UFC

The biggest UFC event of the year so far took place on Saturday night, with two title fights headlining UFC 274 from the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

Technically there were only 1.5 title fights on the card. Charles Oliveira, who was supposed to defend the lightweight championship in the main event, was stripped of the title after missing weight on Friday.

UFC did rule that Justin Gaethje was still eligible to win the title if he defeated Oliveira, but Oliveira could not regain the championship with a win.

Oliveira made quick work of Gaethje, though their three-minute battle was one of the highlights of the show.

Both fighters came out swinging at the opening bell. Gaethje sent Oliveira to the mat twice in quick succession, first with an uppercut and then with a right-left combination.

Oliveira came back with a right of his own that dropped Gaethje. Do Bronx eventually got Gaethje's back and locked in a rear-naked choke to get the tapout.

OLIVEIRA WINS VIA SUBMISSION 😱😱😱

Charles Oliveira defeats Justin Gaethje in the first round to take the #1 spot in the UFC lightweight rankings pic.twitter.com/nUHu4mOaNl

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 8, 2022

UFC now has a decision to make about the lightweight title. Oliveira will presumably be put in a championship fight against an opponent to be determined later this year.

Oliveira made it clear he doesn't care who UFC puts in front of him, though he did have a message for Conor McGregor.

"There's something missing here. The champion has a name and it's Charles 'Do Bronx' Oliveira."

"Hey, Conor McGregor you coming up or are you gonna run away?!"@CharlesDoBronxs 😤 #UFC274 pic.twitter.com/ZWqAQTKRTi

— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) May 8, 2022

Despite being two of the best lightweight fighters in UFC for many years, Oliveira and McGregor have never crossed paths inside the Octagon. 

The co-main event was a women's strawweight championship bout between Rose Namajunas and Carla Esparza. This was a rematch of the finale from The Ultimate Fighter: A Champion Will Be Crowned in 2014.

Esparza won that match to become the first women's strawweight champ in UFC history. Namajunas entered this event as the reigning champion and making her second title defense.

Their second bout wasn't nearly as memorable as the first one. Esparza did get another win over Namajunas, but it was roundly criticized for a lack of action by both fighters.

This was among the worst fights in UFC history.

— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) May 8, 2022

Carla Esparza didn't do much to win the strawweight title. Problem was Rose Namajunas did even less.

What a bizarre title fight. #UFC274

— Greg Rosenstein (@grosenstein) May 8, 2022

According to UFC's official stats, Esparza and Namajunas combined to land 68 strikes and score three takedowns over five rounds.  

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Main Card Results

Men's Lightweight: Charles Oliveira def. Justin Gaethje via first-round submission (rear-naked choke)

Women's Strawweight Championship: Carla Esparza def. Rose Namajunas via split decision (47-48, 49-46, 48-47)

Men's Lightweight: Michael Chandler def. Tony Ferguson via second-round TKO (front kick)

Men's Light Heavyweight: Ovince Saint Preux def. Maurício Rua via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27)

Men's Welterweight: Randy Brown def. Khaos Williams via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

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Preliminary Card Results

Men's Bantamweight: Journey Newson def. Fernie Garcia via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Women's Strawweight: Loopy Godinez def. Ariane Carnelossi via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)

Men's Flyweight: CJ Vergara def. Kleydson Rodrigues via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Women's Flyweight: Tracy Cortez def. Melissa Gatto via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Men's Welterweight: Andre Fialho def. Cameron VanCamp via first-round knockout (punch)

Men's Heavyweight: Blagoy Ivanov def. Marcos Rogerio de Lima via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Men's Flyweight: Brandon Royval def. Matt Schnell via first-round submission (guillotine choke)

Women's Catchweight (146.5 lbs): Macy Chiasson def. Norma Dumont via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)

Men's Welterweight: Francisco Trinaldo def. Danny Roberts via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-26)     

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Michael Chandler scored one of the best knockouts of the year in a win over Tony Ferguson. He dropped El Cucuy with a front kick to the face at the start of the second round. 

MICHAEL CHANDLER 🤯

[ @MikeChandlerMMA | #UFC274 | Live on ESPN+ PPV: https://t.co/cbSgXTfJoR ] pic.twitter.com/UGSFZSyT2v

— UFC (@ufc) May 8, 2022

Ferguson remained on the mat for several minutes before he regained consciousness. Trainers helped him to his feet as Chandler was still celebrating in the Octagon. 

Chandler used the moment after his thrilling knockout to challenge McGregor, who turned out to be a very popular person on this night, to a welterweight bout:

THE CALLOUT TO END ALL CALLOUTS. 🎤🔥@MikeChandlerMMA calls out @TheNotoriousMMA...at WELTERWEIGHT. #UFC274 pic.twitter.com/Vm7vuzZlxr

— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) May 8, 2022

McGregor, who has a 2-1 career record as a welterweight with wins over Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone, indicated on Twitter he is open to the fight:

https://twitter.com/TheNotoriousMMA/status/1523149999441612800

Meanwhile, a planned bout between Cerrone and Joe Lauzon was canceled shortly after the prelims began. UFC color commentator Joe Rogan said on the telecast (h/t Damon Martin of MMA Fighting) that the medical staff thinks Cerrone may have suffered food poisoning.  

This card was loaded with slow-paced bouts that left the Phoenix crowd restless and wanting to see action. Brandon Royval and Andre Fialho provided some excitement during the prelims with first-round finishes. 

Fialho dropped Cameron VanCamp with a left hook and followed it up with another big punch as his opponent was on the canvas to get the knockout midway through the opening round. 

Royval looked like he was going to get caught in a choke of his own after Matt Schnell blocked a takedown attempt and grabbed him by the neck. Roval wound up getting on top and locking in a guillotine to get the submission victory. 

On the night when Charles Oliviera and Justin Gaethje took the ring at UFC 274 in Phoenix, Arizona, it was revealed one of the sport's legends would be inducted into the Hall of Fame. 

Daniel Cormier, who announced his retirement from fighting in August 2020, will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame as part of the 2022 class, according to Sports Illustrated's Justin Barrasso.

Cormier is considered one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time. His retirement came at UFC 252 after he lost a UFC heavyweight title trilogy bout to Stipe Miocic by unanimous decision.

"I'm not interested in fighting for anything but titles. I don't imagine there's going to be a title in the future, so that will be it for me," Cormier said at the time. "I've had a long run. It's been great. I just fought my last fight for a heavyweight championship. It was a pretty good fight."

The 43-year-old finished his career with a 22-3-1 record, with two of his three losses coming against Miocic. The third loss and the no-decision come against Jon Jones.

Cormier competed in the light heavyweight division from 2014-18, winning the championship in 2015 and defending the title three times.

Cormier also competed in the heavyweight division from 2009-13 and 2018-20, claiming the title in 2018 by defeating Miocic.

In addition, Cormier was a wrestling star in college at Oklahoma State University and won six straight freestyle wrestling gold medals at the US National Championships from 2003-08.

He was also a two-time Olympian, coming in fourth at the 2004 Games after losing to Khadzhimurat Gatsalov in the semifinals. He was pulled from the 2008 Games due to kidney failure.

Cormier, who now works as a broadcaster for UFC, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside Khabib Nurmagomedov, Ronda Rousey and Georges St-Pierre. The ceremony is set to take place on June 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. 

Disaster has struck UFC 274. And the first preliminary fight is still more than a day away.

Lightweight champion—excuse me, former lightweight champion—Charles Oliveira missed weight on both attempts Friday, becoming the first UFC fighter to lose a title to the weigh-in scale.

In terms of stakes or the excitement around UFC 274 or Oliveira's main event with Justin Gaethje, this isn't just air going out of a balloon. This is a catastrophe.

Here's how it all went down:

• During weigh-ins, Oliveira came in at 155.5 pounds, or half a pound above the limit for title fights. (Non-title bouts have a one-pound grace margin, but title fights require competitors to hit it on the nose or come in below the limit.)
• Oliveira had one hour to lose the extra weight. After taking the full hour, an emaciated Oliveira re-emerged. He shed his shorts behind a curtain and, with coaches and commissioners lined up to check for funny business, again weighed in at 155.5 pounds.
• Oliveira remains the champion, but as of Saturday night, the UFC lightweight title will be considered vacant.
• Oliveira and the MMA community stared blankly in disbelief.
• He will forfeit an unspecified percentage of his fight purse to Gaethje.
• Oliveira will not be able to win the title back Saturday. If he defeats Gaethje, the title will remain vacant.
• Gaethje, who hit his mark at exactly 155 pounds, will become champion if he defeats Oliveira.

Oliveira displayed confidence before and during the proceedings (as evidenced by this pre-weigh-in tweet) but was visibly and understandably in shock after the number was read a second time.

weight ✔️

peso✔️#UFC274

— Charles 'DoBronxs' Oliveira (@CharlesDoBronxs) May 6, 2022

This was a first in UFC history, though there was a precedent—well, sort of. In 2018, women's flyweight champion Nicco Montano was hospitalized while cutting weight for her UFC 228 defense against Valentina Shevchenko and was subsequently stripped of her title. But it's not the same because she never actually weighed in.

This was not the first time Oliveira had difficulty with the scale. However, those failures came one weight class below at featherweight. He missed in 2012 before a loss to Cub Swanson, in 2014 before beating Jeremy Stephens, in 2015 before a victory against Myles Jury and in 2016 before a defeat at the hands of Ricardo Lamas, after which Oliveira returned to 155 pounds and didn't miss weight for his 12 bouts leading up to UFC 274.

What does this mean for UFC 274? Well, UFC executives are certainly wiping their eyes with hundred dollar bills as their pay-per-view buys evaporate before their tear-stained fields of vision. This is especially true because of some stiff counterprogramming from its sister sport, as boxing's pound-for-pound king Saul "Canelo" Alvarez will vie for a light heavyweight title on the same evening.

The fight itself could still be a great one. Despite the weigh-in mishap, DraftKings listed Oliveira as a -140 favorite. He's incredibly skilled and well-rounded. Gaethje is a stone-cold knockout artist with the power, patience and takedown defense to steal an opponent's will, or consciousness, over time. But Oliveira is not just going to roll over—in fact, this might provide added motivation.

This isn't likely to win him a lot of friends in the front office or elsewhere. On one hand, you feel bad for Oliveira, and it's just half a pound. But on the other hand, why would a champion leave this to chance, knowing full well that even a few ounces can mean calamity? Mitigating circumstances notwithstanding, missing weight is one of the most unprofessional things a fighter can do.

Which brings us to the division as a whole. What happens now? It's a good thing for fans that this is the best weight class in the UFC. Even if Oliveira wins and the title stays vacant, there will be plenty of options.

First, the UFC issued a statement about the situation (h/t Aaron Bronsteter of TSN) that essentially guaranteed Oliveira will stay in the mix. The statement read in part: "If Oliveira wins, he will be the number one contender for the vacant Lightweight Championship and will fight the next challenger for the undisputed title belt at a time and place to be determined."

But there are still a lot of options at the top of the division. There could be rematch between co-No. 1-ranked Gaethje and Dustin Poirier (Poirier won the first fight). Or how about a bout between No. 3 Islam Makhachev and the winner of Saturday's bout between Michael Chandler and Tony Ferguson? And what about Conor McGregor?

So, with or without Oliveira, the division and the UFC march on. Oliveira himself? Not so much. No matter what, he will have to answer questions about this for the rest of his life. It could even be career-defining. And this is the fighter with the most submission wins (15) in UFC history.

For someone as great and as tested as Oliveira, this is more than a shame. It's a disaster.

If you're a combat sports fan and you have $134.98 in extra dollars to spend, you have one job this weekend. You must batten down the hatches. Batten them down, shelter in place and take in one of the best combat sports weekends in recent memory, as it involves six fighters holding a whopping seven active championship belts between them.

First, you have the greatest boxer in the world in Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. He's a -475 favorite (bet $475 to win $100) to handle Dmitry Bivol and win the WBA light heavyweight title, per DraftKings. (Canelo's four belts are not at stake.)

In the other corner, you have UFC 274, with not one but two title fights. In the co-main event, the ever-compelling Rose Namajunas puts her strawweight title on the line against Carla Esparza, the UFC's inaugural champion in that weight class. In the main event, the great Charles Oliveira faces yet another stiff test in the personage of Justin Gaethje, one of the most devastating strikers on the UFC roster, non-heavyweight division. (Editor's note: this was written before Oliveira's failed weigh-in and the subsequent stripping of his lightweight title. Visit here for all the details on the weigh-in and its implications for UFC 274 and beyond.)

From a fan's perspective, this is a clash of the titans—boxing's biggest star versus one of the best UFC pay-per-view cards the promotion can make. Millions of pay-per-view buys are on the line. (And the prices are steep, with UFC 274 going for $74.99 on ESPN+ and the Canelo main card running $59.99 on streaming service DAZN). There will be no losers among us couch-sitters. 

Let us now take a look at these three monster fights and why they're important on an individual level, much less collectively.

         

UFC 274: The Main Event

Let's start with the UFC. All Gaethje did in his last engagement was wage a Fight of the Year candidate with Bellator's superstar transplant and fellow bomb-thrower Michael Chandler. Gaethje's uppercut is one of his flashier strikes, but 22 percent of his shots went to the legs. That's a high percentage for low kicks, which he fires off with little or no windup. He's right up there with Jose Aldo, Edson Barboza and legendary Vale Tudo wild man Pedro Rizzo among the best leg-kickers in MMA history. 

He also showed an iron chin in absorbing early haymakers from Chandler that would have had a normal fighter staring up at the lights. Gaethje perfectly walks an important line, adding a measured approach to his ultra-violent aggression. 

As for the champion, will this guy ever lose again? Oliveira's win in December over Dustin Poirier was his 10th in a row, a streak that dates to 2017. A rare underdog champion, many thought Oliveira would fall victim to Poirier's short-range power boxing. Poirier had the champ rocked more than once in the opening minutes, but Oliveira gave as good as he got, outlanding Poirier 73-58 in significant strikes—just the third time Poirier had been outstruck in his last 10 contests. 

But the incredibly well-rounded Oliveira still has a bread-and-butter attack. He used his elite jiu-jitsu to drag Poirier to the ground in the third and then after a few attempts got the tapout from backpack position, subbing Poirier with the standing rear-naked choke. The victory padded his UFC record with a 15th submission win under the company banner.

Here's the rub: Oliveira only hits takedowns at a 41 percent clip. Meanwhile, Gaethje's 73 percent takedown defense rate would be tops in the division if his nine UFC opponents hadn't been so reluctant to try that Gaethje hasn't reached the minimum career threshold (20 attempts) for eligibility. 

This is a close one, but I'm leaning toward Gaethje to keep it standing, fire the leg kick and break down Oliveira in the later rounds.

       

UFC 274: Co-Main Event

Namajunas and Esparza are set to wage a contest with plenty of history riding on it.

The first time these two fought in 2014, Esparza overwhelmed Namajunas with pace and pressure, hitting on five of seven takedown attempts en route to more than five minutes of control time and a third-round stoppage by rear-naked choke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsS-jeK9PDM

Namajunas, now 29 and a winner in six of her last seven, including two straight over ex-champ Zhang Weili, is even more evolved now. The champ is eager to even the ledger with the division's first champ, who is on an impressive five-fight win streak of her own after back-to-back losses in 2018 threatened her UFC roster spot.

"I'm carrying my loads of experience with me into the Octagon," Namajunas told Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated. "Knowing how that loss felt, and the mental stress it added on, it made me stronger. ... I want to punch her in the face, take her back, and choke her out. ... That last fight seems like forever ago. We've both improved a lot, and I know I am way better at what I do." 

Esparza's stock in trade is her world-class wrestling. In particular, she is a terror with her takedowns; her 42 successful conversions are tops in UFC strawweight history. She could neutralize Namajunas on the mat or against the chain link, clinging to the champ even when takedown attempts are unsuccessful. If she were to grind out a win, she'd be a two-time champ and a new front-runner for the best UFC women's strawweight ever.

Still, Thug Rose is favored for a reason. She's light on her feet and a creative and deceptively powerful striker from distance, with her kickboxing potentially serving to keep Esparza on the outside. She's been known to throw four-strike combinations and isn't afraid to mix it up inside.

Namajunas also has solid jiu-jitsu and can initiate scrambles, throw up a submission from the bottom or mount striking offense that could keep mat sequences interesting. She's also displayed improved defensive wrestling, stuffing six of 11 takedown attempts in the second bout with Weili.

In the same bout, Namajunas showed improved striking accuracy. She landed 51 percent of her significant strikes. (She landed 50 percent in their first fight, but that only lasted 78 seconds so we won't count it.) In her 2020 win over Jessica Andrade, her striking accuracy was 34 percent; in her 2019 loss to Andrade, it was 44 percent. In her 2018 defeat of Joanna Jędrzejczyk, it was 34 percent. It's not possible to do a perfect apples-to-apples comparison with these kinds of stats in MMA, but this provides a decent general idea. 

I said before that if Esparza wins, she'd have a claim as the strawweight GOAT. If Namajunas wins, there won't be much debate.

         

Canelo: Another One Bites the Dust?

And then, of course, there is Canelo, the Mexican redhead with more belts than a Men's Wearhouse.

News came this week that Canelo—now the undisputed super-middleweight champ by virtue of his WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF titles—turned down higher-profile bouts with Jermall Charlo and Errol Spence Jr., instead opting for Bivol, per Keith Idec of BoxingScene.com. All the more reason to be intrigued by this move up to 175 pounds. 

On paper, it's a weight class Alvarez has no business being in—and if you don't take my word for it, take the word of super-promoter Eddie Hearn. 

"Dmitry Bivol is ... a much bigger physical threat to Canelo Alvarez," Hearn told FightHype (h/t Boxing News 24). "The only way Canelo is going to get beat is to move out of his comfort zone as far as weight divisions. He's already doing that at 175. He shouldn't be fighting at light heavyweight. You know that. This is a guy that has fought at welterweight, 154, and 160 was even big for him at the time. Now 168 and 175." 

Alvarez also won titles at 154 pounds and 160 pounds, so he's proven in multiple weight classes.

Meanwhile, Bivol is the undefeated WBA champ at light heavyweight. But in the same interview, Hearn said Bivol "has never been in a tough fight. He's never been damaged in a fight."

On Saturday, he'll be introduced to both.

Bivol has good defense and sharp punches, and he's a smart fighter. But so is Alvarez. Canelo also has a distinct power advantage, with 39 of his 57 wins coming by stoppage. His movement, particularly his head movement, is hard to deal with and makes him hard to hit.

If Canelo wins Saturday, the plan is to move back down to 168 pounds for a trilogy bout with the legendarily power-handed Gennady Golovkin, perhaps in September. Even with GGG looking a little washy of late, this will be a blockbuster, and Alvarez won't want to do anything to destabilize that matchup. Ergo, he'll be motivated Saturday and wanting to prove his move to 175 pounds was a good one. Watch out, Bivol.

              

Statistics via UFC stats unless otherwise noted.

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