By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
UFC 287 was this past weekend and it featured some great action in the
cage and a new champion. Who won and who lost? Let’s get to the
rundown.
UFC 287
GOOD/BAD- Christian Rodriguez vs. Raul Rosas Jr.
They fight on the fence for a moment before going to the ground.
They’re back up and down a few times and the first round ends. The
second round is Rosas trying to get the fight to the ground again.
They’re grappling but there’s not a lot of action. The third round is
more of the same. Rosas actually lands more takedowns than strikes in
this fight. He’s still a teenager so I imagine this will be a good
learning experience for him. Rodriguez wins the decision and improves
to 9-1 while Rosas suffers his first defeat and drops to 7-1. Good win
for Rodriguez.
GOOD- Kevin Holland stops Santiago Ponzinibbio
They trade kicks early before mixing in some punches and elbows. Some
nice striking going on here, including Holland dropping Ponzinibbio
with a backfist before the first round ends. The second round opens
with both men mixing up their striking well, though Holland is getting
the better of the action. Nothing super damaging on their own but
these strikes are adding up as the second round ends. The third round
begins with Ponzinibbio struggling to get inside on Holland. He’s
having good success with low kicks but he’s getting busted every time
he tries to get inside. Holland grabs a kick and crushes Ponzinibbio
with a left hook that ends the fight 3:16 into the third round.
Holland improves to 24-9 with 1 No Contest while Ponzinibbio drops to
29-7. Good win for Holland.
GOOD- Rob Font stops Adrian Yanez
They’re trading punches early, Yanez with some good counter punches.
Font shoots for a moment before going back to striking. Font connects
with a big uppercut and some combinations. Font pours it on until he
drops Yanez with a big right hook and wails on him until the referee
jumps in to stop the fight not quite three minutes into the first
round. Font improves to 20-6 while Yanez drops to 16-4 and has his 9
fight winning streak snapped. Good win for Font.
GOOD- Gilbert Burns vs. Jorge Masvidal
They start cautious, with Masvidal throwing a lot of low kicks. Not a
lot of action in the first few minutes. Masvidal stays with the kicks
as Burns gets a little more active. Burns gets a takedown at the end
of the first round. The second round begins with another Burns
takedown. Burns works some ground-and-pound before Masvidal works his
way back to his feet. The fight on the fence for a bit before the
second round ends. The third round opens with some striking exchanges
before Burns starts to land bigger and bigger strikes. Masvidal is
showing good toughness but he’s getting blasted by Burns here. Burns
gets another takedown and they scramble around until the fight ends.
We’re going to the judges and Burns wins the decision. Burns improves
to 22-5 while Masvidal drops to 35-17 and has lost 4 straight fights.
Good win for Burns.
GOOD- Jorge Masvidal retires
Jorge retires with double the wins as losses during his 20-year
career. He also holds the record for fastest knockout in UFC history
at 5 seconds. I wish him good health in his retirement.
GOOD- Israel Adesanya stops Alex Pereira
Pereira was looking to defend the UFC Middleweight Championship he had
won from Adesanya back in November. They start with trading kicks
before adding in a few punches towards the end of the first round.
Both guys starting slowly as they prepare to go the full five rounds.
The second round opens with more kicks and the occasional punch.
Pereira hurts Adesanya with some more low kicks but Adesanya fires
back with a huge right hand that staggers Pereira. One more big right
hand and it’s over. Adesanya knocks out Pereira almost four and a half
minutes into the second round. Adesanya is once again the UFC
Middleweight Champion. That’s a bigtime finish there. Adesanya
improves to 24-2 while Pereira drops to 7-2 and has his 7 fight
winning streak snapped. Good win for Adesanya.
*************
Lyoto Machida is now a free agent and wants to fight one more time.
Hopefully this is a legend’s fight with another older or retired
fighter. Machida’s current record is 26-12 and he’s lost his last 4
fights.
An anthology I’ve written a story for has launched on Kickstarter.
Team Canaveral Blastoff #1 will have 4 stories from some really talented folks.
El Scorcho is about a superhero who has to juggle a relationship,
schoolwork, and finding a job in addition to becoming a new hero.
Hawk Starling is a pulp fiction galactic romance sci-fi adventure with
planet-jumping cosmic fun.
Hollowed: Prologue is a dystopian cyberpunk sci-fi tale dealing with
society and class issues.
Pitchfork Maniac is a horror tale about a woman’s investigation into
her sister’s death that leads her into conflict with a cult and a
hellish demon. This is the one I wrote.
I would appreciate it if everyone could check it out and back it, or
at least help spread the word. These are extremely talented folks
involved with this and if you’re interested in good comics, I would
appreciate it if you would check this out. Trust me, I’ve seen some
stuff from the other writers and artists and it’s fantastic. Thanks.
My new fantasy book is now out. It’s called Kingdom of Zarias: A Fight For
Survival. It’s the third book in my epic fantasy Kingdom of Zarias
series and follows the adventures of the Summers siblings as they
fight to defend the world from an evil villain named Galren. This book
also introduces lots of other characters as the scope of the world
grows. 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. Also,
here’s the link to my new Compendium book about the Kingdom of Zarias
series- KoZ Compendium
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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