Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
Tim B. takes a look at a largely entertaining UFC 247 in Houston.
I think Jon Jones got lucky tonight. For the second fight in a row, Jones looked beatable, and this time it really looked like he might lose his belt. I had Dominick Reyes taking the first three rounds, with the third being the closest. Jones did rebound when Reyes slowed down, and he took the final two. But I don’t think he won this fight. I think Dominick Reyes should be the light heavyweight champion.
But, this did take place in Texas. Historically, Texas judging is awful. I believe it was again tonight.
Should Reyes get a rematch? Hell yes he should. Thiago Santos won’t be back for like nine years from his knee injuries, and there’s no one else. Run it back.
- 49-46 Jones? What the hell? That might be worse than 30-27 Ewell.
- Valentina Shevchenko showed why she is miles ahead of the rest of the flyweight division yet again. She completely nullified Katlyn Chookagian’s striking game, and worked in some takedowns to boot. I’m not even sure that Chookagian landed a single punch over two and a half rounds. Finally in the third, Shevchenko got the crucifix position and dropped a bunch of shots to end the fight. I thought the stoppage was a tiny bit premature, but let’s face it – Chookagian wasn’t coming back.
- Justin Tafa touched Juan Adams with an uppercut. Juan Adams fell down. Justin Tafa won. The end.
- Mirsad Bektic and Dan Ige was my favorite fight of the night. I expected a brawl, and we did get that to a degree, but there was a lot of technical stuff in there as well. Bektic worked a takedown game and it seemed like he could have finished it with an arm triangle, but instead of popping out to side, he elected to stay in mount. Needless to say, that didn’t work, and Ige took a close decision.
- Derrick Lewis and Ilir Latifi didn’t go as expected. Many thought The Black Beast would quickly KO The Sledgehammer, but Latifi weathered a pretty boring first round and started working a takedown game in the second and third. He largely nullified Lewis’ striking game, but let him up late in the third, which cost him. Props to Latifi for showing off a great chin, but the six or seven strikes Lewis landed at the end of the fight likely handed the win to him.
- Lewis was hilarious as usual in his post fight interview. He called out his afterparty, saying that everyone could show up and buy him five shots, but he wasn’t buying them sh-t. Classic.
- In the prelims headliner, James Krause showed up on no notice in a much higher weight class. And he brought it. He had Trevin Giles in big trouble in the first round, stuck to his back and looking for a choke. The second round was a different story though, with Giles dominating and maybe earning a 10-8 if we weren’t under the old rules in dumb Texas. The third was exciting too, and back and forth. In the end Giles took a split decision, but props to Krause for putting up an excellent fight in the worst of situations.
- As expected, Lauren Murphy and Andrea Lee got after it pretty much immediately, and didn’t give an inch over the whole 15 minutes. Lee arguably landed the harder shots, but Murphy channeled her inner Korean Zombie and just kept coming forward with activity. In the end, it was barely enough to edge Lee by split decision.
- Kalinn Williams is sometimes called Khaos, and he lived up to his nickname tonight. 27 seconds of hell, and Alex Morono was sleepy times. If there’s one fight from this card you should go back and watch, this is it.
- Mario Bautista kept spamming the same move over and over – a knee. It missed, and missed…but then it landed. And he won! I didn’t see much to like from his performance, but all it takes is one shot, and he certainly landed that on Miles Johns.
- Don’t Stop Believin’ in Journey Newson. He got cracked early and looked to be in trouble, but a picture-perfect right hook changed everything. Opponent Domingo Pilarte went down hard, and the fight was over in 38 seconds. Newson won approximately three of those seconds, but he’s the one going home with the win bonus.
- Jonathan Martinez got robbed. I don’t throw around the R word lightly, and the fight was somewhat close, but…30-27 Ewell? What was that judge smoking? Martinez landed a lot of quality shots over the final two rounds, and the second in particular was undisputably in favor of Martinez. I hope the UFC sees that for what it was and gives Martinez more quality fights, because he looked excellent against a tough opponent.
- The card kicked off with an entertaining battle between Youssef Zalal and Austin Lingo. Zalal largely dominated, taking Lingo to deep waters for the first time in his young career and decisively winning all three rounds. Zalal has some potential.