Portland, Oregon was the home of a mixed night of fights, with three (T)KOs, two submissions and seven decisions. Incredibly, four of those decisions were split decisions. Most of the fights were hard to judge, not because of both fighters putting in outstanding performances, but because many of the bouts lacked a significant amount of action from either competitor. Despite that, we had a few great fights and finishes on the card. Here’s who left Portland $50,000 richer.
Performances of the Night: Brian Moreno, Nate Marquardt, Henrique da Silva, and Curtis Blaydes
John Dodson and John Lineker put on a fight of the night caliber performance in the main event. Unfortunately, Lineker was almost certainly banned from winning any performance bonuses. As a result, the UFC didn’t award FOTN to the bout, and in fact, didn’t award the fight of the night bonus at all. While we only saw five finishes tonight, the UFC decided to reward four of them with performance of the night bonuses.
Brian Moreno came into his fight with Louis Smolka as a huge +400 underdog on most books, and wasted no time showing why the odds don’t mean a thing when the cage door closes. Moreno grabbed a guillotine off of Smolka’s high single leg takedown attempt, and then refused to let go. Smolka bucked, spun, postured and fought, but no matter what he tried, Moreno stayed with him, squeezing the life from his neck. Finally, inevitably, Smolka was forced to tap before he passed out.
Don’t call it a comeback, Marquardt has been here for years - rockin his peers and putting suckas in fear. Every time it looks like Nate the Great might be done as an elite competitor, he goes on a run that reminds everyone why Anderson Silva once tapped him as his heir apparent to the middleweight throne.
Tonight, we got the Marquardt that knocked out current welterweight king, Tyron Woodley, and it earned him a highlight reel KO. After a relatively uneventful first eight minutes, Marquardt finally landed a clean shot on McCrory. Tamdan’s knees went weak, his arms got heavy, his legs became spaghetti, and Marquardt capitalized by landing a perfect head kick that felled the Barncat like timber.
Curtis Blaydes walked out to the Mortal Kombat movie theme, and lived up to that with a brutal finish of Cody East. Travis Browne laid the blueprint for how to use elbows against an opponent committed to a takedown, and Blaydes elbowed that blueprint onto the skull of Cody East, landing several undefended elbows that left huge lumps on the side of East’s skull.
Henrique da Silva had the least spectacular finish of the four, but submitting a ground specialist like Christensen is nothing to be sneezed at, and the armbar he landed was technically sound. If you’re going to get your first ever submission victory, that’s the way to do it.
Fight of the Night: None.
That’s not a typo. My wonder-twin, Iain Kidd presciently asked earlier tonight whether or not Dodson would be screwed out of half of the FOTN bonus because Lineker is ineligible for bonuses. Turns out the answer is yes.