UFC 201 is in the books. On paper, it looked like a forgettable card wedged between the madness of the milestone UFC 200 event and the promise of Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor at UFC 202; in practice, it delivered fantastic finishes, a lot of wild action and a few upsets for the ages.
In the main event, Tyron Woodley became 2016’s fifth new UFC champion (seventh, counting interim titleholders). It took just one devastating right hand to separate defending champion Robbie Lawler from consciousness and crown Woodley the new king of one of MMA‘s most prestigious divisions, the heir to Matt Hughes, Georges St-Pierre and now the ruthless one himself.
Karolina Kowalkiewicz became the second Polish fighter to establish herself as one of the world’s top strawweights, sending prohibitive favorite Rose Namajunas back to the drawing board after yet another setback. Kowalkiewicz will now face Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the 115-pound title later this year in what promises to be a barnburner of a fight.
While the top two fights delivered, the rest of the card went up and down.
Jake Ellenberger rebounded from the mother of all rough patches to finish the tough Matt Brown in the first round. Before that, Erik Perez and Francisco Rivera put on a mostly forgettable fight aside from a 20-second stretch of utterly mad exchanges at the beginning of the third round, after which Rivera was so exhausted that he essentially collapsed to the canvas for the rest of the frame.
The main card opener between Fredy Serrano and Ryan Benoit was equal parts fun and bizarre, with Serrano landing wild kicks and huge slams while Benoit cracked him with meat-and-potatoes shots.
On the undercard, Nikita Krylov announced himself as a fighter to watch at 205 pounds in knocking out Ed Herman. Jorge Masvidal defeated Ross Pearson in a fun fight, while Wilson Reis overcame the letdown of losing his title shot by submitting Hector Sandoval in entertaining fashion.
With all that in mind, let’s take a look at the event’s real winners and losers.