UFC 231-Holloway puts in a Champions performance against challenger Ortega

UFC 231 was hosted in The Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Canada where two titles were on the line.

The champion for the Women’s flyweight division was to be decided between Valentina Shevchenko and Joanna Jedrzejczyk, whilst Max Holloway had to face #1 ranked featherweight Brian “T-City” Ortega to keep his belt.

The main card also featured Englishman Jimi Manuwa face Thiago Santos, Hakeem Dawodu against Kyle Bochniak and Alex Oliveira vs Gunnar Nelson.

Official UFC 231 Fight Card

Thiago Santos wins via KO against Jimi Manuwa

Manuwa was going into the light heavy weight bout with a 2-loss streak against Volkan Oezdemir and Jan Blachowiz, but he was determined to leave the octagon with a win.

“I’ve put so much into this camp. I want to finish 2018 with a bang.”

Thiago Santos, however, was on a 2-fight win streak after moving to 205lb from 185lb. Despite that, the Brazilian still cut 20lb to make weight for the fight.

In round 1 the pair were throwing bombs at each other and maintained it throughout the first 5 minutes. It’s clear why Thiago has a large hammer tattooed on his chest, because the power he was generating in his punches was extraordinary.

Both fighters are known to have heavy hands, but Manuwa certainly felt Santo’s power as he was knockdown within the first 10 seconds of the round-but managed to survive the round, looking wobbly throughout.

Manuwa tried to fight back but lacked the accuracy in his strikes,

The second round began, and Santos caught Manuwa again. A powerful left uppercut and left hook combination finished The Poster Boy 41 seconds in round 2.

It was Santos’s 5th fight in the UFC this year (most for any fighter in the UFC) and 10th KO in the organisation.

He now has 20 wins to his name and will definitely be one to watch for in the light heavy weight division.

Hakeem Dawodu defeats Kyle Bochniak via split decision

Hakeem Dawodu, 27, is an experienced Muay Thai fighter and kickboxer with a combined total of 54 wins in both sports. The young Canadian also has 8 wins in MMA.

However, throughout the fight he showed his vast fighting experience by putting on a comfortable performance to give him 2 wins and 1 loss in the UFC.

Kyle Bochniak couldn’t find a weakness to exploit in the match. He tried taking Dawodu down, but the Canadian got back to his feet with ease every time.

But the problem in Kyle’s game plan was that he tried to counter kick a guy who’s kicking technique and awareness was far superior than his.

With a kickboxing record of 12-0 for Dawodu, you wouldn’t of thought Bochniak would be kicking a lot…

Even his corner told him he’d have to stop the kicks if he wanted to win the fight.

“Kyle, you’re down 2 now. Stop the kicks, shoot more takedowns and get the finish!”

Bochniak had a record of 8 wins and 3 losses before the fight, but he lost to a man who had excellent technique in his striking and was composed throughout the fight-no matter what level the fight was taken to, Dawodu was calm and got the deserved win.

Although I have no idea how a judge scored it 29-28 to Bochniak.

Hakeem Dawodu won via split decision, with the other judges going 30-27 for the rightful victor.

Gunnar Nelson defeats Alex Oliveira by submission

Nelson hadn’t fought since Fight Night 113 (16th July 2017), and did look slightly nervous at the start of the first round.

However, that didn’t stop the Icelandic mixed martial artist from getting the finish.

Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira was on a two-fight finish streak, getting victories over Carlos Condit and Carlo Pedersoli Jr. in 2018, but was brutally forced to tap out to a rear naked choke.

The Brazilian was dancing his way into the octagon, showing signs of confidence before the fight.

He backed it up too. Nelson struggled to dominate on the ground, and Oliveira managed to end up on top and finished round 1 with superb ground and pound.

1 minute, 10 seconds into round 2 he even attempted to take Nelson down, but the #14 ranked welterweight managed to stop it.

He was very patient after securing the takedown 2 minutes in the second round, and it paid off after viscous elbows from the top forced Cowboy to turn, allowing Nelson to take his neck.

One of the worst cut’s I have seen in MMA. Blood was literally gushing out of the Brazilian’s forehead.

Valentina Shevchenko defeats Joanna Jedrzejczyk by decision

It was clear what both game plans were from the start of the fight.

Joanna, who is known for her excellent conditioning, would try to feel how Valentina would cope with large flurries of strikes and see if she could cause Shevchenko to make a mistake.

Valentina on the other hand tried to halt the onslaught of strikes by catching kicks and especially countering against Joanna’s combinations, with more powerful strikes of her own.

At first, Valentina “The Bullet” Shevchenko was having most of the success in the early rounds, with powerful timed kicks and jabs to stop Joanna from gaining any momentum in her own attacks.

Furthermore, when the high kick came from the Polish mixed martial artist, Valentina caught it and manged to gain a takedown. This occurred 4 more times throughout the bout, which would solidify The Bullet’s victory in Toronto.

Despite the being the victim to successful counter striking, Joanna’s stamina got her through the later rounds where she was unloading more shots on Valentina.

Unfortunately, she lacked power in her punches and whenever a combination seemed inevitable, Valentina would shut it down by clinching her.

By round 5 Valentina was not generating anywhere near the power that she was earlier on, causing Joanna to keep the pressure late on in the championship fight.

Judges scored the fight 49-46 Valentina, which was fair due to Valentina trying to bring the fight to different levels.

Joanna’s 69 significant strikes to Valentina’s 63 was not enough to beat The Bullet.

Max Holloway beats Brian Ortega via TKO (doctor stoppage)

This fight was meant to occur at UFC 226 in July, but Holloway had concussion like symptoms during his camp, so the fight was cancelled.

This morning’s war, however, was not postponed and was certainly worth the tile of main event of the evening.

The champion Holloway was on a 13-win fight streak, and his last loss came from The Notorious Conor McGregor. He’d even defeated former featherweight champion Jose Aldo twice (who held the belt for 10 years) before facing Ortega.

On the other hand, the challenger had not lost a professional MMA fight, and was even the betting odds favourite to win the fight.

But Ortega had not fought anyone as good as Max “Blessed” Holloway, and it was clear Max was the far superior fighter.

In the first round, Max looked the more composed of the two when striking, and the man from Hawaii even taunted his opponent.

Brian struggled to achieve a successful takedown, and only briefly got Max on the canvas when he attempted a double leg, as the champion exhibited his defence against T-City.

The second round featured excellent timed combinations from the champion, and pure heart from his challenger.

It was clear who was the better striker, because Holloway was unloading on Ortega with such ease. His movement going forward was a combination of fluidity and confidence-a solution which Ortega had no answer for.

The champion was abusing his counter right, and before Ortega knew about it, his nose was bleeding heavily.

Round 3 saw Holloway constantly 1,2 Ortega and was dealing significant damage to the #1 ranked lightweight’s left eye.

At points in the round Ortega looked confident and was giving out significant strikes of his own, but no real serious damage was dealt to the champion.

The best moment of the round occurred with 1 minute 30 seconds on the clock, as Holloway unloaded a fierce combination to the body and head of Ortega which appeared to slow, which appeared to break up the challenger’s confidence.

At the start of round 4, Max Holloway approached UFC commentator Joe Rogan and told him he would finish the fight within the round.

It appeared he would stick to his word, as the champion turned up the tempo of the fight and dominated his opponent.

After a successful takedown, Holloway even achieved a takedown of his own and attempted a guillotine with 90 seconds left in the round.

Despite the attempted submission, and a flurry of 10 punch combinations with less than a minute to go in the fourth round, Holloway could not finish Ortega regardless of his best efforts.

In the best interests of Ortega, doctors stepped in and stopped the fight due to the severe damage to his left eye. The swelling prevented him to see through it, therefore it was the right decision.

He was not the betting favourite despite being the champion, and even commented after the fight saying, “I just got my fans easy money!”

But a total of 290/436 significant strikes (54% significant strike accuracy) backs up Joe Rogan’s opinion on him- “best featherweight of all time!”

Including Brian Ortega’s 110 significant strikes, it made the featherweight fight #1 for most significant strikes in the UFC’s history. Furthermore, the featherweight champion currently holds the record for most significant strikes for a UFC fighter, with a total of 1,627.

What’s next for the fighters?

Even though he put on a brilliant performance against Thiago Santos, Jimi Manuwa is now on a 3-fight losing streak meaning he will fall down the rankings heavily.

But Santos just knocked out the #7 light heavyweight, therefore I believe he should face a top 5 lightweight due to his overwhelming performances in the division.

At 27, Hakeem Dawodu looks like he will have an extremely promising career in the featherweight division, and I believe he will fight Max Holloway sometime in the future.

For now, though, a good fight for the Canadian would be someone like Enrique Barloza who will go for more aggressive takedowns and it will be interesting to see how he copes on the ground properly.

Gunnar Nelson’s submission on Alex Oliveira was good, however until that moment he never really seemed like he would win the fight.

You could put him against Neil Magny as the pair of both recently lost to Santiago Ponzinibbio, but I find It difficult to see anything but a Magny win.

In the UFC’s women’s featherweight division, there is a new champion who will need to be ready for title challenges.

Luckily, it didn’t appear Valentina took any significant damage in her fight, so I believe she could face challenges from the likes of American martial artist Jessica Eye who’s on a 3-fight win streak.

Lastly, Max Holloway is on the journey to prove he is the pound for pound best fighter in the world. Currently he’s ranked #5, but in order to cement his beliefs, he will need to beat the world’s best.

There are a lot of fighters in contention to fight Holloway, some the likes of Conor Mcgregor, Dustin Poirier and even Khabib Nurmagomedov.

But it will take something special to stop the ‘blessed express’.