UFC Fight Night 83 and its fighters faced plenty of misfortune in the run-up to the event, held Sunday night in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. No fewer than seven competitors disappeared from the event for one reason or another.
That includes some crowd-pleasing strikers in Brandon Thatch and Sam Alvey. Another knockout artist, John Lineker, pulled out after he contracted a case of dengue fever. Dengue fever!
Most notably, Tim Means was flagged for a potential doping violation and had to withdraw from his main event with Donald Cerrone. That’s the same Donald Cerrone who made a big name for himself at lightweight and debuted Sunday as a welterweight.
Cerrone instead faced a relatively unheralded (if fairly exciting) competitor in Alex Oliveira, who also goes by the nickname Cowboy. I know, what are the odds?
Even with the amazing nickname convergence, that fight and this card as a whole had a notably lower Q score, thanks to injuries and bad luck. Hey, it happens.
But that doesn’t mean there weren’t good fights. You just have to know where and how to look. That’s where we come in, and as always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. These are the real winners and losers from UFC Fight Night 83.
For the literal-minded among us, full card results appear on the final slide.