What mattered most at UFC on ESPN 44 in Kansas City, Mo.? Here are a few post-fight musings …
5
The ultra-rare double retirement
The light heavyweight prelim bout between Zak Cummings and Ed Herman ended in one of the more emotionally charged moments in recent memory as, for the first time, two opponents both took off their gloves and decided to retire in the octagon.
It was a unique scene. From the Kansas City crowd giving hometown fighter Cummings (25-8 MMA, 10-4 UFC) all the support he could want and more with a raucous applause, to Cummings’ daughter entering the octagon and bringing him to tears during his interview, to Herman (26-16 MMA, 13-12 UFC) taking off the gloves and shedding his own tears, and both men embracing in the center of the cage. It was perfect. All of it.
This sport ultimately is all about the moments. Cummings and Herman made one to remember. Coming into the fight they were just opponents who were randomly matched up in the mix of lower-tier 205-pound fighters. Cummings is 38, and Herman is 42. This fight meant nothing in the grand scheme of the sport, but individually it was truly significant, and now they share a bond for life.
They also exit having left a mark on the sport, however minor it may seem. Herman was the longest-tenured fighter on the roster prior to his retirement, going all the way back to his debut at The Ultimate Fighter 3 Finale in June 2006. Cummings, for his part, joined the exclusive club of fighters to hold UFC wins in three divisions.
4
Clay Guida's post-fight retirement prank backfires
"You're faking your retirement so you can say f*cking happy birthday to somebody?": Dana White was not thrilled by Clay Guida's swerve.#UFCKansasCity | Full video: https://t.co/IewEVgzqV0 pic.twitter.com/Rkc9EXL8dN
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) April 16, 2023
In the aftermath of the Cummings vs. Herman double retirement, which was followed by a semi-fake retirement from Bill Algeo, a veteran move was turned in by Clay Guida as he figured out how to get the microphone in the octagon despite a one-sided loss to Rafa Garcia.
The longtime UFC veteran Guida (38-23 MMA, 18-17 UFC) had his face bloodied and bruised by Garcia over the course of three rounds in the lightweight division. “The Carpenter” offered little on this night, but during the decision announcement he took off his gloves, prompting Daniel Cormier to speak with him after Garcia’s post-fight interview.
Guida pulled out the pump-fake and hinted at retirement, but said he’s not done yet and used the time to wish his mother happy birthday, send a message to a 10-year-old child in the crowd that’s dealing with medical issues, and more.
The sneakiness of the moment was kind of funny – unless you’re UFC president Dana White, who admits the move agitated him quite a bit. Guida’s probably near the tail end of his UFC tenure regardless, but his little stunt will put second thoughts into the minds of the UFC production team when future fighters peel off the gloves in the cage.
3
Edson Barboza is still pure violence
Nearly 13 years after making his UFC debut, Edson Barboza is still here adding to his remarkable highlight reel inside the cage.
Ranking all Barboza (23-11 MMA, 17-11 UFC) finishes is a nearly impossible task, but his perfectly timed counter step-in knee that left Billy Quarantillo face first on the mat in the opening round of their featherweight co-headliner was nothing short of brilliant.
At 37, Barboza is still capable of doing that to anyone when he’s firing on all cylinders. The Brazilian is in absurdly good shape after all this time and even claimed post-fight he’s never been more fit. That’s insane to think about, but now that he’s six fights into his 145-pound tenure and has the weight cut down after spending the entirety of his career at lightweight before, he’s probably right.
The question is: Can Barboza use whatever time he has left at the highest level to accomplish more than he has already? Despite all this time and a resume that includes signature wins over the likes of Beneil Dariush, Anthony Pettis, Bobby Green, and Dan Hooker, it’s been a repeat occurrence that Barboza fails to get over the hump. He’s never managed to secure himself that title opportunity.
The odds aren’t exactly in his favor to do it now, especially as the featherweight division only gets deeper in talent and he only gets older. But if Barboza keeps knocking people out like he did Quarantillo, the UFC matchmakers will certainly give him a chance.
2
Arnold Allen's beneficial loss
If you talked to Arnold Allen and his team today, there probably wouldn’t be much positivity about the result of his main event with Max Holloway. He didn’t accomplish his goal of a win, but this very much feels like a situation where in the end, we’ll all look at this as a fight where Allen took one step back to take two steps forward.
Would Allen (19-2 MMA, 10-1 UF)C have loved to beat Holloway to push his unblemished UFC record to 11-0 and lock himself up a title shot against the winner of the UFC 290 unification bout between Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez? Of course. But all is not lost just because this opportunity slipped away.
The confidence should be high that Allen will get another chance at some point in the future, so long as he digests what happened against Holloway in a healthy and productive manner. Having interviewed and covered Allen for the better part of a decade at this point, it would be a surprise if he didn’t handle it that way.
Allen was able to stand and exchange with one of the most decorated strikers in UFC history for five rounds and keep it fairly competitive. That’s something of a moral victory he can parlay into his career going forward, and at just 29, he will take it into what should be his prime years.
1
Can Max Holloway get back to the title?
While Max Holloway sent Allen home with a lesson, he offered the rest of the world a reminder that he’s still large and in charge of (most of) the featherweight division. More often than not, any contender who wants a title shot with Volkanovski is going to have to go through him, which is a monumental task.
Holloway (24-7 MMA, 20-7 UFC) vanquished another surging contender with a unanimous decision over Allen in their main event clash, and now he once again finds himself stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The pecking order of the UFC featherweight division is quite clear at this point. Volkanovski is at the top, Holloway is just beneath him, then there’s a wide (albeit shortening) gap down until everyone else. If Holloway and Volkanovski keep winning, it’s only a matter of time until the conversation about them doing a fourth fight is all too real to ignore.
Is there reason to believe the outcome would be different from the one-sided loss Holloway took in July to fall to 0-3 in their series? Maybe not yet, but things change in an instant in this sport.
The game changer for Holloway would be that Rodriguez, whom he holds a win over, beats Volkanovski at UFC 290 to open up the door to a title shot. However, even Holloway said himself that it would only be fair for Volkanovski to get an immediate rematch if he loses the title. So that puts a potential title fight even further in the distance for him.
But it doesn’t seem Holloway or his new management team with Tim Simpson at Chosen Advisory Group are particularly stressed about his position. He got this fight with Allen, set the groundwork for a next fight against Chan Sung Jung, then we’ll see how it all plays out from there. He’s still only 31, and his ability to practice patience is key.
It’s definitely a unique situation Holloway finds himself in, but if anyone is capable of handling this type of purgatory, it’s “Blessed.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 44.
