HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC 238

Frank Hyden MMATorch Columnist

Jun 8, 2019; Chicago, IL, USA; Henry Cejudo (red gloves) and Marlon Moraes (blue gloves) during UFC 238 at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

UFC 238 was this past weekend and it featured the fourth double champ in UFC history. Let’s get to the rundown.


UFC 238

GOOD- Tai Tuivasa vs. Blagoy Ivanov

This was all right for a heavyweight fight. Both guys tried hard and landed some hard shots. It was a close fight and Ivanov won the decision. Good win for Ivanov.

GOOD- Jimmie Rivera vs. Petr Yan

This was another solid fight with good effort. Rivera fought well but Yan did a bit more and got the decision win because of it. Good win for Yan.

GOOD/BAD- Tony Ferguson stops Donald Cerrone

Both guys were landing big shots during this fight. I thought Ferguson won the first two rounds. In between the second and third rounds, the cageside doctor called an end to the fight because Cerrone’s eye was swollen shut. He said he blew his nose and that made his eye shut because he has a broken nose. That’s a disappointing end to this fight, which was really good until this point.

There’s talk of having an immediate rematch.

I think Ferguson should face the winner of Dustin Poirier vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov when they unify the UFC lightweight titles later this year.

With this win, Ferguson has now won twelve straight fights. Even if you want to discount this win and say it’s inconclusive or something (I don’t agree with that, Ferguson was winning the fight, but whatever), he still has eleven straight wins. Is that not enough? How much can one man get jerked around? He deserves the title shot.

Now, maybe the timing works out and everything is cool, and I certainly see the appeal of rebooking this fight but other guys have gotten title shots without doing a tenth of what Ferguson has done.

I’m sure the UFC will book this rematch though, and I’ll be excited to see it, but it’s amazing the hoops Ferguson has had to jump through to get a title shot.

GOOD- Valentina Shevchenko stops Jessica Eye

Shevchenko successfully defended her flyweight title with a vicious head kick knockout of Eye at the beginning of the second round.

Shevchenko dominated the first round and came out ready to end things in the second. She caught Eye with a devastating head kick that dropped her like a sack of potatoes. It was brutal. Luckily, Eye seemed to be okay but man, that was rough.

GOOD-Henry Cejudo stops Marlon Moraes

The action was fast and furious through the first two rounds. The third round was largely the same, with more exciting action as Cejudo started pulling away. He landed some big shots and did some damage. They went to the ground and Cejudo blasted away on Moraes to force the ref stoppage towards the end of the third round to become the bantamweight champion in addition to already being the flyweight champion.

So we now have our fourth double champion in UFC history, as Cejudo joins Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, and Amanda Nunes on that list.


Ranking every ‘Champ-Champ’ victory


This is obviously an impressive achievement for Cejudo.

Moraes is really good so to finish him is impressive enough. Add to that becoming a double champion and you have history. Now, he can be as cringey as he wants and no one can say anything, though that actually won’t stop us from ragging on him when he does that stuff but oh well.

This was a really good show overall. Two dominant championship performances and the first two rounds from Ferguson-Cerrone was good. Considering how some of the UFC pay-per-view cards go, I’ll definitely take this.


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