Mookie Alexander recaps all the action that took place at UFC Prague, including another win for Thiago Santos.
One year ago this month, Thiago Santos stopped Anthony Smith in a middleweight bout. Next week, Smith will challenge Jon Jones for Jones’ UFC light heavyweight title. Today in the Czech Republic, Santos improved to 3-0 in his own move up to 205 lbs, TKOing Jan Blachowicz in the third round of the UFC Prague main event.
It was a slow-moving fight through two rounds, but Santos turned the fight permanently in his favor with a right hook-left hand combo as Blachowicz recklessly waded forward, and Jan was dropped to the canvas. Five billion hammerfists later, it was over. Thiago Santos is an extremely violent man, and this is a big win for him against a guy who’d entered the night on a four-fight winning streak and had never been finished via strikes before.
Santos is definitely on the cusp of a title shot, and don’t forget about Dominick Reyes if he can beat Volkan Oezdemir next month. Hey, light heavyweight may still not be an especially deep division, but it’s certainly gotten a hell of a lot more fun compared to recent years.
More thoughts below:
Main Card
- Stefan Struve got knocked down within five seconds against Marcos Rogerio de Lima, dominated for the whole of round one, but rallied back to choke out the Brazilian with an arm-triangle in round two. A great comeback win for “The Skyscraper” to end his losing streak and prevail in the final fight of his UFC contract… and possibly his career. He wasn’t 100% committed to the idea in the post-fight interview, but an emotional Dutchman took off his gloves and said he might retire. Two days ago was the 10 year anniversary of his UFC debut, and he’s been a pro since 2005. Whether he retires or not, he’s had a long career for a 31-year-old, and if this is the end for him, he certainly provided us a lot of entertaining moments whether he won or lost. And by all accounts, he is a very nice guy.
- Michal Oleksiejczuk returned from his USADA suspension to just melt Gian Villante with a liver shot. A first-round TKO for the Polish light heavyweight in just 94 seconds, and you know I love me a good body shot finish.
- The women’s flyweight tilt between Liz Carmouche and Lucie Pudilova was… bad. And the Czech crowd was livid that their home fighter lost a unanimous decision when she had a good case for winning the fight. Evidently Carmouche’s takedowns and offense-starved top control was something the judges loved over Pudilova’s infrequent but superior damage. Pudilova also elbowed Carmouche in the ass several times when fending off a heel hook in the final round. That was funny.
- Petr Yan is legit. The Russian bantamweight largely dominated veteran John Dodson, whose most successful moment of the fight was a flash knockdown in round two. He is still insanely tough and withstood serious punishment from Yan, but he also did a lot of ref complaining over fouls, which was rich considering towards the fight’s conclusion he only got a warning for a ridiculously obvious fence grab. Yan is very much a contender at 135 and I want to see him in against the elite of the division ASAP.
- Magomed Ankalaev busted Klidson Abreu’s nose with a right uppercut, and dominated the fight the rest of the way. It was ugly and not fun to watch, aka a typical unranked light heavyweight bout. Clear-cut decision for Ankalaev, and Abreu follows up missing weight with having his nose smashed.
Preliminary Card
- Welterweight Dwight Grant picked up a first-round buzzer-beater TKO of Carlo Pedersoli Jr in spectacular fashion, sending Carlo down with a crushing right hand that sent his mouthpiece flying. A great and well-timed stoppage by Marc Goddard, and a hell of a way for Grant to get his first UFC win.
- Daniel Teymur had no answers for Chris Fishgold’s takedowns, outside of a flagrant fence grab that led to a point docked just 20 seconds into the fight. It was a wild fight in totality, but the English featherweight prevailed with a rear-naked choke in round two. That’s his first UFC win and potentially the end of Daniel’s UFC career, as he’s 0-3.
- Women’s flyweight Gillian Robertson was able to sweep Veronica Macedo and slap on a fight-ending rear-naked choke in a fight she was arguably losing up until that point. Canadian UFC fighters are now 1-0 in the post-GSP era, and Robertson is back on track after losing her last fight by submission.
- Bosnian lightweight Damir Hadzovic dominated Marco Polo Reyes on the ground in round two and was able to get a vicious ground-and-pound TKO stoppage, giving him his first win streak inside the Octagon.
- A pair of veterans who kept on winning but never really going up the ladder both suffered upset losses. Lightweight Rustam Khabilov dropped a decision to Diego Ferreira, in what was the best performance of the latter’s career. At welterweight, Michel Prazeres’ eight-fight win streak was snapped by short notice replacement Ismail Naurdiev, as the “Austrian Wonderboy” stopped Prazeres’ usual grinding style and landed some big shots throughout for an impressive W.
- Lightweight Damir Ismagulov didn’t have much difficulty shutting down Joel Alvarez, winning a shutout decision to open the event.