If you stayed up to watch the entirety of UFC 190 from start to finish, you deserve a piece of the “Performance of the Night” bonus.
Sunday’s pay-per-view card achieved the toxic combination of being both agonizingly long and dreadfully dull for stretches. And the entire payoff was a 34-second victory for Ronda Rousey, which was pretty cool nonetheless.
UFC 190 won’t exactly go down in company history as the greatest event ever, but it still featured a few highlights throughout the night.
Here’s a look at the full results, followed by the three fighters who looked the strongest in winning efforts.
Most Impressive Performances
Antonio Silva
After getting knocked out by Andrei Arlovski and Frank Mir, Antonio Silva looked completely past it as a UFC fighter. You can blame it on the failed drug test if you want, but Silva’s simply getting older and wasn’t aggressive whatsoever in his last two bouts.
Against a powerful puncher like Soa Palelei, “Bigfoot” didn’t appear to stand a chance.
But then Silva went and knocked Palelei out in the second round. As MMAFighting tweeted, the most surprising aspect of the victory was how little Silva seemed fatigued at the end:
Palelei was the aggressor in the first round and the better of the two fighters. By the second, he was completely gassed. Maybe his plan was knocking Silva out in the first round, and he was completely screwed when that didn’t happen.
Take nothing away from Silva, who desperately needed this win.
“Bigfoot” won’t be competing for the heavyweight title anytime soon, but he’s at least earned himself another marquee fight in the future.
Ronda Rousey
You could argue nothing Rousey did against Bethe Correia should be considered impressive. The champion was the heavy favorite entering the fight and Correia‘s superior in every facet of the sport.
Can you call a No. 1 seed beating a No. 16 seed in the NCAA tournament impressive?
While that’s a valid line of questioning, Rousey‘s greatness transcends the discussion. No single person or team in sports today is as consistently dominant as Rousey. Floyd Mayweather may be the closest, and he doesn’t so much win fights as he fails to lose them.
Give me a 30-second Rousey fight over 36 minutes of Mayweather.
Just look at this stat from Fighting Spirit Magazine‘s Justin Henry:
Rousey has won her last four fights in less time than it takes to get through half of a standard UFC round. Talk about efficiency.
Someday, Rousey will stop being a force of nature in the Octagon. Maybe her passion for mixed martial arts will fade as she pursues other avenues. Maybe age will take its toll at some point. Maybe the rest of the world will catch up.
Until that happens, let’s not be so jaded so as to not enjoy Rousey in her prime.
Also, athletes should do more of this on a regular basis (via Sportsnet’s Mike Johnston):
Patrick Cummins
ESPN Radio’s Jorge Sedano had the best reaction to Patrick Cummins‘ knockout of Rafael Cavalcante:
“I got caught a couple of times,” Cummins said after the fight, per MMAjunkie’s Matt Erickson. “The first round, I got caught with some good and clean punches and that kind of dictated the pace of the fight. I decided, ‘OK, I’m going to wrestle him and use my ground game,’ and that went well.”
The rope-a-dope strategy served the 34-year-old well. He absorbed Cavalcante‘s heaviest blows, and by the third round, Cavalcante was running on empty. Cummins saw the opportunity and pounced, hitting his opponent with elbow after elbow.
It’s not like Cavalcante got lucky with one blow to turn Cummins‘ face into the proverbial crimson mask. He dished out a ton of punishment but still couldn’t put Cummins away. The fact Cummins had anything left to finish Cavalcante is a testament to his conditioning and toughness.
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