UFC 223 eventually came to an end after a whirlwind of drama and one of the craziest weeks in the companies 25 year history. Despite freak injuries, problematic weight cuts and a wild Irishman smashing stuff up the event somehow managed to deliver and the fights that did manage to survive the turbulence offered up some great entertainment.
SourceNew undisputed champion Khabib!
MAIN EVENT
UFC LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT
Khabib Nurmagomedov (Def. Al Iaquinta via Decision)
Everyone knew Khabib Nurmagomedov was an absolute monster and it was always going to be an impossible task for Al Iaquinta to pull off what would have been the largest upset in the history of the UFC. Raging Al was game though and showed a tremendous amount of balls to stay in the fight and never quit where others may have.
It says a lot about the task he faced in the fact he is actually getting showered with praise for what was in actual fact a one sided dominant victory for Khabib. I respect Al a lot but feel just as I said in my preview of this event that Khabib could have finished this fight any time he wanted.
Some people are suggesting Khabib gassed out, Al was able to prevent his takedowns in the later rounds and that in this fight Khabib finally exposed some weaknesses. But we already knew Khabib has holes in his striking defense and I feel keeping the fight standing and striking with Al was a conscious decision on his part.
Why? Because Khabib is smart, he knows where he has holes in his game and wanted the opportunity to work on them in a live combat situation. He had brutally beat down Al for the whole first half of the fight to a point he'd feel Al was no longer a threat to him. Khabib has actually spoken about doing this before in the Barboza fight, another he could have finished whenever he wanted to but intentionally drew it out and engaged with him on the feet to work on his game after Barboza was done from the early beating.
I'm no striking expert so don't want to act like I know all the technical things he was working on but in the aftermath of the Barboza fight there were experts who highlighted glaring mistakes in Khabib's striking. From what I remember people were criticizing his lack of jab, his head movement and pointed out a moment in which he crossed his feet, a big no no when it comes to fighting as if the opponent lands a clean shot at that time you are not set to absorb it and will be off balance and a world of hurt. While Khabib still didn't look perfect on his feet against Al he did seem to be better offensively than his previous fight, used his jab more and had better head movement. Bad news for his rivals as despite what Kevin Lee said before, Khabib is getting better and will no doubt use what he learned in this fight to become even stronger.
All in all it was disappointing not to see Khabib challenged by an elite lightweight like Tony Ferguson who I still believe would have provided a huge challenge for him. I hope that Ferguson recovers and eventually we do get to eventually see that fight. Maybe next time both men are healthy they should just drive them straight to the nearest cage and set up an impromptu event before either has chance to pull something or get hit by a bus.
But it is nice to finally have an official champion to reign over the lightweight division and restore some order.
Source 2 female warriors - Rose and Joanna post fight.
Co-MAIN EVENT
UFC WOMEN'S STRAWWEIGHT TITLE FIGHT
Rose Namajunas (Def. Joanna Jedrzejczyk via Decision)
This was a spectacular fight between 2 women who prove that women mixed martial artists can be just as high level as their male counterparts. While there first fight seemed to be more about mental warfare with Joanna going a little over the top attempting to break Rose while Rose held rosary beads and prayed this was all about skill. We got to see 2 of the best women fighters in the world take each other on for 5 hectic rounds.
The first 2 rounds I felt Rose had the edge, Joanna was doing a lot of feinting and throwing a lot of punches and while she was landing some there were less effective than the ones Rose was able to land on her. Rose wasn't falling for the feint's and was constantly able to catch Joanna with the same left shot which won her the previous fight.
Rounds 3 and 4 Joanna seemed to take more control of the fight, Rose still had some success during these rounds but was a little slower than she'd been earlier. Joanna threw more kicks and did quite a lot of damage to Rose's legs which lead to her then having more success with her punches too.
So by my reckoning they were even going into the 5th and final round and this would be where the belt would be won. Both fighters had decent moments on the feet and again Joanna was able to throw and land more volume but Rose's strikes seemed to be the more damaging. Both ladies were showing the signs of battle with Rose's legs being covered in bruising already and Joanna's face cut up and her eye badly swollen where Rose had constantly landed her left fist.
I was leaning towards Rose in the round anyway but then she sealed the deal with a big take down to close it out. The judges actually all awarded her the fight 49-46 with them only giving Joanna 1 round but as I said I feel the fight was a lot closer than that but do believe Rose deservedly won.
It was an amazing fight and both fighters come away with a lot of credit, Rose proved the first fight was not a fluke and she is one of the baddest women on the planet. While Joanna didn't avenge the loss I still feel she has shown she is also up there and truly is one of the baddest and I don't doubt she will be back challenging for the title again someday.
REST OF THE CARD
RENATO MOICANO (Def. Calvin Kattar via Dec)
ZABIT MAGOMEDSHARIPOV (Def. Kyle Bochniak via Dec)
CHRIS GRUETZEMACHER (Def. Joe Lauzon via KO, R2)
They were entertaining fights Zabit Magomedsharipov and Kyle Bochniak put in a Fight Of The Night performance while Zabit dominated the fight with his amazing striking skills and wrestling Bochniak displayed tremendous heart and kept coming after him and even screamed in his face while swinging.
It was a shame to see one of my long time favourites Joe Lauzon taking such a beating and really the referee could have saved him earlier and stopped the fight half way through the 2nd round. Thankfully Lauzon's coaches called it at the end of the 2nd round. It was a great performance from Gruetzmacher who has now ended his run of 2 losses.
The highlight of the early prelims was Oliver Aubin Mercier who scored a quick first round knockout over Evan Dunham.