<b>By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist</b>
PFL 9 (2025) and UFC 319 were this past weekend and featured some
exciting fights and finishes. Who won and who lost? Let’s get to the
rundown.
<i>PFL 9 (2025)</i>
<b>GOOD- Robert Watley stops Mads Burnell</b>
They start off trading strikes before getting into a clinch, where
they stay for the rest of the first round. The second round begins
with more clinch work from Burnell until he gets a quick takedown. The
third round starts with Watley attacking with strikes while Burnell
tries for a takedown. Watley hurts Burnell and keeps pounding on him
until the referee jumps in to stop the fight a bit over two and a half
minutes into the third round.
Watley improves to 16-3 and has won 5 straight fights while Burnell
L drops to 20-8. Good win for Watley.
<b>GOOD- Marcirley Alves vs. Justin Wetzell</b>
This was a very close fight, with both men fighting hard across the
entire 25 minutes. You could argue for either man to win the decision,
though the judges ruled it for Alves.
Alves improves to 15-4 and has won 3 straight fights while Wetzell
drops to 12-3 and has his 5 fight winning streak snapped. Good win for Alves.
Alves is your 2025 PFL Bantamweight Tournament World Champion. Congrats to him.
<b>GOOD- Liz Carmouche stops Jena Bishop</b>
They trade strikes through an active and close first round. The second
round was also close and it’s anyone’s fight right now. The third
round starts with Carmouche attacking with kicks before countering
with a monstrous left hook that sends Bishop flying. Carmouche pounces
and pounds on her until the referee jumps in to stop the fight not
quite three minutes into the third round.
Carmouche improves to 25-8 and has won 3 straight fights while Bishop
drops to 9-3.
Carmouche is your 2025 PFL Flyweight Tournament World Champion. Congrats to her.
<b>GOOD- Alfie Davis vs. Gadzhi Rabadanov</b>
The first round was tentative. Rabadanov comes back in the second
round and uses his grappling to grind on Davis. However, Davis has more success in the third round with his striking. Rabadanov once
again uses his grappling to control the fourth round and grind down on
Davis. The fifth round belongs to Davis, as he shows tremendous heart
and relentless energy and movement. The fight ends so we go to the
judges to render their verdict.
Davis wins the decision to improve to 20-5-1 and has won 3 straight
fights while Rabadanov drops to 26-5-2 and has his 12 fight winning streak snapped.
Davis is your 2025 PFL Lightweight Tournament World Champion. Congrats to him.
<i>UFC 319</i>
<b>GOOD- Tim Elliott submits Kai Asakura</b>
They trade strikes early, with Elliott using some odd head and body
movements to try to throw Asakura off. Elliott gets a takedown at the
end of the first round. The second round begins with more weird
movements from Elliott before he gets a takedown. He eventually traps
Asakura in a guillotine and forces the tap a bit over four and a half minutes into the second round.
Elliott improves to 21-13-1 while Asakura drops to 21-6. Good win for Elliott.
<b>GOOD- Jared Cannonier vs. Michael Page</b>
After some early striking, Page gets a trip takedown but lets
Cannonier stand up. Page isn’t throwing many strikes but he does drop
Cannonier with a nice right hand. The second round begins with Page
still being more interested in miming dribbling a basketball than throwing many strikes. Cannonier gets a takedown before the second
round ends. The third round starts with Cannonier getting a takedown
but he can’t do enough to finish Page so the fight ends and we go to
the judges to render their verdict.
Page wins the decision to improve to 24-3 while Cannonier drops to 18-9. Good win for Page.
<b>GOOD- Carlos Prates stops Geoff Neal</b>
They’re trading powerful strikes early and often in the first round.
At the end of the first round, Prates catches Neal with a beautiful
spinning elbow that crushes him and forces the referee to jump in to
stop the fight with just one second left in the first round. Wow.
Prates improves to 22-7 while Neal drops to 16-7. Good win for Prates.
<b>GOOD- Lerone Murphy stops Aaron Pico</b>
They trade strikes until Pico gets a takedown. They’re back up and
trading more strikes until Murphy drops Pico with an incredible
spinning elbow to the temple. Murphy hits Pico with an unnecessary
hammerfist before the referee can stop him and this fight is over not
quite three and a half minutes into the first round. Wow again. This
is wild to see back to back spinning elbow finishes.
Murphy stays undefeated at 17-0-1 while Pico drops to 13-5 and has his
3 fight winning streak snapped. Good win for Murphy.
<b>UGLY- Dricus Du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev</b>
Du Plessis was attempting to defend his UFC Middleweight Championship
for the third time here. Instead, we got one of the worst examples of
a boring hugfest I’ve seen in quite some time. Nobody wants to watch
this stuff. Chimaev just stayed glued to DDP for most of the fight and
hit him with these weak “punches” hundreds of times. Credit for the
activity, I suppose, but this was god awful to watch and would actively dissuade people from wanting to watch MMA.
Make no mistake, I blame DDP as well as Chimaev for having to sit
through this. Chimaev won the decision and is the new UFC Middleweight
Champion.
Chimaev improves to 15-0 while Du Plessis drops to 23-3 and has his 11
fight winning streak snapped.
This fight is a prime example of why it’s so great for the UFC and
their bottom-line that they’re ditching PPV and moving to Paramount+
and CBS. Charging $85+ for a handful of fights when the very real
possibility exists that one or more of the fights could be like this
junk is one of the reasons why buyrates are down.
MMA legend Demetrious Johnson (25-4-1) did the meme with his reaction
to the people complaining about this fight. To paraphrase, he
essentially said “If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.”
First, that’s a terrible thing to say if you’re actually interested in
trying to get people to watch.
Second, don’t worry DJ, people are way ahead of you. The sound of
people changing the channel across the world could be heard during
this fight.
I understand the arguments that DDP was too tough to be finished,
Chimaev had incredible cardio to stay on top that amount of time, all
that stuff. Chimaev got a Performance of the Night award for this
fight, and he deserved it. But that doesn’t mean anyone wants to watch
him fight again. Of course, that’s hyperbole because there’s some very
hardcore fans who’ll go back and rewatch this fight. To the vast
majority of fight fans (especially those who watched all five rounds),
though, this is one and done and they’ll never think about this fight
ever again.
One last thing before I get to the big news of the UFC’s new home.
Fights like this are the exact reason why so many people pirate PPV’s.
Let’s be real. Who wants to pay money to see that? If this fight was
taking place in your backyard, you’d close the curtains.
This obviously takes a lot of skill but so do a lot of things that no
one wants to watch.
Anyway, enough complaining about this. Moving on.
*************
The UFC is moving to Paramount+ and CBS in a seven-year, $7.7 billion
deal beginning in 2026. The agreement covers all 43 annual UFC events,
including 13 marquee numbered fights and 30 Fight Night events, which
will be streamed exclusively on Paramount+. It’s also said that
“select” numbered events will also be simulcast on CBS.
This is huge and the UFC stepping away from PPV is the right move.
Charging $85+ for those numbered shows limits the number of people who
are going to pay to watch those events. Sure, some people will still
pirate but there’s nearly 80 million people with Paramount+ subs worldwide. That opens up a huge number of new potential viewers. Then
showing some (or all) of the numbered events on CBS will draw in even
more new potential viewers.
The UFC has essentially doubled their rights fees and placed their product in front of more people.
Now, whether that increased money they’re bringing in will trickle
down to the fighters remains to be seen. I’m skeptical but we’ll see.
My new epic fantasy book is out. It’s called <a
href=https://books2read.com/u/bW6pg7/>Kingdom of Zarias: The End’s
Beginning</a>. The exciting epic fantasy series Kingdom of Zarias
returns with the 4th book in the series. After the harrowing events of
Book 3 the residents of the Kingdom of Zarias continue on their paths.
Serena Summers continues to learn and grow as a fighter, desperately
seeking to become stronger before she loses anyone else in her life.
Daniel Summers discovers new parts of the world that open his eyes to
just how little he truly knows. A new hero, Lamar Abeers, arrives to join the fight against evil. Plus, Zach Summers, Tiana Highsmith, and
Xavien Ekens continue their journeys with their friends, and a new
ruler of Vhaharen is crowned. The world has found a little peace.
However, that peace is only temporary. In a shocking act of violence,
the monstrous villain Galren strikes from the shadows and changes the
world forever. This is Book 4 in the series. 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.Thank you very much, have a good day.
<i>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.</i>
I need you to send me another one, this one won’t publish for some reason, something about the format, it does that sometimes. Something must be off in the coding
Show quoted text
Leave a Reply