What mattered most from a stacked weekend of combat sports that included Bellator 294 and Bellator 295 in Hawaii, UFC Fight Night 222 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas a big-time boxing match in “Sin City”? Here are a few post-fight musings …
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5
Bellator avoids disaster at women's flyweight
A busy weekend of combat opened with Bellator 294 on Friday in Hawaii. The card was originally to be headlined by a women’s flyweight title rematch between Liz Carmouche and DeAnna Bennett. The was until Bennett missed weight for the fight, and in turn, cost herself a chance to win the belt.
The bout proceeded, with only Carmouche taking the risk of putting the gold on the line. But given she’d already beaten Bennett before and has been in good form since joining the promotion, she was a heavy favorite and expected to dominate.
Bennett nearly spoiled the plot, though, because she went up 3-0 on the scorecards going into the fourth round in an unexpectedly strong performance. Needless to say, Bennett winning would not be the ideal outcome for Bellator. The title would’ve become vacant and doing a trilogy with Carmouche would be the next step, but then you risk Bennett – who is a serial weight misser at this point – derailing another fight by coming in heavy.
Thankfully for the Bellator brass, Carmouche (19-7 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) saved the day and avoided that crisis when she finished the fight with an arm-triangle choke late in Round 4. And for the stability of the division, that’s what the promotion needed to happen.
4
Replay review proves effective in Green vs. Gordon
Much to the dismay of Bobby Green, the evolution of both MMA and all of sports cost him a victory and his win bonus against Jared Gordon at UFC Fight Night 222 on Saturday. The advancement of rules and technology now allow us to see things we couldn’t before, and it was clear as day Green’s knockout of Gordon stemmed from a clash of heads.
Green (29-15-1 MMA, 10-9-1 UFC) might not like it – and he made it quite clear in his brief post-fight interview that he did not – but plain and simple: This was the right call. There needs to be some level of law and order in the octagon to maintain the perception MMA is a legitimate sport, and using things like replay review when available is what keeps it in the confines of that.
Do I believe Green intentionally tried to headbutt Gordon? No. He has more than 40 fights on his resume and has no history of such conduct. It’s just an unfortunate moment that happened in the flow of the fight, and although I feel bad for Green that he doesn’t get his win money, I’m also happy for Gordon that he didn’t get screwed into another unjust defeat as he did in December with his robbery loss to Paddy Pimblett.
3
Sergei Pavlovich strikes fear again at heavyweight
Sergei Pavlovich made more history in the UFC Fight Night 222 main event. He extended his own record for most consecutive first-round knockouts when he halted Curtis Blaydes, and if there were any lingering questions about his legitimacy, this answered many of them.
Sure, we could’ve seen more. Blaydes (17-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) only pushed one half-hearted takedown attempt and had a very high-risk game plan, but Pavlovich (17-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) stuffed that one attempt and made Blaydes pay on the feet with a historic finish.
We’ve long thought of Francis Ngannou as the most terrifying heavyweight in UFC history, but Pavlovich is making a serious case for himself. No other fighter in modern UFC history has ever recorded six consecutive first-round knockouts, and Pavlovich has done it against largely legit competition, with his most recent four being Blaydes, Tai Tuivasa, Derrick Lewis and Shamil Abdurakhimov.
There’s a level between those names and what’s to come, though. If Pavlovich gets the next shot, he is facing the winner of Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic, who have an entirely different level of credentials to what Pavlovich has faced so far. If he could somehow do to either one of those men what he’s done to his recent opponents, the conversation around Pavlovich hits a different stratosphere.
Given how he’s looked, too, it’s impossible to write off his chances of hurting and sleeping anyone – and that includes who many believe to be the GOAT in Jones.
2
Gervonta Davis backs up his words and adds to his hype
"He said it and he did it": Twitter reacts to Gervonta Davis' body shot KO of Ryan Garcia#DavisGarcia | Full story: https://t.co/ZTE0J6rTnRpic.twitter.com/Q8Ac1bM4WU
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) April 23, 2023
Gervonta Davis added more credence to the notion that he is leading the charge for the next generation of boxing stars when he put away Ryan Garcia with a body shot knockout on Saturday in Las Vegas.
After Davis and Garcia worked together to assemble a fight many in the boxing world believed wouldn’t materialize, they finally got in the ring at T-Mobile Arena. It was a bit of brilliance for “Tank,” who knocked his opponent down in the second round before finishing it with a body shot in the seventh round – the exact frame he predicted the fight would end.
Davis is the real deal in the ring and has a personality that draws intrigue, as well. He’s obviously got some issues outside of competition that he needs to address – one of which could see him sitting in a jail cell in the near future – but if he can get through all that in a positive manner, the sky appears to be the limit.
In my opinion, it’s too soon to label Davis as the face of boxing, which he claimed in the ring during his post-fight interview. There’s still others in the space such as Canelo Alvarez and Tyson Fury who would object to that notion, but Davis is doing his work, and beating Garcia was another step in the right direction.
1
Patchy Mix delivers highlight of weekend with $1 million knee
After consuming hours of combat sports throughout the weekend from Bellator, UFC and boxing, the final fight on a busy docket provided the most violent and memorable result of them all.
Patchy Mix landed one of the all-time great knee knockouts in MMA history on Saturday when he connected clean on the chin of Raufeon Stots in the Bellator 295 main event to claim the interim bantamweight title and win the $1 million eight-man grand prix.
He needed just 80 seconds to do it, too, and as a result Mix (18-1 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) completed a strong tournament run that included Stots, Magomed Magomedov and Kyoji Horiguchi. It was incredibly impressive, to the point Mix inserted himself in the conversation about who is really the best bantamweight in the world.
This discussion seems to come up a lot more frequently these days with Bellator champions and comparisons to their UFC counterparts. Sometimes it’s a valid conversation, other times it’s not. In the case of Mix, it’s worthy entertaining, at least, but the UFC’s 135-pound weight class is beyond ridiculously stacked, so I’m not going to disrespect the high degree of difficulty and put Mix in high pole position just yet.
I would be much more comfortable labeling Mix as the top bantamweight in Bellator, though, and he will get the chance to prove it against the winner of Sergio Pettis and Patricio Freire, both of whom I would favor Mix to beat.
For now, though, he can be proud of the fact he dismantled his way through the grand prix, has a vicious highlight for his reel and is $1 million richer.
