By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
UFC 275 was yesterday and featured two title fights and some amazing
moments, including another Fight of the Year candidate. Let’s get to
the rundown.
UFC 275
GOOD- Jack Della Maddalena stops Ramazan Emeev
Emeev gets an early takedown and nearly locks in an anaconda choke but
JDM escapes before blasting Emeev with a pair of left hands that drop
him. Maddalena pounces and forces the referee to jump in to stop the
fight about halfway through the first round. Maddalena improves to
12-2 and after losing his first 2 fights has now won 12 fights in a
row while Emeev drops to 20-6. Good win for Maddalena.
GOOD- Jake Matthews stops Andre Fialho
Matthews starts off with a few leg kicks before mixing in some
punches. Fialho finally opens up and they exchange strikes for the
rest of the first round. The second round starts with Matthews
staggering Fialho with some big punches. Matthews ends the fight with
some more hard strikes halfway through the second round to get the
win. Matthews improves to 18-5 while Fialho falls to 16-5 with 1 No
Contest. Good win for Matthews.
GOOD- Zhang Weili stops Joanna Jedrzejczyk
Jedrzejczyk starts off with a big leg kick before Zhang fires back and
gets a takedown. Jedrzejczyk gets back up but gets taken down again.
Jedrzejczyk fights to her feet again then there’s a scramble with
Zhang winding up on top. She starts pounding Jedrzejczyk with elbows
until she gets up again. Zhang finishes the first round with yet
another takedown. The second round starts with them trading leg kicks.
They mix in some punches as well as more kicks before a punishing
spinning backfist from Zhang knocks Jedrzejczyk out and ends the fight
halfway through the second round. That was nuts. Zhang improves to
22-3 while Jedrzejczyk falls to 16-5. Good win for Zhang.
GOOD- Joanna Jedrzejczyk retires after a great career
After the loss Jedrzejczyk said she’s retiring. She said she’s turning
35 this year and wants to be a mom and move into business. Good for
her after a great career. She won the UFC Strawweight Championship in
2015 and successfully defended it five times. I wish her the best in
retirement.
GOOD/BAD- Valentina Shevchenko vs. Taila Santos
Shevchenko successfully defended her UFC Flyweight Championship here
in a close fight. At times this fight was lacking in action. Santos
just laid on Shevchenko. She had control but she wasn’t really doing
much damage. That said, Shevchenko didn’t come alive until they
clashed heads in the fourth round and Santos started bleeding and her
right eye swelled up. Shevchenko wanted to counterstrike while Santos
didn’t want to come forward so we got stretches of inaction. It went
to the judges and Shevchenko won by Split Decision. One judge had her
winning four rounds, which I don’t really agree with. I’m seeing some
talk on social media that Santos was robbed. I don’t agree with that
either. It was a close fight, a really close fight. I don’t think you
can have a robbery in a close fight like that. Shevchenko improves to
23-3 and has won 9 fights in a row, including 7 straight title
defenses while Santos falls to 19-2 and has her 4 fight winning streak
snapped. Good win for Shevchenko.
GOOD- Jiri Prochazka submits Glover Teixeira
Prochazka won the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship in this amazing
fight. They trade a few strikes early in the first round before
Teixeira gets a takedown. Teixeira advances a bit before Prochazka
gets up. Teixeira gets another takedown and moves to mount. He’s
raining down elbows until Prochazka reverses and gets in some
ground-and-pound of his own before the round ends. The second round
sees them trading strikes early. Teixeira shows good toughness as he
absorbs some heavy strikes but he’s also landing plenty of his own. An
elbow from Teixeira late in the round cuts Prochazka above his left
eye. Teixeira tries for a few takedowns as the third round begins but
he can’t complete them and now he’s cut. They’re tearing each other up
with elbows and punches to the body. The fourth round starts with more
strikes from each man until Teixeira gets another takedown. He can’t
get a submission and Prochazka reverses and starts in with some more
ground-and-pound until Teixeira reverses that but then Prochazka
reverses that and lands a few shots until the round ends. This is
wild. The fifth round opens with Teixeira wobbling Prochazka with a
big right hand. Prochazka is getting pounded but he’s fighting through
it. Prochazka reverses a Teixeira takedown and starts wailing on him.
He gets a crucifix for a moment but Teixeira fights out of it.
Prochazka fights for and cinches in a rear-naked choke and submits
Teixeira with less than 30 seconds to go in the fifth round to win the
UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Holy hell, what a fight. Prochazka
improves to 29-3-1 and has won 13 fights in a row while Teixeira falls
to 33-8 and has his 6 fight winning streak halted. Good win for
Prochazka in a great fight. It’s definitely a Fight of the Year
candidate.
My fantasy book is now out. It’s called Kingdom of Zarias: Undeath and
the Dewester Set. It’s a fantasy epic that begins with the Summers
siblings but spreads out to encompass a large number of characters
across multiple stories as the world faces a threat from a vile
necromancer. There’s lots of action, magic, and monsters in the
Kingdom of Zarias. It’s like a tabletop game in novel form. It’s on
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other places. If you’re interested, I
would greatly appreciate it if you would check it out and support me.
Here’s the link to my book- My Book Thank you very much,
have a good day.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at
hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank.
Thanks for reading and have a good day.
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