Issue 176

March 2019

The UFC headed to Los Angeles, California for UFC 227 on August 4 and the main event saw the bitter rivalry between former teammates TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt come to an end. Unlike the first time the two fought in November 2017, this time around the build-up featured far less animosity, but the result was no different.

Dillashaw finished Garbrandt in the first round and successfully defended his UFC bantamweight for the first time. It was a somewhat unspectacular end to one of the bitterest feuds in recent MMA history, but it finally put an end to the debate of which of the two was the king of the UFC’s 135-pounds division.

Whilst that rematch was underwhelming, not many were expecting to see Demetrious Johnson dethroned as the UFC flyweight champion.

Henry Cejudo had been defeated by Johnson just two years before their rematch at UFC 227 and not many gave him a hope heading into their second fight. This time though, Cejudo proved the doubters wrong and used his wrestling to contain Johnson and squeeze out a split-decision victory to capture the flyweight title in one of the biggest upsets of the year.

UFC 227 fight week was punctuated by the announcement that in October Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov would settle their differences at UFC 229.

The announcement was made at a press conference in California where a number of key match-ups for the rest of the year were also revealed. Perhaps most notably, it was announced Nate Diaz would take on Dustin Poirier at UFC 228 in a fight that unfortunately never materialized after Poirier suffered an injury.

Two weeks later on August 17, Bellator 204 took place in Sioux Falls and Bellator bantamweight champion Darrion Caldwell showed the world he’s a danger at featherweight defeating the UFC veteran Noad Lahat via second-round knockout.

Caldwell’s win should’ve been the highlight of the event, but it was Ricky Bandejas knocking out SBG Ireland’s James Gallagher that sent shockwaves throughout the MMA community. The Irishman’s brash talk and confident attitude weren’t appreciated by a large portion of the fanbase and the nature of Bandejas’ highlight reel knockout victory meant the image of him lying unconscious on his back traveled far and wide. Both Bandejas and Gallagher will no doubt be two names to keep an eye on in 2019.

Earlier in the month, Bellator also announced that they would be staging a Welterweight Grand Prix with Michael Page, Jon Fitch, Paul Daley, Ed Ruth, Neiman Gracie, Douglas Lima, Andrey Koreshkov and Rory MacDonald all involved.

Also this month

  • Justin Gaethje knocked out James Vick at UFC Nebraska.
  • Chuck Liddell announced that he and Tito Ortiz had signed an agreement with Oscar De La Hoya’s latest venture, Golden Boy MMA and that they would both come out of retirement to face each other for the third time in November.
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