Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Another weekend of fisticuffs has come and gone as UFC on Vegas 6 hit UFC APEX this past weekend (Sat., Aug. 8, 2020) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Plenty of fighters were left licking their wounds, including Omari Akhmedov, who saw his nice run ended by Chris Weidman in the co-main event of the evening (recap). And Scott Holtzman, who was knocked out by Beneil Dariush via spinning back fist (see it again here).
But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?
Aleksei Oleinik.
In his six years with the promotion, Oleinik had yet to win three straight fights inside the Octagon, always winning two, losing, winning two, losing … and so on. It’s a consistent cycle he’s been on since 2014. And it was something “Boa Constrictor” was hoping to change against Derrick Lewis heading into his third UFC event as headliner.
Unfortunately for Oleinik, it was pretty much same old, same old. Things looked promising for the long-time veteran early on after scoring a couple of takedowns, which led to several submission attempts that Lewis was able to survive … barely.
But after getting tagged on the chin by one of “Black Beast’s” powerful bombs, there was nothing Oleinik could do but to wait for the incoming onslaught and pray that that referee on duty would put an end to the bout in a timely manner.
And since it was Herb Dean officiating, it was a real possibility the punishment would go on longer than necessary.
Once again, Oleinik failed to get his first three-fight win streak inside the Octagon and move up the rankings. At 43 years of age, that pretty much means his first-ever shot at a UFC Heavyweight title continues to evade him. But his most recent crushing loss won’t deter him from chugging along.
“There are always 2 ways: forward and back. I choose the first one,” wrote “The Boa Constrictor” on Twitter.
While a title shot is out of reach, that doesn’t mean he’s done putting the hurt on people inside the Octagon. Despite being the oldest Heavyweight on the roster, Oleinik is still a tough draw for anyone. So following his latest defeat, I’d like to see “Boa Constrictor” face the loser of Alexander Volkov and Walt Harris next.
“Drago” is also coming off a loss thanks to top-ranked division contender Curtis Blaydes a few months ago. So if he drops his second straight to Harris, he will be in no position to start negotiating or turning down fights. With a win, he will have the upper-hand and can look forward to asking for bigger fights.
As for Harris, he has a 12-second knockout win over Oleinik, sleeping him with one punch at UFC on ESPN 4. So I’m sure that’s a fight “Boa Constrictor” would love to roll back.
Those are my options for Aleksei, care to offer up a few of your own?