Smith's severe defeat
In the main fight of the UFC Fight Night 171 tournament, which took place in Jacksonville on the night of May 14, Anthony Smith was crushingly defeated by Glover Teixer. The 31-year-old American was considered the favorite and had the advantage in the first two rounds, but already in the course of the third he found himself in a difficult situation and the remainder of the duel practically did not respond to the attacks of an experienced opponent. The referee repeatedly had every reason to stop the beating, but given the fighting qualities of the athlete, he allowed it to continue. Smith's torment ended only at the beginning of the fifth round.
It is worth noting that the success of Teixeira was laid by the mistake of a judge who did not notice a blow to the eyes. Glover escorted the forbidden reception with a powerful series of two side and an uppercut, after which he continued the offensive. But during the fight, Anthony revealed other problems. So, at the end of the fourth round, he admitted that he “lost his teeth”. Initially, the American team thought that it was a matter of installed microprostheses (veneers), but in the end it turned out that he really lost several teeth as a result of the battle. In addition, the former applicant for the title received fractures of the orbital bone and nose and was taken to hospital at the end of the show.
For Smith, the defeat from Teixeira was doubly offensive also for the reason that before the tournament he spoke out about his claims to the light heavy throne and promised to take the place of John Jones there. The current champion did not forgive him for such statements and made fun of him on social networks during the event. Now Anthony risks leaving the top 5 rating and is unlikely to qualify for the belt in the near future.
Rothwell's success and challenge to Oleinik
In the second most important battle of the evening, heavyweight veteran Ben Rothwell defeated Ovins Saint-Prue. The Haitian spent most of his career in the light heavy category, in which he even got the right to fight for the title of interim champion, but could not win it. However, in the most prestigious division, he looked much less impressive. The fighter acted second number and had difficulty controlling the distance, and his monotonous and predictable defensive actions regularly left him with his back locked to the net. Only a knockout could save the situation, and in the second round he almost put the American on the floor, but he survived and eventually won by a separate decision of the judges.
“With all due respect, Mr. Oleinik, you defeated Werdum. I know you asked for a big fight. My name is Big Ben, so it will be a big fight, ”the American said after the official announcement of the results.
Of course, for the fans, the battle of Oleinik with Rothwell has a certain interest. Mixed martial arts veterans could arrange a competitive fight not only in the stance, but also in the stalls. But from a tournament point of view, this fight is hardly interesting to the Russian. After a triumph in the battle with Werdum, he rose to the tenth line of the rating, while the American is not even in the top 15. In this regard, even his meeting with Andrei Orlovsky looks no less logical. At the same UFC Fight Night 171, Belarus turned out to be stronger than Philip Lins and won a record 18th victory in the UFC heavy division.
Conflict at the hotel
In addition to bright battles, the tournament was also remembered by a loud scandal. In the preliminary card, the welterweight Marvin Vettori and Karl Roberson were supposed to fight, but because of the unsuccessful weighting of the latter, the fight had to be canceled. Thus, the athletes not only lost the opportunity to earn money, but also in vain risked their health, going to Florida in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Vettori was very upset by this coincidence and nearly got into a fight with Roberson in the hotel lobby in Florida. The Italian saw the opponent, began to shout insults at him and offer to find out the relationship with his fists. As a result, the conflict was resolved only by the forces of the security service. Such emotional behavior of Marvin can be explained by his expectations from the performance. As the fighter himself admitted, in case of victory, he expected to be among the 15 strongest middleweights.
There was no change in the card of the second tournament, which took place on Sunday night. Initially, the Georgian fighter Giga Chikadze was to meet with the American Mike Davis, but he was forced to withdraw - this was also due to problems with the fit. As soon as possible, he was found a replacement in the person of Irwin Rivera and was even allowed to separately carry out the weighing procedure. True, all this did not help the Mexican, who was defeated by the unanimous decision of the judges.
Comeback Overeem
The highlight of the UFC Fight Night 172 was the duel between Alistair Overeem and Walt Harris. The main fight of the evening did not disappoint and turned out to be an uncompromising duel between two heavyweights, who for two rounds desperately tried to send each other to knockout. Already in the first seconds, the American nearly realized his plan. He caught a counterpart in oncoming traffic and made a powerful combination of three strokes in the jaw, with the help of which he dumped him on the floor. There was a finishing move, during which Judge Dan Miragliotta had every reason to stop the fight, but he rightly considered that the Dutchman continued to defend himself.
Overeem survived and very confidently spent the second half of the round. An experienced athlete conducted a takedown, after which he beat an opponent in the orchestra for two and a half minutes. Harris seemed helpless and with great difficulty endured the gong. In the second five-minute, nothing has changed. Walt was back on the floor again, only with the difference that the reason was not the passage to his feet, but Alistair’s most powerful high-kick. The Dutchman went into back-mount (the position in which the fighter is sitting on the back of the opponent) and after 45 seconds forced the referee to award him a victory by technical knockout.
Overeem won the 46th fight in his career and proved that even at the age of 40 he was able to successfully play in the UFC heavy division. As for Harris, the black streak in his life has not yet ended. It all started with the fact that at the end of 2019 he lost his adopted daughter. In October, Ani Blanchard went missing, and her death became known only at the end of November. The main suspect in the murder is Ibrahim Yazid. Preliminary hearings are due in early summer.
Barbosa's unsuccessful debut
Another highlight of UFC Fight Night 172 was Edson Barbosa’s first featherweight title. During his career in the lightweight category, he was remembered for his bright knockouts, but could not get the right to compete for the title. The Brazilian was regularly included in the top ten strongest, but at a key moment inferior to the more artful rivals. So, in 2015, he became a “victim” of Tony Ferguson, two years later he was hard-beat by Habib Nurmagomedov, and in March 2019 he was knocked out by Justin Gatgi. In light of this, the transition to another division seemed logical.
However, he failed to make his debut at lightweight title due to a rather controversial decision of the judges. Barbosa with a big advantage won the first round, in which he knocked out the 15th number of Dan Ige's rating, but completely lost the third segment of the battle. Everything was decided by the second five-minute period, in which the Brazilian looked no worse than the opponent, and in the end he completely surpassed him. However, only one referee sided with him, while the other two awarded the victory to the American.
Barbosa lost the fifth of the last six bouts and was in a difficult position. The absolute fighting championship does not stand on ceremony with athletes who have three liabilities in a row in a row, which actually leaves the Brazilian on the verge of dismissal. It can be saved by the fact that the fights with Edson's participation turn out to be quite spectacular, and the last two failures were quite controversial.
Bright knockouts
It is worth noting that a distinctive feature of the UFC tournaments in Jacksonville was the abundance of colorful early victories. This markedly distinguished them from the show in Brazil, where the promotion was first forced to refuse the invitation of the audience. Then the athletes were clearly mentally unprepared for this: as a result, nine of the 11 battles were not the brightest and all the planned three rounds lasted. This time everything turned out differently, and the percentage of early victories at all three events in Florida amounted to almost 47% (15 of 32).
At each of the tournaments, five victories by knockout or surrender were recorded, and the author of one of the most striking was Kevin Holland. The American accepted the fight on a short notice and in just 39 seconds knocked out compatriot Anthony Hernandez. Already in the debut, he performed a combination of elbow and knee strokes, after which he easily completed what was started. No less memorable was the performance of Miguel Baeza, who crushed the veteran of the welterweight division Matt Brown. In the first round, he almost knocked out the opponent, but already at the 20th second of the second he achieved what he wanted. An athlete nicknamed the Caramel Thunder extended his win-win streak to eight battles.
Beautiful knockouts were also remembered by Drew Dober, Brian Kelleher and Chase Sherman, who made a successful return to the UFC. The athlete was fired after three consecutive defeats in 2018, after which he wandered around regional promotions and tried himself in boxing without gloves. Ike Villanueva lasted a whole round, but already at the 49th second of the second segment of the battle he was forced to capitulate.
Not without colorful pain. At UFC Fight Night 172, Rodrigo Nascimento Ferreira performed a classic strangulation from behind, and Courtney Casey delighted fans with a barn. At the same time, the success of Tiago Moises was the most striking. The Brazilian caught Michael Johnson by surprise with a spectacular ankle lock. Now the record of the former opponent Nurmagomedov is 19:16.