Event UFC 223: Khabib vs. Iaquinta [Results]

Rose: "I'm just better."

Turns out she is.

 

Khabib looks stiff when he's kickboxing but he seems to be just good enough. His takedowns are scary. His G&P is terrifying.

 

Khabib spends the third round jabbing Al up.

 

Fourth round is another striking exchange. Khabib throwing a lot more leather and doing laps around the cage but he's "getting tired" and "showing weakness" according to Joe. He has had a few unsuccessful ankle picks in the third and fourth but he seems to be throwing them in like GSP used to. Iaquinta isn't throwing more than one punch at a time.

 

Iaquinta going for it in the last round. Much more interesting fight, now.

 

Khabib is a long way from tired. Dumps Iaquinta at the 2:20 mark.

Iaquinta pouring blood from his nose.

 

Iaqinta resists a RNC attempt at the 1-minute mark.

Kabib riding him for the round.

 

Can't help but feel that Khabib made the fight more interesting by standing with Al for the second half. Did he have to?

 

Results

Khabib Nurmagomedov def. Al Iaquinta via unanimous decision - (50-44, 50-43, 50-43) - Round 5, 5:00
Rose Namajunas def. Joanna Jedrzejczyk via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46) - Round 5, 5:00
Renato Moicano def. Calvin Kattar via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27) - Round 3, 5:00
Zabit Magomedsharipov def. Kyle Bochniak via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27) - Round 3, 5:00
Chris Gruetzemacher def. Joe Lauzon via TKO (corner stoppage) - Round 2, 5:00
Karolina Kowalkiewicz def. Felice Herrig via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) - Round 3, 5:00
Olivier Aubin-Mercier def. Evan Dunham via TKO (strikes) - Round 1, 0:53
Ashlee Evans-Smith def. Bec Rawlings via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) - Round 3, 5:00
Devin Clark def. Mike Rodriguez via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27) - Round 3, 5:00

 

They are calling Khabib the "undisputed" champion.

He is the most disputed champion in UFC history. Two other fighters are LW champion. WTF?!

 

Khabib calls out GSP, wants to fight him at MSG in November. He said before he wants it to be for the LW title and thinks Tony should get back in line.

 

Zabit reportedly broke his hand during warm-ups. Crazy.


Hope Ragin' Al gets a fat cheque for stepping up and gutting it out.

 

Short card, saw all the fights.

Devin Clark vs. Mike Rodriguez was whatever. Card filler.

Bec Rawlings vs. Ashley Evans-Smith was awful. Low skill level. Say goodbye to Rawlings who will join Angela Magana on the sidelines.

OAM thumped Evan Dunham. Exciting performance from the young Quebecois. Rogan, who had a horrible night on commentary, said that OAM hurt Dunham with a knee--looked like it was a body shot that folded him. OAM is on a four-fight run and looking better each time out. Earned a jump in competition. I don't see much changing for Dunham. He wins most of his fights and will keep plugging away.

KK vs. Herrig was less competitive than I expected despite being a split. I think Herrig performed below expectations. Sometimes she looks really good and other times she looks tentative. KK is probably not going to get the next shot at the SW title. I wonder if she will chase Nicco Montano? How many UFC fans even know who Montano is anymore?

Joe Lauzon is starting to look his age, finally. Gruetzemacher was on a two-fight skid and looked to be a litmus test for Lauzon, which he failed. I'm sure he will keep fighting but it will be harder and harder for the UFC to find opponents for him. He's 1-4 in his last five outings. Kudos to his coach for seeing the reality of the fight he was in and discreetly ending it for his fighter.

I was pretty excited to see Zabit Magomedsharipov fight again but the relentless cheerleading by Rogan and Smith was exhausting. Zabit is a flashy fighter but tonight he showed that he is far from perfect. We found out later he had a broken hand from before the fight even started. Had he suffered it earlier in the week he probably wouldn't have fought. Joe wants to see him against a top-10 opponent but slow your roll, lets not get ahead of ourselves with this young prospect. He is good, though. Kyle Bochniak fought really hard but his skill level was too low to be truly competitive. Showcase fight for Zabit.

Renato Moicano bulldozed Calvin Kattar. Great performance coming off a respectable loss to Brian Ortega last July.

JJ had an uninspired performance against Rose Namajunas in their rematch. Shades of Ronda Rousey in this one. I feel like JJ's mental state as a fighter has been her strongest asset and the bad loss she suffered last time out still takes up too much space in her head. I expected her to come out and fight like she has against KK, Gadelha, Andrade--no, she was significantly worse. After every round she celebrated as if she was trying to convince herself she was doing well. She put on a little act at the end like she expected to hear her name called. No, not enough. The instant rematch was a bad idea (which is usually the case, IMHO). She needs to build her confidence back up. Losing back-to-back might be enough to shatter her. Despite this she won a lot of exchanges as the fight wore on, just not by enough. Rose's striking in the later rounds was more miss than hit. Props to Rose who has had the two best performances in the two biggest fights of her career. Talk about being a strong person. On paper she is not up to JJ's level but that doesn't matter at all in the cage. Sounds like she's going to fight Jessica Andrade next which should be a difficult opponent.

The main event saw Khabib Nurmagomedov smesh Al Iaquinta for the first two rounds before deciding to coast a little in the middle rounds. Again Rogan and Smith were lousy in attempting to sell the fight as being even when Khabib was never in danger, constantly active, and basically experimenting as a fighter in a five-round title fight (!!). Iaquinta proved he could withstand a beating but little else. I think really highly of Iaquinta but this was too tall an order. His recent inactivity combined with the late change in opponents were a recipe for a bad performance but he looked pretty decent. Who gives a shit if Brendan Schaub thinks Tony Ferguson beats Khabib?

The GSP callout is an interesting one. GSP would surpass McGregor in terms of pro resume were he to drop down and beat Khabib for his third divisional championship. He's talked about fighting at lightweight in the past. Khabib is giving him 6.5 or so months to do it. Will he accept? It would be a huge fight. Much bigger than the return against Bisping. If GSP even hints at being into it we can discuss his chances.

The LW division is in turmoil. The UFC had the audacity to call Khabib the "undisputed" champion. Whether or not they stripped Conor they didn't strip Tony. There is another belt they have sanctioned still on another waist. Marketing bullshit.

Dana says Conor wants to fight right away. His legal issues will probably diminish in short order. If he wants to fight Khabib in Russia that would be the biggest event they've ever done. They could book any stadium. Moscow is 7-hours ahead of Eastern time so it would have to be an afternoon show. I could see that having no impact on PPV sales. As for Ferguson--his knee injury will probably take time and with Khabib downplaying his importance I guess we'll have to wait.

Better PPV than it had any right to be given the circumstances.

 

Not bad, Al. Crazy that this one stat makes the opponent look not totally unsuccessful--Khabib didn't get to do everything he wanted perfectly. Khabib is fucking good.

 

Rose's face is pretty beat up in the post-fight presser.

 

Reporter: [to Rose] What was it like to hear Bruce Buffer say "And new!"
Rose: Um.. I'm not sure I heard that.

Where do these guys come from?

 

There's 64,000 people watching the post-fight on YouTube.

 

After watching this performance; I'm convinced that Tony would have beat Khabib and even if he was show casing; Conor smokes Khabib on the feet. Khabib will not get in range to take Conor down without eating fists.