Edwards defended! Gaethje wins the shootout with Fiziev. What did UFC 286 in London look like?

The UFC has another numbered tournament under its belt, this time with the number 286. Fans in London were treated to some great fights, a few finishes and most importantly a successful defense of the domestic champion. What did the tournament look like?

Early prelims

Already the first card of the UFC 286 tournament offered interesting fights. Juliana Miller and Veronica Hardy clashed right from the start, with the fight ending on points as Miller failed to confirm her role as a fairly big favourite and lost.

The most anticipated match was, however, the duel between Jaie Herbert and Ludovít Klein. We saw a fairly even, yet very attractive match. The fight was on the ground, the fight was also in the stance. And it came down to the points. The fight ended in a draw, Klein owes it to a point deduction from Herbert for two punches to the groin. He scored his third straight loss.

Next up was a great split between Scotland’s Joanne Wood and Brazil’s Luana Carolina. The Glasgow native had the upper hand from the start, being tougher, more active and, most importantly, always coming forward. The three round contest ended on points and the Scottish took the win.

We then saw the first early finish of the London gala. It was taken care of by home fighter Jake Hadley, who landed a great shot to the body of Malcolm Gordon, who he then only finished on the ground.

The penultimate bout of the first card unfortunately ended very early in unfortunate circumstances. Dusko Tudorovic injured his knee and will probably have to undergo surgery and a longer break. The victory went to Christian Leroy Duncan.

However, the pair of Lerone Murphy and Gabriel Santos made up for the early end of the previous match perfectly. Tough stand-up, active ground fighting, great pace. Three rounds of a beautiful fight dominated on points by the home team Murphy.

Prelims

Prelims card started off with a really dramatic fight. The talented Muhammad Mokaev was on the action, his opponent was Jafel Filho. It wasn’t the most attractive fight of the night, but Mokaev earned a lot of respect.

In the third round Filho caught his leg in a nasty way and even the UFC commentators didn’t understand how it was possible that Mokaev didn’t tap out. He didn’t just dig himself out of a difficult situation, he even tightened the Brazilian’s choke.

Once Filho tapped out, Mokaev made it clear that his leg was definitely not okay. The 22-year-old Russian native now has a 10-0 record.

In the next fight we saw an incredibly hard knockout for a change. It was Yanal Ashmouz who brutally shut down Sam Patterson. He spent a long time after the fight looking for himself and coming to.

The penultimate bout of the prelims card ended on points. Chris Duncan and Omar Morales provided the three-point spectacle. There were fierce exchanges and five successful takedowns by the home fighter. He deservedly won on points on split-decision.

Jack Shore confirmed his role as the big favourite in the last fight of the middle part of the tournament, as he gave Makwan Amirkahi no chance. He took him apart in two rounds in order to deliver a successful rear-naked choke.

The main card

Vettori expertly walked away with the win, Maia outshot her opponent

The main card opened with a battle of two elite middleweight fighters. Marvin Vettori as a four, Roman Dolidze as a nine. The Italian fighter could only lose, the Georgian could mainly gain. The former title challenger was seen as the favorite.

Dolidze was the one who tended to hold the center of the cage throughout the fight and was the one who tried to push. But Vettori was doing a great job. All three rounds were staged and the Italian defended the Georgian’s takedown attempts superbly. And he was great at countering himself.

So it was Vettori who was able to convince the judges of his victory. After all, he scored more significant blows and was more accurate. He may well have asked for another title shot. But everything will depend on how the title rematch between Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya turns out.

Next up was the last women’s battle of the tournament. The eight and twelve men’s flyweights faced each other, namely Jennifer Maia and Casey O’Neill. The latter was the favourite, however Maia has more experience and therefore it was advisable to take the odds with a grain of salt.

And that was confirmed in the fight. Maia set a high pace in the number of punches and had a clear tactic, to simply outshoot her opponent. Although she was on the retreat for most of the match, it was just that O’Neill was getting to ones, or at most twos, because of the Brazilian’s great tactics. She couldn’t get the longer combinations going and it showed in the match.

So when the Brazilian, not the Scottish native, raised her hands above her head after the match, it was no wonder. In any case, it was another attractive match that certainly entertained. O’Neill lost for the first time in her career.

Nelson delivered an armbar, Gaethje narrowly beat Fiziev

Gunnar Nelson and Bryan Barberena took care of the first fight on the main card that didn’t have to be decided by the scoring judges. The Icelandic went into the bout as a slight favourite, however the American is known for his ferocity, which he didn’t get to show against Nelson.

In fact, Nelson gave a straight up professorial performance. Barberena got virtually no chance to show anything in the fight. Then, once the fight went to the ground, the Icelander was in his element, landing a successful armbar with nine seconds left in the first round.

Barbarena was unable to resist for the remainder of the round, preferring to tap out. He saved his arm, but scored his second loss in a row and his second straight on a submission. It was Nelson who won for the second time in a row, marking his 13th win overall on a submission.

For the non-British crowd, probably the most anticipated main card bout came right before the title duel. Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev are two of the most attractive fighters not only in the lightweight division. Their fights entertain, promise proper stand-up carnage and nothing else was expected from their measure of strength.

Surprisingly, the less experienced Fiziev went into the duel as the favourite, but Gaethje’s qualities cannot be underestimated at all. After all, he has never fought fighters outside the top 10 rankings in the UFC and has only been beaten by Eddie Alvarez, Dustin Poirier, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Charles Oliveira.

From the first minutes, though, it was obvious why that was the case. Fiziev came into the fight very aggressive, he was also better equipped in terms of speed and Gaethje was unusually the one who didn’t press as much in the fight. They both put a lot of power into their punches and kicks, and at the same time you could tell they had respect for each other.

The second round was in a similar vein. However, Fiziev still seemed to have a slight advantage. He was combining his punches well, changing his combinations and Gaethje was not having an easy time. Still, he was also landing shots. Gaethje also gave his opponent a nasty eye-poke and that seemed to tilt the fight in his favour.

Gaethje clearly dominated the third round, and if this five-minute round had been a little longer, he might well have been able to knock Fizieva out. He did find the recipe, hitting several uppercuts and delivering a takedown at the end.

And the result? A very close win for Gaethje on points on a split-decision. But both fighters delivered a great fight! They stood up to what many others wouldn’t. In short, a beautiful duel.

Edwards remains the champion!

The main event of the evening offered the conclusion of the trilogy and a title rematch, featuring Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman. Usman didn’t enter the match as champion for the first time in a long time, as Edwards ended it in the fifth round with a beautiful high kick in the previous bout.

Usman went into this fight as the favorite, however Edwards had the better of the first round. He had great kicks and tactical skills. Plus, he was rejecting Usman’s takedown attempts, who had more or less no advantage in anything except holding the center of the cage.

But the second round was different. Usman was much more active, got Edwards in slight trouble, delivered a takedown as well, and wasn’t far from attempting to set up a choke. Edwards was still threatening though, but the round was definitely going for Usman.

The third five minutes saw Usman get back into action. He delivered a takedown, but Edwards got him off the ground. On his second attempt to get the Jamaican native to the ground, however, Edwards grabbed the netting, resulting in a takedown.

Other than that, this was the most evenly matched round to date. Edwards’ kicks were writing their own story, while Usman was relying on takedowns or taking Edwards apart with his head shots.

In the fourth round, it began to show that Usman was landing a lot of body kicks. He was starting to look tired with his conditioning as well, and Edwards was taking very good advantage of that. Usman did deliver a takedown, but he couldn’t keep the fight on the ground, and Edwards was more convincing in the standup.

The last five minutes offered an even spectacle, however Usman looked desperate at his inability to get Edwards to the ground. He didn’t have the strength to do it anymore. And it was Edwards who was more accurate in his stance. Neither fighter could find the recipe to finish the other.

And so the fight came down to points. It’s an unwritten rule there that if you want to beat the champion, you have to dominate him. That was certainly not the case for Usman, and so Edwards scored a successful first defense.

Source: UFC, Twitter, Sherdog