Time to mix this bad by up a bit and talk about some MMA! And what better way to start than to talk about the year end event of UFC 232!!! What an incredible night it was. Full of highs and lows for both fighters and fans. The line up was stacked with former and current champions, and its the former champions that lead me to partially title this The End of an Era. But lets just talk about the night that was and assess as we go over some of the highlights of the card.
In the early prelims that were on UFC Fight Pass we had Uriah Hall. Hall has been best known for his highlight knockouts but has had trouble with consistence and putting it together when it mattered most. But this night he returned to his highlight knockout ways with a beautiful counter right hand that knocked Bevon Lewis out cold before he hit the mat. But the real highlight came after the fight in his post fight speech.
Hall became very emotional as he talked with Rogan as he let everyone know he was dedicating this fight to his sister who has been battling depression caused by life in general. With the epidemic that is depression going on around the world today, its stands out when an elite athlete is publicly talking about at center stage. And for him how he used his sisters depression as motivation for himself to help show her that even when you have failed on the biggest stage, you can over come it. Which is something many of us are dealing with. We feel like we're trapped in a brick cage with 4 walls and no ceiling, but the walls are 20 feet tall. You can see the light but don't know how to get there. His message was pretty clear as well; life is hard, failure is going to happen, possibly over and over, but you have to keep standing up. This was likely the true highlight of the night, out side of the official action.
Moving on from there we go to the Prelims on Fox Sports which was kicked by Ryan Hall and B.J. Penn! This was a short lived fight as Ryan Hall submitted, yes submitted, B.J. in under 3 minutes with a heel hook. This was 100% the 1st of 4 of the "end of an era" fights for the night as the now 40 year old Penn is likely/hopefully going hang up the gloves for good. This isn't to discredit Hall at all either, his performance was phenomenal and to submit Penn has to put you in high standing in the BJJ game as no one had done that in MMA before. But it has Penn is far from his prime is also an understatement.
To get right to it, because there is no easy way, is to say Penn has only won 1 fight in the last 9 years. That fight was when he KO'd Matt Hughes at the Palace of Auburn Hills, the 1st UFC event in the Detroit area and one I'm proud to say I was at. But other than that he hasn't won since his stoppage win over Diego Sanchez at UFC 107 back in 2009! With that fight his record at the time was 15-5-1. And of those loses were to some of the best there has ever been. BJ, a natural lightweight fighter has 2 loses to GSP at Welterweight, 1 to Hughes at Welterweight, and 1 to Machida at Light-Heavyweight. Yes, you read that right, BJ fought Machida at Light-Heavyweight. During this time period as well he won the Welterweight title by choking out Matt Hughes, left the UFC and came back after a few years and returned to claim the Lightweight title, and defended it 3 times.
Once Penn lost the Lightweight title is when the wheel feel off though. Frankie Edgar stepped up on the big stage, not once, but twice as he stole the belt and then defended it against Penn in back to back fights. Since then Penns record has diminished to 16-13-2, which looks less than ordinary, and far less than extraordinary, which is what Penn was in his prime. He was a man who took on all chalengers, licked his opponents blood off his gloves. He became the 2nd multi-division champion in UFC history. It is believed that he earned his Black Belt in BJJ in roughly 3 years, the fastest ever. And he is the 1st non-Brazilian to win the BJJ World Championship in 2000. These are the things B.J. should be remembered for, but I fear now, his legacy may be tarnished to the younger generations.
Two fights later on the prelims was a fight I was looking forward to big time, that was Cat Zingano vs Megan Anderson. Anderson is the new girl on the block looking to establish herself in the women's featherweight division. While Zingano was moving up from Bantamweight to challenge Anderson. All the stats going into the fight were on Zinganos side, but the size advantage was 100% on Andersons as she towered over Zingano. Unfortunately it was a short fight that never really got to get going. Anderson caught Zingano with her toes right in the eyes causing the fight to be over before it really going started. Megan gets the TKO win technically, but it may be turned into a NC, we'll see. Hopefully they'll get the chance to go at it again sometime.
Moving on up from there we have a Heavyweight tilt between Walt Harris and Andrei Arlovski! This is the 2nd the "End of and Era" fights and the last fight before the main card. There was a time when B.J. Penn and Andrei Arlovski wouldn't be anything other than headliners, now they're on the prelims, time is a cruel mistress. Unlike Penn, Arlovski had a pretty decent performance though he dropped a 5 round decision to Harris. Arlovski won the striking battle on this night but it was the take downs of Harris that really won him the fight.
Andrei though is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and was known as a fierce and vicious striker. Though he has had a career full of ups and downs, he is another fighter who may be calling it quits sometime soon. Since 2016 he has had 10 fights and lost 8 of them, and 3 straight now. He has been KO/TKO'd 10 times in his career as well and his record now stands at 27-18 with 1 NC. Without those last 10 fight his record would look so much better, 25-10, but unfortunately that is not the case. And he, like Penn, may become one of the forgotten former champions that help start it all.
Now we are live on the PPV Main card and it opened with a great fight in the Featherweight division between Chad Mendes and Alexander Volkanovski. Two very equal opponents, both with similar physical atributes in height and reach, and very similar records. Both fighters came in with 18 wins under their belts, though Mendes has had 4 losses in his career and Volkanovski has only 1 at this point. Unfortunately for Mendes he was TKO'd late in the 2nd round, and with that lose has since announced his retirement.
Mendes becomes the 3rd of the 4 fighters that could be considered End of an Era fighters. Though he is not a former champion or have the same pedigree as the first two, he certainly had a career worth remember and some bouts that should go down in history. In his 4 loses leading up to this fight, one was to Edgar, one was to McGregor, and two to Aldo. All three of those men will go down as all time greats, if they're not held in that standard already. And his second fight with Aldo, a 5-round war, should be in contention for one of the greatest MMA fights of all time. And though he never held a championship in the UFC he was always considered a contender and a threat. Nearly every fight he had was an exciting scrap and he came to fight every time. I'll be sad to see him go.
That said, from what little I know at this point about Volkanovski, it seems as though the Featherweight division has gained a new contender. Coming into the fight he was ranked at number 10 in the division (Mendes was 5th). And with this win he has catapulted himself into the 4th spot, behind Ortega, Aldo, and Edgar. With Ortega having just lost to the champ, Holloway, Aldo set to fight Moicano (5th ranked fighter), and Edgar pressuring the UFC for a title shot, it looks like his next match up could be against Cub Swanson or possibly Yair Rodriguez, and what a fight those could be. With a good showing and a win in his next match-up, no matter whom it is against, I feel he'll be next in line to challenge for the title.
Due to the length of this entire post I have decided to cut it half for easier reading. To read more about the main card of this magnificent event check out Part 2 of UFC 232 - The End of the Year, End of an Era.
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