UFC 177: Dillashaw vs. Soto - Results and post-fight analysis

The "haunted" UFC 177 fight card may have been one of the weakest PPV cards in the history of the promotion but it did feature a handful of entertaining fights as well as an array of stoppages to send the Sacramento crowd home (slightly more) satisfied.

With the butchering this card took over the past few days, it is hard to consider this a successful UFC event, with the gate and attendance likely some of the lowest in the promotion's history. However, that did not hinder the performances of the vast majority of the fighters on the card, including T.J. Dillashaw, who defended his bantamweight title in a dominant showing against ultra late replacement Joe Soto.

While Soto was a game challenger and performed at a higher level than many fans and pundits would have predicted, he was clearly no match for the recently crowned champion. His managed to pepper Dillashaw with his right hook at several sporadic points, but it was the champion who unloaded an abundance of strikes at every given opportunity and it ultimately paid off in the final round of the fight, when he landed a head kick KO to force the referee stoppage with less than three minutes to go in the contest.

With Barao apparently out of the title picture for the moment, the only logical challenger for Dillashaw next would be the winner between Raphael Assuncao and Bryan Caraway, since Assuncao was the last person to defeat Dillashaw when he snatched a close split decision win over the current champ last year. Dominick Cruz could possibly find himself back in the title picture with a strong showing against Takeya Mizugaki but that is yet to be determined.

• In hindsight, Tony Ferguson and Danny Castillo did not look terrible in their co-main event slot on the fight card tonight, but that does not mean I condone a fight of this caliber being placed in one of the feature slots on a PPV event. Once upon a time, this fight would arguably have been one of the Facebook prelims on a strong fight card and the UFC should consider this when planning their upcoming PPV events.
• Bethe Correia added another ‘Horsewoman' to her resume after her demolition of Shayna Baszler in the second round of their feature fight. The Brazilian made it clear that she was interested in dismantling the staple before going after the champion and she is certainly running out of hoops to jump before an eventual title shot. Whether or not she can beat Rousey is an entirely different discussion.
• Once again, Ramsey Nijem appeared a little too eager to entertain the crowd in attendance and paid the price dearly for that decision. The Palestinian-native came out with the intention of finishing the fight as quickly as possible but ended up on the wrong side of a TKO, leaving Carlos Diego Ferreira to celebrate his second straight UFC victory.
• Not only did Yancy Medeiros pick up his first post-fight bonus in the UFC, but he also won his fight with a modified bulldog submission that would remind anyone of their schoolyard days in kindergarten. Nonetheless, it was an impressive victory for a fighter who was in desperate need of a big win.  This technically marks his first UFC win since his last victory over Yves Edwards was overturned after he tested positive for marijuana.
• In the curtain jerker fight to start of the card, Chirs Wade made an impressive UFC debut against Cain Carrizosa in a fight that lasted a total of 72 seconds. Wade quickly implemented his grappling acumen on Carrizosa, tossed his opponent onto the mat and locked in a guillotine choke to separate Carrizosa from his consciousness.