It sucks when a good night of fights is brought down by a freak injury in the main event. It doesn't happen often but when it does, it takes all of the air out of the festivities. The UFC Fight Night 74 headliner between Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira was shaping up to be the war many expected - for about 90 seconds. Then Oliveira looked for a takedown and was reversed by Holloway. It looked innocent enough but Do Bronx came up lame, holding his shoulder and waving Holloway off. Herb Dean stepped in and that was it.
It's still not clear what exactly happened to Oliveira - did he dislocate his shoulder? Pinch a nerve? Suffer a collarbone injury? Any way it plays out, let's just hope he can recover quickly and maybe we can see a rematch. Because that is a bout a lot of people, including myself, were looking forward to.
Holloway did pick up his seventh win in a row, and asked for a bout with Frankie Edgar in Aloha Stadium next year. While I can definitely see a Holloway/Edgar fight one day, maybe even as early as December, I highly doubt you'll ever see it in a stadium in Hawaii.
- Erick Silva looked different. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to why that may be. He was the same fighter though - firing away in round one, and pretty much useless for the final two rounds. Neil Magny used his reach advantage very well, peppering Silva with jabs and avoiding his wild counters. He also held his own on the ground, which was nice to see after the Maia debacle. Another big win for Magny, who has fought an amazing nine times in eighteen months.
- Patrick Cote and Josh Burkman aren't the most relevant welterweights the UFC has on their roster. This isn't exactly a secret. But they did put on a pretty good bout in the middle of the main card, landing hard strikes and staggering each other in the first round. The second was pretty close, but Cote came out in the third and bombed a right on Burkman's dome, sending him to the ground. It took a while for Cote to get the referee to stop the bout, but he did manage to hand Burkman the first KO/TKO loss of his long career.
- For the record, I didn't think that was a late stoppage by the (normally terrible) ref. Burkman was defending and moving around for a while, and didn't seem totally out of it until right before he stepped in. I've only seen it the once though, so my opinion could be swayed with another chance to watch it.
- Chad Laprise brought the pressure offense but it wasn't enough. Francisco Trinaldo took advantage of an overaggressive opponent, cracking him once with a counter, then dropping him with another big shot. That was really all it took, as he pounded out Laprise and took the 0 off of his record.
- Olivier Aubin-Mercier didn't quite show the intensity that he did during photo day, but his relentless takedown game was enough to win his bout with Tony Sims. He's a pretty good grappler and had a couple of dominant positions, yet was never really close to finishing. OAB wasn't happy with the bout post-fight and I'd have to agree - it was decent, but not dominating.
- Valerie Letourneau has quietly picked up her third UFC win in a row, dropping Maryna Moroz early and doing enough over the final two rounds to pull out the victory. I thought she was going to finish it in the first, but she didn't really do anything at all with a hurt opponent. Moroz didn't look bad in there, even hurting Letourneau in the second, but not being able to get off her back was her biggest weakness in the bout.
- Unfortunately, it seems like Sam Stout's UFC career is probably over. That's the third time in a row he's been knocked out, this time by the unheralded Frankie Perez. Stout has fought in the octagon 20 times and was known as a bonus machine back in the day, but his chin is just gone now. As for Perez...well, he retired. So it could be one of those few bouts where neither guy fights in the octagon ever again. Odd, but I don't begrudge anyone who quits MMA to be with their family.
- Yves Jabouin started fast against Felipe Arantes, but it didn't work out well for him. The Brazilian managed to snatch up an armbar, and cut through Jabouin's defense to get the tap in the first round. I'm not sure how successful Arantes will be a 135, but that was a good start.
- That's what happens when you mess with a gangster. Marcos Pezao looked pretty clueless on the ground other than the guillotine attempts and Nikita Krylov made him pay. While he'll likely never be a contender, Krylov is always fun to watch and I hope he keeps winning.
- Chris Kelades and Chris Beal put on a pretty good back-and-forth fight that closed with a nice brawl to the horn. I personally had Beal winning 29-28, but every round was close so it wasn't a robbery or anything when Kelades got his hand raised. The 30-27 Beal card wasn't good though.
- Elias Silverio gassed out after a round. He totally controlled the fight in the first, but Shane Campbell started stuffing his takedowns in the second and even getting his own, which was surprising. The third was more of the same, and Campbell picked up his first UFC win with the solid effort.
- Daniel Jolly just couldn't keep the fight on the feet and it cost him. Misha Cirkunov used a good takedown game to keep Jolly at bay, and eventually picked up a KO win with a strong flurry of ground and pound. It was against a late replacement, but it's always nice to see some new blood at light heavyweight.