This Weekend in Sports - UFC on ESPN: Kattar vs. Ige

Fights fights fights.

One down, two to go in the opening week of the UFC’s Fight Island and the amenities were as luxurious as promised. Nothing like sweating out a quick 10 pounds on the Yas Marina F1 Track to assist with a difficult weight cut.

For those unfamiliar – such as myself, two weeks ago – the Yas Marina Circuit marks the final race of the F1 season. At least it used to prior to Covid-19 cutting the season down. No idea what’s happening now.

In any event, Yas Island seems like an awesome place to host some fights. And a ton of people tuned in for the absolutely stacked debut card this past Saturday. A reported 1.3 pay-per-view buys places UFC 251 as their 6th biggest pay-per-view of all time and the most PPV buys since Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor back in 2018.

Now with that many eyes on a single card, there are bound to be a number of inexperienced or new, prospective fight fans, and this card largely failed to deliver on the biggest stage. The UFC brass couldn’t have been thrilled with two controversial decisions, a painfully late stoppage and a slow-paced, one-sided main event, but in the words of Max Holloway: It is what it is.

Such is the double-edged sword of success.

For the record, I thought Rose Namajunas looked great and clearly won the fight. Jessica Andrade saved face with a strong showing in the third round and 29-28 was the right call. Petr Yan looked amazing as well. Not his fault the ref let that fight go for so long. And props to Amanda Ribas on adding another big name to her resume. Not sure what you do with Paige VanZant at this point, as she’s lost three out of her last four and tends to take long lay-offs between appearances, as is.

But let’s take a closer look at the co-main event. The first and second round are difficult to dispute. Max Holloway was getting the better of the exchanges throughout the round and he put an exclamation point at the end of each round with a knockdown. Even the worst judges could clearly see that Max was up 20-18.

The third, fourth and fifth rounds were much harder to judge. I had the third as a coin-flip, but gave it to Alexander Volkanovski. The fourth was a question of volume vs. effectiveness. Alex landed slightly more strikes but the biggest moments of the round came from Max, who controlled the Octagon and landed some heavy shots. I gave the fourth to Max. And most people agreed that the fight was 3-1 heading into the fourth according to the little twitter bubbles in the bottom left corner.

By that logic, Alex either needed a 10-8 in the fifth or a stoppage to avoid a loss and when neither happened, I felt pretty confident that it would be a 48-47 victory for Max Holloway. In rewatching the fight, the final third and fourth rounds were close enough to split the judges and I wouldn’t put this in the robbery category.

I believe that Michael Bisping spending every second of the fight saying Max had it in the bag probably swayed a lot of people. I was in an environment where I couldn’t even hear the announcers, but I was also rooting for Max, so that probably swayed me. Either way, I thought Max won but I don’t think Alex is a paper champion, either. It was a close fight.

In the main event, Jorge Masvidal appeared fatigued by his heavy weight-cut as a last-minute replacement. Kamaru Usman did what he had to do to secure a victory, and I don’t blame him for the strategy, but let’s not pretend that it was fun to watch. With that said, I’m still looking forward to Usman vs. Gilbert Burns and whoever they line up for Masvidal next. It was just a bump in the road for both.

WHAT TO WATCH

UFC: Kattar vs. Ige & Figueiredo vs. Benavidez

UFC Fight Island 2 & 3? Is anyone calling it that? They should.

Calvin Kattar vs. Dan Ige headlines a rare slate of Wednesday fights followed by Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Joseph Benavidez for the vacant UFC Flyweight Championship this Saturday. Both cards feature some exciting matchups and even though the name-value is nowhere near UFC 251, they’re not without their star power.

Kattar vs. Ige is a fantastic matchup and will be hard to beat for Fight of the Night. It’s also a largely important fight at 145 pounds. Kattar’s knockout of Jeremy Stephens launched him to #6 in the featherweight rankings and his style is quickly turning him into a fan favorite. This is his second main event with the UFC and it’s clear that they’re starting to promote him as a star of the company.

For Ige, it’s an opportunity to steal Kattar’s momentum and launch himself into that role. He’s won six in a row and may not be the human highlight reel that his opponent is, but a streak like that with back-to-back wins over Calvin Kattar and Edson Barboza is undeniably impressive.

Rounding out the card, we’ve got Tim Elliot vs. Ryan Benoit and Jimie Rivera vs. Cody Stamann. Both should be excellent fights. Elliot could be fighting for his job after dropping three in a row, but he remains to be one of the most electric flyweights in the game. And the same could be said about Jimmie Rivera who has now dropped three out of his last four after amassing a 20 fight win streak at Bantamweight. This fight marks his featherweight debut.

Finally, if you’re not sick of MMA yet, you’ve got your Saturday card, featuring a slew of exciting fighters. Kelvin Gastelum, Marc Diakiese and Joseph Duffy are among the bigger names on the card. And it’s good that they’re there, because the main event is still in question.

Deiveson Figueiredo tested positive for Covid-19 on July 11th. He took another test on July 13th that showed up positive and was cleared to fly to Yas Island. The theory is that he yielded a false positive because he cad coronavirus earlier in the year, but there are still more testing and procedures that need to be passed in order to go forward with the fight. Fingers crossed, but it seems a little sketchy at the moment.

Is there any chance Masvidal could cut down to 125 pounds by this Saturday?

HIGHLIGHTS

Hollywood Rose. Also, The Old Guard was pretty great.