UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Rakic was this past weekend. Let’s get to the rundown, then hit on some quick pieces of news
UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Rakic
GOOD- Ricardo Lamas vs. Bill Algeo
Algeo fought well early but couldn’t finish Lamas when he had a chance. This came back to haunt him as Lamas started raining down hell on him in the third round. Lamas landed some vicious ground-and-pound but Algeo was too tough to finish. Lamas won the decision in an exciting fight. Good win for Lamas.
GOOD- Alexa Grasso vs. Ji Yeon Kim
There were some really hard shots in this fight. They were throwing bombs and both women were tough to take them and keep fighting. Grasso always seemed to get the advantage in their encounters so she got the clear decision victory, but this was closer than it might seem. Good win for Grasso.
GOOD- Neil Magny vs. Robbie Lawler
Honestly, I did start getting a bit restless during this fight. Not that this was a bad fight or anything but there’s been nothing but decisions on the main card and this was the least good of the fights so far. Lawler fought fine but Magny was just better and he won the decision. Good win for Magny.
GOOD- Aleksander Rakic vs. Anthony Smith
Rakic dominated Smith in this fight and won the clear decision. I’m just glad this was only a three round main event, because it was clear from the middle of the second round that Rakic was going to win this fight. Rakic just controlled Smith and basically fought the way he wanted. This was a real coming out party for Rakic, as Smith is a former title challenger, and Rakic looked fantastic against him. Good win for Rakic.
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Cris Cyborg has criticized Daniel Cormier and called him a shill after he said that the UFC gave him a million dollars after his first fight with Jon Jones. Cormier said he’s not going to bash the UFC because they changed his life. The UFC clearly underpays its fighters, I don’t know too many people who would dispute that, and yeah everyone should criticize them for that. But if Cormier doesn’t want to do that, so be it. He doesn’t have to do that. Should he? Yeah, but it’s his freedom to do that. As long as he says “They treated me well, I can’t speak for anyone else.”, who could have a problem with that?
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UFC 254 is this October 24th and is headlined by UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov fighting UFC Interim Lightweight Champion Justin Gaethje. Robert Whittaker will fight Jared Cannonier on this card as well. Obviously, the draw is Nurmagomedov vs. Gaethje but it wasn’t that long ago that Whittaker was the UFC Middleweight Champion and looking tough and Cannonier is on a three fight winning streak since moving to middleweight. This is a good addition to the card. It may not be a huge draw to some fans but it’s an exciting fight to me.
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Brock Lesnar is a free agent, as his WWE contract is over. There’s talk of him coming back to the UFC or MMA in general. Maybe he’ll fight Fedor Emelianenko or Jon Jones or Vitor Belfort? I could see the UFC wanting to bring Brock back in to try to draw a big buyrate but would he be willing to come in to lose to somebody like Jones? I imagine they’d have to pay him a lot of money to come back, knowing he would likely lose to whoever he faced, unless he faced someone down the list, which goes against wanting to pop a big buyrate. I personally think nothing comes of this and he goes back to WWE in a few months or maybe around February or March for WrestleMania time.
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