UFC 272 went down Saturday night at T-Mobile arena in the fight capital of the world. It was a bit of an odd card with no championship belts on the line. Usually the UFC does not attempt to sell pay-per-views without title fights unless a marquis attraction like Brock Lesnar or Conor McGregor is involved. While neither Jorge Masvidal or Colby Covington qualify as such, their headlining bout was promoted as a grudge match between former best friends and teammates at the famed American Top Team. Covington dominated this matchup primarily with his wrestling, with Masvidal briefly making things interesting in the fourth round. The following is a recap of the main card fights.
Sergey Spivak Destroys Greg Hardy
The UFC’s curious obsession with Greg Hardy continued with his placement at the front of the main card. Hardy has now lost three straight fights by TKO in high profile spots. He also lost via first round TKO at UFC 264: Poirier vs McGregor. And he was the opening act to the main card of a UFC Fight Night event where he lost via TKO to Marcin Tybura in the second round.
Hardy was always going to be a polarizing figure in the MMA world, almost completely to the negative, considering his shameful domestic violence history. Despite his lack of success in the UFC, the promotion has continued to trot him out against relatively big names in the heavyweight division. The Moldovan “Polar Bear” Spivak is not yet a high profile heavyweight, but his stock surely will rise after this performance.
Regarding the particulars, Hardy did next to nothing in this fight save for landing a few decent low kicks early in the first round. When Spivak decided to take down the much larger and stronger Hardy, he made quick work of the attempt when he transitioned from a single leg attempt and tossed the former NFL lineman over his hip. Spivak immediately went to work landing a nice short left hand from top half guard. Hardy actually did a decent job working his way back to the feet after about 30 seconds but Spivak quickly took his man back down and advanced to mount. From mount, Spivak smashed Hardy with four or five hammer fists to secure the finish.
Kevin Holland Makes Successful UFC Welterweight Debut Against Cowboy Oliveira
Kevin “Trailblazer” Holland has to be one of the more entertaining fighters on the UFC roster. Big Mouth loves to talk trash in the Octagon and is famous for his good sense of humor and engagement with fans and fighters outside of the Octagon. Holland had fought all of his previous UFC bouts at Middleweight and struggled against good wrestlers. Shifting to his more natural weight class at 170, Holland took out UFC veteran Charles “Cowboy” Oliveira.
Oliveira opened well in the first round. He landed a hard outside low kick and, while Holland had some success with low kicks in the first round, Oliveira had success with well-timed counterpunches to Holland’s kicks. Oliveira was able to score an early takedown, but Holland quickly worked his way back to standing. The end of the opening frame featured some of the best action of the night as both combatants landed hard blows as they decided to throw down. Late in the round, Cowboy dropped Big Mouth with a low kick and attempted a rear naked choke which was well defended by Holland.
With Oliveira very likely winning the first round, Holland opened the second frame with a low kick that hurt Oliveira. Holland then hammered Oliveira with a short right hand that dropped the tough veteran Cowboy. Big Mouth then went to work quickly securing the finish with a series of alternating punches and hammer fists. The end came at 0:38 of Round 2.
Bryce Mitchell Uses His Wrestling to Dominate Edson Barboza
In another classic tale of striker vs grappler, the grapplers added one more mark to their win column. In reality, there’s not a whole lot to write about for this fight. It was reminiscent of Barboza’s total beatdown at the hands of the legendary Khabib Nurmagomedov. When Barboza gets his kicks working and mixes his strikes well with his hands, he can be a holy terror in a cage fight. Just ask poor Terry Etim. Or Shane Burgos for a more recent example.
But young “Thug Nasty” Bryce Mitchell wasn’t having it as he took down Junior Barboza in every round and worked effective ground and pound.
Raphael Dos Anjos and Renato Moicano Put on Real Fight of the Night
The UFC saw fit to award the main event as the “Fight of the Night” but Dos Anjos and Moicano should have been awarded that honor (and bonus money) for their efforts in the co-main event. Dos Anjos is at an interesting point in his career as he makes his third run at UFC gold. The former lightweight king is now 37 and it is fair to question whether he can return to the top of the UFC’s deepest division after his run at Welterweight. But Dos Anjos is a true MMA fighter, dangerous anywhere the fight might take place and is a true OG in the MMA game.
Moicano should rightly be lauded for his willingness to take this fight on five days notice. He should also be praised for his ability to withstand an incredible amount of punishment in this fight, only to land a big knee and several hard punches that nearly turned this bout into an all-time classic comeback.
The last round started with referee Marc Goddard warning Moicano that he had thirty seconds to turn it around or have the fight stopped. Goddard is one of the best referees, if not the best, in the business. Many in the MMA community will likely echo the fight commentators by saying this fight should have been stopped by Moicano’s corner. Whatever the merits of that argument, Moicano displayed incredible heart in this fight. His stock will certainly rise with the UFC and its legion fans.
Dos Anjos ended his post-fight interview by saying he wished that Masvidal would win the main event and that the two could then fight for the phony BMF belt. Well, Masvidal is no longer a top BMF and Dos Anjos should be looking to Islam Makhachev if he is serious about reclaiming lightweight gold.
Colby Covington Dominates Masvidal
It was billed as an all-time grudge match. There was the predictable trash talk in the lead up. But when the fight happened, Covington used his wrestling to fairly easily put this one to bed. Masvidal, however, should be credited for having some moments, particularly his nifty right hook that snapped Covington’s head sideways and dropped him to one knee late in the fourth round. But Covington recovered in a flash, and a gassed Masvidal was too tired to take advantage of any lingering danger Covington may have been in.
The fight statistics tell much of the story in this fight. Covington was credited with 218 significant strikes to Street Jesus’s 90. Covington also secured 6 takedowns good for a total of over 10 minutes of ground control time.
At the conclusion of the fight, Masvidal was interviewed by Joe Rogan and blamed the loss on his poor footwork and being off on his wrestling. The reality is Covington was better and simply beat up Masvidal. Masvidal is a popular fighter and, while he should no longer be considered a top welterweight, will likely get future high profile matchups.
Covington, on the other hand, is in a tough spot as he is clearly the second best welterweight in the world but has suffered two defeats at the hands of the champ Kamaru Usman. Covington cut a promo at the end of his fight with a callout of another former ATT friend in Dustin Poirier. Sign me up for that fight as I’d like to see Covington put his brand of beatdown on the Diamond.