Author: Trent Reinsmith

The real winners and losers from UFC Vegas 71: Yan vs. Dvalishvili

Overwhelming is an apt description of Merab Dvalishvili’s win over Petr Yan in the main event of UFC Vegas 71 on Saturday.

Dvalishvili opened the fight by putting pressure on the former UFC bantamweight champion and never took his foot off the gas. In the first two rounds of the five-round contest, Dvalishvili attempted 142 significant strikes and 15 takedowns. In the final two rounds, he attempted 150 significant strikes and 20 takedowns. The pace and output Dvalishvili set in sweeping Yan on the scorecards was astounding.

In the co-main event, Alexander Volkov picked up his second straight first-round finish with a knockout of Alexander Romanov.

Before the top two fights on the card, the UFC’s bantamweight division earned the spotlight with Jonathan Martinez, Mario Bautista, Davey Grant and Victor Henry all picking up big wins in entertaining fights.

Saturday’s UFC event was a solid fight card. However, the matchmakers fumbled by booking two questionable fights in the middle of UFC Vegas 71. The affair that closed the prelims and the matchup that opened the main card were not suited for their positions.

Read on for the winners and losers of UFC Vegas 71, which took place at The Theater at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas. The entire card streamed on ESPN+.

Winners:

Merab Dvalishvili: Someone might look at Merab Dvalishvili’s stats for his UFC Vegas 71 win over Petr Yan and point out the number of significant strikes Dvalishvili did not connect on or the amount of takedowns he failed to secure. And while those numbers are noteworthy — he failed to land 191 significant strikes and did not complete 38 takedowns — to point out those “failures” would be to miss the point of Dvalishvili’s fighting style.

While Dvalishvili is pressuring his opponent with strikes and making him defend takedowns, he’s also not allowing his foe the time and space to mount an offense of his own. That’s the beauty of how Dvalishvili fought on Saturday. It’s also what is going to make him extremely hard to beat unless someone can find a small opening to mount an effective offense. No one has done that since Frankie Saenz and Ricky Simon defeated Dvalishvili in his first two UFC fights, which took place in 2017 and 2018.

Dvalishvili is beatable because he tends to go the distance in his fights under the UFC banner, but it will take an exceptional fighter with a sound game plan, a lot of resiliency and a bottomless gas tank to end his winning streak.

Dvalishvili looked remarkable in disposing of Yan.

Alexander Volkov: Alexander Volkov picked up a second straight first-round knockout win on Saturday, steamrolling over Alexander Romanov in the evening’s co-main event.

Nikita Krylov vs. Ryann Spann: Nikita Krylov and Ryan Spann packed a lot of living into the time they spent inside the octagon. The two combined for three submission attempts, three takedowns and 12 significant strikes before Krylov wrapped things up with a triangle choke at 3:38 of the first stanza.

With the victory, Krylov is on a three-fight winning streak.

Said Nurmagomedov vs. Jonathan Martinez: The bantamweight matchup between Said Nurmagomedov and Jonathan Martinez was a tremendous scrap.

Martinez extended his winning streak to five straight with a top-notch effort. He put Nurmagomedov in a lot of tough spots in this fight, using excellent clinch work, a deep gas tank, strong striking and fantastic fight IQ to get the win.

While Martinez’s stock will increase with the win, Nurmagomedov’s should not fall too much. That is if his team looks at his loss on Saturday as a way to shore up his overall game. Martinez tested the 30-year-old Nurmagomedov and Nurmagomedov fell short, but not by much. Nurmagomedov’s next fight might be the most crucial matchup of his career.

The UFC’s matchmakers did an excellent job in putting this one together.

Mario Bautista: Mario Bautista was a monster favorite against Guido Cannetti heading into UFC Vegas 71 on the strength of two previous first-round submission wins in the UFC. The 29-year-old picked up his third straight first-round finish by forcing Cannetti to tap to a rear-naked choke. A member of the UFC since 2019, Bautista has looked very good over the past year and his confidence seems to be increasing with every victory.

Following his finish, Bautista told UFC commentator Daniel Cormier that he deserves a shot at a ranked bantamweight opponent in his next outing. I can’t disagree with that statement.

Vitor Petrino vs. Anton Turkalj: the light heavyweight bout between Vitor Petrino and Anton Turkalj was not a technical scrap. Moreover, neither man showed the greatest fight IQ, but for those fans who put entertainment above all, this was a fun scrap to open the UFC Vegas 71 main card.

Davey Grant: Davey Grant took advantage of a questionable call from referee Keith Peterson and went on to finish Raphael Assuncao late in the third round via a spinning back fist to reverse triangle choke. It was a wild sequence to secure the come-from-behind victory for Grant.

Josh Fremd: Josh Fremd overwhelmed Sedriques Dumas in their middleweight contest, ending the unbeaten streak of Dumas while ending his two-fight UFC losing skid.

Fremd used calf kicks well and scored with his counters before securing a guillotine choke submission in the second round.

Victor Henry vs. Tony Gravely: These two put on an entertaining and fast-paced bantamweight fight with both men digging deep and looking for the victory. There was a lot to like about this contest, especially the pace and output of Henry in the second round.

Ariane Lipski: A significant underdog to JJ Aldrich, Ariane Lipski didn’t have much of a problem pulling off an upset win on Saturday. Lipski overwhelmed Aldrich in the striking department, landing 101 significant strikes to Aldrich’s 49 and stopping all 12 of her opponent’s takedown attempts.

Bruno Silva: Bruno Silva had not fought in nearly two years when he stepped into the octagon on Saturday against Tyson Nam. Following an entertaining first round, Silva landed a nasty front kick that dropped Nam to the mat. As impressive as that strike was, what came next showcased Silva’s fight IQ and ability to capitalize on openings as he secured a fight ending rear-naked choke as Nam tried to work to his feet.

Nam entered UFC Vegas 71 as the No. 15 fighter in the official UFC flyweight rankings.

Carlston Harris: Carlston Harris struggled a bit in the striking department during the first round of his bout opposite Jared Gooden. However, Harris made a smart adjustment heading into Rd. 2, deciding to go after takedowns and use ground control. That change in approach allowed Harris to dominate the final 10 minutes of the fight and get the unanimous decision win.

Losers:

UFC: From all appearances, the UFC moved the location and time of this event to accommodate a Power Slap event at UFC Apex. I’m not complaining about the earlier start time, but the idea that the UFC is willing to switch things up for a “sport” with very little interest seems silly and one could argue that the vanity project of UFC president Dana White seems to be more important to him and therefore more important to the UFC than the MMA promotion he heads.

Petr Yan: What direction does Petr Yan’s career go if he doesn’t throw — and land — the illegal knee that cost him the UFC bantamweight title at UFC 259?

Raphael Assuncao: Raphael Assuncao didn’t deserve to have his career end on a fight where the outcome was affected by the referee.

Keith Peterson: I understand that Keith Peterson, as the referee in the Raphael Assuncao vs. Davey Grant bout, had the discretion to restart the fight in the standing position after he paused the action to take a point away from Grant for a fence grab. I also know that the reason the UFC commentators gave why Peterson restarted the men in the standing position was not valid.

The commentary team said Grant was in top position when the fight was paused. He wasn’t. Grant was defending a takedown and he prevented that takedown from being completed by grabbing the fence. Peterson should have restarted the fight in the same position when he paused the action. Putting the fighters back in the open and standing rewarded Grant by putting him in a neutral position rather than a defensive spot.

The rules state, “ If a fighter grabs hold of the cage and because of the infraction, the fouling fighter ends up in a superior position due to the foul, the fighters should be restarted by the referee, standing in a neutral position after determining if a point deduction is appropriate.”

Grant did not end up in a superior position because of the fence grab. He was still defending the takedown when the fight was paused. If he had ended up in a controlling position on top of Assuncao, restarting on the feet would have been the correct call.

This is not a superior position. It’s defensive.

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Sedriques Dumas: For a fighter who was a more than 2-1 favorite, Sedriques Dumas did not look ready for primetime in his UFC debut. Dumas left himself open for counters by overthrowing his strikes and had little to offer his opponent Josh Fremd on the mat.

Jared Gooden: Jared Gooden accepted his lightweight matchup against Carlston Harris on a few days’ notice. He missed weight by seven pounds and looked ill-prepared for his scheduled welterweight bout against Carlston Harris.

Gooden’s striking defense was nonexistent. In addition, his takedown defense was poor and his ability to get off his back was lackluster. In short, Gooden, who was released from the UFC in 2021 after going 1-3, might be one and done during his second run with the promotion.

Daniel Cormier: UFC commentator Daniel Cormier began his in cage interview with Victor Henry by saying — twice — “First UFC victory” in reference to Henry. The problem with that is Saturday marked Henry’s second UFC win. He defeated Raoni Barcelos at UFC 270.

DWCS: I understand the UFC has a lot of events to book to satisfy its deal with ESPN, but this card pointed out that many fighters who Dana White signed off the Dana White Contender Series are not ready to fight under the UFC banner. White needs to be more selective with the fighters he inks off the DWCS cards.

During the first season of the DWCS, White signed 16 fighters. The most recent season saw him offer deals to 43 fighters.

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Don’t expect to see a Power Slap event in Alabama any time in the near future.

Past and current UFC brass may be lobbying hard for the future of slap competitions in the US, however, the Alabama Athletic Commission does not seem at all interested in hearing it. Not interested in talk of how slap fighting is a “skill sport,” or how “the participants that are at a high level in this are skilled athletes.” The commission also doesn’t even seem interested in comparing slap fighting to other currently widely regulated combat sports like boxing and MMA.

To make their stance on slap fighting perfectly clear, combat sports fans need look no further than the commission’s homepage. It’s unclear exactly when in the last few months they added their latest message, but it’s unequivocal in its stance.

The same week the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) voted to begin regulating Dana White’s version of “slap fighting”, where participants take turns slapping one another as hard as they can, the Alabama Athletic Commission (AAC) unanimously voted to keep Slap Fighting as an illegal event, during their regular open meeting. “This is not a sport,” said AAC Chair Casey Sears. “This is an activity where competitors defending themselves are against the rules.” Slap fighting remains illegal in Alabama to promote, participate or attend. Anyone that is aware of an illegal slap fighting event is encouraged to contact the AAC and the local authorities to have events shut down immediately.

The Attorney General may bring a civil action requesting relief, including a permanent or temporary injunction, restraining order, or other order, against any person who he or she believes is violating the rules of the AAC. Violations may result in up to a ten thousand dollar ($10,000) fine for per violation of the rules and guidelines of the commission.

The Alabama Athletic Commission is the sole regulator and has the sole authority to regulate any form of unarmed combat held in the state as the commission deems necessary.

While UFC president Dana White, UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell, former UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta, “The Ultimate Fighter” producer Craig Piligian and others under the Schiaffo, LLC banner were successful in getting the Nevada State Athletic Commission to sanction slap fighting as a regulated combat sport, they have not been able to get viewers on board. The eight-week run of Power Slap: Road to the Title recently wrapped up on TBS with its worst-rated show of the season.

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Where Dana White attempts to blame ‘the media’ for the struggles of Power Slap.

In recent interviews UFC president Dana White has appeared to be under the illusion that Power Slap is struggling to catch on with sports fans because his name is attached to the carnival-grade pseudo-sports venture.

“Everything that’s negative that’s being said about it (Power Slap) it is an attack on me,” White recently said on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast. “It’s me that these guys are attacking—it’s not the actual slapping. The media, it’s all about me. Okay? They want to fuck me. That’s why they’re saying what they’re saying about Slap.”

“This shit was going on—this has been on the internet since—2017 is when I first saw it,” White added. “There’s 350,000,000 views but I’m the only fucking guy who has seen it? There’s no stories written, there’s no ‘Oh my God, this is horrible, how’s this on social media? Children are watching this.’ This has been going on since fucking—well, I noticed it in 2017. It could have been before that for all I know. But now it’s horrible and it’s a tragedy and it needs to go away.”

To be fair to White, he’s certainly got plenty of reason to think that he might just be the problem—considering he was caught on video slapping his wife at a bar in cabo just before the season one debut and that he has no small amount of self publicized hatred for any media members he feels are unfavorable to his interests. In this case however, I don’t think there’s one scintilla of truth to it.

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Power Slap’s eight-week run on TBS finished with the show as the 106th rated cable show for the night

Power Slap wrapped up its eight-week run on TBS on Wednesday night with its worst numbers of the season, finishing the evening as the 106th-rated show on cable for the night.

As was the case for the first seven weeks of the slap fighting league’s run on cable, AEW Wrestling provided Power Slap with a strong lead-in. According to ShowBuzzDaily, AEW was the No. 4 ranked cable show on Wednesday night. The two-hour-long pro wrestling program, which airs at 8 p.m., had 858,000 viewers for the week. Those numbers gave AEW a 0.29 rating among viewers in the 18-49 age group.

Despite that strong lead-in, Power Slap only pulled a 0.05 rating with the 18-49 demographic with 220,000 viewers. The hour-long broadcast’s previous low came during Week 4 when Power Slap pulled 275,000 viewers for a 0.08 rating with those aged 18-49.

The first season of Power Slap: Road to the title had its best night on January 25, the second week of the show’s run. During that week, White’s foray into slap fighting was the No. 30 cable show on the night and pulled a .13 with 18-49 year-olds and had 413,000 viewers. That week, AEW Wrestling had a .32 rating and 1.003 million viewers.

Here is a look at the ratings for the full run on Power Slap: Road to the Title on TBS

Week 1: 295,000 viewers, 0.10 share, No 45. rated program for the night.

Week 2: 413,000 viewers, 0.13 share, No. 30 rated program for the night.

Week 3: 284,000 viewers, 0.09 share, No. 51 rated program for the night.

Week 4: 275,000 viewers, 0.08 share, No. 68 rated program for the night.

Week 5: 275,000 viewers, 0.09 share, No. 55 rated program for the night.

Week 6: 309,000 viewers 0.10 share. No. 43 rated program for the night.

Week 7: 277,000 viewers 0.09 share, No. 50 rated program for the night.

Week 8: 220,000 viewers, 0.05 share, No. 106 rated program for the night.

Bloody Elbow reached out to TBS about the possibility of a second season of Power Slap. The network did not respond before publication.

A neuroscientist believes we will see CTE in slap fighters “sooner rather than later because some fighters will die young…”

One of the biggest criticisms leveled against Power Slap is that the competitors in the slap fighting league are subjecting themselves to undefended strikes to the head.

There’s no argument against that since the person absorbing the slap is standing motionless with their hands behind their back while the blow is delivered. If that person, comically called the “Defender” in the official Power Slap rules, so much as flinches to lessen the strike’s impact, they are hit with a foul, which could result in the “Striker” getting another chance to land their slap. That is if “the fouling Defender is not knocked down or out by that round’s strike.”

Despite the lack of defense involved in the combat sport, which the Nevada State Athletic Commission sanctions, at least one of the participants feels as if an undefended slap is not as bad as a punch to the head in a combat sports situation.

“I think it’s definitely overblown with the topics of CTE and the damage that we’re taking,” Ryan Phillips, a Power Slap League fighter, told the AP. “I think a lot of people still just don’t understand that it’s still a slap.”

Chris Nowinski, who has a Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience and is the co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, finds fault with that thinking.

“It reminds me of 20 years ago when the NFL believed that no player had ever developed CTE because football is not boxing, and now 345 of the first 376 NFL players studied have been found to have CTE,” Nowinski told Bloody Elbow.

As for the thinking that an undefended slap is nothing to worry about when it comes to brain trauma, Nowinski said, “I doubt the brain can tell the difference between and undefended slap and an undefended punch to the side of the head. In fact, a gloved punch may be safer than a slap because the glove pad absorbs a small amount of the energy. First an energy wave passes from the hand through the skull and to the brain, potentially causing a cascade of cellular changes that result in the brain malfunctioning. Second, the head begins to rotate quickly, which then causes the brain to rotate, stretching and tearing the fragile projections of neurons called axons. Broken axons don’t reconnect, and the inflammation that follows is believed to be associated with the process that begins CTE.

“Considering how frequently these slaps are causing concussions, they are clearly causing extraordinary acceleration of brain and acute brain damage. If slap fighters participate regularly – if this becomes a real business and people participate multiple times per year for years – I would expect we’ll see CTE in this group, and we’ll likely learn about it sooner rather than later because some fighters will die young due to behaviors caused by their multiple traumatic brain injuries.”

I’d like to close with the question Nowinski posed in his reply to this site, “To put slap fighting in context – would anyone let a professional boxer give you three free right hooks a month for five years? Of course not, because we know what would happen. Why would we expect anything different from a professional slap?”

Several misleading headlines popped up in the aftermath of UFC 285 with the seeming intent of stoking long-cooled drama between Jon Jones and his former rival Daniel Cormier.

There are plenty of reasons to critique UFC commentator—and former two-division champion—Daniel Cormier’s work in the broadcast booth. For some reason, he seems unable reconcile the fact that a wrestling takedown and an MMA takedown are counted by different standards; he seems to regularly struggle with and contextualize the scoring criteria of the sport he covers; at times he seems more interested in getting a laugh from Joe Rogan than he does in calling the action inside the cage.

All that said, accusations about bias in his commentary seem to born more from his associations outside his work in the booth than the things he says on fight night. Even, as it just so happens, when it comes to the man who was once his fiercest rival, Jon Jones.

In the aftermath of UFC 285, Anik, Rogan, and Cormier sat in the near-empty T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas and gave fans a few last minute thoughts before signing off the evening’s PPV broadcast. For DC, that included a healthy portion of musings on the action that just wrapped up between Jones and former interim champion Cyrial Gane.

“Jon Jones is the heavyweight champion of the world in a way that not many expected,” Cormier began. “All week Jon Jones spoke about how easy this fight could be and nobody wanted to believe it. I know I didn’t. I thought he was in for it. To the point that, at the fighter meeting, when Jon Jones was on the phone, I said, ‘Hey, I got one question for you. Just speaking about fear, you said you needed that. Does Ciryl Gane present that fear?’

“He had an answer that was still almost dismissive of Ciryl Gane and I didn’t understand it. I figured he was chasing challenges to elevate himself to the next level. Well, he goes out there and dominates in a way that tells me that everything he said he believed from the very start and he just did it.”

“Jones doesn’t look like the same guy in the octagon,” Cormier added. “He’s a tad bit slower, his movements aren’t as quick and dynamic, but that’s what you expect for a guy that puts on that much weight. But when he went out there he seemed to be having a good time.”

“Hats off to Jon Jones for doing something he said he was going to do by winning the fight. Not only winning the fight, winning the fight impressively.”

It shouldn’t need to be said that there’s nothing controversial in those comments—nothing at all. But, that didn’t stop a few sites from taking liberties in how they framed Cormier’s words about his former foe.

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