Mookie Alexander recaps and analyzes all of the action that took place at UFC Fight Night: Dos Santos vs. Rothwell in Zagreb, Croatia.
The UFC’s first ever event in Zagreb, Croatia is all over, and it marked the return to the win column for one Junior dos Santos. He turned in a strong performance against Ben Rothwell, earning a shutout unanimous decision in front of an overwhelmingly pro-Cigano crowd.
Stylistically, I suppose this fight always favored JDS for as long as he wasn’t completely shot. His training camp at American Top Team clearly paid off, as his boxing was sharp, his jabs to the body were beautiful, he threw terrific combinations, and had Rothwell badly hurt and nearly finished at the end of round 2. More importantly, his defense looked vastly improved. Rothwell isn’t exactly quick or varied in his attacks, but Junior circled away from danger every time Ben rushed forward, moved laterally instead of backwards in a straight line, and his head movement was much better than in previous fights. That isn’t to say faster, more powerful, more technically skilled fighters can’t exploit JDS’ weaknesses, but this is definitely an encouraging performance by dos Santos if he is to remain a legitimate title challenger.
What does this mean in the long run for both men? Well for Rothwell, he’s still improved a ton from the days of almost getting armbarred by Mark Hunt, but his offensive limitations were exposed against a more skilled opponent. The body shots wore him down and he was getting tagged repeatedly. If he wasn’t an insanely tough human being then he would’ve been knocked out, but he really wasn’t competitive against someone who is clearly the best fighter he’s faced during this surge towards the top 5. He’s still a quality fighter and I’m sure he’ll bounce back, he’s just not quite championship caliber.
As for JDS, my December tweet that he should retire after the Overeem fight was probably a little bit of an overreaction. He’s still very much a relevant and dangerous fighter in the UFC’s heavyweight division. I am in no way advocating for him to be thrown straight back into another title shot based on this performance, but I’m much more comfortable picking him against the likes of Andrei Arlovski, Travis Browne, Josh Barnett, etc. It’s too hasty to declare championship JDS back, but he’s still among the elite guys at heavyweight.
More thoughts on today’s special daytime event:
Main Card
- The FS1 pacing was actually not all that bad! It’s a miracle. Either that, or the fact that this card happened during daylight hours made me not care if the show dragged on forever. Overall, the crowd was great, the fights were a mixture of good and bad (mostly good), and JDS capped things off with his most dominant performance since destroying Frank Mir in 2012.
- Derrick Lewis is must-watch fighter for me, regardless of outcome. He’s been on a tear in his last 3 fights, and he survived Gabriel Gonzaga’s mount and put Gonzaga in a world of hurt at the end of round 1. A lightning fast combo and another KO win for “The Black Beast.” I want to see Lewis vs. Roy Nelson next.
- Gabriel Gonzaga has been KO’d or TKO’d nine times in 11 losses. Between the stoppage losses he’s racking up and the ugly win vs. Konstantin Erokhin, I think that’s the last we’ve seen of Gonzaga in the UFC.
- Jon Anik and Brian Stann are so good together that they basically were doing soccer and baseball analysis instead of just reading the promos. That’s the sort of thing you don’t get from Goldberg and Rogan, although the comedy value would be higher.
- Curtis Blaydes’ right eye was wrecked and the doctor made the right call to stop what was a decent fight vs. Francis Ngannou. The referee said he could see and seemingly tried to overrule the doctor. Blaydes tried to feel the number of fingers the doc was holding up. I think that’s grounds for a stoppage.
- Ngannou is a physical beast who impressed me more in this fight than in his debut. He showed improved takedown defense, didn’t gas himself out, and even when he was taken down he popped back to his feet both times. Consider the Frenchman one to watch in a heavyweight division dying for new talent.
- Marcin Tybura’s UFC debut was underwhelming. Timothy Johnson outstruck him for 2 rounds and held on in round 3 for a unanimous decision win that’s not worth revisiting.
- Jan Blachowicz and Igor Pokrajac had an entertaining bad fight in the first two rounds. Somehow neither one of them got knocked down when they went bombs away in the 2nd, and the crowd sure helped make this fight seem like a championship bout. Blachowicz smartly skipped out on brawling some more and went with a grinding strategy in the 3rd to get him the decision win. This fight was the LHW division in a nutshell.
- Maryna Moroz and Cristina Stanciu had a fun 1st round contested at a furious pace, but it was … sort of weird and a bit disjointed the rest of the way. Not much striking, some sloppy submission attempts, and this brilliant tweet by Angela Hill. Moroz clearly won, as Stanciu’s gas tank fell off after a good start to the opening few minutes.
Preliminary Card
- Zak Cummings scored an early knockdown and continued to show off his improved striking skills en route to a decision win over Nicolas Dalby, who is no longer undefeated. Cummings isn’t a world-beater but he is a tough out for a lot of welterweights, and his well-rounded game was something Dalby couldn’t get past. I must admit that it was a bit surprising that Dalby was outworked for much of the fight.
- Ian Entwistle’s style will end with him getting KO’d or submitting somebody with a leg lock. Alejandro Perez didn’t tap to any of the leg lock attempts, so he beat the crap out of Entwistle until he verbally submitted. Entwistle thought Perez had greased his legs, but that didn’t stop him from sticking to his usual plan up until it failed via Perez punching him in the face a lot. For what it’s worth, there’s no evidence that Perez’s legs were greased.
- Mairbek Taisumov is a scary scary man. He and newcomer Damir Hadzovic had a fun back-and-forth fight until Taisumov’s superior technique, athleticism, and power came through in a big way. Hadzovic was hurt by Taisumov’s right hands and then crumpled in a heap with a humongous uppercut that was set up behind the jab. Four straight KO/TKO wins for Mairbek. I think it’s time for a big step up in competition.
- Filip Pejic had zippo for Damian Stasiak. The Polish fighter had his way with the Croatian favorite, taking him down multiple times before getting full back mount and sinking in a rear-naked choke. A quality win for Stasiak.
- There was a Polish and Croatian translator on hand for Stasiak’s post-fight interview. I’m not sure I can ever recall two translators for two different languages being required for a UFC interview, but we saw this happen multiple times today.
- On the Fight Pass prelims, Bojan Velickovic got the unanimous decision nod over Alessio Di Chirico in a fairly entertaining fight. I thought Di Chirico should’ve gotten the nod but Velickovic took it, with one judge rather oddly giving him a 30-27. Jared Cannonier got the first finish of the night with a huge KO win vs. Cyril Asker. Definitely a late stoppage, as Asker was wrecked by the left hook and took too many elbows for my liking. Cannonier is likely headed for 205 in his next fight. Lucas Martins edged out Rob Whiteford by split decision in a bout that doesn’t need a 2nd sentence.