UFC 289 took place on Saturday night at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC. The consensus women’s MMA GOAT Amanda Nunes defended her bantamweight title and retired from the sport immediately after the bout. In perhaps the most anticipated fight of the night, Charles Oliveira asserted himself as the rightful next title challenger at lightweight after he steamrolled Beneil Dariush for an impressive TKO victory in the first round.
Amanda Nunes Dominates in Her Final Fight
Amanda Nunes can walk away from her MMA career leaving no question that she is the best to ever do it. Nunes leaves the sport a 16-2 record in the UFC, where she lost only once on her way to the title (vs. Cat Zingano) and once as a champion (vs. Juliana Peña). And Nunes avenged her lone title loss to Peña in dominant fashion in the immediate re-match. A quick look at the list of her top opponents defeated (Valentina Shevchenko x2, Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg, Holly Holm) attests to an unmatched resume on the women’s side.
In this bout, Nunes did not let her impending retirement plans negatively affect her performance. She came prepared and was aggressive throughout the fight. Unfortunately, her opponent Irene Aldana appeared to be consumed by the moment and did not put up much of a fight. Nunes controlled large portions of the bout with her stinging jab. She also repeatedly hit Aldana with heavy combinations. Aldana had literally only one standout moment in the fight when she caught Nunes with a nicely timed right hand late in the first round that had the champ briefly off balance and doubled over. Other than that one shot it was all one-way traffic as the announcers and even Aldana’s own corner implored her to be more assertive in what could be her only title fight opportunity. Say this for Aldana though, she is one tough fighter as she took heavy shots from Nunes throughout the bout but never appeared close to quitting or being finished.
Nunes dominance in the fight is reflected in the numbers as she landed 6 of 13 takedowns while Aldana attempted no shots, Nunes also outlanded Aldana in total strikes 196 to 57 and significant strikes 142 to 41. With her sixth bantamweight title defense across two reigns, as well as a featherweight championship with two title defenses, Nunes walks off into the sunset claiming the top spot on the Mount Rushmore of women’s MMA.
Charles Oliveira Finishes Beneil Dariush
Former Lightweight Champion Charles “do Bronx” Oliveira put on a spectacular performance in a possible title fight eliminator with Beneil Dariush. Oliveira’s impressive first round finish snapped Dariush’s eight fight win streak. In the first minute of the round, Oliveira cracked Dariush with a partially blocked head kick that had Benny backing up. Dariush landed a couple solid straight punches before Oliveira backed up his foe against the fence and entered the clinch. Do Bronx landed some solid knees before looking for a bodylock takedown that backfired as Dariush was able to stay upright before Oliveira fell backward into bottom half guard.
For the next couple minutes, Oliveira was able to take the upper hand from bottom position as he deftly avoided strikes (several times Dariush missed hard punches only to drill the canvas) and landed elbows and hammerfists from the bottom that seemed to be doing more damage than Dariush’s top position strikes. After briefly attacking a heel hook, Oliveira decided it was time to get up and he easily got back to the feet by kicking off of Dariush’s hips.
After briefly engaging the clinch and landing another hard knee, Oliveira then absolutely mugged Dariush after hurting the American with a huge right head kick. A big left hand immediately after the kick had Dariush backing up when two big right hands sent Dariush to his knees. Dariush vainly looked for a takedown, but Oliveira floated on top, maintained top position and viciously hammered the Kings MMA product with left hands until referee Jason Herzog called the fight off at 4:10 of Round 1.
The former lightweight champ surely should be next in line for a title shot. But considering the UFC doesn’t always give title shots to the most deserving contender we’ll have to wait and see. Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier will fight at UFC 291 at the end of July. Considering Oliveira has recent submission victories over both, and this impressive performance, hopefully the UFC does the right thing and gives the opportunity to do Bronx.
Mike Malott Gets Beautiful Guillotine Finish Against Adam Fugitt
Canadian welterweight prospect “Proper” Mike Malott capped off a perfect night for the Canuck fighters with a slick finish of Adam Fugitt. Early in the second round Malott charged in and landed a nasty right-left hook combination that floored Fugitt. Malott wasted no time and jumped on what Daniel Cormier called the Team Alpha Male Guillotine. With the submission locked in tight Malott rolled over into mount which drew the quick tap from Fugitt.
Proper Mike is now 3-0 in the UFC with three finishes and should be in line for a bigger name come his next bout.
Dan Ige Derails the Nate the Train Hype
Nate “the Train” Landwehr has received a fair amount of hype during his three-fight win streak prior to this bout. Landwehr is a colorful character who always brings the fight, but he took a massive step up in competition in this bout with the Hawaiian Dan “50K” Ige.
Most of the first round was close as both fighters started cautiously and traded strikes without much separation between the two. Ige took the round with a late stance-switch left hook that dropped Landwehr.
In the second round, Ige built a solid lead by landing more strikes, as well as the harder strikes as Landwehr appeared to be frustrated as he looked for counter opportunities. With twenty seconds left in the round, Ige landed a huge right hand that had Landwehr badly hurt. Ige pounced for the finish, eating a nasty upkick in the process, but rain out of time to get the finish as the horn sounded to end the round.
Landwehr is as tough as they come though and recovered well as the final round got underway. Nate the Train had some success in the final round with some nasty elbows and knees, but Ige continued to land hard shots, particularly a left hand early in the round that put a serious charge into Landwehr. The judges scored the unanimous decision victory 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 for Ige.
Marc-Andre Barriault Outworks Erik Anders in Unanimous Decision Win
The UFC likes to put fights in the first slot of a pay-per-view that promise lots of action and this bout did not disappoint as both fighters kept a heavy pace for the middleweight division. The fight got off to a quick start and Barriault floored Anders with a right hand. Anders was able to quickly get back to the feet but ate another shot that had the American in trouble. Anders survived and both men had moments throughout the remainder of an entertaining first round. Both men had success in this fight and UFC stats show a small total strikes edge for Barriault at 103 to 87. However, Barriault seemed to land the most damaging blows. In addition to the knockdown in the first round, Barriault wobbled Anders with a right hand late in the third round. The judges scored the bout for Barriault 30-27 across the board.