This is UFC 268 in a few short tweets!
UFC 268 is in the books, and after the card’s two championship rematches, the two belts remained with the champions. Kamaru Usman put on another great performance, beating Colby Covington by decision after nearly finishing him in the second. He puts a stronger claim to his top pound-for-pound ranking with his fifth straight title defense.
In the co-main event, Rose Namajunas kept her belt in a close split decision over Weili Zhang. The Chinese fighter had a decent case for winning the fight as well, but one judge even weirdly had her losing four of the five rounds. In any case, Namajunas fought smart and got top control late in the fight that was favored by the judges.
The bout that stole the show was Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler’s
Here we analyze the pros and cons of each of the key bouts, with a quick twitter thread that’s short and fitting for people’s social media era attention spans:
GAETHJE & CHANDLER GO TO WAR
PROS: Bell to bell madness. High expectations, but it still delivered. Big win for Gaethje and yet another bonus
CONS: Nothing, but if we had to nitpick: I wish it was 5 rounds. Chandler tried to hide how he needed a break https://t.co/EVB60yoQ9d
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) November 7, 2021
BURGOS AND QUARANTILLO BEAT EACH OTHER UP
PROS: Tough to follow a Gaethje fight, but this was a fun war of attrition. Quarantillo didn’t stop pushing until the end, even after getting hurt bad, but Burgos was a tad better.??
CONS: This could’ve been FOTN on any other card.
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) November 7, 2021
VERA FRONT KICK KOs FRANKIE EDGAR
PROS: He was setting up that front kick the entire fight. Vera just walked him down, not respecting Edgar’s power, knowing he can hurt him and not get hurt.?
CONS: Edgar seems to get wobbled on every shot these days 🙁 https://t.co/aTD4zcXOPF
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) November 7, 2021
ROSE EDGES WEILI
PROS: Great fight. Zhang looked good and both had moments. Rose got clutch takedowns as Zhang was too comfortable from bottom.
CONS: Does Rogan still watch events? Because he shat on Esparza and Rodriguez. I can see 48-47, but 49-46?? https://t.co/6B28KOdFPP
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) November 7, 2021
USMAN BEATS COVINGTON (AGAIN)
PROS: Usman came very close to finishing but Covington is as tough as ever. Usman looked good and composed as usual. That’s 5 title defenses!
CONS: I still don’t know why they rematched, but at least it wasn’t a bad fight. https://t.co/m6wOjVZAJh
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) November 7, 2021
#UFC268 OVERALL
CONS: Edgar got KO’d again, needs to do a lot of thinking. Some weird scores.
PROS: Gaethje-Chandler delievered. Witmann coach of the year after going 3-0? No finish, but title bouts were fun. Huggy Bear’s spin kick TKO to front flip.https://t.co/rZJOqy6BZ0
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) November 7, 2021
And that’s about it. For more social media musings, follow me on twitter over at @antontabuena, and of course you should do that for Bloody Elbow’s official twitter account as well.