Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returned to the hurt business last night (Sat., July 14, 2018) with UFC Fight Night 133 from inside CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho, live and free on Fox Sports 1. The event saw Junior dos Santos defeat Blagoy Ivanov via unanimous decision after five rounds of main event action (recap). In the co-main, event, Sage Northcutt stopped Zak Ottow to earn his third straight win at Welterweight.
Biggest Winner: Chad Mendes
Two years on the sidelines due to a fail drug test administered by USADA didn’t do anything to slow Chad Mendes down, as “Money” looked like he hadn’t skipped a beat in his first fight back against Miles Jury. Halfway through the opening round, Chad clipped Jury with a sneaky left that dropped him. What ensued was a vintage Chad Mendes ground-and-pound beatdown, as he took it to Jury until the ref had no choice to put an end to the punishment. It’s a huge victory for “Money,” which also netted him a cool $50,000 in “Performance of the Night” honors.
His return also bolsters up the Bantamweight division, which at the moment seems to be a three-man game of musical chairs with T.J. Dillashaw, Cody Garbrandt and Dominick Cruz. While he may need a few more wins before he gets back “into the mix” when it comes to the title, I’m willing to bet Mendes can get there pretty quick since he’ll likely want a quick turnaround.
Runner Up: Sage Northcutt
Don’t look now but “Super” has his first three-fight win streak inside the Octagon, as the young, up-and-coming up star is starting to finally find his groove after settling on the Welterweight division. And he scored his latest win by showing he can overcome adversity. After getting dropped in the first round, which initially looked like he’d be out, Northcutt shook off the cobwebs to storm back and score a stoppage win in the very next round. Though he is still a long way from title talk, Sage has shown vast improvements since making his debut a few years ago. If he can secure a few more wins, we can see Sage climbing the ranks sooner, rather than later, and starting forcing himself into the title conversation. Furthermore, it seems his move to Team Alpha Male has proven to be a recipe for success. That, and he’s no longer bothered with school work.
Biggest Loser: Dennis Bermudez
I don’t mean in that Dennis got worked, but his split-decision defeat to Rick Glenn was his fourth straight loss inside the Octagon, which could put his UFC career in danger. It seems like it wasn’t too long ago that he was riding a seven fight win streak spanning two years, even defeating Max Holloway during that span. But over his last eight fights, Dennis has lost six of them including his current skid. Where he goes from here is anyone’s guess, but Bermudez’ future inside the Octagon is definitely now in limbo. Where it all went wrong for Dennis is unknown, but he better right his ship before it drowns just in case the promotion wants to give him one more try to get back into the win column. It’s an opportunity he may get seeing as how the decision was highly-questionable.
For complete UFC Fight Night 133 results, including play-by-play, click here