Tag: Opinion

Brian Ortega, Marlon Moraes Emerge as Top Contenders After UFC Fight Night 123

Two of the Octagon’s most intriguing young contenders both proved they are ready for prime time Saturday at UFC Fight Night 123.
Brian Ortega and Marlon Moraes each brought an exciting, highlight-reel finish to an otherwise decision-filled main card at…

Two of the Octagon’s most intriguing young contenders both proved they are ready for prime time Saturday at UFC Fight Night 123.

Brian Ortega and Marlon Moraes each brought an exciting, highlight-reel finish to an otherwise decision-filled main card at Save Mart Center in Fresno, California.

As the UFC picks up a bit of steam toward the end of its underwhelming 2017, Moraes should be closing in on a men’s bantamweight title shot. Meanwhile, Ortega may have significantly cut the line at men’s featherweight.

The 29-year-old Moraes needed a statement win and got one via first-round knockout of Aljamain Sterling.

 

As the former longtime 135-pound champion of World Series of Fighting, Moreas already enjoyed a significant amount of hype when he crossed over to the UFC at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, much of that sizzle dissipated when he dropped his Octagon debut to Raphael Assuncao via split decision at UFC 212 in June.

Moraes bounced back to defeat perennial top contender John Dodson via split verdict on Nov. 11, and less than a month later, he knocked out the well-regarded Sterling in just one minute, seven seconds.

Just like that, Moraes recaptured much of his earlier momentum.

The future of newly crowned bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw is unknown. After kickstarting his second title reign with a victory over archrival Cody Garbrandt at UFC 217 on Nov. 4, Dillashaw may be headed for a superfight against men’s flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson.

The particulars of that bout still need to be worked out, however. If it doesn’t happen—or if Dillashaw emerges from a tangle with Johnson with the 135-pound title still around his waist—he might find Moraes waiting for him.

During an 11-0 run in WSOF from 2012 to 2016, Moraes notched seven stoppages and built a reputation as one of the best bantamweights in the world. In his first two Octagon appearances, however, that finishing ability was conspicuously absent, and Moraes had begun to fade into the background of the crowded UFC roster.

His performance against Sterling provided the standout moment he needed to reassert himself as a dominant force.

Moraes landed a knee flush on the jaw of the 28-year-old New York native during the early stages of their bout, dropping Sterling to the mat in an instant Knockout of the Year candidate.

Sterling remained down for several minutes and was taken out of the cage on a stretcher. In the wake of that scary scene, coach Ray Longo told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani that Sterling was conscious and walking around backstage a few minutes later.

Longo said Sterling was taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons.

Meanwhile, Moraes had duly served notice to the rest of the 135-pound division.

“It’s so unbelievable when you train so hard for a fight and when you keep repeating the same thing over 10, 20, 30 times a day and it works in the fight,” Moraes said in a release. “In practice, we were always looking for the knees and the kicks.”

Ortega remained undefeated, advancing his overall record to 13-0-1 with a second-round guillotine choke victory over Cub Swanson in the evening’s main event.

It was Ortega’s fifth straight win in the UFC, all by impressive stoppages.

The 26-year-old Gracie jiu-jitsu product has steadily built himself into a modest star since his Octagon debut in July 2014. Aside from testing positive for a steroid in the wake of his first UFC appearance—originally a submission win over Mike De La Torre—he’s made all the right moves.

Saturday’s victory over Swanson was the biggest piece of the puzzle to date. It is believed former lightweight champ Frankie Edgar likely still has a date with 145-pound titleholder Max Holloway locked up after Edgar pulled out of a scheduled fight at UFC 218 because of injury.

Barring any unforeseen delays or injuries, Ortega could have the next one after Edgar.

 

The San Pedro, California, native has been a revelation, flashing some of the best submission skills in MMA and a stand-up game that seems to improve each time out. Against Swanson, the combination was good enough for Ortega to collect two of the UFC’s $50,000 performance bonuses—a fairly rare feat for a fighter in a single night.

It also netted him victory in his first UFC main event. Though Ortega came in on even standing with Swanson, according to Odds Shark, the win amounted to his highest-profile success in the Octagon.

It was a good time to make it look relatively easy.

Prior to this, Ortega had set a UFC record with four consecutive third-round finishes. Especially in his performances against Clay Guida and Diego Brandao, Ortega fell behind early before saving his undefeated record with late, comeback wins.

He didn’t need such last-minute heroics against Swanson.

The veteran fighter started well, bettering Ortega’s straight punches with looping power shots to the head and body. Ortega remained unfazed, however, and near the end of the first round caught Swanson in a D’Arce choke that might have finished the fight were Swanson not saved by the bell.

In the second, Ortega again ate some decent punches but forced a clinch against the fence and was able to secure a standing guillotine choke.

Swanson remained on his feet in an attempt to slip out of the submission. While hanging off the front of Swanson’s body with his arms around the man’s shoulders and neck, Ortega managed a beautiful adjustment to ratchet the hold tighter.

The 34-year-old finally succumbed and tapped out as the two crashed to the floor. His submission gave Ortega the victory at 3:22 of Round 2.

“He was in there trying to get in my head and he was landing some good shots,” Ortega said in a release. “I knew I just had to keep my cool and [not] go all-out. I was going to put the pace on him a little more in the third, but I’m happy it didn’t go that far.”

Holloway has been champion since unifying the titles with a third-round TKO of Jose Aldo at UFC 212. At UFC 218, he defeated Aldo—again by an impressive third-round stoppage—in their rematch.

Aldo came into that fight as a late injury replacement for Edgar. At least before Ortega’s impressive victory on Saturday, it was largely expected the champion would simply reschedule his date with Edgar some time early in 2018.

Ortega may now make that a more interesting decision for matchmakers. His undefeated record and deadly skill set give him the momentum, and after Saturday, he’s nabbed the attention of the UFC’s hardcore fanbase.

If not a title shot, Ortega could find himself in a No. 1 contender bout against Ricardo Lamas, provided Lamas is victorious over replacement opponent Josh Emmett at UFC on Fox 26.

Lamas was originally scheduled to take on Aldo in that bout before the Brazilian was pulled out to meet Holloway.

Regardless of what happens next for Ortega and Moraes, each man has established himself as a contender to watch in the new year.

As the UFC continues to search for new, marketable fighters to invest its significant resources in, that’s a good place to be moving forward.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Cub Swanson’s Career Gamble Backfires in Fresno

Not that long ago, the notion of a top-tier UFC fighter coming to the expiration of his contract was a silly one.
Fighters didn’t have much choice in the matter. After the death of PRIDE and then Strikeforce, the UFC had no competition. There was no pl…

Not that long ago, the notion of a top-tier UFC fighter coming to the expiration of his contract was a silly one.

Fighters didn’t have much choice in the matter. After the death of PRIDE and then Strikeforce, the UFC had no competition. There was no place for a fighter dissatisfied with his UFC tenure to go. Athletes mostly sucked it up and kept hoping for a breakthrough that would help catapult them into the land of riches and gold.

Times have changed. Fighters have seen that Scott Coker happens to be growing some mighty green grass over in Bellator, and it has given them options. They don’t think you are paid highly enough? Unhappy when you’re bypassed by lesser talents with bigger mouths? Fine. Fight out your contract, gamble on yourself and see where the chips fall. Do what Rory MacDonald and Ryan Bader and other former UFC stars have done.

You could win big. But you might lose big too.

Cub Swanson is the latest to allow himself to see the expiration of a UFC contract. Having negotiated with the UFC brass over the past six months, Swanson was unhappy with the offers being pushed across the table. And when the UFC opted to give Frankie Edgar a title shot over Swanson (likely because of Swanson’s refusal to sign a new contract), Swanson took the road less traveled.

Who could blame him? Swanson is 10-2 since 2012 and has long since become more than just the guy being double-kneed in the face in that World Extreme Cagefighting highlight.

Swanson went into his UFC Fight Night 123 bout against Brian Ortega with a gamble; with a big win, he would enter the free-agent market on a high, with multiple suitors likely attempting to wrest him away from the UFC.

He lost.

Swanson dominated him on the feet, peppering Ortega with gorgeous hooks to the body and powerful blows to the head. But Ortega discovered Swanson’s weakness at the end of the first round, nearly submitting Swanson with a D’Arce choke.

Slow-motion replays of the moment showed a clearly panicked Swanson, his eyes bulging, looking frantically for the arena clock above his head to see whether he had enough time to hold on and escape the round. He did.

But once Ortega grabbed him in the second round, pressing Swanson up against the cage, it was as good as over. T-City deftly wrapped Swanson in a guillotine, used his legs to press off the cage and hung off his opponent’s frame, applying ungodly pressure to his neck.

When Swanson tried to escape, Ortega quickly adjusted his grip to make it tighter—all without dropping from his position, hanging on Swanson’s body. With that adjustment, it was over; Swanson quickly tapped.

With the submission loss, Swanson loses an entire world of opportunity that was ripe for the taking. Bellator may still be interested in securing his services, but it will be at a far lower pay scale than it would have been had he won. And the UFC? Well, one can imagine Sean Shelby smugly grinning, at least internally; Swanson gave up his place in the driver’s seat.

If Swanson wants to stick around the UFC, he will have to do so on the UFC’s terms. And those terms are surely going to be far lower than the offers Swanson has already turned down.

This is another thing that separates mixed martial arts from every other sport. In other sports, athletes have entire seasons to make their contract-year statement. Fortunes are not usually decided in an instant. But that’s the way it goes in combat sports.

The advent of true mixed martial arts free agency is a great thing and a boon for the sport, its athletes and its fans. But it also leads to the sort of high-pressure, high-stakes scenario Swanson faced Saturday night. You can put your money where your mouth is and try to prove you are worth what you believe. More power to you; it is your right to do so.

But if that’s the route you take, you should understand that everything can backfire in the blink of an eye. And then, if you’re lucky, you will end up back where you started. But more likely, you will find yourself on a hill, trying to figure out a way just to get back to where you were before your big gamble failed to pay off.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Is This Submission Wizard a Future Star or Just the Luckiest Man in the UFC?

If any one fight is emblematic of Brian Ortega’s undefeated UFC run so far, it’s his submission victory over Diego Brandao at UFC 195 almost two years ago.
Against Brandao, Ortega went to the final round needing to make something happen. During the fir…

If any one fight is emblematic of Brian Ortega’s undefeated UFC run so far, it’s his submission victory over Diego Brandao at UFC 195 almost two years ago.

Against Brandao, Ortega went to the final round needing to make something happen. During the first two periods, the more seasoned Brandao had landed the harder shots on the feet and scored some timely takedowns, all without slowing down as much as Ortega and his team had hoped he might.

As the third stanza began, it appeared the 30-year-old Brazilian was about to hand Ortega his first professional loss.

“You ready for a takedown or what?” cornerman Rener Gracie had asked Ortega between rounds. “You got one for me? He’s up two [rounds] on the cards right now, so we have to put him down.”

Ortega responded by pulling off what would soon become his calling card inside the Octagon—a late, come-from-behind victory.

After initiating a clinch near the fence with just over a minute gone in the final period, Ortega seized Brandao’s neck with an arm-in choke attempt. As Brandao dropped to the mat to escape, Ortega transitioned to a mounted guillotine and then into a triangle choke that forced Brandao to tap out.

It was a beautiful display of jiu-jitsu—the other thing that has been Ortega’s constant—and it allowed him to transform a near-certain defeat into a highlight-reel victory.

This wouldn’t be the last time, either.

As he approaches Saturday’s main event fight against Cub Swanson at UFC Fight Night 123, Ortega’s penchant for the dramatic has already proved historic. Simply put, he’s never out of a fight, and his four consecutive third-round finishes stand as the most of all time in the UFC.

Coupled with his otherworldly Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills and aggressive, evolving striking game, Ortega’s walk-off wins have made him a hot prospect in the men’s featherweight division. A win this weekend over Swanson—the weight class’ No. 4-ranked contender—could put him just a fight or two away from challenging new champion Max Holloway for the title.

Yet, Ortega’s pattern of last-minute heroics also raises questions about his long-term future as an elite 145-pounder. After all, you can’t have a bunch of dramatic comeback wins if you don’t consistently fall behind in your fights.

Is Ortega really as good as his sterling 12-0-1 record suggests? Or has he just gotten lucky?

Since debuting on the big stage in 2014, the flashy Gracie jiu-jitsu black belt has steadily proved he’s most dangerous when things look worst for him. The only bump in the road so far has been a July 2014 win over Mike De La Torre, which was later converted to a no-contest after Ortega tested positive for a steroid.

Otherwise, his record has been flawless, though he certainly hasn’t made it easy on himself.

Before Brandao, Ortega defeated Thiago Tavares via third-round TKO in a bloody, back-and-forth fight that earned both men $50,000 performance-based bonuses.

After Brandao, he stunned Clay Guida with a crushing knee to the face just 20 seconds before the final horn in a fight Guida was on the verge of winning.

In his most recent performance, Ortega conceded a rough second round to ninth-ranked Renato Moicano before roaring back to win via guillotine choke three minutes into the third.

Each time, the specter of a loss loomed until Ortega snuffed it out with a late finish. Has there been some good fortune involved in that streak? Sure.

Yet a closer look at the 26-year-old California native’s recent performances reveals there’s far more going on than just luck. Take a few minutes to learn about his background and it’s clear to see Ortega’s success is more about hard work than pure chance:

So far, Ortega has been well-conditioned and relentless in pursuit of victory. Those are pretty good qualities to have if you’re planning on setting up shop in the featherweight title picture.

“I go in there to kill,” Ortega said, just before the Moicano fight, via MMAjunkie’s Steven Marrocco and Ken Hathaway. “That’s all it means. I fight to the end.”

Ortega’s advanced skills are obvious. He’s light on his feet and athletic with his striking, sticking mostly to tight, straight punches but unafraid to mix in some spinning kicks and elbows when he’s feeling it. On the ground, he’s one of the most dangerous fighters in all of MMA, possessing an active offensive guard that makes even sturdy professionals nervous to tangle with him on the mat.

On top of that, Ortega has gotten some really good coaching, especially during his fights.

Against Guida, for example, Gracie told Ortega in the corner after the first round that Guida was lowering his head during their striking exchanges. Two rounds later, Guida tried to slip a barrage of punches from Ortega when he ducked right into the knee that ended the fight.

When things started out rocky against Brandao, his corner reminded Ortega the game plan was to drag the former Ultimate Fighter into the deep water of the late rounds. That’s what Ortega did, ultimately chaining together chokes until he got the finish in the third.

“Pretty much every time I train with the Gracie brothers, they’re just like blankets over me so I just did the same thing,” Ortega told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan in the cage after the Brandao win. “It’s something we train every day at the Gracie Academy. We go from choke to choke to choke to choke. You think you’re out of the fire, but you’re not.”

So more than sheer serendipity, you can chalk Ortega’s four straight third-round finishes up to his aggressive nature, his solid cardio and his talented team of coaches.

All the same, if his habit of being a slow starter is ever going to come back to haunt him, it could well be this weekend against Swanson.

The bottom line is nobody gets lucky against Cub Swanson. If Ortega wants to solidify himself as a legitimate title contender at 145 pounds, beating the longtime Team Jackson-Winkeljohn trained fighter will do the trick.

In recent fights, however, Swanson has proved a difficult out for up-and-coming UFC stars. His December 2016 fight against Doo Ho Choi followed much the same narrative as the Ortega matchup—seeming as though the fight company wanted to get the 26-year-old Choi a win over a recognizable Octagon veteran.

Swanson wasn’t having those plans, however, and defeated Choi by unanimous decision. He followed that win up by beating Artem Lobov in April 2017, making it four straight wins for him since back-to-back losses to Frankie Edgar and Holloway in 2014 and ’15.

Swanson doesn’t shape up as the kind of guy Ortega can fall behind to early, though the fact their bout is a five-round main event changes the dynamic a bit.

It means both guys will have ample opportunity to show what they’re made of.

For Swanson, that will require proving all over again that he’s nobody’s stepping stone.

For Ortega, a win here would prove he’s a lot more than just lucky.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

The Greatest 155-Pounder in MMA History Isn’t Who You Think He Is

The title of “Most Violent Man” in the UFC has been settled.
UFC 218 saw to that.
In a memorable lightweight brawl last Saturday, Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gaethje did their part to stake claim to the title. After nearly 15 minutes of blood spilled and …

The title of “Most Violent Man” in the UFC has been settled.

UFC 218 saw to that.

In a memorable lightweight brawl last Saturday, Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gaethje did their part to stake claim to the title. After nearly 15 minutes of blood spilled and guts displayed, it was Alvarez who landed a crushing finishing blow.

The Most Violent Man in the UFC, he unofficially was.

What was perhaps less evident in that moment, in the sultry afterglow that only rocket-fuelled violence can often provide, was that Alvarez has just earned another title for himself: the greatest 155-pounder in MMA history.

The one they’ve long called The Underground King was underground no more, on the top of the heap among his contemporaries in MMA’s deepest class.

A 14-year pro career has revealed things about Alvarez that MMA commoners can only dream of. He opened with 10 straight wins across nearly four years, then five more wins in the following year. By 15-1 he was Mixed Fight Championship welterweight champion and had already moved on to Japan to begin conquering the world at lightweight.

After losing to Shinya Aoki back when that was nothing to be ashamed of, Alvarez jumped to Bellator—where he would truly make his name with the North American audience—and went on a seven-fight win streak.

He stopped former UFC stalwarts Josh Neer and Roger Huerta not long after becoming Bellator lightweight champion by winning the promotion’s Season 1 tournament. As one of the most respected athletes not fighting in the UFC, he defended his title against Michael Chandler.

That loss did nothing to diminish that respect, as he wildly slugged it out with Chandler for four rounds before finally succumbing to a rear-naked choke in what many felt was the 2011 Fight of the Year.

His response to the loss?

Avenging the loss to Aoki with a TKO, stopping Patricky Freire with a first-round head kick, then beating Chandler in another sadistic slugfest that many picked as the Fight of the Year in 2013.

After losing his UFC debut to Donald Cerrone at UFC 178, Alvarez proceeded to go on one of the greatest runs in lightweight history. He beat former Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez, former WEC champion Anthony Pettis and then-UFC champion Rafael Dos Anjos in succession, reaching the apex of his sport and setting himself up for a fight with Conor McGregor.

Though he lost to McGregor, the rub from the Irish star surely helped Alvarez as a sellable face for the UFC. His willingness to talk a little trash and engage in back-and-forth banter with McGregor allowed people to see his personality, and the pay cheque he received as being part of the promotion’s first foray into New York City would be life-changing for anyone.

But Alvarez remained true to what got him there.

Before it was called off due to an illegal knee, his fight with Dustin Poirier at UFC 211 in May was shaping up to be the type of pandemonium the sport has come to expect when Alvarez makes the walk.

His win over Gaethje—another success over an unbeaten champion of a rival organization—was all that and more: a blend of the excitement that has made Alvarez an unmissable viewing commitment and the evolution of a fighter who still has some new tricks up his sleeve.

Now the sport sits in an eerie calm after UFC 218, waiting for the next fight or the next fighter to shake it to its core.

So in that calm, consider this: No one has done the things Alvarez has done.

He’s beaten former or current lightweight champions in no fewer than six different organizations and has fought from Jersey to Japan to Cleveland to Canada to Dallas to Detroit. In 35 fights, only five men have beaten him and only six have survived to hear the final bell when he’s won.

At his best, who could honestly claim to be better? Benson Henderson? BJ Penn? Takanori Gomi?

Perhaps. But Alvarez has a resume to match any of them, and has shown time and again that his skill level matches up with anyone in the sport.

He proved it with certainty in his latest performance.

Most violent man in the UFC?

Hard to argue that.

Best 155er to ever do it?

Even harder.

      

Follow me on Twitter @matthewjryder!

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Francis Ngannou vs. Stipe Miocic Is Dream Matchup for UFC Heavyweight Title

Francis Ngannou’s thunderous, one-punch knockout of Alistair Overeem Saturday at UFC 218 was instantly the stuff of legend.
If you happen to be another fighter in the UFC’s heavyweight division?
Perhaps it was also the stuff of nightmares.
Ngannou didn…

Francis Ngannou’s thunderous, one-punch knockout of Alistair Overeem Saturday at UFC 218 was instantly the stuff of legend.

If you happen to be another fighter in the UFC’s heavyweight division?

Perhaps it was also the stuff of nightmares.

Ngannou didn’t just wrap-up the next shot at Stipe Miocic’s 265-pound title when he cold-cocked Overeem one minute and 42 seconds into the first round of their co-main event fight in Detroit. He put every other heavyweight on the planet on notice.

And a forthcoming matchup between Miocic and Ngannou for the UFC heavyweight title? 

Well, that’s the sort of dream fight we seldom get in the fight company’s most troublesome weight class.

“Tell Stipe that I am coming,” Ngannou said after dispatching Overeem, via an official UFC release. “I am on my way to collect my belt. I thank him for keeping it for me, but that time is over. That is my belt.”

We have never seen anybody do Overeem quite like Ngannou did. Not that fast. Not that violently.

After extending his record inside the Octagon to 6-0—all of them first- or second-round stoppages—it’s clear we have never seen a heavyweight quite like Ngannou, either.

The 31-year-old’s blend of size, speed, strength and smarts make him a singular figure in the UFC landscape. So does his life story. In just four years as a professional fighter, he’s pulled himself out of poverty and homelessness to the brink of stardom.

The promotion is taking notice.

UFC President Dana White confirmed at the post-fight press conference that Ngannou was the new No. 1 contender for Miocic’s title. White said he would like to schedule that championship bout as quickly as possible, certainly before the middle of 2018. Perhaps as early as UFC 220 in Boston on Jan. 20.

At least on paper, a fight between Miocic and Ngannou shapes up as one of the greatest heavyweight title tiffs in UFC history. While jetting to five straight wins and taking the championship from Fabricio Werdum in May 2016, Miocic has been a stabilizing figure in a division historically plagued by unpredictability and unforeseen mishaps.

As arguably the two most athletic heavyweights on the roster, both in their primes and both possessing powerful, strike-first attitudes, a matchup between Ngannou and Miocic should be enough to get hardcore MMA fans salivating. It’s just the sort of pairing the heavyweight division should frequently muster but seldom does.

In spite of Ngannou’s impressive victory over Overeem, White stopped well short of prematurely anointing him the future champion.

“Stipe is fast, he’s agile, he’s a great athlete,” White said at his press conference Saturday. “Francis is bigger. He’s not as fast as Stipe, but he hits very hard. It’s a very fun matchup. Francis Ngannou is special. And Stipe? He’s very fast, and he has knockout power.”

If there is anything that could temper excitement for the bout, perhaps it’s the champion’s contract situation.

Miocic has been out of action since a victory over Junior dos Santos at UFC 211 in May. The typically mild-mannered fighter admitted some frustration with the structure of his existing UFC deal, which paid him less than his challengers in his two previous title defenses, according to MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani.

Helwani also noted, however, that talks between Miocic’s team and UFC were going well and that the champion hoped to fight again during the first quarter of 2018.

Now we know Ngannou will be waiting for him.

Each of the fast-rising contender’s four most recent fights has ended in under two minutes. The past two—knockouts of Overeem and former champion Andrei Arlovski—set him apart from the small group of heavyweights hoping to score the next title shot.

After a lengthy break between those two bouts, Ngannou also said he will be ready to get back to action as quickly as possible.

“I’m injury free, so I’m ready to go,” he said at the presser. “I’ve been out for a long time, like 10 months [before Overeem], and now I want to go [fight].”

He made it look easy against Overeem.

Like Arlovski before him, the 37-year-old striking specialist was supposed to be the stiffest test of Ngannou’s career. Though Overeem came in as the underdog, according to OddsShark, his nearly two decades of experience and 59 previous MMA fights gave him a massive advantage in experience.

Analysts thought if Overeem could avoid the early knockout and start to put a game plan together, his depth of skill might be too much for the comparative upstart Ngannou.

But avoiding Ngannou’s power shots is proving much easier said than done.

After firing off a quick opening attack to begin the fight, Overeem tried to surprise Ngannou with an early takedown. When that was stuffed, he tried to back Ngannou into the fence but immediately saw the position reversed.

After a referee restart and a short feeling-out process, Ngannou ended the bout with a single massive punch.

Following the opening salvo, Overeem appeared to want to pace himself and perhaps play a defensive game. The one time he ventured forward with an attack, Ngannou shut out his lights.

A looping left hand that missed its mark left Overeem in an awkward position. As he tried to straighten up, Ngannou blasted him with a scooping left-hand that knocked Overeem out cold.

It momentarily made for a scary scene, with Overeem prone on the canvas being attended to by ringside doctors. In a few minutes, however, Overeem was able to get up and congratulate Ngannou before the particulars of the stoppage were announced to the crowd.

He later tweeted he had suffered no damage:

For Ngannou, it was just the performance needed to assume control of the next UFC heavyweight title shot. Possessing both the skill and the look of a future star, he is taking shape as an important figure in a weight class that badly needs some exciting new blood.

If Miocic vs. Ngannou can come off with the speed everyone wants it to, it could be one of the biggest attractions of early 2018 for the UFC.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

With Win at UFC 218, Max Holloway Proves It’s His Era in Featherweight Division

In terms of pure skill and technical wizardry, Friday night’s fight between Nicco Montano and Roxanne Modafferi was possibly the worst title bout in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. But at least the card itself improved on the previou…

In terms of pure skill and technical wizardry, Friday night’s fight between Nicco Montano and Roxanne Modafferi was possibly the worst title bout in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. But at least the card itself improved on the previous weekend’s atrocious Shanghai offering; that was an event so terrible it was nearly unanimously declared one of the worst, and most insufferable, in promotional history.

Thankfully, Saturday’s UFC 218 in Detroit was the opposite.

On both counts.

And then some.

Mere hours after Yancy Medeiros defeated Alex Oliveira in one of the greatest fights we’ve ever seen, Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gaethje topped it by upping the violence quota in a third-round TKO victory for Alvarez. Oh, and Francis Ngannou sent Alistair Overeem rocketing from this mortal coil with one of the most brutal knockouts in UFC history.

And then Jose Aldo and Max Holloway capped off a scintillating evening of violence with a fight that was both predictable and the official changing of the featherweight guard.

Thanks to a third-round TKO, Holloway retained his 145-pound title in much the same way he wrested control from Aldo in the first place: by luring him into a sprinting, pace-laden brawl that the former pound-for-pound great could not maintain. It’s not that Aldo is not a great fighter. The former champion might still be one of the best featherweights on the planet and capable of beating the best the division has to offer on any night.

It’s just that Holloway is the future and the present.

Aldo couldn’t keep up. His trademark leg kicks were there, wobbling Holloway upon landing. His staunch defense and his excellent head movement were there. But his gas tank wasn’t. He faded quickly upon the beginning of the third round. Holloway, a man built for such moments, swarmed. One gets the feeling while watching Holloway do his brand of work that the Hawaiian doesn’t start kicking things into a higher gear until the third round begins; Aldo had nothing left in his reserve tank. Holloway overwhelmed him.

UFC commentator Joe Rogan was quick in his attempt to anoint Holloway as the greatest featherweight in the history of the sport. Such a notion is absurd. Aldo reigned as the divisional champion for years across the changing landscapes of two separate mixed martial arts promotions.

Aldo won the WEC featherweight championship in 2009 and defended it even as it became the UFC featherweight championship. Aldo essentially ended the contending careers of multiple fighters, including Mike Brown and Urijah Faber. Counting both WEC and UFC, he defended that championship nine times.

To his credit, Holloway instantly shut down Rogan’s fawning by noting he has a long way to go before he can assume the mantle of the best ever.

“At the end of the day, it is what it is! All due respect to Aldo. He is a hell of a technician, but this is the blessed era,” Holloway told Rogan after the fight. “This is something new. He kicks very hard, but I think we passed the test.”

These are all true statements.

What is also true is this: Holloway has ended Aldo’s time on top of the featherweight division, and a changing of the guard has indeed taken place.

Here is another true statement: It is hard to look at the featherweight landscape and imagine anyone with the style and vigor to put an end to Holloway’s reign. Frankie Edgar was supposed to be in Detroit on Saturday, standing there where Aldo stood, but he was forced to pull out due to a facial injury. I can’t say I’d have given the Jersey native a better chance than Aldo had. Ricardo Lamas? Cub Swanson? Brian Ortega? None of them would’ve given me much confidence in an upset.

“All of these guys are cupcakes, and I love cupcakes,” Holloway said in the post-fight interview. “I look forward to the new flavor, but I’m going to eat them all.”

Dessert references aside, Holloway’s sublime, darting, dashing style makes it all the more sad that we’ll never see the one fight that truly offers any kind of intrigue: a bout against former champion Conor McGregor. The Irishman already owns a win over Holloway, but it was so long ago and against such a different Holloway that we’d go into the fight labeling it a toss-up.

But McGregor will never return to featherweight, if he returns to the UFC at all. Which means Holloway will likely line up next against Edgar, and then perhaps Swanson (if he can come to terms on a new contract with the UFC).

And all of that means Holloway will likely keep that big gold belt sitting around his waist for a long time.

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