Two championship bouts at UFC 185, two new titleholders.
In the pay-per-view card’s main event, Rafael dos Anjos demolished Anthony Pettis over five one-sided rounds to win the men’s lightweight championship via unanimous decision. Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole relayed the judges’ scorecards:
Prior to that stunning display, Joanna Jedrzejczyk defeated Carla Esparza via second-round TKO at the 4:28 mark to become the new women’s strawweight champion.
With the strong card, entertaining results and college basketball mostly wrapped up for the evening, Twitter was naturally abuzz with commentary and reaction for each of the five pay-per-view bouts.
Championship Bouts
Dos Anjos, whom Pettis said was “probably the most dangerous guy in the division in my opinion,” per Martin Domin of The Daily Mail, certainly lived up to his opponent’s estimation on Saturday night. He was undeterred by Pettis’ punches and dished out much more punishment in return, as Fox Sports UFC pointed out:
The challenger landed 61 percent of his strikes through three rounds. Pettis was fine standing up, but he struggled to avoid dos Anjos’ takedown attempts. This fan noted the overwhelming display from dos Anjos:
It was abundantly clear that Pettis’ needed a stoppage of some kind to win this bout, but there would be no late comeback on this night. Dos Anjos closed the curtains on Showtime, dominating the fourth and fifth rounds to flip the script and take the title.
Sherdog’s Jordan Breen was highly complimentary after the bout:
USA Today‘s Mike Bohn noted dos Anjos’ victory represented a historic changing of the guard:
MMA journalist David Kano noted that the likes of Nate Diaz had fared much better against dos Anjos:
Prior to the main event was the women’s strawweight championship. With Jedrzejczyk a strong technical fighter and the defending champion Esparza an artist on the ground, this was a tantalizing clash of styles.
Bleacher Report tweeted an emotional picture of the new titleholder after the bout:
Jedrzejczyk, the six-time Muay Thai world champion, acquitted herself well in the first round, blocking Esparza’s takedown attempts and landing eight more total strikes than her opponent. Esparza may have expended too much energy in the first round, which led to her downfall.
USA Today‘s Ben Fowlkes noted she looked tired:
Jedrzejczyk simply walked a tired Esparza down in the second, pummeling away until the referee had no choice but to end the carnage. UFC unofficially counted 42 strikes for Jedrzejczyk to Esparza’s one in the second round. It was a superlative display of fighting, one that should have the 27-year-old Polish fighter in line for some premier bouts in the very near future.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto was highly impressed by her dominant display:
The performance officially made a Jedrzejczyk fan out of UFC featherweight Cub Swanson:
You might be able to count Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Marcedes Lewis among the new converts as well:
Main Card
In the pay-per-view card’s first bout, Henry Cejudo moved to 8-0 in his MMA career with a unanimous-decision victory (30-27 on all cards) over top flyweight contender Chris Cariaso.
It was Cejudo’s flyweight debut, but he looks like a man capable of terrorizing the division after his dominant display Saturday. MMAFighting.com’s Shaheen Al-Shatti noted his top-notch athleticism:
Cejudo dominated all three rounds, landing 111 total strikes to Cariaso’s 41. Of course, even when Cariaso was able to land his punches, they had little effect, per Sherdog’s Patrick Wyman:
Cejudo, a 28-year-old from Colorado Springs, Colorado, drew considerable praise for his effort, but Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com thinks he may have to impress in a couple more bouts before getting a shot at flyweight hardware:
The card quickly shifted from the little guys to the big fellas, as Roy Nelson took on Alistair Overeem in a heavyweight fight. Overeem was able to come away with a decision victory in this one, but it was a much closer than the preceding bout.
Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole saw an Overeem in rare form:
Overeem landed 66 blows to Nelson’s 48, although the latter notched the only knockdown of the bout in the final round. Naturally, in a fight between two big men, jokes abounded. Fowlkes chimed in with this quip:
Overeem broke down Nelson with a barrage of kicks and knees, and took the bout 30-27 on all cards, per Iole. However, UFC’s Dana White couldn’t help but express his admiration for Nelson after the bout:
Next up was Johny Hendricks and Matt Brown in a welterweight battle. This contest also went the distance, with Hendricks pulling out another 30-27 victory on the judges’ scorecards.
Hendricks dominated this bout, landing 36 significant strikes, with a few especially strong ones coming from his left hand, while making good on nine of his 10 takedown attempts. Fowlkes noted Brown did all he could to fend off Hendricks’ considerable attack, which included grabbing the fence to avoid takedowns:
Al-Shatti noted that Hendricks can hardly be contained in three-rounders:
If anything, fans certainly couldn’t say they were cheated out of any action in the buildup to the championship bouts. While two of the fights were considerably lopsided, all went the distance and together the three matches showed off a variety of skills and fighting styles.
All stats courtesy of UFC.com.
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