Here are the real winners and losers from UFC 239.
UFC 239 started out slow. Not too slow as Song Yadong and Edmen Shahbazyan had impressive performances, but most of the prelims were slow paced contests. Then the heart of the main card came around and completely changed the legacy of the event. Jan Blachowicz delivered the first brutal KO. Then Jorge Masvidal set a new UFC record for the fasted KO in company history at five seconds. Finally, Amanda Nunes took her turn, scoring another KO victory during her title reign. The main event was somewhat disappointing as Jon Jones turned in an underwhelming performance, allowing Thiago Santos to come thisclose to securing an upset. Jones held on, but left the dominance of his title reign up for question.
Winners
Amanda Nunes: Normally, a performance like Nunes’ would make her the biggest winner of the night. Unfortunately for her, Masvidal ruined that. Nonetheless, Nunes became the first to finish former champion Holly Holm, something Cris Cyborg and Valentina Shevchenko couldn’t do. In the process, Nunes was able to secure the last win she needed to claim a win over every former women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion. Even more impressive, every one of those victories came by way of finish. There shouldn’t be an argument whether Nunes is the greatest female MMA fighter ever. She is. The argument is whether she is the greatest MMA fighter ever, period. I probably wouldn’t say so quite yet, she is certainly in the conversation.
Jorge Masvidal: Wow. What more needs to be said about Masvidal’s flying knee KO of Ben Askren? Setting a new record for fastest KO is a hell of an accomplishment alone. To do it in the manner that Masvidal did is that much more impressive as I can’t recall anyone going as stiff as Askren since Edson Barboza did so to Terry Etim. In the process, Masvidal may very well have launched himself into a title shot against Kamaru Usman. Given Dana White’s clear animosity towards Colby Covington – why isn’t Covington getting a shot at the gold? – it seems like a strong likelihood. Can’t say I saw that coming heading into the event.
Jan Blachowicz: Quietly, Blachowicz has become one of the better stories in the UFC’s recent history. At one point, he dropped four of five contests, some of those losses against subpar competition. He was on the verge of being cut. Since then, he has won five of six. His KO of former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold in the second round was just icing on the cake. Blachowicz has become an expert at reading his opponents and making the proper adjustments in the course of a fight. At this point, he’s a legit contender to get the next title shot.
Michael Chiesa: Before the event, I told myself Chiesa wouldn’t be in this column unless he finished Diego Sanchez. That didn’t happen, but Chiesa made up for it by completely dominating the longtime veteran, potentially securing a couple of 10-8 rounds. If Chiesa really wants to boost his stock, he needs to secure a win over an opponent whose peak wasn’t over five years ago, but I suppose I can’t be too harsh on a guy for beating the hell out of whoever is placed before him.
Arnold Allen: I don’t want to rain on Allen’s parade. He defeated a legend in Gilbert Melendez. No one will ever be able to take that away from him. However, the current version of Melendez is anything but legendary. In fact, it’s actually somewhat disappointing that Allen was unable to finish an aged Melendez that has failed to evolve with the sport. Nonetheless, it was overall a dominating performance and an indication Allen is living up the exceeding hype he’s had surrounding him for some time.
Marlon Vera: You gotta love you some Chito Vera. Not only did Vera secure his fourth consecutive win, all of those victories came well before the final bell. Sure, it may have been a debuting opponent coming in on short notice, but Vera always has rough moments before finding the finish of Nohelin Hernandez in an entertaining scrap. And yet, most fans have no clue who in the hell the talented Ecuadorian is. Anyone think we can get Vera smoking some weed with Snoop Dog?
Song Yadong: If Weili Zhang isn’t the Chinese star the UFC was hoping for, Yadong might be. The Team Alpha Male representative timed his counter hook on Alejandro Perez perfectly. It turned out the lights on the durable Mexican, showing Yadong has progressed greatly on the feet from the point of his UFC entry. The scary thing is that it feels like he has just scratched the surface of his potential. Here’s hoping the UFC doesn’t rush him ala Darren Till.
Edmen Shahbazyan: I know a lot of people were excited about Shahbazyan’s blitz of Jack Marshman – rightfully so – but I wasn’t. Not that it wasn’t impressive. It’s that I fully expected the 21-year old to run over the Welshman, thus there was no surprise to his performance. The UFC gift wrapped Shahbazyan a win pitting him against Marshman, a total stylistic mismatch. We’ve established Shahbazyan is a gifted athlete. Now lets get him some real competition.
Chance Rencountre: Well… I didn’t see this coming. Rencountre has made massive strides in his wrestling, capitalizing on his massive frame to grind the heavy favorite, Ismail Naurdiev into the ground. Rencountre had a reputation as a tough scrapper prior to his effort against Kyle Stewart. I didn’t expect him to repeat a wrestling performance like that against Naurdiev. I expected Rencountre to wash out in short order. I was completely wrong.
Julia Avila: I was surprised there wasn’t more hype around Avila’s UFC debut as she appeared prime to make a big splash in short order. While she was unable to secure a finish, Avila showed exactly what I’m talking about by scoring a definitive victory over a game Pannie Kianzad. If given the opportunity, Avila could rise up through the women’s bantamweight division in a hurry ala Israel Adesanya. I’m very much looking forward to her development.
ATT: Is there a better team than American Top Team at this point? Not only did Amanda Nunes deliver another solid title defense, but Jorge Masvidal turned in an all-time great performance. As far as I’m concerned, there is no better training camp.
Losers
Jon Jones: Sure, Jones walked out of the event the champion. But does anyone feel like they watched a champion successfully defend his belt? I sure didn’t feel that way, even though I scored the fight in favor of Jones. Given he’s considered by many to be the greatest MMA fighter of all time, it felt like an incredibly underwhelming performance. In the process, Jones looked extremely human and did some damage to his aura in the process. The more human he appears, the more confidence an opponent is going to have they can beat him. The more confident an opponent is, the more likely they beat him. You get where I’m going with this? However, the most disturbing part is how disinterested Jones appeared to be in the contest. He never showed any urgency, not even in the final round when the fight was still very much in the air. Does Jones have the motivation to continue fighting at a high level for much longer? I honestly can’t answer that.
Holly Holm: Though the fight was short, Holm had some bright spots, indicating lightning could have struck twice. Nunes wasn’t having any of it. Nunes head kick of Holm was about as clean of a kick as you’ll see. Almost as clean as… when Holm knocked Ronda Rousey silly. Huh, how poetic. What was impressive on that is it still didn’t completely knock Holm out. There shouldn’t ever be a question about Holm’s toughness as she has taken some brutal shots in her career without going out cold. Nonetheless, that was the third title fight Holm has fought in that she has come up short as the challenger. Even worse, it could be debated none of those title shots were properly earned. There’s a strong probability Holm won’t receive a title shot ever again.
Ben Askren: There isn’t a bigger loser on the card. Askren is now going to be immortalized with the likes of Michael Bisping and Etim for being on the receiving end of brutal KO’s. The question is what direction Askren’s goes from here. Does it go the direction of Bisping and continue to persevere? Or does he flounder into nothingness as Etim did? I’m going to wait and see Askren’s immediate reaction once the cobwebs are clear, but that still won’t provide a definitive answer. Askren’s chances of getting a title shot appear to be shot, but how many times did we say that about Bisping? In the meantime, here’s hoping he remembers his own name sooner rather than later.
Luke Rockhold: Not only has Rockhold lost three of his last four contests, all of them have come by KO. It looks like Rockhold may have made the move to light heavyweight too late to salvage his chin. However, that may not even be the biggest concern. Rockhold wasn’t winning the fight up to the point when Blachowicz buzzed him at the end of the first round. Rockhold was unable to bully Blachowicz the way he did his smaller opponents at middleweight. I’m not saying there aren’t fights he can’t win anymore, but his time as a relevant fighter has apparently come and gone.
Diego Sanchez: If I want to know how to avoid submissions, Sanchez will be the first person a want advice from. However, if I want any other advice on modern MMA, I’ll go elsewhere. Not only has the sport passed Sanchez by, but his body can no longer do what Sanchez asks of it. If the UFC wants to continue marching Sanchez out there, he can only be competitive against those at the bottom of the barrel at this juncture. Anyone else get the feeling it isn’t going to play out that way?
Gilbert Melendez: Melendez is done. He’s slow. He doesn’t move in and out of the pocket, allowing opponents to brutalize his leg. I can’t say I blame Melendez. He’s getting $200K for each appearance. But as a fight fan, there is zero interest on my part to see Melendez continue to fight.
Randa Markos: All Markos had to do was put the pedal to the metal. Instead, she engages in a boring point fight with a fighter notorious for gassing out in Claudia Gadelha. What the hell? For every awesome performance – like the one against Angela Hill – Markos turns in a stinker like this where you can’t help but think she could have pulled out a win if she had only fought intelligently. There shouldn’t be any wonder why Markos is consistently inconsistent.
Alejandro Perez: I don’t think anyone remembers Perez recent seven-fight unbeaten streak. Perez was put to sleep by a brutal counter shot by Yadong, putting a second loss in a row upon the Mexican’s ledger. Perez’s stock shouldn’t take a significant hit as most expected Yadong to beat him, but this type of loss does put a significant ceiling on him. Not that anyone saw Perez becoming a contender, but you’d think he could given his recent streak. Shows how much success a fighter can have with some fortunate matchmaking and favorable judging….
Jack Marshman: The UFC completely mismanaged Marshman pitting him against Shahbazyan. Marshman is a brawling action fighter. He isn’t going to climb the middleweight ladder any higher than he is already at. Instead of allowing him the opportunity to swing fisticuffs with someone who wants to do the same thing, they fed him to an aggressive ground fighter who killed any value Marshman might have had left. Then again, Marshman kind of already did that with a passive performance against John Phillips earlier this year. Either way, Marshman is a major loser for the event.
Ismail Naurdiev: The first two minutes of Naurdiev’s contest with Rencountre showed exactly why everyone was excited about his future. After that, it’s hard to find a single positive thing to say about the Austrian Wonderboy. Rencountre was put on his back for damn near the entirety of the fight from that point and couldn’t get back up. Now we need to pump the brakes on the youngster’s future.
Colby Covington: I already said something about it, but it is a shame Covington can’t seem to catch a break. His own teammate, Masvidal, appears to have leapfrogged him in the welterweight hierarchy. Whether you like Covington or not isn’t the point. The point is he was the interim champion, a title he never lost. Shouldn’t that be enough to pick up a title shot? I guess not.
Neither
Thiago Santos: I badly wanted to list Santos as a winner. He did more damage to the champ – witness Jones being helped out of the cage and to the back after the fight – and made a strong case of taking a decision to the judges. However, what Santos didn’t do was entertain Dana White enough to potentially earn a rematch with the champion. That’s too bad as Santos secured the closest decision in Jones long title reign(s). Had he done that, I would have gladly put Santos in the winner’s column, despite taking a loss. At the very least, Santos shut up those who claimed he didn’t deserve his title shot.
Nohelin Hernandez: It was hard not to be impressed by Hernandez’s performance. He overcame some early adversity, escaping Vera’s multiple submission attempts before turning the contest around for the final bit of the first round. The momentum carried over from there, Hernandez opening the second frame in control. He did fall short in the end – keeping him out of the winner’s column – but Hernandez probably raised his stock in the process.
Claudia Gadelha: There were certainly parts of Gadelha’s performance that looked sharper. For instance, her punches were far more technical, displaying her work with Mark Henry. However, Markos handed her a win when she refused to push the action. It allowed Gadelha to coast through the contest without having her cardio tested. Did I mention the contest was a snoozer too? Aside from avoiding another loss, this win did nothing for Gadelha’s standing.
Pannie Kianzad: I admit I’m stretching it putting Kianzad here, but I saw a lot of things out of her that I liked compared to her previous showings. She didn’t wilt when Avila hurt her, usually throwing with accuracy shortly after being rocked. Plus, she made her way back into the UFC after the promotion let her go following her loss to Macy Chiasson. Kianzad isn’t going to be the contender many of us thought she would be when she was making her way up, but she looks like she could be a mainstay in a division badly in need of depth. All that said, she still lost a clear decision. What… I couldn’t NOT say that after throwing all those positive comments at her.