Issue 176
March 2019
May kicked off with the UFC heading to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for UFC 224. Amanda Nunes dominated Raquel Pennington in the main event and stopped her in the fifth round via TKO. After the fight, many criticized Pennington’s corner for not pulling her out of the contest earlier, after she was overheard telling her coach that she was “done” and not wanting to continue.
The debate over whether allowing her to continue was the right thing to do briefly took some headlines, but the fact the event featured no fewer than eleven finishes and only one decision meant there were many other noteworthy takeaways.
Lyoto Machida’s final fight under the UFC banner ended with one of the most iconic images in the history of the sport after he landed a picture-perfect front kick to the face of fellow Brazilian veteran Vitor Belfort. Perfect endings are very rare in MMA, but it was fitting finale to Machida’s UFC tenure.
Three weeks later, the UFC visited Liverpool, England, for the first time with Darren Till taking on Stephen Thompson in the main event. Till eventually went on to defeat “Wonderboy” via decision, but the victory was marred by the Scouser missing weight by 3.5 pounds.
Just 24 hours later, Bellator 200 then took place in London and the night ended with Gegard Mousasi raising the Bellator middleweight title after soundly beating Rafael Carvalho.
Michael “Venom” Page returned to the cage for the first time in nearly two years and he wowed his home crowd with a vintage showman-like performance against a beleaguered Dave Rickels.
Former UK reality TV star Aaron Chalmers also made his Bellator MMA debut and recorded the fourth win of his career defeating Ash Griffiths via submission.
Across the other side of the world, ONE Championship superstar Angela Lee defeated Mei Yamaguchi for the second time at the Singapore Indoor Arena. Back in 2016, Lee became the youngest MMA world champion in history aged just 19 after she defeated Yamaguchi via unanimous decision. The rematch in May was again another scintillating affair with Lee attempting several submissions that Yamaguchi escaped time and time again. Lee eventually got her hand raised in what was her only fight of the year after injuries prevented her from fighting for a second world title in November.
The month ended with former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping announcing his retirement. The Brit suffered back-to-back losses at the back end of 2017 and then toyed with the idea of having one final fight before officially hanging up the 4-oz. gloves on May 28. What a career.
Also this month
- Ryan Bader defeated Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal at Bellator 199 to advance to the semi-finals of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix.
- Kamaru Usman defeated Demian Maia via unanimous decision at the UFC’s first-ever fight card in Santiago, Chile.
- The UFC also announced a five-year television deal with ESPN that would proceed in 2019.
