Saturday night’s UFC 179 pay-per-view featured a great main event between Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes, but the entire fight card was filled with entertaining bouts.
With Phil Davis earning a lopsided decision win over Glover Teixeira and Fabio Maldonado knocking out Hans Stringer on top of the marquee featherweight title fight, this was one of the most entertaining shows of the last several months.
Here are the full fight card results and a breakdown of the most underrated bout at UFC 179.
Breaking Down the Most Underrated Fight of the Night
While Aldo vs. Mendes stole most of the headlines, the battle between Phil Davis and Glover Teixeira was a great sign for the future of the light heavyweight division.
Teixeira was coming off a loss to Jon Jones in a championship bout, and he was thoroughly outclassed by Davis on Saturday. As well as Teixeira performed during his winning streak leading into his title match, Davis was the more effective striker and the better wrestler on Saturday night.
Davis was coming off a decision loss to Anthony Johnson and realized how important a victory was to his career. As one of the best wrestlers in the sport, Davis has been a light heavyweight championship contender, but he has lost in some of the biggest moments.
While Saturday’s fight went to the judges’ scorecards, it was very clear that Davis was the winner.
After beating Teixeira, Davis called out a legend in his post-fight interview, via Marc Raimondi of Fox Sports, saying, “Lately they’ve been calling me the Brazilian killer, but I really don’t like that…I have beat a lot of Brazilians and there’s one Brazilian guy I’d like to face and that’s Anderson Silva.”
Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter commented on Davis’ performance:
Teixeira will have to go to the back of the championship-contention line after back-to-back losses, but Davis’ future looks bright once again. One possible fight that could come out of this fight would be Davis vs. Rashad Evans in a rematch from 2012.
Evans defeated Davis via unanimous decision, but the second bout between the men would be a marquee bout that could co-headline a PPV. The light heavyweight division is crowded at the top with Jones, Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson, and the battle between Evans and Davis would be a great test of which fighter deserves an eventual title shot.
Regardless of who is next, Davis proved once again he can compete with the best fighters in the sport. While a matchup against Anderson Silva looks like a pipe dream right now, there is always a chance Dana White and UFC officials schedule Davis vs. Silva in the future if the American keeps winning.
*Stats via UFC.com.
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