Milestones of UFC 271 – the performance, the disappointment and the embarrassment of the UFC gala

On Sunday morning, another numbered gala called UFC 271 took place. As the main event of the evening, current middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and challenger Robert Whittaker catered the title fight. What were the milestones of this tournament?

UFC 271:: Performance of the Night

The performance, and perhaps the surprise of the entire tournament, came on the main card in the prelims of the title fight between the two heavyweights. Heavyweight number three Derrick Lewis took on the daunting task of facing off against the rangy Australian, 11th ranked heavyweight Tai Tuivas.

That it was an unsuccessful gamble, few would have expected before the tournament. The American fighter, known for his bombs that often put his opponents to sleep, tasted his own medicine this time.

Lewis clearly dominated his opponent in the first round, getting his opponent to the ground where he peppered him with his biggest punches just before the end of the first round.

But the Australian’s chin was like stone that night, and he was able to shake them off pretty well at the break. In the second round, on the other hand, he peppered his taller opponent with terrifying punches and after a hard elbow, Lewis’ limp body staggered to the floor.

Lewis thus lost his second straight fight after a K.O. from recent title challenger Gane, and must be all the more sorry for losing in front of his home crowd of Houston.

Tai Tuivasa, on the other hand, is riding a streak of five straight wins to move significantly closer to the top of the division, making the 28-year-old Aussie the new rising star of the UFC. The crowd favourite was also able to once again have his typical beer-drinking celebration with the fans.

UFC 271:: Disappointment of the night

While the title fight wasn’t expected to be any sort of extra wide open spectacle, we were probably expecting a bit more from the battle for the belt. In a rematch of the October 2019 middleweight championship bout, Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker faced off again this time.

While it has to be said that the challenger should be far more agile in any title fight, there are more and more of those fights where the champion Adesanya doesn’t put on a very attractive fight.

Of course, there’s a lot at stake and tactics tend to be at the forefront in these fights, but we would expect entertainment and excitement from a fighter who recently signed a lucrative contract with the UFC organization, where he should earn by far the most after the stellar Conor McGregor.

However, the five-round bout, if it can even be called that, was all about keeping his distance, scoring points for sniping his opponent and trying to defend Whittaker’s occasional takedowns. Whittaker himself also showed almost none of his proverbial K.O. power and found no recipe for threatening Adesanya at all against the champion’s long limbs.

After a boring twenty-five minutes, the judges awarded the win to the current champion, who remains undefeated in his middleweight division. But after the fight, a wave of criticism descended on the current champion’s performance.

“Believe me, I like Izzy, but we’ve gotten to the point where the champion just stands in the octagon, puts a couple of punches in a round and if someone doesn’t finish him, he wins,” recent lightweight title challenger Michael Chandler responded to the title fight. “Go to a real fight and not sparring,” he added.

Welterweight monster and the UFC’s biggest rising star Khamzat Chimaev believes he could beat the champion in the first round. “Easy money for me, zero wrestling, I would kill him in the first round,” a confident Chimaev wrote on his Twitter account.

UFC 271:: Embarrassment of the night

You may have noticed the case of popular commentator Joe Rogan, who has been under a lot of media pressure lately. First, he was slammed for spreading anti-civic misinformation on his podcast. Only to then, when those times subsided, a video surfaced that sparked a lot of resentment, especially in the black community.

In fact, in the aforementioned recording, a video was edited where the commentator uses the word “nigger”. Which is almost a forbidden word for a white person and is very offensive to the black community.

At the UFC 271 press conference, the reporters present asked UFC boss Dana White directly about the said situation. Surprisingly, however, the biggest star of the said gala, Israel Adesanya, took the floor.

“Since I am a black man, I will answer this question,” champion Adesanya beat his employer to the punch. “I’ve been in this business since 2008 and I’ve learned that there are a lot of snakes out there trying to smear somebody.

After all these long years, I can say that Joe Rogan is one of the nicest people in the business and I am honoured to work with such a great person,” he defended the charismatic commentator.

However, unfortunately, despite the advocacy of the reinstated champion, who received a thunderous ovation for his opinion from those in attendance at the press conference, the UFC organization decided to pull the commentator from the gala, leaving former champion Michael Bisping to fill his absence. Let’s just hope that this artificially created cause doesn’t affect the work of this great man.

Source: UFC, Twitter, YouTube, MMA Fighting