Another month, another UFC pay per view in the books. Saturday’s UFC 185 was historic for several reasons, but the most important takeaway? In an era where championships don’t trade hands all that often, UFC 185 saw the crowning of two new champs.
Let’s take a took at what we loved, learned and hated from the Dallas fight card.
LOVED: JOANNA CHAMPION
When 16 female strawweights entered the Ultimate Fighter house last year, they went with the pressure of trying to live up to the standards set by Ronda Rousey. Such is the nature of Rousey’s personality, and such is her meaning to other women participating in combat sports, that an entire new division of fighters were constantly asked if they had what it took to be the next Rousey. Dana White publicly hinted that the house might contain the next Rousey, because being the next Rousey meant being the UFC’s next big star and an anchor for a division.
As it turns out, strawweight’s potential biggest star wasn’t in the TUF house at all.
New UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk brutalized Carla Esparza, the survivor of that aforementioned Ultimate Fighter house, to wrest control of the UFC’s newest championship and take it back to Poland. The manner in which Jedrzejczyk did so was so complete and breathtaking that she left Esparza looking inept. Esparza is a very good wrestler; Jedrzejczyk stopped 16 of her 17 takedown attempts in one and a half rounds.
And once Esparza realized the takedowns weren’t going to be there, and when she stopped desperately flinging herself forward and grasping at Jedrzejczyk’s ankles or knees or anything else she could get her hands on, it was clear that the fight wouldn’t last long. For Jedrzejczyk is a brutal striker, perhaps even one of the UFC’s best, and there was nary a chance that Esparza would be able to survive on the feet. She did not.
In Jedrzejczyk, the UFC has a champion who is marketable, self-assured, funny and violent. That’s a great combination. And if you consider that Esparza, the best wrestler in the division, could not get her to the ground, it is tough to imagine any other female currently in the division doing so. Which means Jedrzejczyk might be Joanna Champion for a very long time.
LEARNED: PETTIS IS NOT GOOD WITH PRESSURE
Anthony Pettis has always been about timing and counterstriking. And he’s quite good at it. But what he’s not good at is having something constantly in his face.
From the opening bell on Saturday night, Rafael dos Anjos was in Pettis’ face, barely giving the now-former champion a chance to breathe, much less compose himself. In doing so, Dos Anjos became the lightweight champion, but he also uncovered a gaping hole in Pettis’ game. Pettis simply had no answer for the pace or the pressure Dos Anjos presented.
There’s a blueprint to beat Pettis. Unless he shores up that weakness in his game, Pettis will have a tough time beating Dos Anjos in a rematch, and it is hard to imagine he would fare any better against someone like Khabib Nurmagomedov. That is assuming, of course, that Pettis does not immediately go back to the gym and fix his weakness. Which he will, because he is a world-class fighter, and that is what world class fighters do.
HATED: SOCIAL MEDIA REACTION TO MAIN EVENT
But you know what is not world class? Twitter on fight nights.
I mean, look: I enjoy social media a lot. I have a great time interacting with readers and other fans of the sport. But Saturday night illustrated how wrong-headed and dumb a lot of folks on Twitter can be.
Before Pettis vs. Dos Anjos was over, reaction to the fight ranged from “Pettis was illegally poked in the eye and that caused him to lose the rest of the rounds” all the way to accusations of dubious behavior by Dos Anjos. I’m not even going to lend credence to these crap theories by linking to them.
But what I will say is this: you don’t have to be negative about everything, and you don’t have to make excuses for your favorite fighter. Sometimes people lose because they were beaten, and usually it’s that simple.
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