Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) invaded Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, last night (Sat., July 27, 2019) to stage UFC 240 from inside Rogers Place, featuring a Featherweight title fight that saw Max Holloway defeat Frankie Edgar to retain his belt with a unanimous decision victory (see it again here). In the co-main event, Cris Cyborg out-scored a very game Felicia Spencer to take a unanimous decision victory (highlights), potentially setting up a rematch against Amanda Nunes.
Biggest Winner: Max Holloway
This one is a no-brainer, as Holloway put on a pretty clean performance against a very-game Frankie Edgar, who did his best to dethrone the 145-pound king. In the end, “Blessed” was simply too good, too much for “The Answer,” earning his third straight title defense at 145 pounds and bouncing back nicely from his previous loss to Dustin Poirier for the interim Lightweight title.
That is now 13 straight wins for Holloway at Featherweight (14, including one Catchweight fight), the longest win streak for any 145-pounder under the UFC umbrella. In fact, that’s just one less than what Jose Aldo had in a row under the WEC and UFC banners combined! Indeed, Holloway has shown that at 145 pounds, he is pretty much untouchable, and if he gets through Alexander Volkanovski next, another fight at 155 pounds may be inevitable. That said, Holloway does have some other intriguing match ups at 145 pounds, such as one against Zabit Magomedsharipov, Chang Sung Jung and perhaps even Yair Rodriguez down the line. Indeed, Holloway has plenty to look forward to as champion.
Runner Up: Cris Cyborg
Going into her fight against Spencer, everyone knew there was a big possibility that it was going to be Cyborg’s last fight inside the Octagon. Her relationship with UFC President Dana White is rocky to say the least, as the two never seemed to see eye-to-eye on anything and Cyborg was very open about testing the free agency waters once her time with UFC was up.
With the victory, Cyborg earned herself some leverage to take to the table when it comes time to negotiate with UFC or another promotion, like Bellator MMA. If she sticks with UFC, the win earned her a do-over against Nunes, the person who dethroned her last December. Nunes wants it, White wants it, so now it’s up to Cyborg and her team to see if they want to re-up with UFC – or take Dana’s one-fight offer. If not, she can go over and talk to her old boss Scott Coker about joining Bellator. Either way, it was a win-win for Cyborg, who would have found herself in a pretty big hole had she suffered her second straight defeat.
Biggest Loser (s): Olivier Aubin-Mercier and Alexis Davis
Both Aubin-Mercier and Davis came into the event on two-fight losing streaks, and both left with their third straight defeat. Aubin-Mercier came up short against Arman Tsarukyan, losing on all of the judges’ scorecards, as did Davis, who didn’t have a ton to offer Viviane Araujo. With the women’s division’s not as deep as the men’s, Davis can find solace in knowing getting cut isn’t likely, but the sting of losing three straight will be there. As for Aubin-Mercier, he may hang on to his spot on UFC’s roster, but the Lightweight division is stacked, so if he survives this round of cuts following his latest loss, he better make sure he avoids a four-fight skid, as that will likely be a one-way ticket out of the Octagon for good.
To get full results and play-by-play updates of UFC 240: “Holloway vs. Edgar” click here.