UFC 287 went down Saturday night and there were some excellent fights with Israel Adesanya finally slaying his boogeyman in Alex Pereira. The Last Stylebender stole the show after Rob Font initially had made the biggest waves in his impressive victory over the standout bantamweight prospect Adrian Yanez. Read on for a recap of the main card.
Israel Adesanya Finally Gets On The Board Against Alex Pereira With Impressive Second Round Knockout
Say what you want about Israel Adesanya sometimes unusual antics and statements, the man can fight. Some though Alex Pereira was too far inside Stylebender’s head for the Nigerian to pull this one off. In addition, Adesanya appeared to be overly emotional in the leadup to this one and with his history of building leads in their fights only to ultimately lose, twice in devastating fashion, this seemed a tall task for the former champion. But Adesanya wisely changed tactics in this fight as he was far more aggressive than in his previous title fights.
Adesanya is such a slick striker, with his stance changes, variety and ability to read opponents and attack from distance. Adesanya has been criticized in recent fights for playing it maybe too safe in some of his title defenses. Poatan, on the other hand, is a dangerous striker himself who has a significant power advantage over Adesanya, which the Brazilian carries to the end of the fight.
Pereira however got overconfident in the second round. With one minute left in the second round, the Brazilian went on the attack as he put Adesanya up against the cage with a jab to the body and an outside leg kick. But with his head bolt upright and his hands low, Pereira made a bog mistake. After landing to the body and missing a knee attempt, Pereira threw a left hook that Adesanya countered with an overhand right that buckled Pereira over sideways to his right. Pereira briefly recovered but as he straightened up Adesanya once more connected with a right hand that put the Brazilian out cold. Adesanya followed up with an unnecessary hammerfist as the fight was stopped by Dan Miragliotta.
Afterwards, Adesanya was full of some of his ridiculous antics. But it had to be sweet revenge for the two-time Middleweight champion. And despite some questionable behavior, Adesanya’s imaginary bow and arrow routine seemed to be well deserved payback for some of the taunting done by Pereira.
It will be interesting to see what UFC does next with these two. Ideally they will run this one back one more time to settle the 1-1 tie in MMA bouts. But Dana White has indicated it might be a move up to 205 for Pereira who cuts an insane amount of weight to make the 185-pound middleweight title fight limit.
Gilbert Burns Sends Jorge Masvidal Into Retirement
Gilbert “Durinho” Burns and Jorge Masvidal are both OGs of the MMA fight game. Some saw this event as Masvidal’s Miami sendoff event considering some call Street Jesus the King of Miami. Masvidal has been fighting on the streets of Miami since the days of Kimbo Slice and the underground fight scene. Gamebred had made some noises prior to the fight that this might be it if he came up on the short end of the stick for the fourth consecutive time.
The first round of this fight was the only close round of the fight, but Burns still rated a solid edge landing some good right hands and getting a late takedown in the round. In the second round, Burns was able to lift Masvidal high into the air before planting him on the canvas and controlling Masvidal despite not doing much damage via ground and pound. In the final round, a Burns’ overhand right connected well and Burns got the better of the striking, but give Gamebred credit for being game in this fight.
While Burns has won his last two (def. Neil Magny by arm triangle choke at UFC 283 after losing to Khamzat) he does not appear to have done enough to knock Colby Covington out of Leon Edwards next title fight defense. Burns, however, said in his post-fight interview that he would wait for a title shot.
Take a Bow Rob Font
Rob Font turned in a brilliant performance and reminded everyone, after being off for a year following two consecutive losses to Jose Aldo and Chito Vera, that he’s still at the top of the game in the bantamweight division. Adrian Yanez came into this bout with a ton of momentum and hype due to his 5-0 UFC record with four impressive finishes. Font, however (MMA cliché warning!) showed that there are levels to this as he weathere some heavy shots from Yanez. Font has slick striking of his own though and was having success with his outstanding jab.
The beginning of the end started with a huge right uppercut from Font that caused Yanez to take an awkward step. Font followed with a bog1-2 and had Yanez backing up. Two huge right hands then had Yanez rocked and in serious trouble. Then a sweeping right hook caught Yanez directly on the chin, knocking off his feet and onto his back. A wicked right hand while standing over his felled opponent delivered more punishment before five or six hammerfists caused the “No Nonsense” Keith Peterson to waive this one off.
Kevin Holland Scores Beautiful Knockout of Santiago Ponzinibbio
Kevin “Trailblazer” Holland is a fan favorite for good reason. When he’s not thwarting crimes and playing superhero in between fights, Big Mouth is always entertaining to listen to whether he’s talking trash or just riffing. On Saturday night he took out Santiago Ponzinibbio with a huge left hook as The Argentine Dagger was backing away. Holland was fully extended and landed the punch at full power. Ponzinibbio then fell to his left and did a full face plant as Big Mouth followed up with a hard right hand before the fight was called off.
Christian Rodriguez Humbles Raul Rosas Who Was High On His Own Supply
Christian Rodriguez was not your typical second fight for a much hyped prospect the UFC is looking build in Raul Rosas. Rosas, who started to believe too much in his own greatness, previewed this fight by saying he was going to run through Rodriguez. In the first round, Rosas wildly tried to do just that. And while the 18-year-old took the first round, Rodriguez calmly defended Rosas’ grappling the entire time and it was clear Rosas was tired at the end of the opening frame. From there, Rodriguez took full control of the fight.
In the second round, the tide permanently turned when Rodriguez landed a well-timed knee as Rosas closed distance. From that point Rodriguez essentially dominated. Much of the final two rounds played out on the ground where Rodriguez repeatedly floated on top of Rosas as the young Mexican several times tried to explode to create space and escape opportunities.
Seattle Fights also loved that Rodriguez intentionally let Rosas up to the feet the last fifteen or so seconds of the fight to throw heavy hands. Rodriguez once more got the better of the young phenom as he showed much better striking and more dog in his fight, despite the huge lead he had built and commensurate risk he was taking.