Another weekend of fisticuffs has come and gone, as UFC Fight Night 149 went down from inside Yubileyny Sports Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Plenty of fighters were left licking their wounds, including Antonina Shevchenko, who suffered the first loss of her professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career after coming up short against Roxanne Modafferi (recap). And Sergei Pavlovich, who suffered a first round knockout loss to Marcelo Golm (see it).
But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now 48 hours removed from the show?
Aleksei Oleinik.
Going into his headlining Heavyweight fight against Alistair Overeem, Oleinik was looking to score his third straight win after taking out Mark Hunt and Junior Albini (both via first round submission). A win over “The Reem” would’ve been a huge boost for “The Boa Constrictor,” who has been fighting inside the Octagon since 2014, but has yet to get even close to smelling gold.
Both men knew what each had to offer, as they had spent plenty of time in the past training together, which is why the fight was all respect leading up to fight night.
Oleinik started off great, clipping his old training partner with a huge right, even forcing “The Reem” to cover up on occasions against the fence. Still, the shots weren’t doing much to hurt the long-time veteran, as Overeem was content with weathering the storm.
After letting Oleinik tire himself out a bit, Overeem picked up the pace, crushing his foe’s midsection with some knees that stunned the big man, and then delivered a few to the face to put him down. Once there, however, Overeem was a bit hesitant it seemed, as it looked as if he was trying to pick his shots as to not inflict unnecessary damage on a man he respects and likes.
But, he did just enough to force the referee stoppage, handing Oleinik his first loss since 2017 (see it here).
At 41 years of age and 70 professional fights to his credit, time isn’t exactly on Oleinik’s side to make a run for a UFC title. He’ll now have to start another run and will drop down a few spots on the UFC rankings.
As for who he should face next, I’d still like to see him fight Walt Harris. The two men were initially set to fight at UFC Fight Night 149 before a bevy of late shuffling ended that proposed match up. Harris is coming off a split-decision win over Andrei Arlovski, which was eventually overturned to a “No Contest” after failing a drug test (it was later proven it was because of a contaminated substance).
I like the fight for both men, unless, you have a better idea?
For complete UFC St. Petersburg results and coverage click here.