Charles Oliveira did it again! After getting knocked down twice at the start of the first round, he came back to land a beautiful knockdown and use his jiu-jitsu to transition from an arm triangle attempt into a rear-naked choke to submit Gaethje. This means Charles is the no.1 contender due to him missing weight and being stripped from the title but the fans certainly know he’s still the rightful champion and the best 155lber in the world.
Unfortunately, the co-main event has nowhere near as much action and was by far the worst title fight I’ve ever seen. A total of 68 total strikes were landed over the 5 rounds. I think it took 3:30 seconds for the first strike to actually land. Carla Esparza was the more “active” fighter and that’s the only reason she won the title. This fight made Adesanya vs Romero look interesting.
I think the referee, Keith Peterson should’ve given the two of them lack of engagement warnings because both women evidently didn’t want to fight each other. I will try and erase this fight from my memory completely.
Michael Chandler might’ve had the KO of the year as he became the first person to knockout Tony Ferguson with a perfectly timed up kick that caught the former Interim Champion on the square on the chin. This surely puts Chandler back into the title picture or first in line for a fight with Conor McGregor when he returns, if he’s not given the title shot on his return.
The rest of the card was pretty average to be honest. Brandon Royval put on another show with a submission win and Andre Fialho knocked out Cameron VanCamp with a beautiful hook to stop the fight in round one.
However, Shogun vs OSP 2 was boring, you can tell both men are past it, Brown somehow beat Khaos Williams despite Khaos clearly winning two of the three rounds with one being debatable.
I’d rate the card 6/10. We’ve had moments of greatness mixed with absolute horrible fights.
TheWrestlingFallacy 