Photo by Buda Mendes/Zuffa LLC
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) staged UFC Fight Night 170 last night (Sat., March 14, 2020) inside the empty Nilson Nelson Gymnasium in Brasilia, Brazil, which saw Charles Oliveira submit Kevin Lee in the headlining act (see it). In the co-main event, Gilbert Burns knocked out Demian Maia to collect his fifth straight win inside the Octagon (see it again here).
Biggest Winner: Charles Oliveira
“Do Bronx” just keeps on winning, scoring his seventh straight win since mid-2018 after forcing Lee to tap to his ever-dangerous guillotine choke. “The Motown Phenom,” however, had to be convinced that he actually tapped after refuting the call and trying to proceed with the fight. Nevertheless, that is now five submission victories during that span for the Brazilian submission expert. With the win, hopefully Oliveira gets the love he deserves from the ranking “experts,” who still had him five spots behind Kevin coming into the event despite his great run and Lee’s struggles. But he can no longer be denied, as Charles’ time is now, and he should be able to land an even bigger fight moving forward. While he likely won’t get a title fight just yet, he is damn close.
Runner Up: Gilbert Burns
Like Oliveira, all Burns does is win, scoring his fifth straight victory after knocking out Demian Maia with a beautiful straight left, earning him the longest win streak of his UFC career. And no, Burns didn’t come out of nowhere, he’s been fighting for UFC for six years now, but he’s just starting finding his groove after an up and down first couple of years to begin his combat career inside the Octagon. But now that he’s got some momentum, people are starting to take notice, though I’m not too sure Colby Covington will accept “Durinho’s” callout. Nevertheless, Burns is going to make a huge leap up the rankings, which should net him a pretty good match up soon.
Biggest Loser (s): Johnny Walker and Kevin Lee
We’re going to break tradition here and put two people on the list this week. One of them is Lee after he missed weight by 2.5 pounds, lost a percentage of his purse and then tried to dispute a call in which he clearly tapped. This is now Lee’s third loss in his last four outings, sending him deeper down a hole that could prove tough to dig out of.
Walker also gets the nod here after coming up short against Nikita Krylov. That’s because this is Walker’s second straight defeat, which is going to send him tumbling down the light heavyweight pecking order. As a result, it will make his quest to fight Jon Jones that much tougher to accomplish. Indeed, it’s a tough blow for the towering Brazilian, who showed promise early on and was considered a legit title contender after three straight first round knockout wins. While he can get there, eventually, his road will be that much longer. Speaking of Jones, seeing someone like Walker lose two straight further shows just how dominant a champion “Bones” is. That’s because Walker had the hype to be the one to actually threaten Jon’s run, but he has now fizzled after coming up short in back-to-back outings. Jon, meanwhile, just keeps on winning without skipping a beat, and has done so for over 12 straight years now. Just wrap your head around that for a second.
For more UFC Brasilia results and coverage click here.