It isn’t long now until we get to see the undefeated middleweight champion Israel Adesanya face off against the light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz to become the 5th ever simultaneous double champion. As interesting and exciting as the main event is however we also have the new 135 champion Petr Yan defending his belt against the Serra-Longo contender in Aljamain Sterling and Amanda Nunes defending her 145 title against Megan Anderson and those are just the title fights.
We are truly looking forward to a very exciting night of fights but if you can’t watch them I will do my best to do them justice in my summaries, you can get your live updates here.
Early Prelims
Trevin Jones VS Mario Bautista (Bantamweight)
Jones defeated Bautista by TKO in the 2nd round by way of punches
Uros Medic VS Aalon Cruz (Lightweight)
Medic won by TKO in the 1st round by way of punches
Livia Renata Souza VS Amanda Lemos (Womens Strawweight)
Amanda Lemos scored a dramatic first round finish on the decorated grappler in Livia Souza, dropping her with a right hand at first but stood up in a scramble then dropping Souza with a powerful jab shortly afterwards, at this point the referee Jason Herzog had seen enough. TKO in the 1st round.
Sean Brady VS Jake Matthews (Welterweight)
Hard 1st round to judge from these 2, the match up on the feet seemed to be relatively even however Matthews seemed to knockdown Brady however Brady then dominated in the top position on the ground for the rest of the round, intriguing beginning to this fight.
Not much could happen on the feet before Brady took down Matthews and held a very strong top position for the rest of the fight landing some good ground and pound and repeatedly threatening with his notoriously tight guillotine choke, easy round to judge for Brady.
A dominant round from Brady the moment the fight hit the ground with a takedown feint to get Matthews to overcommit to the sprawl, ground and pound for a while in order to get Matthews to roll to his back and then a beautifully executed arm triangle the moment he saw the opportunity, fantastic showing from Brady.
Kennedy Nzechukwu VS Carlos Ulberg (Light Heavyweight)
The first round of this fight was absolutely wild with an interesting back and forth at a very high pace for the weight class, Ulberg seemed to win it though by staying more composed whenever he hurt Nzechukwu and sniping around the guard, round for Ulberg
Competitive back and forth for much of the second round however Ulbergs low hands and lack of head movement ended up getting him clipped by Nzechukwu leading to a hard looking KO/TKO win in the second round for Nzechukwu.
Tim Elliott VS Jordan Espinosa (Flyweight)
Interesting round from both fighters with a good back and forth on the feet however I believe that Tim Elliott won the first round with good control on the ground and overall controlling the pace and path of the fight.
Dominant grappling performance for Tim Elliott, the moment Espinosa’s back hit the canvas it was all Elliott and it seems that Espinosa is slowing down too, Espinosa needs a finish going into the 3rd round.
Tim Elliott continued to show his fantastic grappling credentials to cruise his way to a clear unanimous decision win and rather spectacularly it is the first decision on the card, all previous fights have ended with a finish which is rather impressive, these early prelims have been a treat, now onto the Preliminary Card.
Prelims
Rogerio Bontorin VS Kai Kara-France (Flyweight)
A fantastic performance from Kai Kara-France with an extremely powerful looking combination from the clinch break after being dominated on the ground, great recovery from Kara-France.
Joseph Benavidez VS Askar Askarov (Catchweight 127 lbs)
Askarov controlled the distance on the feet and when on the ground utilised the bodylock to eliminate Benavidez’s scrambling ability, very clear 10-9 round from Askarov, Benavidez will have to switch up his gameplan and get a better feeling for the distance in order to win this fight.
Fantastic round from Askarov with very strong control on the ground and fantastic scrambling ability and even landed a hard shot when they stood up at the end, another clear Askarov round, Benavidez needs a finish.
Another very clear round from Askarov with continued distance management to to earn an easy unanimous decision, Askarov looks like he could be a very difficult fight for anyone in 125 including the champion.
Song Yadong VS Kyler Phillips (Bantamweight)
Close back and forth round with both fighters landing interesting and hard shots, not really sure who won it but leaning towards Yadong due to the fact that he controlled the round after Phillips offense stopped finding it’s home.
Phillips seemed to land alot of good shots in this round and kept out of the way of alot of Yadongs shot and secured a takedown in the second half of the round, I have Phillips winning the second round and with the first round being close I’m really not sure who’s ahead.
With the 3rd round being another back and forth round Kyler Phillips managed to secure a 29-28 unanimous decision.
Dominick Cruz VS Casey Kenney (Bantamweight)
Dominick Cruz started a bit slow but it seems he found his rhythm part of the way into the 1st round and start landing good shots off of his square stance with lunging straights, if he sticks to that he will find success however Kenney is doing a good job with the leg kicks, I think Cruz took the 1st round.
Very very close second round that is incredibly difficult to judge, Cruz had alot of success with the boxing however Kenney also landed some of his own shots and leg kicks, incredibly difficult round to judge.
Dominick Cruz with a hard fought 3rd round was able to take the split decision home, using a very well executed double leg takedown to cement the 3rd round in his favour to take the fight.
Main Card
Thiago Santos VS Aleksandar Rakic (Light Heavyweight)
Rakic was able to control the distance in that round and didn’t take any big risks, definitely seems to be a Rakic round, Santos will have to move forward more in order to threaten Rakic.
A continued cautious approach from Rakic and it seems that Thiago can’t successfully close the distance or corner Rakic, the 2nd round seems to go to Rakic.
After a very safe and risk averse performance from Rakic he has managed to take home the unanimous decision win over the very powerful striker in Santos.
Islam Makhachev VS Drew Dober (Lightweight
Very dominant grappling performance from Makhachev and with a very good takedown entry in a strong fighter in Dober, excellent job from Dober though in buying enough time in the armbar to escape, intriguing fight if to see if Dober can avoid the takedown later.
Another dominant round from Makhachev although Dober was clearly more aware of the takedown at the beginning, Dober definitely needs a finish if he wants to win this fight.
Islam Makhachev rather impressively was able to submit Dober in the 3rd round with an arm triangle choke, rather impressively he managed to pull this off from half guard with just shoulder pressure on the neck of Dober as he was on the wrong side to take advantage of his weight pushing on Dobers shoulder.
Petr Yan (C) VS Aljamain Sterling (Bantamweight)
Very close round with extreme activity from Aljamain however a huge beautifully timed and executed punch from Yan may have potentially won him the round with the knockdown, hard round to judge but I personally lean towards Yan.
Aljamain Sterling seems to have taken the 2nd round based on the constant forward pressure and the lack of big moments for Yan, it looks as if he is getting a bit fatigued though as the pace he is trying to put on Yan seems far too intense to maintain.
Yan is starting to take over the pace and have more success in the striking compared to Aljamain and is also doing a very good job stopping the grappling offense of Aljamain, Yan takes the 3rd round.
Petr Yan lost his title due to a disqualification as he landed an illegal knee to Aljamain while he was grounded, the fight will likely have to be run back due to the nature of this ending.
Amanda Nunes (C) VS Megan Anderson (Womens Featherweight)
Amanda Nunes won the fight by early submission with an inverted triangle armbar from the back of Anderson after a knockdown, a very easy looking defense from the champion.
Jan Blachowicz (C) VS Israel Adesandya (MWC) (Light Heavyweight)
A very very measured first round from both fighters, incredibly difficult round to judge as they are feeling each other out right now with Adesanya setting traps and readings Blachowicz’s responses to his feints.
Another feeling out technical round, big moment from Blachowicz with the takedown attempt that almost succeeded that may have edged the round but yet another one that was hard to judge.
More activity in the third although it seems that Israel is starting to assert himself more in the kickboxing however he definitely can’t get overconfident, another hard round to judge.
Beautifully executed takedown from Blachowicz making this 4th round the easiest round to judge of the fight, it could very well be even heading into the 5th and final round, a very interesting fight.
Through a very intelligently fought out battle with the middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, the Light Heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz was able to retain his belt and handing Israel Adesanya his first loss in his MMA career.
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