The UFC’s last tournament of the year is over! Dvorak falls, Cannonier asks for a title fight. There were knockouts. What did the gala look like?

The last UFC tournament of the year was mainly marked by fights in the lower weight classes. David Dvorak was also in action at the lightest weight. How did the gala of the world’s best MMA organization look like?

Prelims

The judges had a harvest, Dvorak fell, a bloody battle for the Mexican

The first fight of the tournament was dominated on points by Sergey Morozov, who defeated Journey Newson. The American fighter was more convincing in his stance, but Morozov managed to control the fight with quality wrestling, which Newson could not find a successful recipe for during three rounds.

The very second bout catered for David Dvorak, who went into the fight as the underdog against Manel Kapp, who wanted to knock the Czech fighter out of the top ten of the UFC’s flyweight rankings. And unfortunately, he succeeded.

In the first round it was clear that the Czech fighter respected his opponent, but he did not do badly until the end. He delivered a takedown, however, then Kape successfully deployed a kimura and hats off to Dvorak for not tapping out and holding on until the end of the round. It did, however, affect the rest of the fight.

Dvorak barely used his hand in the second round, which the former Rizin champion noticed and tried to take advantage of. He clearly dominated the fight. Dvorak then tried to steal the third round for himself, trying to catch Kape, but alas. He lost on points and it was his second loss in a row.

The third bout was in the spirit of the Russian wrestling school as Rinat Fakhretdinov outpointed Bryan Battle. For the most part, he controlled the entire fight and destroyed his opponent on the ground. However, Battle never gave up on the match and continually attempted various submissions. However, the Russian was attentive and handled everything perfectly to win on points.

If anyone missed blood in the tournament, they got it in the fourth match. In it, Rafa Garcia beat Maheshate on points, but he didn’t have it easy. The Chinese was at a considerable height advantage against the Mexican, which was a big advantage for him.

Garcia didn’t give up though, as Maheshate then made a cut on his head, only to build him up for more power and later regret it. The closer the fight came to the end, the more dominant the Mexican was, scoring a beautiful win.

Said Nurmagomedov and Saidyokub Kahramonov put on a very attractive fight. It was another fight in which ground skills played a major role. Although Kahramonov had his work cut out for him early on when Nurmagomedov tried to tighten the guillotine, Kahramonov got out of it and tormented his opponent with his wrestling.

He continued the trend in the second round and you could tell that Nurmagomedov wasn’t entirely happy with his style. He had to constantly defend himself while waiting for a mistake. And he got it. Kahramonov forgot about Nurmagomedov’s skill and in his pressure on the canvas allowed Said to grab a guillotine that was successfully tightened. It was the first finish of the night.

Jake Matthews and Matthew Semelsberger provided the first purely stand-up fight. The latter made a great entrance and delivered a knockdown in the first round, but was unable to finish Matthews.

In the second round, it was Matthews who was more active, only to be sent down again by Semelsberger. And it was much the same in the third round when the Australian knew he needed to end the fight. He was able to hit the American well on several occasions, but Semelsberger kept the fight close and also dealt his opponent a knockdown in the third five minutes. Semelsberger deservedly won on points.

The only women’s match of the gala followed. Cheyanne Vlismas and Cory McKenna teamed up to close out the prelims card. It’s worth noting that Vlismas defeated Mallory Martin, who was featured in the Octagon, on points in her last match.

Vlismas entered the fight with the better height advantage, and her arm span and leg length played in her favor as well. McKenna, however, was able to get the American fighter to the ground and was able to control her opponent there.

So she had a clear plan in the second round. To try and take the fight to the ground or control it on the canvas. The latter in particular worked, with Vlismas being mostly clueless in the clinch at the wire, while McKenna scored the fight in her favor.

The American started the third round with a risk, trying to put her opponent in a quick choke, only for the Welsh fighter to control the situation and the American’s risk became the Welshwoman’s gain as she was able to exploit the dominant position on the ground. Vlismas didn’t give up though, trying various submission attempts, only to no avail. The talented McKenna strolled to a points win.

The main card

No early terminations in the past

The main card opened with Cody Brundage and Michal Oleksiejczuk. And unlike the prelims, there wasn’t a long wait for the first ending here. We saw it in the first round. Brundage quickly took the fight to the ground looking to dominate, only for Oleksiejczuk to reverse the position and then hit his ally so hard he was able to shut him down.

Drew Dober and Bobby Green promised an attractive spectacle and delivered. Green, whose atypical style did not suit Dober at all, won the first round overwhelmingly. Green was faster, harder, more accurate and landed over 40 significant punches in five minutes. He clearly made his mark on his opponent’s face.

But the second round belonged to Dober. He started kicking, he picked out the distance and Green, in turn, with his great eye and reflexes, miscalculated. He took a nice hook to the chin and went down.

Rather incomprehensibly, he complained about the referee’s premature intervention, but he took the loss in stride and was happy that he and his opponent had delivered a great show.

It is worth noting, however, that while Dober dealt 48 significant blows, Green dealt 84 to his conqueror.

The fight between Alex Caceres and Julian Erosa also offered a great spectacle. The latter went into the fight as the favourite, but was cautious against a mobile and unreadable opponent. But even that didn’t help him. Caceres landed a great head kick in the first round and finished Erosa on the ground.

The fourth fight of the main card followed the previous ones and also ended before the limit. Alessandro Costa challenged the eight man flyweight Amir Albazi. However, you could tell who was higher in the UFC rankings. Albazi more or less took the fight in stride and sent Costa to dreamland in the third round.

Even the main card saw the fight end on points. It was taken care of by Arman Tsarukyan and Damir Ismagulov. The first round looked pretty even, with Ismagulov looking convincing in the standup, and Tsarukyan relying on wrestling. And he tried to wrestle the remaining two rounds, but Ismagulov fought back as hard as he could. Still, he had no chance and lost.

Cannonier challenged for the title

The main event of the last tournament was headlined by the top middleweight fighters. Specifically, division number three Jared Cannonier and number seven Sean Strickland. Understandably, both fighters are fairly close to a potential title fight.

Accordingly, the fight has begun. Careful. In the first round, one was loading the other up, not much happening overall. Cannonier started to soften up in the second round, but Strickland wasn’t making it easy for him. He was too passive, waiting for a mistake while his opponent was making the fight. But it didn’t make any difference.

The third round was more or less identical, in any case it was becoming obvious that Cannonier was tired of chasing Strickland around the cage. However, he didn’t have much choice. Strickland did land some good combinations from the retreat, but again, nothing that was decisive in the fight. In the fourth round, though, Cannonier was able to put Strickland in uncomfortable situations.

The fifth round was by far the most interesting, with both fighters trading combinations where Cannonier was able to mark Strickland’s face. The scoring judges were not expecting anything easy. However, two out of three saw Cannonier win.

So Cannonier scored a valuable win, but it’s questionable if this performance will be enough for him to get another title shot soon.

Source: UFC, Twitter