Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) staged UFC 20 last night (Sat., Feb. 27) inside UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada featuring a Heavyweight bout which saw Ciryl Gane defeat Jairzinho Rozenstruik via unanimous decision (recap here). In the co-main event, Magomed Ankalaev defeated Nikita Krylov, also via unanimous decision (relive it here).
Biggest Winner (s): Pedro Munhoz and Jimmie Rivera
The two talented Bantamweights gave fight fans a great five-round bout in a night where most fights left fans wanting more. And we get it, not every event can be a homerun and not every bout can be a candidate for fight of the year, but Munhoz and Rivera were the bright spot of the evening, winning an extra $50K bonus for their “Fight if the Night” efforts. They further proved that the UFC’s 135-pound division is one of the most exciting despite not have a household name star leading the way. No disrespect to division king Petr Yan, of course, but while he’s been dominant he’s yet to defend his belt and hasn’t exactly built up a big fan base just yet. Still, Munhoz and Rivera stole the show and Pedro got the revenge he was longing for on “El Terror.”
Runner Up: Alex Caceres
Don’t look now, but Caceres is starting to make moves. With his win over Kevin Croom, “Bruce Leroy” picked up his fourth straight win under the UFC banner. If you can believe it, that is his longest win streak inside the Octagon in his decade-long run with the promotion. He did win five straight from 2012 to 2014, but his win over Kyun Ho Kang — which was right in the middle of his streak — was ruled a no contest (NC) after he failed a post-fight drug test. Moving back to present date, Caceres really seems to be finding his groove after a five-year stretch that saw him go a mere 4-7. “Bruce Leroy” is starting to show the promise and results everyone expected of him early on in his career, so if he can keep racking up the wins he could be making a great case to crack the Top 15 sooner enough, which means bigger fights and opportunities moving forward.
Biggest Loser: Jairzinho Rozenstruik
Coming into the headlining bout against Ciryl Gane, most predicted an all out slug-fest with possible knockout as the cherry on top. Instead, fight fans were treated to a snoozer. Heck, even Jon Jones was unimpressed with the big mens’ output. While it is easy for all of us to sit back and play arm chair fighter, the bout simply failed to deliver. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a highly-anticipated 265-pound bout result in a dud because Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis did it first. Still, Gane and Rozenstruik had a chance to shine and earn a statement win in order to cause some chaos in the championship race. At least Gane got the victory to remain undefeated at 8-0, 5-0 UFC, but Rozenstruik simply didn’t pop off any major offense. One can say he may be gun shy after getting slept by Ngannou in record time, but that theory may not hold up because he bounced back to knockout Junior dos Santos shorty after getting ragdolled by “The Predator.” Then again, “Cigano” has lost his last four via knockout and hasn’t exactly looked like the man that terrorized the division a few years ago. Whatever it is, “Bigi Boy” will have to come out with a better showing in his next outing to avoid falling further down the ladder now that he has dropped two of his last three.
For complete UFC Vegas 20: “Gane vs. Rozenstruik” results and play-by-play, click HERE!