by scoring a first-round knockout over Anthony Lapsley back in May. He then followed up that performance with another stunning knockout at the expense of Matt Dwyer on Saturday night. Shortly after the bout got underway, Tumenov fed the rangy Canadian a double dose of head kicks that ended the action abruptly.
Paul Felder and Jason Saggo were both making their official UFC debuts on Saturday night and scrapped like two fighters who were eager to make statements. While both had their moments throughout the three-round tilt, Felder did enough to earn the victory on the judges’ scorecards. With the win, he keeps his undefeated record intact, and it will be interesting to see how he fares in the highly competitive waters of the lightweight division.
The Bad
Saffiedine came into Fight Night 54 with the potential to make the biggest statement of his career. He was facing a recognizable name in MacDonald and would take a huge step toward a championship opportunity if he could find victory in Halifax. The table was set for Sponge to make some big things happen, but that wouldn’t be the case.
When the action got underway, the Belgian striker had very few answers to MacDonald’s offense. He switched stances frequently in an attempt to throw the young Canadian off his game, but the strategy had little to no effect. Furthermore, despite being the more accomplished stand-up fighter, Saffiedine was getting tagged up by MacDonald regularly. This created frustration for the former Strikeforce champion, and it was obvious by the look on his face when the second round came to a close.
Coming into the third frame, he needed to make something happen, and unfortunately for Saffiedine, the Firas Zahabi-trained fighter was just warming up. MacDonald landed a left uppercut mid-flurry that put Saffiedine on the canvas and ended the fight. It wasn’t nearly the performance the Brussels native was looking to display on Saturday night, and the loss to MacDonald will impact his standing in the welterweight fold.
While there is no shame in losing to a talented fighter like MacDonald, the Team Quest fighter was battling an additional set of circumstances going into the fight. Despite his impressive resume, Saffiedine has spent his career running below the radar, and this bout was his chance to break out of that stigma. Yet, he came up short. Furthermore, he had a poor performance on top of it, which will only push him farther away from the upper tier of the 170-pound division.
That said, Saffiedine has faced setbacks before. He was handed a unanimous-decision loss by Tyron Woodley in Strikeforce in 2011 and rebounded strong with a five-fight winning streak. He’s going to have to put on an impressive run to climb back up the welterweight ladder, and with the 170-pound collective being the deepest division in the UFC, that is going to be a difficult task.
Albert Tumenov is proving to be a very capable fighter inside the Octagon, but that doesn’t make his nickname any easier to digest. “Einstein” would be fitting for many other professions, but it seems a bit off the mark for a scrappy face-kicking machine like Tumenov. While nicknames aren’t a huge part of the fight game, they are directly attached to a fighter’s personal brand, and no one wants to be known as the guy with a horrible nickname. On the flip side, at least the 22-year-old wasn’t the 30th fighter to go with “Pitbull.”
Also, Yosdenis Cedeno’s hair is bad.
The Strange
Twitter is typically pretty lively on fight nights, but the social media realm was fairly calm during Fight Night 54.
Granted, it was most likely due to the event in Stockholm that went down earlier in the day, but the MMA universe is filled with a rugged bunch who are generally durable, and feisty opinions have become commonplace during UFC events. All of the usual suspects in the MMA media were on hand and accounted for, as were the hardcore staples, but the commentary felt strained throughout the night as fighters battled for supremacy in Halifax.
There could have been other reasons (MLB playoffs, college football), but there have been plenty of Saturday nights when the energy on Twitter has been high despite other athletic events going down. Yet, said energy simply wasn’t there during Fight Night 54…at least not with the usual amount of jazz.
Furthermore, it didn’t help things that the event was bumped around to different Fox platforms due to the San Francisco Giants and Washington Nationals going into extra innings. Fans had to do a bit of scrambling between the preliminaries and the main card on Saturday night, but a little channel flipping is a small inconvenience for such a committed bunch.
Maybe all of this strangeness was due to ring card girl Vanessa Hanson working solo? Who ever really knows the answer to these mysteries? But what I do know is both “Einstein” and “The Librarian” were real things that went down on a night filled with face punches and kicks, and that is certainly something.
I’m not quite sure what that something was, but it was definitely something.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
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