As always, the latest action on offer inside the Octagon has seen some climb the ladder toward contention and others fall away. And in the aftermath of UFC 305, MMA News has you covered with this week’s updates to the official UFC rankings. Men’s Pound-For-Pound: Dricus Du Plessis closed out the latest pay-per-view by once again proving his […]
And in the aftermath of UFC 305, MMA News has you covered with this week’s updates to the official UFC rankings.
Men’s Pound-For-Pound: Dricus Du Plessis closed out the latest pay-per-view by once again proving his doubters wrong, emerging from a competitive main event against the great Israel Adesanya with the middleweight gold still in his possession. The South African has been rewarded with a five-place rise up the P4P ladder, leaving him one position above his bantamweight counterpart Sean O’Malley at #6.
Adesanya, meanwhile, has fallen two spots to #15, with his and Du Plessis’ former opponent Sean Strickland going the same distance the other way to replace “The Last Stylebender” at #13.
Women’s Pound-for-Pound: There were moves unrelated to UFC 305 on the female P4P list, with reigning bantamweight queen Raquel Pennington suddenly dropping two places to #8, now leaving her below flyweight contenders Rose Namajunas (#6) and Erin Blanchfield (#7).
Women’s Strawweight: No changes.
Women’s Flyweight: At 125 pounds, Viviane Araújo has been pushed out of the top 10 to #11. Her two-spot slide has paved the way for Amanda Ribas and Karine Silva to rise to #9 and #10, respectively.
Women’s Bantamweight: No changes.
Flyweight: Kai Kara-France made an emphatic return this weekend by knocking out recent title challenger Steve Erceg inside the first round. He’s remained unmoved at #4, however. “AstroBoy,” meanwhile, has slipped to #8, swapping positions with Matheus Nicolau (#7).
Bantamweight: No changes.
Featherweight: No changes.
Lightweight: Among the biggest victors to emerge from UFC 305 was Dan Hooker, who is this week’s biggest mover in the rankings. After falling on the right side of a split decision against the highly regarded Mateusz Gamrot, “The Hangman” has climbed six spots to #5. “Gamer,” on the other hand, has fallen three positions to #8. Further down, Hooker’s rise has resulted in drops for Rafael Fiziev (#10) and Renato Moicano (#11).
Heavyweight: Jairzinho Rozenstruik made it back-to-back wins in 2024 this past weekend, outpointing home favorite Tai Tuivasa across three rounds. As a result, “Bigi Boy” has risen by two places to #10. His defeated opponent, meanwhile, finds himself three spots worse off at #13.
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
Both men appeared to take round one to feel each other out and get their striking going. Adesanya landed strong starts early but appeared to get caught by Du Plessis later in the round. Du Plessis changed his gameplan in the second and looked for takedowns quickly, scoring multiple takedowns and fighting against wizzers from […]
Both men appeared to take round one to feel each other out and get their striking going. Adesanya landed strong starts early but appeared to get caught by Du Plessis later in the round.
Du Plessis changed his gameplan in the second and looked for takedowns quickly, scoring multiple takedowns and fighting against wizzers from Adesanya. Du Plessis threatened a choke on more than one occasion. Adesanya appeared to get some sort of knockdown off a punch, but Du Plessis fell into him, knocking Adesanya down and allowing Du Plessis to get back into grappling control against the fence.
Both men had their moments during the third round, with Adesanya rocking Du Plessis with a spinning back elbow, and Du Plessis stunning him with combinations. But the New Zealander was landing more on the feet, with his work to Du Plessis’ body of note.
Adesanya continued to get the better of Du Plessis on the feet and troubled him in the fourth. That is, until Du Plessis blitzed back, getting to Adesanya’s back and bringing him back to the ground. There, Du Plessis finally locked in the same rear-naked choke he looked for in the second round and scored the submission.
Following the fight, Du Plessis gave respect to Adesanya, squashing their beef.
Meanwhile, despite the assumption a rematch between DDP and Sean Strickland will be next, and Alex Pereira defending the light heavyweight title against Khalil Rountree in October, Pereira took to social media to tease a move back down to 185 to challenge Du Plessis.
Dricus Du Plessis Submits Israel Adesanya To Remain Middleweight Champion
Respect to DDP for the apology. Great fight both guys
Du Plessis and Adesanya had a heated confrontation following UFC 290, where Du Plessis knocked out Robert Whittaker to earn a future title shot.
Du Plessis entered tonight with a nine-fight win streak, having not lost since dropping the KSW welterweight title in October 2018. Du Plessis defeated Sean Strickland at UFC 297 in January to win the UFC middleweight title.
This marked Adesanya’s first fight since his heavy upset loss to Strickland at UFC 293, losing the middleweight championship after regaining it from Alex Pereira at UFC 287. Adesanya had previously won the belt with a knockout of Whittaker at UFC 243 in October 2019, successfully defending the title five times before dropping it to Pereira at UFC 281.
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 latest season of Dana White’s Contender Series kicked off with some memorable highlights on Tuesday night in Las Vegas. DWCS, the inaugural season of which took place back in 2017, sees some of the top prospects in mixed martial arts enter the cage in front of White and the matchmakers, looking to put in […]
The latest season of Dana White’s Contender Series kicked off with some memorable highlights on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
DWCS, the inaugural season of which took place back in 2017, sees some of the top prospects in mixed martial arts enter the cage in front of White and the matchmakers, looking to put in a performance worthy of a place on the UFC roster.
Last year’s edition saw 46 fighters bag a deal with the sport’s premier promotion across 10 events, up on the 43 from 2022. And episode one of season eight this week saw four prospects move a step closer to their title dreams on MMA’s biggest stage.
The return of DWCS began in violent fashion courtesy of former Cage Warriors standout Lone’er Kavanagh, who landed a short left hook to brutally knock out the highly touted An Tuan Ho in the very first round.
Flyweights set the pace, and the featherweights soon matched it. Continuing the trend of vicious stoppages, MMA Lab’s Jose Delgado landed a flush knee to the head of Ernie Juarez to get things done in round two.
The other two victors to land finishes, light heavyweight Bruno Lopes and middleweight Mansur Abdul-Malik, were also rewarded with contracts, although the decision to grant the former one caused considerable debate on social media.
Welcoming the newest crop of UFC fighters @DanaWhite reacts to the first week of #DWCS Season 8 with @Laura_Sanko!
Serghei Spivac continued his upward momentum and scored revenge in the process with a quick finish of Marcin Tybura in the main event of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night. Spivac got right on Tybura’s back as the round started, scoring an early takedown. The Polish heavyweight answered by reversing and getting in the Moldovan’s guard. While […]
Serghei Spivac continued his upward momentum and scored revenge in the process with a quick finish of Marcin Tybura in the main event of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night.
Spivac got right on Tybura’s back as the round started, scoring an early takedown. The Polish heavyweight answered by reversing and getting in the Moldovan’s guard.
While Tybura tried to do work from there, it ultimately proved to be his undoing. Spivac locked his legs around the veteran’s arm and rolled through with an armbar from the back, scoring a verbal submission.
Serghei Spivac Avenges Loss To Marcin Tybura With First-Round Submission In UFC Fight Night Headliner
I'm forever indebted to Sergei Spivac for that quick finish #UFCVegas95
You know what's funny. That move is probably going to be Spivac's new super power. He's thin enough for a heavyweight to throw his legs up and do that move, and it's almost guaranteed that 90% of heavyweights will have never seen this move done by someone their size.
Tybura and Spivac first met at UFC Fight Night Norfolk in February 2020, with the former winning via unanimous decision.
“Polar Bear” has now won four of his last five fights and rebounds from a second-round TKO loss at the hands of Ciryl Gane last year in Paris. His only losses in the UFC have come against Tybura, Gane, Walt Harris, and current interim UFC Heavyweight Champion Tom Aspinall.
Tybura, meanwhile, has now lost two of his last three fights.
@DricusDuPlessis earned his first title defense with a submission victory last night at #UFC305! pic.twitter.com/mk3y4z8gzS
??????? 
(@LNestestog) 
: 
Tybura ML and OVER 3.5 (parlay) 