Jairzinho Rozenstruik may find himself back in the top-10 of the UFC’s heavyweight rankings come next week, but the story after his win doesn’t come from his performance, but that of one judge’s scorecard. Rozenstruik pieced up Tai Tuivasa in their UFC 305 encounter, being technical with his striking and doing serious damage. Tuivasa hurt […]
Jairzinho Rozenstruik may find himself back in the top-10 of the UFC’s heavyweight rankings come next week, but the story after his win doesn’t come from his performance, but that of one judge’s scorecard.
Rozenstruik pieced up Tai Tuivasa in their UFC 305 encounter, being technical with his striking and doing serious damage. Tuivasa hurt his leg with a leg check in the second round, and Rozenstruik nearly finished with a couple of flurries in the round.
But while one judge saw the fight 29-28 Rozenstruik, and another 30-27 Rozenstruik, a third judge, Howie Booth, scored every round for Tuivasa — despite unanimous agreement from MMA media and MMA fans that Rozenstruik won rounds two and three.
MMA Fans And Media Blast Judge Who Awarded Tai Tuivasa A 30-27 Card Despite Being Dominated By Jairzinho Rozenstruik
Howie Booth can retire early tonight. Don’t need someone that inept judging fights. They gotta look into that guy and see if he has some money on Tui. Ain’t no way he won that. None. Gtfo. #UFC305
Rozenstruik has now won three of his last four fights.
Tuivasa, meanwhile, has dropped five straight.
UPDATE: The judge who scored the fight for Tuivasa has been relieved of his duties for the rest of the night.
Howie Booth, who had Tuivasa winning 3-0, was scheduled to work co-main event between Kara-France and Erceg, but I have been told he has been PULLED from the bout. He’s done for the night. #UFC305
On Saturday night, the mixed martial arts leader returned for its latest pay-per-view event, UFC 305. For the first time this year, the UFC was Down Under this week, where Perth’s RAC Arena played host to the promotion’s latest Australian show. And the promotion brought with it across the globe a notable lineup that included a title […]
On Saturday night, the mixed martial arts leader returned for its latest pay-per-view event, UFC 305.
For the first time this year, the UFC was Down Under this week, where Perth’s RAC Arena played host to the promotion’s latest Australian show. And the promotion brought with it across the globe a notable lineup that included a title fight and a host of intriguing undercard scraps.
The championship clash at the top of the billing saw Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya’s heated feud finally reach the the Octagon, with the South African’s middleweight belt on the line seven months on from his crowning at the expense of Sean Strickland in “The Great White North.”
Elsewhere, former flyweight title challengers Kai Kara-France and Steve Erceg looked to stake their claims for a second shot at UFC gold in the co-main event, while Oceanic fan favorites Dan Hooker and Tai Tuivasa also hoped to deliver standout triumphs on the main card.
But did all those names come together to put on an entertaining night of fights? Let’s find out with all the positives and negatives from UFC 305.
Jesus Aguilar has two hobbies (among other things, I’m sure. Perhaps he’s partial to some ballroom dancing. Who knows?) — fighting Australians and locking in guillotine chokes. Combining them must have been like Christmas at UFC 305.
The Mexican entered the cage as an underdog for the first fight of the night in Perth, which many expected to be a coming out party for Australia’s newest hot prospect, the previously undefeated Stewart Nicoll.
But the 29-year-old fell to the same fate as his fellow countryman Shannon Ross did at UFC 290 in July 2023 — being left unconscious in the very first round.
In Las Vegas last year, Ross was absolutely obliterated on the feet by Aguilar in just 17 seconds in one of 2023’s most brutal knockouts. Nicoll’s demise came on the ground when he had his strong start rendered null after getting caught in Aguilar’s favorite submission move. The Mexican was, indeed, not silly. When the opportunity presented itself, he jumped the gilly and put Nicoll out — not that anybody bar Aguilar actually noticed.
That left a scary visual of the Aussie wide-eyed as his sleeping body fell back. On another note, could the referee not have maybe caught his head as it thundered onto the canvas? It feels like we regularly see superhero saves from officials in Muay Thai fights over in Asia, but on this occasion, it looked like the ref practically dodged Nicoll’s head.
Regardless, the finish was incredibly impressive from Aguilar, who now has five guillotines out of his six fight-ending chokes.
Accept a bout with Aguilar at your peril, Australian flyweights!
Negative – What One Burns Can Do, The Other Burns… Well, Can’t
With the watering down of the UFC product, there’s been quite a few instances of fighters entering the cage this year who simply aren’t of a sufficient quality to be competing on the sport’s biggest stage.
Herbert Burns, however, is a veteran of that group.
It’s fascinating to watch back Burns’ knockout of Nate Landwehr in 2020. I try not to buy into ‘fluke’ narratives, but that is a compelling one. Since then, the Brazilian has lost four straight by TKO, two of which have been the same type of retirement.
Against both Bill Algeo in 2022 and Jack Jenkins on Saturday night, “The Blaze” — an apt moniker for someone whose UFC career has gone up in smoke — responded to adversity by attempting to pull guard and collapsing to his back when desperation takedowns failed.
After a while of doing so in both instances, Keith Peterson and Marc Goddard waved the bouts off. With the memory of the Algeo fight growing ever clearer as Burns’ UFC 305 bout played out, I remarked to colleagues, “He’ll do it (fall to his back) enough times until Goddard stops it.” Like clockwork.
You know it’s bad when your brother’s own podcast is flaming you on social media, before hastily deleting…
Of course, credit has to go to Jenkins for his performance on home soil. Regardless of the opposition level, “Phar” looked on it in the striking realm. But his crisp boxing wasn’t enough to override the negative that is Burns’ latest disastrous display inside the Octagon.
Negative – A Mess
Well, the UFC 305 featured prelim when swimmingly, didn’t it?
The fight’s conclusion came after the Brazilian clutched onto his Aussie counterpart’s leg and locked in a heel hook. Things suddenly came to an end, with replays showing that Tafa had yelled out in pain. That stoppage ended up being controversial, not because it was wrong, but because the sport’s leading promotion employs commentators who don’t know the ruleset of what they’re tasked with describing to a global audience.
It’s remarkable to say, but we had two legendary former champions, Daniel Cormier and Dominick Cruz, questioning the third man inside the cage. The latter — who never shies away from using his agenda against Keith Peterson to slam referees — even went as far as to group the moment with instances of fighters having their chance to compete cruelly taken away.
Guys…Read. The. Rules.
Verbal tap out: When a contestant verbally announces to the referee that he or she does not wish to continue or makes audible sounds such as screams indicating pain or discomfort.
The fact we had to sit through five minutes of doubting the referee’s decision before texts from those better informed arrived to save the day is yet further evidence as to why Laura Sanko needs to be a permanent fixture on the commentary desk.
#UFC305 Official Result: Valter Walker defeats Junior Tafa by Technical Submission at 4:56 in Round 1.
An unhappy Tafa responded by butting heads with Walker before slapping him. The UFC has been pretty inconsistent when it comes with dealing with similar instances — Khabib Nurmagomedov continued his title reign post-instigating the UFC 229 brawl, while Paul Daley was cut and forever ousted from the promotion for his sucker punch against Josh Koscheck at UFC 113.
What happens next in the career of Tafa remains to be seen, but a release shouldn’t be out of the question.
Positive – Nightmare? I’ll Say
The welterweight division always seems to have one major prospect establishing himself as one to watch, with recent years seeing Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Garry following successful arrivals with climbs into title contention.
All signs point toward Carlos Prates joining them soon enough.
There aren’t enough superlatives to do justice to the Brazilian’s performance. He became the first man to knock out Li Jingliang, but his display was by no means defined by a sudden fight-ending sequence. Prates frankly beat “The Leech” up for the best part of nine minutes.
That’s evidently what it was going to take to get the returning Chinese fighter out of there — soften up what’s long been an iron chin with knockdown after knockdown, before uncorking one of the most clubbing hooks in recent memory to finish the job.
Add Prates to the list of, “Oh, he’s on the card? Hell yeah,” fighters in the UFC.
Considering I’m often leaping to the defense of judges, who frequently come under fire from individuals with no concept of how mixed martial arts fights are scored, it feels good to be able to grab a pitchfork this time around.
“Bigi Boy” was clinical with his performance, piecing Tuivasa up while avoiding virtually all of the home favorite’s power shots. Judge Howie Booth, however, must have gotten the red and blue corners confused because it’s hard to see any other explanation for his work at UFC 305.
Thankfully, he was relieved from his duties for the rest of the night (not that it mattered anyway given how the co-main event finished…more on that soon). But, to be honest, that scorecard is so bad that Howie probably shouldn’t be with scorecard in hand ever again.
Even hours later, I’m still trying to recall a scorecard that even comes close. Chris Lee’s 48-47 in favor of Paul Felder over Rafael dos Anjos, perhaps?
It’s 2024 and Dan Hooker is in the lightweight top five (or at least should be come next week’s update). Redemption arcs don’t come much better than that.
Hooker entered the cage at UFC 305 with an almighty task ahead of him, getting his wish to feature on the card granted in the form of a showdown with the highly regarded Mateusz Gamrot. Be it odds, fans, or analysts, basically every metric had “The Hangman” falling short to the smothering grappling of “Gamer.”
Round one saw both men exchange knockdowns, before the second frame was more a tail of the Polish fighter’s control versus Hooker’s strikes while defending Gamrot’s wrestling. And the concluding stanza was just a war that can be summed up by two-and-a-half minutes of striking success each.
Judge that.
Two cageside scorers ultimately leant the way of “The Hangman,” and with that he’s rendered the 1-4 run he entered UFC 281 in 2022 riding a distance memory. And with three straight wins and a triumph over a name like Gamrot, he is well and truly back in the mix.
If Dustin Poirier is looking for one last hurrah…rematch, anyone?
He wants it ALL! @DanTheHangman is talkin' his talk after beating Mateusz Gamrot at #UFC305!
Speaking of underdogs who made a mockery of their betting lines…
Steve Erceg was perhaps one or two ill-advised takedowns away from a shock title win in Brazil this past May. And his efforts left many heavily favoring him to bounce back at the expense of the returning Kai Kara-France at UFC 305.
But in the words of the New Zealander’s teammate Israel Adesanya, “Y’all must have forgot.”
With Kai Asakura’s signing and Kara-France’s emphatic performance on Saturday night, Alexandre Pantoja isn’t short on possible challenges. And with that, the flyweight division remains among the most exciting, and one in which you absolutely should not blink.
it always seemed unlikely that the UFC 305 main event would disappoint. It was just always going to deliver, wasn’t it? But even so, what we got in Perth was special.
Add in a bit of a feud, the story of Adesanya’s return, and Du Plessis’ continued habit of proving his sizable group of doubters wrong, and you’ve got all the ingredients for a Fight of the Year contender.
Through three rounds, I had the champ leading 29-28, but that was by no means a clear and easy score. As has been the case with the South African in the past, the tale was his power shorts versus his opponents’ volume. In the end, after that had already put him up on the scorecards, “Stillknocks” connected hard in a fourth frame that had been all Adesanya, eventually putting him down and locking in a rear-naked choke.
The positives here are all around, from the entertaining nature of the fight to the pair’s respectful exchange in the Octagon in the aftermath to Adesanya’s humble approach to another setback.
Du Plessis, of course, deserves the main plaudits. He is beginning to amass a largely unrivaled résumé in the UFC, with his 8-0 record including a knockout of Robert Whittaker and the feat of being the first to submit another all-time great in “The Last Stylebender.”
The top stars set to be in action at UFC 305 this weekend took to the stage on Thursday for the open workouts in Perth. Mixed martial arts’ leading promotion is Down Under for the first time this year, returning to Perth, Australia, 18 months on from the Alexander Volkanovski-headlined UFC 284 event in February […]
While that occasion saw the lightweight gold on the line, championship stakes on August 17 will come at middleweight, with reigning kingpin Dricus Du Plessis putting his belt on the line for the first time against Oceania’s own Israel Adesanya.
Elsewhere on the main card, fan favorite Dan Hooker gets the chance to climb into the top five at 155 pounds by stalling the title ambitions of Mateusz Gamrot, hard-hitting Aussie Tai Tuivasa throws down with Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and “The Leech” Li Jingliang makes his comeback opposite the fast-charging Carlos Prates.
The event will be available exclusively on ESPN+ pay-per-view on Saturday, August 17, 2024. The main card begins at 10 PM ET, while the preliminary card kicks off at 6 PM ET.
Ahead of it, a number of UFC 305 fighters appeared for the open workouts at the Crown Nightclub in Perth Works on Thursday. You can check out a selection of highlights from the various workouts below:
UFC 305 takes place tomorrow night, and MMA News is here to bring you the official weigh-in results! For the first time in 2024, the Octagon is Down Under, with the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia, playing host to the promotion’s latest pay-per-view event. And the mixed martial arts leader has brought a lineup worthy of […]
The championship clash at the top of the card will see Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya’s heated feud finally reach the steel surroundings of the Octagon, with the South African’s middleweight title on the line.
UFC 305 takes place Saturday, August 17 (August 18 local time) at the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia. The main card begins at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT, with the preliminary card starting at 6:30 PM ET/3:30 PM PT.
See above for a replay of the UFC 305 Weigh-In Show, and check out the full results below!
Main Card:
Middleweight Championship Main Event: Dricus Du Plessis (185lbs) vs. Israel Adesanya (184lbs)
Flyweight Co-Main Event: Kai Kara-France (125lbs) vs. Steve Erceg (125.5lbs)
Lightweight: Mateusz Gamrot (156lbs) vs. Dan Hooker (155.5lbs)
Heavyweight: Tai Tuivasa (265lbs) vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik (259lbs)
Welterweight: Li Jingliang (171lbs) vs. Carlos Prates (170lbs)
Preliminary Card:
Heavyweight: Junior Tafa (244lbs) vs. Valter Walker (252lbs)
Featherweight: Joshua Culibao (146lbs) vs. Ricardo Ramos (145.5lbs)
Women’s Flyweight: Casey O’Neill (125.5lbs) vs. Luana Santos (126lbs)
Featherweight: Jack Jenkins (145.5lbs) vs. Herbert Burns (146lbs)
Early Preliminary Card:
Lightweight: Tom Nolan (155.5lbs) vs. Alex Reyes (156lbs)
Welterweight: Song Kenan (171lbs) vs. Ricky Glenn (171lbs)
Flyweight: Stewart Nicoll (126lbs) vs. Jesus Aguilar (127.5lbs)*
*Jesus Aguilar missed the flyweight limit by 1.5 pounds, fight status TBC
UFC 305 takes place on Saturday night, and MMA News is here to bring you the final faceoffs from the ceremonial weigh-ins! The upcoming pay-per-view event at Perth’s RAC Arena provides a chance for UFC Middleweight Champion Dricus Du Plessis to further enhance his legacy on mixed martial arts’ biggest stage. After unseating Sean Strickland in […]
After unseating Sean Strickland in the American’s first defense this past January, the South African will look to avoid the same fate when he puts the gold on the line Down Under opposite former two-time champ Israel Adesanya.
Title stakes could be down the line for the co-main event winner, meanwhile, with recent challenger Steve Erceg looking to immediately bounce back from his first UFC setback against the returning Kai Kara-France.
Elsewhere on the UFC 305 card, lightweight fan favorite Dan Hooker shoots for a top-five ranking opposite Mateusz Gamrot, hard-hitting heavyweights Tai Tuivasa and Jairzinho Rozenstruik likely swing for the fences, and China’s Li Jingliang makes a long-awaited comeback.
Nevertheless, every fight has remained intact, and all that remained on Friday night (Saturday local time) was for the athletes to face off one final time at the UFC 305 ceremonial weigh-ins!
Check out a stream via the official UFC YouTube channel below, followed by all the faceoffs!
UFC 304 is in the books, meaning attention will soon turn to the mixed martial arts leader’s next pay-per-view offering. The promotion was in Manchester, England last week, where the Co-op Live played host to a number of intriguing matchups for its latest visit across the pond. Of note were victories for newly crowned UFC Welterweight […]
While the aftermath of the July 27 card is currently the talk of the town, it won’t be long until focus sways to the next PPV, and from the welterweight title picture to the 185-pound championship conversation.
There will also be high stakes and Oceanic interest in the co-headliner, as former flyweight title challengers Kai Kara-France and Steve Erceg collide in the latter’s home city in pursuit of staking their claim for a shot at Alexandre Pantoja’s belt down the line.
Hooker, Tuivasa, ‘The Leech’ Set The Stage For Title Headliner At UFC 305
Before Du Plessis defends his championship in Adesanya’s home continent and the City Kickboxing standout’s teammate “Don’t Blink” makes his comeback, a number of other high-profile names will take to the Octagon looking to make the post of their position on the major card.
Prior to that, Australia’s own Tai Tuivasa will look to bring his patented post-knockout shoey celebration back to the Octagon for the first time since his victory over Derrick Lewis in February 2022. That result marked “Bam Bam’s” fifth straight win and left him at #3 in the heavyweight rankings, but he’s since lost four in a row, the most recent of which came against Marcin Tybura at the Apex this past March. The same month saw his next opponent, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, return to winning ways at the expense of Shamil Gaziev.
And opening the main card is the return of Li Jingliang, who hasn’t made the walk since a controversial defeat to Daniel Rodriguez in their short-notice 180-pound catchweight contest at UFC 279 in September 2022.
See below for the full UFC 304 card, as it stands.
Main Card:
Dricus Du Plessis (C) vs. Israel Adesanya (middleweight championship main event)
Kai Kara-France vs. Steve Erceg (flyweight co-main event)
Mateusz Gamrot vs. Dan Hooker (lightweight)
Tai Tuivasa vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik (heavyweight)
Li Jingliang vs. Carlos Prates (welterweight)
Preliminary Card:
Junior Tafa vs. Valter Walker (heavyweight)
Joshua Culibao vs. Ricardo Ramos (featherweight)
Casey O’Neill vs. Luana Santos (women’s flyweight)
???????
??????? 
(@LNestestog) 
: 
