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UFC 310: Pantoja v Asakura — Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images

Yesterday (Sat., Dec. 7, 2024), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returned home to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada for UFC 310. Losing Belal Muhammad in the main event definitely hurt the card overall, but Ian Garry was at least an interesting replacement. Atop the card, Japanese star Kai Asakura crossed over from RIZIN to immediately challenge for gold opposite Alexandre Pantoja, an unusual happening in this day and age. Though there wasn’t an abundance of star power, the card overall featured quality fighters from top-to-bottom.

Let’s take a look back over at UFC 310’s best performances and techniques:

Peak Pantoja

Alexandre Pantoja took the boring fighter accusations personally. Not only did the Brazilian show up in absolutely phenomenal shape, but he picked up a vintage finish victory over a very game Asakura.

Round one was a ton of fun. Pantoja stormed out the gate, swinging wildly and landing. He also almost swallowed a flying knee. That’s the fun of Asakura: he’s going to stand in the face of knockout blows and try to land his own kill shot for better or worse. In this first round, actually, he managed to time a counter left knee similar to the one that crumpled Juan Archuleta in his last bout.

Pantoja must be made of steel because he didn’t even react. Generally, Asakura put some nasty offense in his face — leaping left hooks, ripping left kicks, powerful straight shots — and Pantoja’s expression never changed. He found great success showing a punch then punctuating with a heavy kick, catching Asakura between stances or looking for counters. A neat little wrinkle that Pantoja showed was pushing and kicking at Asakura’s stance, preventing him from positioning himself to load up those counter knees.

In the second, Pantoja recommitted fully to his wild back attack, secured the position, and locked in the choke. It was a stellar display of all the champion’s best assets, and the champion is refusing to slow down despite age and a difficult fight schedule. As for Asakura, his style never guarantees success, but I can promise the rest of his UFC career will be well worth-watching.

Garry’s Slow Start Backfires

There was definitely something to the idea that Ian Garry is a difficult stylistic match up for Kazakh mauler Shavkat Rakhmonov.

More than any technical tool and strategic approach, it really felt like Garry’s build gave Rakhmonov issues. Rakhmonov is accustomed to bullying shorter opponents with his physicality, but Garry could match him in height and reach. It’s a lot harder to land clinch takedowns and step-in knees against somebody of a similar height, and the end result is that Rakhmonov struggled to create much offense in the first two rounds.

The problem was Garry did even less. He’s a cautious and thoughtful fighter, and that approach doesn’t always equal activity. Garry found himself stuck in the clinch for long periods of time, which alongside a couple whipping Shavkat right hands, was enough to immediately seal two of five rounds and put Garry deep in the hole.

The fight actually started in round three. Garry began firing his kicks to good effect, and Rakhmonov changed his approach by wrestling below the waist. Rakhmonov’s wrestling back-up plan is still pretty dang effective, as evidenced of his fourth round pummeling, but it’s not nearly as waterproof. Garry was able to reverse a sloppy chained takedown attempt in the fifth with a slick back take. Consequently, Garry won two of the three rounds in which the duo actively fought each other, an impressive if merely moral victory.

Reactions to the fight are mixed and maybe a little overdramatic. I see a lot of over-the-top accusations of overrated aimed at Shavkat and boring thrown at both. More likely is that both are excellent fighters who will continue to perform well at the elite Welterweight level for years to come. Rakhmonov has entertained in his previous 18 victories, and 15 minutes of this fight were still quite intriguing.

Given that Muhammad is absolutely nothing like Ian Garry physically or stylistically, I expect violence to be back on the menu whenever that bout is rebooked.

Guard Pulling In 2024?

I have been openly critical of Kron Gracie’s antiquated approach to mixed martial arts, as well as this match up as a whole, and well … it’s always nice to feel correct. This fight sucked, Gracie did very little of note outside of one armbar attempt, and then his umpteenth guard pull in round three resulted in a huge slam and elbow knockout. At a minimum, this was a good rebound win for Bryce Mitchell.

I’ll give Gracie credit for showing up in better shape than his appearance against Charles Jourdain, but that’s it. Stop doing this!

The Korean Superboy Soars

Most everyone expected a war here. It’s in the DNA of Doo Ho Choi and Nate Landwehr to go slug it out when matched like this. That’s what their entire fight history tells us, and it’s the reason why this match up opened the main card.

Choi bucked expectations right away. He found his timing quickly and started dinging Landwehr with hard right hands and uppercuts. “The Korean Superboy” is fast, so that alone wasn’t shocking, but his ability to counter and outwrestle Landwehr when “The Train” pushed into the clinch was fairly surprising.

Perhaps the really shocking part was how consistently Choi stayed in control. We’ve seen him have strong moments then get clipped or fatigued in all the chaos, and that’s a Nate Landwehr signature path to winning a fight. He was never able to build any momentum towards such a result though, because Choi’s wrestling and eyes were so sharp. The South Korean threw him to the floor repeatedly and saw the vast majority of his strikes coming, really punishing Landwehr’s attempts to get back into the fight.

The finishing crucifix was merely a cherry on top of the best performance of Choi’s career.

The Reyes Renaissance

Dominick Reyes suffered some bad years, and sympathy was easy to come by in the MMA community. He put on the performance of his life against Jon Jones, and when the judges didn’t award his efforts, something seemed to crack. Reyes lost a step and continued fighting top competition, which is a recipe for getting battered. His 2022 knockout loss to Ryan Spann appeared to signal the end of his time as a ranked competitor if not a UFC fighter outright.

His upset earlier this year over Dustin Jacoby was a big moment. A victory allowed a bit of that swagger to return, and often, confidence and momentum are all that matter in this game of who lands first. Opposite Anthony Smith last night, Reyes continued to perform well, showing off his speed and power on the feet to take control of the stand up and really beat up “Lionheart.” By the second, Smith was worn. He tried to turn to his grappling, but Reyes was only gaining speed and turned that area against him as well. He didn’t allow the aging Smith any safe ground, continually landing shots and forcing the referee’s hand.

It’s a victory that could push Reyes into the Top 10 and Smith towards retirement.

Ain’t Dead Yet …

The prognosis of Vicente Luque was grim after his loss to Joaquin Buckley. That’s not entirely fair seeing as Buckley has proven himself to be a very dangerous Welterweight, but there was just very little of Luque’s signature fire or grit in that defeat. He looked tentative and lacking in confidence, traits which are often death sentences for aging fighters.

Luque showed more than a spark of life by smashing well-regarded prospect Themba Gorimbo in less than a minute, flooring the wrestler almost immediately and strangling him before he could wake back up. The finishing sequence was a flashback to vintage Luque, and hopefully that goes a long way in rebuilding the confidence of “The Silent Assassin.”

Thank God Nick Diaz wasn’t in the cage with him.

College Football > D1 Wrestling

In a vacuum, Eryk Anders beating Chris Weidman didn’t surprise me. Weidman’s best days are long behind him, and Anders has fewer miles on him even if he never reached the same heights as “The All-American.”

I did not expect Anders to cleanly out-wrestle the former champion, however. We cannot blame it all on Weidman’s age either, as this was clearly Anders’ best technical wrestling form to date. Historically, “Ya Boi” fights can be very frustrating, as he’ll grab the single leg and do nothing to complete the takedown.

He’s clearly worked on his finishes. Anders dumped Weidman with the a tree top, converted into a double, and even scored a high kick on the break when Weidman defended the shot. It was genuinely slick work! Even in some longer scrambles, Anders was able to retain top position. Weidman didn’t expect this approach, and when placed on his back beneath a strong, athletic fighter, he looked deeply uncomfortable.

The damage added up quickly.

Additional Thoughts

Michael Chiesa defeats Max Griffin via third-round rear naked choke (highlights): Chiesa’s kickboxing is always awkward, but the make-or-break for his success is that it can also effective. In this case, it was! Griffin is the cleaner and more powerful puncher, but he never felt comfortable advancing due to the threat of the takedown. Better yet, Chiesa also rendered his foe more defensive with his own strangely angled swings and especially the follow up dirty boxing. He never allowed Griffin a chance to get comfortable which allowed him to stay in control, and eventually, the submission opportunity opened up.
Chase Hooper defeats Clay Guida via first-round armbar (highlights): Hooper has developed into a very solid fighter. His move up to Lightweight has really paid dividends, as “The Dream” seems to operate with a lot more energy now that he’s not killing himself to make 145-pounds. Subsequently, his punches carry more heat, his wrestling is more effective, and Hooper is better able to push the pace. As for the match up itself, Hooper is 17 years younger than Guida and had already submitted him in a jiu-jitsu match … it was a weird booking from the start.
Kennedy Nzechukwu defeats Lukasz Brzeski via first-round knockout (highlights): Is Nzechukwu a real Heavyeight prospect? I’m not convinced but he’s off to a solid start. This was his second dominant knockout win in just about six weeks, and it came rather easily. Against the bigger men, Nzechukwu is much faster compared to his 205-pound run, which helps cover up some of those previous defensive issues. Plus, his power has moved up with him, so it seems like a winning recipe against the lower tier of the division at least.

For complete UFC 310 results and play-by-play, click HERE!