MMA

What the hell happened at UFC Fight Night Tampa?!

SadowolfOctober 15, 2019, 5:30 pm

Greetings, fight fans! A sneakily solid UFC Fight Night card on paper in Tampa, Florida has come to a close, and lived up to the action it promised to provide. There wasn’t much in the way of names on the card, but it appears we’ve set up a potential women’s strawweight title fight, and a couple hype trains went off the rails as two prominent jiu jitsu players-turned-fighters lost their undefeated tags. We got a whopping 14 fights out of this one, so let’s get down to what the hell happened!

The Main Card

Joanna outworks the ‘Karate Hottie’ to a dominant decision; campaigns for title shot

Joanna Jedrzejczyk def. Michelle Waterson by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 49-46)

Jedrzejczyk got out in front right from the start and pretty much never relinquished the lead. Winning consecutive fights at strawweight for the first time since losing her title to Rose Namajunas, Jedrzejczyk turned in a performance that hearkened back to her days on the throne and reminded us of why she dubbed herself the “Boogeywoman” of the UFC. Waterson was game and never stayed content to merely survive, but she was simply overmatched here technically and physically. Joanna lanced her with long punches and chopped at her legs at range, and showed to be the stronger, busier fighter in the clinch, which all but took Waterson’s entire repertoire of weapons away from her.

In her three-fight win streak leading into the fight, Waterson had shown to be much more strategic in her approach to fights, setting up her strikes more and not just barreling into the clinch and looking for head-and-arm throws at ill-advised times. With that, I expected her to spend her time kicking at range a bit more with Jedrzejczyk, but she surprised me by shooting in for a blast double leg early in the fight. She almost got the fight to the ground, but Jedrzejczyk’s balance proved on point, and the fight resumed in the clinch. There she found out just how important the size difference was, and found herself bullied in the clinch with knees to the body and elbows to the head. Once separated she was once again kept mostly at the end of Jedrzejczyk’s leg kicks, teeps, and straight punches, and whenever she did close the distance she’d often be unable to connect and catch counters in the process. She launched kicks of her own, from her usual side kicks to the leg and body, to front and round kicks up top, but even the leg reach disparity seemed to put her at odds with success.

Joanna turned up the heat as the fight went on.

This was essentially rinsed and repeated for the entire fight, and as it went on Jedrzejczyk became more and more confident, putting more power behind her strikes and turning up her volume accordingly. There were a couple bright spots for Waterson when in rounds three and five she managed to get a hold of a waist lock on Jedrzejczyk, drag her down, and hop one her back, and in round three in particular she appeared to almost sink in a rear-naked choke. However, Jedrzejczyk stayed calm to defend, escape, and continue putting on a clinic at distance and in the clinch. She even landed takedowns herself in the third and fourth rounds, and showed how comfortable she was on the ground with Waterson. Throughout the contest Waterson refused to be completely out of the fight, but had little to offer the former champion anywhere.

Joanna’s customary moment of adversity.

You have to feel bad for Waterson here, as she really looked to be pulling her game together prior to this fight. I initially thought it was a mistake for her to force wrestling and clinch exchanges in the fight, but it turned out there really just wasn’t much else she could do. In breaking down this fight it presented one of the rare useful cases of MMA math: Waterson proved that she was essentially a lesser version of Tecia Torres when the two of them fought, and Torres had already been soundly beaten by Jedrzejczyk, so I figured there wasn’t much chance for Waterson to pull off the win here outside of a hail Mary finish. Her hopes of being the first “mom champ” have been dashed, but she’s still got plenty to offer the division, and should square off with Nina Ansaroff next.

Following the win, Jedrzejczyk made her play for a title fight with reigning champion Weili Zhang. While I’m not opposed to that matchup on paper, you have to figure since Tatiana Suarez has such a streak going and is higher in the rankings it makes sense for her to get the next shot as long as she’s ready. However, I could definitely see the UFC going with the bigger name (no pun intended). Either way Jedrzejczyk is back, she managed to make weight with some additional…accessories, and she’s looking determined to get back on top at 115.

Swanson’s veteran savvy halts Gracie’s momentum, shows how useful cross-training can be

Cub Swanson def. Kron Gracie by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

I personally breathed a sigh of relief after the last horn sounded for this fight. Swanson picked up a much needed win to bring an end to a four-fight skid, and it wasn’t an easy one. For most of the fight he used pretty simple, mindful feints, combinations, and footwork to pick Gracie apart and stay out of his grasp to avoid his fearsome grappling. He kept a safe distance, drew out reactions with feints to catch Gracie with counter right hands, landed sporadic leg kicks, and likely discouraged many level change attempts with some pretty crackling body punches and kicks. Earlier on in the fight he stuck mostly to single shots, being sure to circle out of Gracie’s reach after throwing to ensure success. It all showed to really expose Gracie’s lack of technique on the feet. To his credit, his lack of technique didn’t do much to affect his willingness to throw, and he showed impressive toughness in hardly reacting to some of the harder shots Swanson landed.

Kron walked through many of Cub’s hardest shots.

Ultimately he just really didn’t have an answer for the standup other than swarming and landing shots that didn’t appear especially damaging, and he lacked the wrestling ability to drag things to the ground, which is saying a lot since Swanson historically doesn’t have the best takedown defense. He had few chances to show off his vaunted grappling game, but in the brief flashes we saw, Swanson’s own BJJ black belt and overall experience in the sport served him more than well enough to avoid landing in dicey situations and defend any attack Gracie could throw at him on the ground.

And this just in: Gracie thinks he won the fight!

As the fight wore on Swanson appeared to slow down and lapse defensively while Gracie turned up his aggression, landed more strikes, and found it easier to grab a hold of Swanson and clinch with him, but he really wasn’t very successful in the grand scheme of things. Despite looking visibly tired, Swanson’s output actually increased dramatically from round to round. At the end of the second round commentator Brendan Fitzgerald said the strike totals were pretty even up to that point, and it was a prime example of why I don’t put much stock in the live stats; the revised stats show that in terms of significant strikes they were never close after the first round, and Swanson was comfortably ahead not just in terms of numbers, but he also clearly landed the harder shots throughout the fight.

It was a tougher fight than perhaps it even should have been for Swanson, but I do have to give some credit to Gracie just for being tough and never going away, which clearly wore a bit on him at times. As you could guess from my opening line of this segment, I was invested in Swanson winning this fight; not just because I’ve been a big fan of him for so many years, but also because I thought it was pretty lousy that not only did many schools turn him down when he sought training because he was fighting a Gracie, but additionally because Kron’s response to this was to imply that Swanson wouldn’t be in that predicament if he had any team loyalty. It’s an especially silly thing to say in this day, where getting different looks for your training camps welcoming different aspects of training under your belt at different gyms is pretty standard fare in MMA. To outright say that not starting and ending your career with a single team of people and never swaying from that team is some form of betrayal shows a detachment from the reality of the sport that actually isn’t all that uncommon among some of the Gracie clan. It’s also somewhat funny to see a guy barely over 30 extolling the virtues of old warrior clan customs as if he knows what it’s like to live that life. Well hey, maybe this fight will teach him that training outside of your comfort zone can actually be a good thing, and perhaps the unwillingness to do that is why the Gracie family hasn’t produced an enduring talent since dark ages of the sport when being a “BJJ guy” was enough.

It’s great to see Swanson back in the win column after a rough run against high level opponents, but his options from here on still aren’t easy fights. I think next he should take on Andre Fili or Arnold Allen. Gracie clearly wasn’t ready for an opponent on Swanson’s level, so he should probably get an opponent much further down the totem pole. Chris Fishgold or Kyle Bochniak sound like fights that should tell us where he is, and they also may be willing enough participants to give him openings on the ground.

Price kicks a man while he’s down for $50k

Niko Price def. James Vick by KO via up kick (1:44, R1)

Vick thought he was safe in top position, but paid the ultimate price (pun fully intended) while posturing up to land punches. The latest in Vick’s brain cell liquidation tour didn’t come via the typical delivery method, but from an appropriately Niko Price one. As is customary, Price came out the gate aggressively, throwing a heavy leg kick and big hooks to get on the inside. Vick appeared a bit more composed in his new division and managed to keep him away with kicks. Once Price caught one of those kicks and Vick slipped to the ground, Price followed him down and landed a couple sharp elbows before landing punches as Vick rose to his feet. Price immediately tried to take him down with a body lock, but Vick ended up on top landing big punches. Things looked to really be turning around for him when he stood up to posture and land more punches, but just then a thunderous up-kick from the bottom rocked his world. Price essentially axe kicked him from the bottom and his heel landed squarely on Vick’s jaw, putting his lights out right there and causing him to slump down on top of Price, who landed punches to the prone Vick until the fight was stopped. It was a pretty stupendous knockout that coupled with his hammerfist knockout of Randy Brown off of his back, designates him as MMA’s premier power bottom (phrasing!).

This was Vick’s fourth straight loss, with three of those coming by clean knockout. It’s a very tough break for him, but eh, outside of my general concern for the safety of others I don’t really care because he’s a Lloyd Irvin disciple. He may have called Justin Gaethje the Homer Simpson of MMA, but lately he himself has been looking quite a bit like MMA’s Frank Grimes (if you guys are really up on your Simpsons references). Price has some freaky power so I don’t know if Vick’s chin is just as faulty at welterweight, but it’s beginning to look like he just has defensive and durability issues that he can’t overcome.

With Price, I think I might finally be getting a handle on his strengths and limitations, though I do expect him to blow up my analysis sometime in the near future again and score an insane knockout despite being the inferior fighter. Anyhow, I’d actually love to see him fight Mike Perry next just because it’d be awesome. Warlley Alves or Belal Muhammad might be a better choice in terms of rankings. I would be mean and put Vick against someone like Perry or Max Griffin, or just suggest he be cut (which isn’t so much mean as it just kinda makes sense at this point), but I think Bryan Barbarena or Sergio Moraes could be good fights for him.

Ribas pulls off the upset, shuts Dern out

Amanda Ribas def. Mackenzie Dern by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Mackenzie Dern was exposed tonight, and not in the way I’m sure many fans wanted her to be. Similar to what Swanson did two fights later, self-proclaimed white belt in English Ribas showed that the more well-rounded you are, the less belt rankings in any one area tend to matter. Much was made about Ribas being primarily a grappler (and a good one) and how that spelled doom for her with how accomplished a BJJ black belt Dern is. I know that was certainly my thought about the matchup. Well it turned out if you have a big enough advantage in the striking and wrestling department it won’t be so much a problem. Ribas looked sharp on the feet from the start, sliding out of the way of Dern’s wild punches and catching her overextending with hard right hooks. When it comes to striking, Dern is much more willing than she is skilled, and she has been able to find success through having some natural power, but Ribas consistently made her pay for her lack of diversity and speed on the the feet. As such, her single leg attempts lacked setups and were pretty easily shrugged off by Ribas, who landed takedowns of her own in rounds one and two; most notably a judo throw to counter a Dern takedown attempt in round two. Following that takedown, Ribas seemed to willingly put herself in a bad place with Dern quickly getting to guard, but she stayed calm and did as little engaging on the ground as possible until she found an opening to get back to their feet.

Ribas put on a clinic.

There seemed to be a bit of a theme on the card of grapplers being denied and shut down by more well rounded foes because they don’t have the connective tissue present in their skill sets to steer the fight in the direction they want. Dern has typically done fine on the feet just through being aggressive and powerful, but it’s clear that confidence comes off the strength of having her grappling game as a viable backup, and here we saw the limitations she’s plagued with when her opponent is simply better than her everywhere else and isn’t intimidated by her grappling. Ribas was that someone, and between her surprising performances in the cage and entertaining personality outside of it, she might really be someone to look out for. It also helps that she appears to have earned a few belt promotions in English since her last fight. I’d like to see her take on the winner of Virna Jandiroba vs Cortney Casey.

Regardless of how you feel about Dern being overhyped or faking an accent here and there, it’s pretty damn impressive that she fought hard and made weight pretty easily after giving birth just four months ago, and she deserves props for that. She’s been accused of being a bit lazy when it comes to putting the full work into her training, but I don’t think a lot of women would have bounced back from pregnancy the way she did. Her toughness should also be lauded, as she took some hard shots that she mostly ate and fired back. She clearly has work to do, but I wouldn’t call her a bust by any means (well…no pun intended?). I think she should fight Emily Whitmire.

Frevola edges a salty Pena with wrestling

Matt Frevola def. Luis Pena by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Dogged wrestling carried Frevola to a narrow victory in a pretty fun fight here. I didn’t agree with the decision personally, but it all came down to a close opening round where Frevola came out very aggressive swinging wild hooks while Pena looked to counter. A couple slam takedowns definitely gave Frevola good visuals in the round, but the second of those landed him in an awkward position where Pena had him all wrapped up. He tried to slam his way out, and although the commentary said he probably wasn’t in any trouble, it turns out Pena did have intention behind the position, and at one point you could see Frevola wince a bit. Once they returned to the feet Pena got the better of the striking until the horn. It was a close round but Pena probably had the more effective offense in terms of damage delivered.


How dare commentary not recognize a buggy choke when they see it?

Rounds two and three were crystal clear. The second saw Pena rock Frevola with a flush flying knee and send him stumbling backwards. Frevola tried to shoot but Pena punished his endeavor with elbows and a kimura that got pretty close close. Frevola reversed another kimura off a subsequent takedown attempt attempt but ended up nearly locked in a triangle choke, though shortly after he managed to escape and land a big suplex as Pena got to his feet. Pena managed to scramble up and grab a guillotine, which he used to stand and sweep to mount, where he landed a bit of ground and pound before the horn. An easy round for Pena, and a pretty arguable 10-8. Round three was all Frevola, as he found more success on the feet and turned up the pressure while Pena pressured but couldn’t find a target for his strikes. It was a close fight as mentioned, and one where I think Frevola could have done enough to win on points but Pena’s offense had the bigger effect.

Pena did some damage.

When the decision was announced Pena immediately left the cage in a bad display of sportsmanship, but he has to blame himself a bit there. It seems to be engrained in him at this point to just not show the urgency he needs or enact the proper gameplan. When the striking doesn’t work for him he rarely tries to incite grappling exchanges, and instead just continues to strike. If he really tried to tie Frevola up in the final round he might have had a better chance at winning it. Either way it wasn’t a bad performance from either guy, but it’s back to the drawing board for Pena. He could take on Bobby Moffett next. Frevola has some momentum behind him now with two consecutive wins, and I think he should fight the winner of Frank Camacho vs Beneil Dariush.

Anders squeaks by Meerschaert for contentious split

Eryk Anders def. Gerald Meerschaert by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Although he managed to get the win, this fight showed once again just how under-developed and inconsistent Anders still is despite a hot start in the UFC. This fight should have been pretty easy to break down on paper: Anders being the better, more powerful striker, and Meerschaert being the better, more dangerous grappler. If Anders could keep the fight standing, he wins. Anders did keep it standing, and he did win, but it was so much closer on the feet than it needed to be and he very arguably didn’t deserve the decision. His wrestling defense and insistence on not indulging Meerschaert on the ground were certainly positives, but after a solid first round he just sort of froze up strategically when Meerschaert became more aggressive on the feet. He began reaching with his punches and eating counters, and allowed his opponent to dictate the pace of the fight. The round ended with a body kick right before the horn that visibly hurt Anders, but he was able to stay composed from then on.

In the final and deciding round, the action was relatively even for the majority of the time, and both men landed good shots. Anders varied up his attacks a lot more by going to the legs and body, but Meerschaert was able to counter him up top a decent amount. The turning point occurred late in the round when Anders found himself out of position after overextending on a left hand, and got cracked with a counter left hand that caused him to hastily retreat. Meerschaert wasn’t able to do much more damage to him before the horn, but I figured it might be enough to the judges for him to take the round. Apparently not.

As mentioned, the decision was controversial; on MMA Decisions, 13 of 15 media outlets scored the fight for Meerschaert. However, I do think it belies how close the fight was minute-to-minute. I thought the third round could have gone either way until Anders was caught with that left hand late, and although there isn’t the strongest argument for it, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that someone could have Anders up enough in that round to give it to him despite that. The second round is different though, and judge Michelle Olney somehow thought Anders won it. Even moderately competent judging would have given Meerschaert the split, and that’s what’s really unfortunate about this decision.

Not that I had any real high hopes for Anders anyway, but at this point I really don’t see him developing into any type of fighter that can rise much further up the rankings. He’s going to win some, and he’s going to lose some, but he’ll probably never do enough winning to make a splash again. He should fight the winner of Deron Winn vs Darren Stewart or Karl Roberson vs Roman Kopylov. Meerschaert should fall much in the rankings for this loss, and I think Zak Cummings would make for an interesting style matchup.

The Prelims

Mike Davis def. Thomas Gifford by KO via strikes (4:45, R3)

This fight was a bit tough to watch, and an unacceptable display by referee Andrew Glenn and especially Gifford’s corner, which included is own father. It was so bad that the Florida commission apparently agreed and removed Glenn from the rest of his duties for the card. Gifford was completely outclassed from early on, and what began as a shocking and impressive display of toughness quickly devolved into an unnecessary, gratuitous display of violence that should have been stopped before Gifford had to be shut off. In fact, when they cut to commercial following the second round, I fully expected them to return to programming with the fight having been waved off by the referee or the corner. I can’t blame Davis for it at all; it’s his job to fight until the ref says otherwise. I can’t even put full blame on the ref, as Gifford was at least moving and trying to fight back, even if it was clear he was just going to take more damage and was unlikely to score a comeback. I’m most disappointed with his corner, who should really be considering his safety first and foremost. It was clear to anyone watching that Gifford just didn’t have the tools to turn that fight around and Davis was showing no signs of slowing down; that’s when it’s time to let your fighter live to fight another day. And what’s more ridiculous? Gifford, a devout Christian, appeared to justify all the damage he took post-fight by comparing it to the lashes taken by Jesus. Okay…

For he so cared about our entertainment, he gave his only chin.

What’s also unfortunate is that this completely overshadows Davis’ performance, which was pretty fantastic. Despite moving up a division on four days’ notice, Davis’ conditioning looked great and he threw crisp, powerful combinations with impressive speed. Gifford was more or less a punching bag the entire fight. He showed no head movement, stood up tall, and remained on the centerline when striking; he was basically a sitting duck for everything Davis threw at him and couldn’t really offer anything up besides weak, off-balance strikes, unathletic takedown attempts, and the odd Imanari roll. All of this was easily thwarted by Davis, and his own wrestling background allowed him to score two easy takedowns himself. After two rounds of beating the hell out of Gifford to the point where he could barely stand, a big right hand finally put Gifford away, causing him to violently collapse to the canvas face-down. A highlight reel knockout no doubt, but one that we probably shouldn’t have been able to see in the first place.

Ryan Spann def. Devin Clark by submission via standing guillotine choke (2:01, R2)

It was an odd performance from Spann, but he got it done. His calm, lethargic demeanor was in stark contrast to Clark’s, who was spring-loaded to lunge forward for takedowns and combinations at all times. In a bit of foreshadowing, Clark’s first takedown was met with a Spann guillotine attempt that looked somewhat tight before he was able to escape. However, most of the fight saw Clark having success with his strikes while Spann mostly threw out lazy jabs and not much else. Just when I wondered if Spann realized it was okay for him to actually throw punches, he sprung to life and backed Clark up to the cage with a flurry of heavy punches, and while Clark leaned to avoid the shots, Spann immediately wrapped his neck up with another guillotine. Clark dropped down to try and escape, but the choke was too tight and he was forced to tap. It seems like every time Spann fights the commentary treats him like a striker, but he’s shown some sneaky good grappling and most of his wins come by way of tap out.

Deiveson Figueiredo def. Tim Elliott by submission via guillotine choke (3:08, R1)

Aside from his one misstep against top flyweight Jussier Formiga, Figueiredo has been sterling in the UFC. Elliott has been quite a tough out for some of the best flyweights in the world, and it says something about just how tight the guillotine was to be able to get a tap out of him so quickly. Early on it looked like Elliott’s wild, unorthodox style made Figueiredo a bit tentative, as he found himself fending off takedowns and absorbing strikes often without firing back in return. However, when he did it was clear who had more force behind their strikes. The end came when Elliott lunged in for a takedown, but left his neck open enough for Figueiredo to quickly lock in an arm in guillotine. It was immediately tight and Elliot couldn’t fight it long before tapping out. It appeared Figueiredo held the choke a bit too long, which rightfully enraged Elliott, but he was quick to apologize and express that it was accidental. Following the fight Figueiredo called out flyweight champion Henry Cejudo, but with talk of him vacating the title I think it would make sense to re-book Figueiredo against Joseph Benavidez for the vacant title. Otherwise he should wait for Cejudo vs Benavidez.

Alex Morono def. Max Griffin by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-27)

This was another in a card full of solid fights, as Morono and Griffin threw down for three rounds. I initially missed the first round of the fight, but after watching it I was a bit surprised that there weren’t more draws or scorecards for Griffin since it was a close round, but I could see how Morono’s volume was favored over Griffin’s accuracy. Round two was mostly in favor of Griffin until a sneaky dipping left head kick at the end of a combination caught Griffin flush moving off to his right and dropped him. Displays of toughness seemed to be another theme for the night, and Griffin’s was maybe the most impressive because not only did he take a lot of punishment after that kick and still fight back despite being badly rocked for the last 40 seconds of the round, he jogged to his corner following the round and then came out for the third looking no worse for wear and handily won it with by switching gears to wrestling. He landed four takedowns and got the best of the striking in the final stanza, which was very impressive considering he was close to being stopped just the round prior. That he had the cardio to fight the way he did in the third was also admirable, especially since he’s a pretty heavily muscled welterweight. I’ve been a fan of Griffin since his days in Tachi Palace, and even though a head kick separated him from a victory here, he put on a solid performance.

Marlon Vera def. Andre Ewell by TKO via strikes (3:17, R3)

Vera has sneakily put together one of the more impressive recent resumes in the bantamweight division. His five consecutive victories are tied for the longest active winning streak in the division, and all have come via finish, which ties him for the longest active finishing streak in the UFC. His seven total finishes are tied for second at 135 lbs. Granted, he hasn’t been facing top flight competition like those he shares the records with, but it’s laudable nonetheless. Here he had his difficulties with Ewell’s deceptively long reach in the first two rounds, which he responded to by throwing many kicks at distance, but in the final round he turned up the aggression and coupled with Ewell’s gas tank starting to empty, he started to really take over the fight.

“Chito” knows when to turn it up.

One such flurry against the cage caused Ewell to duck into a guillotine, which Vera used to trip him to the ground, where he teed off on his tired foe with left hands until the referee intervened. In a way it was a textbook Vera performance, where he has a bit of trouble getting into his groove early but goes on to display just how skilled he is at adapting and breaking his opponents down the stretch. It’s time for him to take a step up into the top 15 against Yadong Song or Rob Font.

Miguel Baeza def. Hector Aldana by TKO via strikes (2:32, R2)

I do enjoy a good finish brought on by leg kicks, and Baeza must have seen something in studying Aldana because it was probably the perfect gameplan to beat him. Aldana didn’t check or avoid a single leg kick and they started to take their toll early. He did enjoy one brief moment of success when he appeared to stun Baeza with a counter right hand late in the opening round, but he wasn’t able to capitalize on it. In the second round Aldana unwisely decided to try and match leg kicks with Baeza, which just led to his lead leg continuing to be blasted. It was a matter of time before they did him in, and after a couple that he attempted to catch, he fell to the ground in pain clearly not wanting to continue, but Baeza landed punches and elbows anyway until the referee saw fit to stop the contest. It appears Aldana just isn’t UFC material, but Baeza also looked like a talent to keep an eye on out there.

Marvin Vettori def. Andrew Sanchez by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Vettori continues to improve noticeably from fight-to-fight and show that his competitive performance against new undisputed middleweight king Israel Adesanya was no fluke. Additionally this was just a bit of a nightmare matchup for Sanchez. Vettori is an aggressive, well-rounded, tireless fighter who can push a furious pace for 15 minutes, while the story of Sanchez’s UFC tenure has been the need to manage his cardio since he had a bad habit of expending too much energy in the first half of the fight and falling apart late. It also didn’t help that Vettori was the bigger, stronger, harder hitter, and had the defensive wrestling to prevent Sanchez from falling back on the strongest aspect of his game. Sanchez actually did fairly well to manage his cardio while still throwing quite a bit of volume, but he was just outgunned here and couldn’t find his range against a better striker with so many physical advantages over him.

JJ Aldrich def. Lauren Mueller by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

This fight actually played out closer than I thought it would for the first couple rounds, including a good round two for Mueller in which she landed the better strikes and convincingly won it. However, in the third round Aldrich’s clear technical advantage started shining through. Her striking is more crisp and she’s more composed than Mueller, and eventually found it easier and easier to simply pull counter Mueller’s big right hand attempts with stiff 1-2s and 3-2s. It was a good effort by Mueller but ultimately she was slightly out of her depth here against a more seasoned opponent.

Whew! And that was UFC Fight Night Tampa! As much as I love this sport I could do without 14-fight cards, though the pacing for this one was pretty solid. There was actually a ton of non-UFC action this weekend that I’d love to talk about, but this is already so long that I’ll just say that this happened:

Next up we have the rare Friday event where Chris Weidman makes his light heavyweight debut against undefeated prospect Dominick Reyes at UFC on ESPN 6. Hopefully I don’t come out of that one with a broken heart. But regardless, sado out!

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SadowolfOctober 15, 2019, 5:30 pm

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