Matt Brown’s loss turned out to be Neil Magny‘s gain at the UFC’s latest foray into Mexico, with The Ultimate Fighter 16 alum edging out the favored Kelvin Gastelum via a narrow split decision at UFC Fight Night 78 on Saturday. The win didn’t come easy, but it surely tasted sweet.
The first three rounds were vintage Magny, if there is such a thing. Clinch work. Rangy striking. Takedowns. It wasn’t especially glamorous, mind you (though there were a few flashy moments where Magny nailed some impressive gutwrenches and managed to utilize his length in scrambles), but boy was it effective.
That was quite the surprise for observers. While Magny is an impressive physical specimen, billed as 6’3″ tall but checking in at just 170 pounds, Gastelum is no easy out. While a Magny victory certainly wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, few were expecting the workhorse to rag-doll the on-again, off-again middleweight.
Eventually, the fourth came around, and Gastelum knew his back was against the wall. With reckless abandon, he threw fastball after fastball, resulting in two big knockdowns in the round. That completely turned the momentum of the fight and laid the framework for his solid fifth round to close out the bout.
As detailed by Fox Sports’ Damon Martin on Twitter, the fight hinged on how the judges would score the fourth round. Two knockdowns should logically translate into a 10-8 round, but MMA judges are notoriously unwilling to chance a draw by writing in anything other than 10-9.
The fight all came down to R4. If you give it 10-8 to Gastelum, it’s a draw. If it’s 10-9, Neil Magny wins. Not really controversial IMO
— Damon Martin (@DamonMartin) November 22, 2015
That reluctance by the officiating crew would ultimately prove to be the difference as Gastelum wound up on the bad end of a 48-47, 47-48, 48-47 decision. It was a fun, solid fight that has major ramifications for both men.
Here are some random notes and thoughts on the fight:
- Gastelum‘s cardio is truly astounding. The TUF17 winner was looking strong to the very end, despite what shaped up to be a tough weight cut for him. While he has had a rough go of it in recent months, he shouldn’t be at all ashamed of how this fight went.
- It’s tough to pinpoint where Magny goes from here. He continues to improve, but his UFC 190 loss to Demian Maia is still fresh. Will he be stuck with gatekeeping duties for a while? Will he get a second crack against a Top 10 opponent? The UFC could reasonably use him in a variety of ways.
- This fight was fun, but on the whole the event was dreadful. A never-ending stream of terrible fighters, coupled with the dreadful Fox Sports 1 pacing, resulted in one of the worst overall MMA events in recent memory. And it was on during Miguel Cotto vs. Canelo Alvarez!
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