What mattered most at UFC Fight Night 224 at the The 02 in London? Here are a few post-fight musings …
A long slog in London
UFC Fight Night 224 was the longest non-PPV event of the year so far, and it felt every bit as such as it played out. This wasn’t the promotion’s best offering on paper, and save for a few high points on the tail-end of the event, it turned out to be far from memorable.
You know the situation isn’t great when a fight gets bumped from the prelims to the main card in the midst of the event because of timing issues. A plethora of decision results on the undercard of the 15-fight lineup caused the prelim broadcast to run over time, which is far from ideal.
The 15-fight shows simply are too much to put viewers through. It’s a marathon for people both in the venue and at home, especially when the fights play out in an underwhelming fashion. I get why UFC constructs 15-fight cards. There’s always the chance two or three fights fall out in the final days then you’re left with a standard number of fights. None of that happened this time and we ended up with the full slate, and watching it all felt more like a punishment than a gift.
Paul Craig arrives at middleweight
Despite the criticism about this event above, there were a few worthwhile talking points from the evening, really starting with Paul Craig.
Craig (17-6-1 MMA, 9-6-1 UFC), who is tied for the most submission victories in UFC light heavyweight history, dropped to middleweight for the first time in his career, and the result left us all wondering why he didn’t make the move much sooner.
The Scotsman dismantled jiu-jitsu standout Andre Muniz on the mat for a second-round TKO, and introduced himself to the 185-pound division in the best way possible.
There’s understandably some excitement around Craig and his ability to make noise at this weight class. His skillset and fighting style is unique and largely effective, but as we saw multiple times at 205 pounds, when he runs into an opponent who can stifle his grappling, some serious challenges arise.
Evolving his striking will always be an essential part of Craig’s growth, but he’s never going to move far from his bread and butter. Perhaps dropping down 20 pounds with his gigantic frame will swing more advantages in his favor and he’ll be able to overcome the hurdles he’s encountered in the past, but only time will tell if and when they share the octagon.
Molly McCann's massive fumble
First and foremost, credit to Julija Stoliarenko. She was positioned as a gimme opponent for Molly McCann to rebound against following her lopsided loss to Erin Blanchfield in November, and refused to accept that role.
Instead, Stoliarenko (11-7-2 MMA, 2-5 UFC) came out ultra-aggressive to start the women’s flyweight bout, put McCann (13-6 MMA, 6-5 UFC) in positions to make mistakes, then capitalized with a first-round armbar finish. It was easily the biggest moment of her career, and a potentially career-changing moment for someone who has previously won just one of six UFC appearances.
It was career-changing for McCann, as well, but in the reverse effect. In theory this was a layup fight for her to shine in, and she totally duffed it. Any of the momentum she had on her side following a three-fight winning streak in 2021-2022 is gone, and it’ll be tough for the 33-year-old to get it back.
Maybe McCann will use this defeat as a motivator to turn a corner of some sort, but that feels like a very optimistic perspective in the immediate aftermath of the result. It’ll be interesting to see how she handles it all, because while she’s certainly a well-known commodity for the UFC in comparison to much of its roster, losing fights in this manner quickly diminishes that shine.
Is Tom Aspinall bound for the title? And will Jon Jones be there?
Tom Aspinall returned to action after a year away due to injury and picked up right where he left off prior to his fight with Curtis Blaydes at this time last year.
Aspinall (13-3 MMA, 6-1 UFC) was tearing through the heavyweight division before a freak injury against Blaydes led to his first octagon defeat, forced him to get surgery and keep away from competition for 12 months. It’s always unpredictable to see how a fighter comes back after such a traumatic moment, but Aspinall passed the test and answered all the questions in the most resounding way possible.
It took him just 73 seconds to torch Marcin Tybura for the first-round TKO, after which Aspinall made his plans going forward very clear. He wants the winner of September’s UFC Paris main event between Ciryl Gane and Serghei Spivac, then after that wants his “dream fight” with Jon Jones (assuming he defends against Stipe Miocic at UFC 295 in November).
That sounds pretty awesome, in theory, but of course there has to be a lot of breaks in his favor. The major one of them being Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) wins against Miocic then decides NOT to retire from MMA, which he’s alluded to. Jones responded to Aspinall’s post-fight comments with a brief Twitter post, and that’s a huge win for the Brit.
Perhaps Aspinall will be able to lure Jones away from retirement to fight him, but it’s really hard to know what will happen. On one hand, Jones’ legacy is set without a fight against Aspinall. On the other hand, adding a name like Aspinall, who is widely regarded as the next generation of great heavyweights, to his resume, to just further solidify him as the MMA GOAT.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 224.
