While looking through the lense of hindsight, it’s almost impossible to imagine how Paige VanZant was ever listed as a 2-to-1 favorite over Rose Namajunas heading into their Fight Night 80 main event. Yet she was, and we can only imagine that a lot of people made some money off a rare miss by the Vegas bookies.
Over the course of five rounds, our girl Rose utterly dismantled VanZant in every department. Her striking was impeccably crisp, her takedowns came at will, and her submissions were what ultimately won her the day. Vanzant looked completely outmatched from start to finish, repeatedly latching onto to hapless headlock throws THAT NO FIGHTER SHOULD EVER ATTEMPT AGAIN. But what she lacked in polish, VanZant more than made up in grit. On multiple occasions throughout the fight, a bloodied and battered Vanzant appeared to be caught in what any logical person would consider a fight-ending submission — first it was a rear-naked choke, then an armbar so brutal that it may have rearranged her DNA — but not once did she stop pressing forward and throwing nything she could think of at her clearly superior opponent. So on this day, we raise a glass to both competitors and say, congratulations on one epic goddamn war.
But the main event wasn’t the only fight that delivered, so head after the jump for a full list of Fight Night 80 results.
In the co-main event of the evening, TUF Live winner Michael Chiesa took on the always game veteran Jim Miller in a back-and-forth banger so sweet that it managed to snatch “Fight of the Night” awards away from Namajunas vs. VanZant. Sadly, it’s starting to look like the younger of the Miller brothers is also starting to lose a little pep in his step, and worse, he’s more vulnerable to the submission than he’s ever been in his career. Given, he’s only been submitted three times in the past three years (well, two if we exclude the Healy fight) and only by insanely talented grapplers, but it’s kind of like how Dan Henderson went from an iron-jawed beast to a guy who gets shut down the first time he’s hit almost every fight.
In any case, enjoy these Chiesa-Miller highlights set to some blasting EDM, because the UFC is too cheap to provide embeddable highlights for their Fight Pass Events.
Finally on the highlight front, here’s Sage Northcutt‘s finish of Cody Pfister in the second round of their main card scrap. Oh, you hadn’t predicted that Sage Northcutt would beat a guy whose last name is Pfister and whose nickname is “The Pfist”? You silly, silly sonofabitch, you.
The complete Fight Night 80 results are below.
Main card
Rose Namajunas def. Paige VanZant via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:25 of R5
Michael Chiesa def. Jim Miller via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:57 of R2
Sage Northcutt def. Cody Pfister via submission (guillotine) at :41 of R2
Thiago Santos def. Elias Theodorou via unanimous decision
Undercard
Tim Means def. John Howard via KO (left hook) at :21 of R2
Omari Akhmedov def. Sergio Moraes via TKO (punches) at 2:18 of R3
Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Kevin Casey ends in no contest (eye poke) at :11 of R1
Aljamain Sterling def. Johnny Eduardo via submission (guillotine) at 4:18 of R2
Santiago Ponzinibbio def. Andreas Stahl via TKO (punches) at 4:25 of R1
Danny Roberts def. Nathan Coy via submission (triangle) at 2:46 of R1
Zubaira Tukhugov def. Phillipe Nover via split decision
Kailin Curran def. Emily Kagan via submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:13 of R2
The post Fight Night 80 Highlights/Results: Namajunas Dominates VanZant, Chiesa & Northcutt Notch Submission Wins + More appeared first on Cagepotato.