By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor
UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Oleynik was this past weekend. It had a couple big fights. Let’s get to the rundown.
GOOD/BAD- Beneil Dariush stops Scott Holtzman
We start sloppy as we see two eyepokes and a low blow within the first minutes of the fight. And I guess it was sloppy before the fight even started as Dariush missed weight. Not a great start to the fight, despite Dariush hitting Holtzman with some hard shots. Hot Sauce Holtzman fires back, though, and we get some good action. Dariush smashes Hot Sauce with a knee and follows up with more for an And 1. If you get that reference, you watched streetball on ESPN back in the day.
Dariush has Holtzman on the ropes as he continues plastering him with big shots before finishing him with a spinning backfist with less than thirty seconds to go in the first round. Good win for Dariush.
BAD- Julija Stoliarenko vs. Yana Kunitskaya
Not a whole lot to this fight, though I guess you have to appreciate the effort. However, this fight was pretty boring. Kunitskaya won the decision but this was just kind of there. That said, nice win for her.
GOOD- Darren Stewart submits Maki Pitolo
These guys were throwing heavy bombs all throughout this fight. Stewart had good success with his jabs while Pitolo landed some big punches. This was just an exciting slugfest. The finish came when Pitolo defended a takedown and landed a takedown of his own, but Stewart locked in a tight guillotine and forced the tap not quite four minutes into the first round. Good win for Stewart.
BAD/GOOD- Chris Weidman vs. Omari Akhmedov
This was a pretty tight and close fight. Weidman won the decision thanks to his grappling, as he was able to stay on top of Akhmedov enough to get the nod from the judges in two of the three rounds. This wasn’t as bad as the Stolirenko-Kunitskaya fight from earlier but not by much. Maybe I was a bit more into it because this fight sure made it seem like Weidman still has something left in the tank. Talk of Weidman getting a title shot is crazy but I guess that’s how weak the middleweight division is. Good win for Weidman.
GOOD- Derrick Lewis stops Alexey Oleynik
Oleynik was fully committed to trying to submit Lewis in the first round, but he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t lock on any of the many submissions he tried tightly enough to get the win. The second round started with Lewis blasting Oleynik with a huge right hand before following up with punches on the ground to force the ref to jump in. Lewis now holds the record for most heavyweight knockouts and is in the title picture. He still needs another win to get a shot but he’s close. He has the power to knock anyone out if he catches them so he’ll always be a dangerous opponent for anyone. Good win for Lewis.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank
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