What mattered most at UFC on ESPN 47 in Las Vegas? Here are a few post-fight musings …
3
Kevin Lee's disastrous return
Things couldn’t have gone much worse for Kevin Lee in his return to the UFC after nearly two years away.
We all knew the matchmakers didn’t give Lee (19-8 MMA, 11-8 UFC) an easy one to come back to against Rinat Fakhretdinov (21-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC), but boy, it turned out even worse than many predicted.
Lee, who looked quite nervous from the moment he stepped in the cage, got whacked with a massive shot just moments into the featured welterweight prelim bout. He was badly hurt, then Fakhretdinov choked him out cold, leaving Lee lifeless on the mat in a somewhat disturbing manner.
It all happened in a matter of 55 seconds, which proved to be the quickest of Lee’s eight career losses.
Sadly, this probably showed the ceiling and status of this second UFC stint for Lee. He said at media day that he wanted to show his “real potential” in this run after falling short of expectation in his first tenure inside the octagon.
I’ll hold out for one more fight before giving a full indictment on Lee, but if he’s getting handled this decisively by an unranked opponent – though Fakhretdinov is obviously a pro problem at 170 pounds going forward – then it’s hard to fathom him consistently beating the best in this division. But I genuinely hope he proves me wrong.
2
Gobble up the Grant Dawson stock
Someone who is living up to their potential with each performance is Grant Dawson, who got his most noteworthy win to do date with a lopsided unanimous decision over a very tough Damir Ismagulov.
It’s now a nine-fight unbeaten streak for Dawson (20-1-1 MMA, 8-0-1 UFC) to begin his UFC tenure, which is an extremely under appreciated run. Only eight others fighters in the history of the company have opened their UFC career in that manner, and the majority of that group are some of the all-time greats in the sport.
I’m not claiming Dawson is going to make it to those heights, but I’m also not going to say it’s impossible. The 29-year-old from American Top Team has all the tools to do great things in the sport, it’s just a matter of whether the many variables that lead to that type of career success will all come together.
The UFC lightweight division is one of the most talent-rich in the sport, and only the strongest make it to the very top and survive. Dawson appears capable of not only being able to survive, but thrive in that environment. We’ll see how far he can take it, but I, for one, am all aboard his hype train.
1
Sean Strickland's place in the title picture
Sean Strickland did what he does best in the main event and matched forward throwing punches at Abus Magomedov until he finally couldn’t take it any more and crumbled for a second-round TKO.
This performance from Strickland (27-5 MMA, 14-5 UFC) wasn’t anything glaringly outside the norm. He had his normal approach, but the difference is this time had an opponent who was a step down in competition from the constant stream of elite names he’s faced in recent years.
That is not a disrespect to Magomedov (25-5-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC), either. However, there were many who questioned his placement in this headlining role, and Strickland proved he didn’t belong at this stage of his career.
The upside, though, is the matchmaking gave Strickland a chance to shine, and deliver a win that set up him to ask for a middleweight title shot against Israel Adesanya. And quite frankly, I don’t think it’s out of the question.
Before that statement frazzles you, let me be clear: Strickland absolutely does not deserve to jump ahead of the Robert Whittaker vs. Dricus Du Plessis winner from UFC 290, which is now just days away at International Fight Week in Las Vegas.
The only circumstance in which Strickland would get a shot ahead of Whittaker or Du Plessis would be for injury or availability-related reasons. If the winner of that fight can’t go vs. Adesanya at UFC 293 on Sept. 9 in Sydney, then Strickland should be the promotion’s first phone call.
Would Strickland have a chance to dethrone Adesanya? It would be a stiff task for him. He presents a fresh challenger to the champ, though, and also would make the build to the fight an intriguing one.
This situation will have much more clarity in the next few days, but for now, Strickland did about as much as he possibly could to help his case.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 47.
