Issue 176
March 2019
Max Holloway had a far-from-perfect year, but at UFC 231 he reminded the world of his class. Holloway faced Brian Ortega in a fight rescheduled from UFC 226 and he proceeded to put on a striking clinic as Ortega showed his heart taking a significant amount of damage.
The fight was eventually waved off before the beginning of the fifth round and Holloway retained his UFC featherweight title.
In the co-main event of UFC 231, Valentina Shevchenko claimed the vacant UFC women’s flyweight title after she defeated Joanna Jedrzejczyk via unanimous decision. Both women were impressive on the night in a fight that was mostly fought on the feet.
Bellator staged their first events in Hawaii 212 and 213 taking place on back-to-back evenings across the weekend of December 15-16. Michael Chandler reclaimed the Bellator lightweight title in the main event of Bellator 212 after he defeated Brent Primus via unanimous decision. Ilima-Lei Macfarlane then wowed her hometown fans with an impressive submission victory over former UFC strawweight title contender Valerie Letourneau.
December also marked the retirement of the Polish MMA legend Mamed Khalidov who was defeated for the second time in 2018 by Tomasz Narkun in the main event of KSW 45. It was a shame that Khalidov never got to showcase his skills in the UFC, but he heads into retirement as a legend of the sport in Europe.
The UFC’s epic year was always likely to end with a bang and UFC 232 on December 29 didn’t disappoint. First, the event location was moved from Las Vegas to Los Angeles on just six days’ notice after the Nevada State Athletic Commission refused to license Jon Jones after another random pre-fight drug test from USADA flagged his sample for a trace of Turinabol. Thankfully, the fight with Gustafsson still took place and Jones once again went on to reclaim the UFC light heavyweight title after finishing the Swede in the third round via TKO.
Jones wasn’t short of a word or two for his arch-rival, Daniel Cormier and a tantalizing third bout between the two could be on the horizon in 2019.
The UFC 232 co-main event turned the world women’s MMA on its head when Amanda Nunes became the first woman in history to finish Cris Cyborg via strikes.
The fight lasted just 51 seconds with Nunes standing toe-to-toe with her fellow countrywoman and landing several overhand rights to send Cyborg face-first to the mat in under a minute. In doing so, Nunes became the first woman to become a two-weight world champion in UFC history.
The last major MMA event of the year was held in Saitama, Japan with RIZIN 14 taking place on New Year’s Eve. The controversial boxing exhibition bout between Floyd Mayweather and Tenshin Nasukawa took center stage and it was all-out domination from the unbeaten American who knocked down the Japanese kickboxer three times before his corner called it a wrap after just two minutes and 51-seconds.
Whilst the headliner was something of a farce, bantamweights Kyoji Horiguchi and Darrion Caldwell entertained the crowd in the co-main event in a champion vs champion bout.
The 135 lb champion Caldwell looked to be on his way to claiming the RIZIN title, but Horiguchi sunk in a guillotine choke late into the third round and sent the Saitama Super Arena into a frenzy after picking up a submission victory.
Also this month
- Lyoto Machida made his Bellator MMA debut defeating former Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho.
- Brave CF became the first major MMA promotion to announce that in 2019 they will be launching two new weight classes with super-lightweight (165lbs) and superwelterweight (175lbs) replacing their current welterweight (170lbs) division.
- The opening season of the Professional Fighters league culminated with Magomed Magomedkerimov, Philipe Lins, Sean O’Connell, Natan Schulte, Lance Palmer and Louis Taylor being crowned the winners of their respective divisions and taking home cheques for $1,000,000.
