What mattered most at UFC 310 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas? Here are a few post-fight musings.
Chris Weidman has had a lot of painful losses in his career, and he experienced another one by getting TKO’d against Eryk Anders in a fight he seemed to have the upper hand in, before a critical mistake. With talk coming into the fight that Weidman (16-8 MMA, 12-8 UFC) was feeling the best he has since his infamous in-cage leg break, he came out and dropped Anders in the opening round of the 195-pound catchweight fight, which was rescheduled from UFC 309 last month after Anderson withdrew on fight day due to illness. Then, in the second round, Weidman went for an ill-advised guillotine choke attempt that cost him position and led to him being stopped with a flurry of strikes. It’s sad to see Weidman like this. UFC has been kind to him in giving him competition that is seemingly aligned with his decline in performance. Still, though, he’s losing more than he’s been winning lately, and at 40, it’s hard not to wonder if this is where the plug gets pulled. UFC CEO Dana White seemingly thinks the same, because Weidman was one of multiple fighters he encouraged to retire in the aftermath of the event.
To keep on the theme of unknown fighting futures, a few fights after Weidman, we saw Anthony Smith endure one of the more challenging moments in recent memory by stepping into the octagon with a heavy heart after the recent death of his longtime friend and coach Scott Morton, and then proceeding to get beat up by Dominick Reyes for a second-round TKO. As someone who knows Smith (37-21 MMA, 13-11 UFC) somewhat well on a personal side, I understand his motivations for moving forward with the fight. He wanted to get a lot of painful emotions out of him after a traumatic life event, but it was hard to watch. The entire theme of the broadcast, from his walkout to the post-fight interview, made it clear this wasn’t a good idea, and of no benefit to his overall fighting career. If we can search for a silver lining, perhaps this was a moment of clarity for Smith. The broadcast noted that, prior to this fight, Morton had only not been present for just one of Smith’s career bouts. He told Joe Rogan in the post-fight interview that he “doesn’t know how many times” he can continue to compete with that big piece in his life missing. An argument can be made that the time has come for Smith to retire regardless. He was another fighter who White mentioned should retire. He loves the game so much that he struggles to let go, as you could see with his indecision about the future when talking with Rogan. It might’ve taken something bigger than Smith’s own choice to walk away and focus on something different, and we will see if that’s what this leads to.
You’ve got to be a little heartbroken for Alexander Volkov, who has seemingly done things right all throughout his career and put on a stellar performance against Ciryl Gane in their heavyweight rematch. Unfortunately for the Russian, two of the three cageside judges didn’t feel like it was good enough, and scored the fight for Gane (13-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC), giving him a split decision triumph over Volkov (38-11 MMA, 12-5 UFC). The result didn’t sit right with many people, and I am one of them. Volkov landed the better shots, had the better ground control and was just a step ahead in my eyes. This is a massive setback for him in the division, especially given the logjam at the top. Gane was lucky to escape, and although it preserves the bigger potential fight against Tom Aspinall if Jon Jones retires, this was a really tough beat for Volkov, and he deserved better.
Shavkat Rakhmonov was the boogeyman of the welterweight division prior to his unanimous decision victory over Ian Machado Garry. He kept his perfect record alive, but after failing to finish an opponent for the first time in his career, did he lose some aura? Rakhmonov (19-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) only gets positive reviews on this end. He showed he has the cardio for five rounds, displayed an ability to overcome adversity by escaping Machado Garry’s late submission attempts, and showed off a full arsenal of striking and ground work. That’s just for me, however. If you’re the champion Belal Muhammad, who Rakhmonov invited into the octagon for a faceoff in a scene I am fully taking credit for after our pre-fight interview, this seemed like the best possible outcome. There’s now a full 25 minutes of tape study and many previously unseen moments of Rakhmonov’s skillset that Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) can break down. A lot of fighters were already picking him to win when he was originally scheduled to fight Rakhmonov on this night, and now that all signs point to that fight happening next, Muhammad should probably command even more respect from oddsmakers and pundits alike.
After making light work with a second-round submission of Kai Asakura for his third flyweight title defense, Alexandre Pantoja got on the microphone with Rogan and called for Demetrious Johnson to end his retirement and come back to fight him. Johnson promptly shut down that request in the aftermath of the event, but the situation begs a question I discussed with Jon Anik on my podcast “The Bohnfire” ahead of the event: What would it take for Pantoja to ultimately dethrone “Mighty Mouse” of flyweight GOAT status? The competition Pantoja (29-5 MMA, 13-3 UFC) is running through is getting very close to the point of surpassing Johnson, and the style of which he’s winning is a strong contributor, as well. The fact Johnson set not only the all-time divisional title defense record during his reign, but the overall company one, too, is hard to surpass. If Pantoja can break Johnson’s record, which in theory would take another five or six years on top – and perhaps even more – then yeah. He’s the guy. But in a world where everyone lives so significantly in the moment, perhaps it will take less. What Pantoja is doing that resembles Johnson, though, is lapping the division to the point where UFC has to dig deep to find a challenger. And when it did that with Asakura, the fight wasn’t even close.
Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.
Source link
