HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC 324

By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist

UFC 324 was last weekend and featured an incredibly exciting fight and
one finish and crowned a new Interim UFC Lightweight Champion. Who won
and who lost? Let’s get to the rundown.

UFC 324
GOOD- Arnold Allen vs. Jean Silva
They start off trading strikes until Allen does the Palpatine and
pokes Silva in the eye. They continue fighting until the first round
ends. The second round begins with more striking exchanges, including
some powerful punches landing. They’re coming at each other from all
angles and the second round ends. The third round starts and ends with
more striking exchanges. We go to the judges to render their verdict.
Silva wins the decision to improve to 17-3 while Allen drops to 20-4.
Good win for Silva.

GOOD- Natalia Silva vs. Rose Namajunas
The first round is pretty close. They trade some strikes back and
forth. The second round begins with a lot of misses with some connections on strikes. Namajunas gets a takedown and stays on top of
Silva for the rest of the second round. The third round starts with a
little action but that’s about it. Not much happens and the fight ends
so we go to the judges to render their verdict. Not terrible but not a great fight.
Silva wins the decision to improve to 20-5-1 and has won 14 straight
fights while Namajunas drops to 14-8. It’s a win for Silva.

GOOD- Waldo Cortes-Acosta stops Derrick Lewis
Not much going on in the first round, outside of Lewis trying some
high kicks. The second round begins with Cortes-Acosta picking away
with his jab as Lewis just can’t get going. Lewis drops from a jab and
Cortes-Acosta pounces and starts pounding away until the referee jumps
in to stop the fight a bit over three minutes into the second round.
Another not great fight but at least this one had a finish.
Cortes-Acosta improves to 17-2 and has won 3 straight fights while
Lewis drops to 29-13, with 1 No Contest. Good win for Cortes-Acosta.

GOOD- Sean O’Malley vs. Song Yadong
They trade kicks early before mixing in some punches. Song gets a
takedown and spends the rest of the first round on top. The second
round begins with Song trying for a takedown so most of the round is
them grinding until Song gets the takedown. Not much happening again.
The third round starts with O’Malley being more on point with his striking now and he’s touching up Song repeatedly. Song is too tough
and he keeps coming and the fight ends. We go to the judges to render their verdict.
O’Malley wins the decision to improve to 19-3, with 1 No Contest, while Song drops to 22-9-1, with 1 No Contest. Good win for O’Malley.

GREAT- Justin Gaethje vs. Paddy Pimblett
This fight was to crown the Interim UFC Lightweight Champion.
They’re trading strikes early and often, until Gaethje drops Pimblett
with a big uppercut. Gaethje lets him up and is completely unafraid of
Pimblett’s striking. They’re swinging for the fences on each other
until Gaethje does the Palpatine and eyepokes Pimblett. The crowd boos
and Pimblett rightly questions why the crowd is booing him instead of
the guy doing the eyepoking? Thankfully the referee issues a hard
warning to Gaethje so I’m sure he’ll never do that again. After a short time, they resume fighting and the fighters continue cracking
each other with strikes. The second round begins with more of the same
wild action, as each man is lobbing grenades at the other. Gaethje
drops Pimblett with a big knee and starts unloading on him. Pimblett somehow survives and the second round ends. The third round starts
with a replay showing that Gaethje thumbed Pimblett in the eye and
that’s what started the sequence in the second round. Anyway, Gaethje
is pummeling Pimblett but Pimblett fires up like a superhero in the
third act and now he’s smashing Gaethje. Pimblett’s kicks are paying
off for him but unfortunately he lowblows Gaethje. When they resume,
they go back to smashing away at each other and the third round ends.
The fourth round opens with more wild action. Both men are showing
incredible toughness. Gaethje’s power is allowing him to stagger Pimblett a few times, but a bloodied Pimblett keeps coming. Gaethje is
throwing everything he has at Pimblett but the Brit is way too tough
and is actually hurting Gaethje back with some of his counters. This
is crazy. The fifth round commences with still more unbelievably
powerful strikes landing but neither man backing down. Lesser men
would have been crumbled into dust by now but these two are still firing. It looks like a horror movie in the cage. Maybe I’m caught up
in the moment but Paddy Pimblett might be the toughest man walking the
planet. I don’t see how he’s doing this. Gaethje is smashing him over
and over but he can’t stop him. The fight ends and we go to the judges to render their verdict.
This might be the Fight of the Year already. I don’t want to jump the
gun but holy hell, this was amazing. If you haven’t seen this fight, search it out. You got to watch it.
Gaethje wins the decision to improve to 27-5 while Pimblett drops to
23-4 and has his 9 fight winning streak snapped. Fantastic fight and a great win for Gaethje.

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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.