UFC 231: HOLLOWAY vs. ORTEGA29 December 2018 | Scotiabank Arena | Toronto, ON MAIN CARD Pay-Per-View, 10 p.m. ET Max Holloway (c) vs. Brian Ortega Valentina Shevchenko vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk Alex Oliveira vs. Gunnar Nelson Hakeem Dawodu vs. Kyle Bochniak Jimi Manuwa vs. Thiago Santos PRELIMINARY CARD FS1, 8 p.m. ET Claudia Gadelha vs. Nina Ansaroff Katlyn Chookagian vs. Jessica Eye Eryk Anders vs. Elias Theorodou Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. Gilbert Burns PRELIMINARY CARD UFC Fight Pass, 6 p.m. ET Devin Clark vs. Alexandar Rakic Brad Katona vs. Matthew Lopez Chad Laprise vs. Dhiego Lima Carlos Diego Ferreira vs. Jesse Ronson
JJ waited a bit too long to push the pace. I felt she could have won the fight if she looked to do a bit more attacking earlier.
As soon as i say that, Ortega is out meaning business here in the third. Dude is taking it to Max. Better hope he does not blow his load here.
Results Max Holloway def. Brian Ortega via TKO (doctor's stoppage) - Round 4, 5:00 Valentina Shevchenko def. Joanna Jedrzejczyk via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46) Gunnar Nelson def. Alex Oliveira via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 4:17 Hakeem Dawodu def. Kyle Bochniak via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 30-27) Thiago “Marreta” Santos def. Jimi Manuwa via knockout (punch) – Round 2, 0:41 Nina Ansaroff def. Claudia Gadelha via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) Gilbert Burns def. Olivier Aubin-Mercier via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) Jessica Eye def. Katlyn Chookagian via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) Elias Theodorou def. Eryk Anders via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) Brad Katona def. Matthew Lopez via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) Dhiego Lima def. Chad Laprise via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 1:37 Diego Ferreira def. Kyle Nelson via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 1:23 Aleksandar Rakic def. Devin Clark via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:05
I saw almost every fight for the first time in a long time. Missed Nelson/Ferreira and Clark/Rakic. Laprise got KO'd by Lima on a very nice touch to the chin. Katona and his bizarre lispy Canadian-Irish accent notched another win against a game Matthew Lopez. Elias Theodorou fights like a stop-motion character. And yet he wins more often than not. In fact he's 8-2 in the UFC which is shocking since he appears to suck. He fights a little like Jedrzejczyk which is an insult to her but what I mean is a lot of his offense is not effective but he presents the judges with a high volume of it and successfully wins on stats. Jessica Eye vs. Katlyn Chookagian was a mediocre fight but they compete in a largely mediocre division so that's enough to warrant title shot calling I suppose. Eye is 3-0 in the new weight class but not long ago seemed to be clinging on to her job by a fingernail. Gilbert Burns is scary. OAM is really not. Claudia Gadelha is now 5-4 in the UFC but has faced good to great competition. Still it seems like she should be more successful. I don't know much about Nina Ansaroff and honestly didn't pay close attention to this fight. Marreta Santos vs. Jimi Manuwa was a motherfucker of a fight. Those guys were swinging to kill. I thought this would be the fight of the night. Jimi Manuwa is joining his countryman Alistair Overeem in the 'gets knocked out too much' club. Bit of a glass cannon. Hakeem Dawodu is just okay. They need to keep bringing him up slowly. I don't really see star potential in him. Gunni Nelson took advantage of the other glass cannon on the card, Alex Oliveira, who looks great when he's attacking but tends to crumple under duress and tends towards fighting dirty. The hellbow that Nelson cut him with seemed to panic him and he was tapping before the choke even sunk in. Shevchenko vs. JJ was meh. I swear I don't dislike all the WMMA fights but tonight's were not so good. Felt like they were going to fight ten rounds. The commentators pushed so hard during this fight it was like watching WWE. Joanna didn't really look threatening and Shevchenko stayed in 4th gear. I dunno. Holloway vs. Ortega will be deep into the competition for Fight of the Year. Holloway looked to be on route to a comfortable TKO having battered and bloodied Ortega through two and a bit rounds when Ortega got a second wind and came back furiously. Holloway is hittable--this is really the only negative thing about his style--but he is also ridiculously tough and can get through taking damage in a fight. Holloway withstood the attack by Ortega in the third round, called his shot in the fourth and eventually earned the TKO after a relentless barrage of body shots and thumping hooks. Holloway is the most entertaining fighter in the world right now. Holloway demanded to know who's next and nobody really has a good answer. He would definitely beat McGregor. Ferguson should be fighting Khabib. He might need to take some time off and let someone in the division like Moicano or Rodriguez rise up. The UFC had the analysts saying that Jon Jones had "time off" in which to get better. Yeah, ok Joe.
Joe Rogan was fucking terrible on this fight card. He doesn't usually bug me; but every time he opened his mouth he was annoying as fuck. Mad respect to both Max and Brian.
