It was a record setting crowd in Curitiba, Brazil with 45,000 in attendance. The Fight of the Night was Francisco Trinaldo vs Yancy Medeiros and the two performance of the night bonuses go to the co-main and main event winners Ronaldo 'Jacare' Souza and the new UFC heavyweight champion of the world Stipe Miocic. The main card was a little slow to start with but picked up with 3 out of 5 finishes all coming in the last 3 fights and the majority of the Brazilian fighters winning 3-2 although they shouldn't have, we'll get into that later.
Warlley Alves vs Bryan Barberena
This was a great fight with Bryan Barberena handing explosive striker and talented Jiu jitsu practitioner Warlley Alves the first loss of his career. Barberena won a fair unanimous decision (29-28). This is fairly even fight with Barberena throwing a lot more volume and Alves throwing with a lot of power looking to knock out Barberena but also Alves had his signature guillotine deep in under a minute of the first round and it looked all but done but Barberena toughed it out and won the decision.
For Barberena with two upset wins against good opponents he is calling for a top 15/ top 10 guy. However the welterweight division is so stacked that even a top 20 guy is still a great fight. I think he should fight Albert Tumenov (5-2 in UFC) ranked 16th and coming off a loss, this is a good opportunity for both fighters to ask for a top 10/15 fight after this.
Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua vs Corey Anderson
I don't even know where to start with this. Shogun won. By split decision. In Brazil. With all Brazilian judges. Anderson dominated every single round and got 4 takedowns to Rua's 0, Anderson got knocked down at the end of rounds 1 and 2 with 10 and 5 seconds to go. Now, in kickboxing this would result in a 9-9 round because a knockdown is an instant round win however with Anderson dominating the round it would be scored 9-9. However in MMA a knockdown is not an instant 10-8 with the round win and Rua didn't do anything with it he literally just landed 2 lucky punches. With Anderson completely dominating the last round he should've won the fight.
Now. The reason I'm extremely pissed off is not only because Brazilian judges are notorious for their biased judging when it comes to decisions but also because those same exact judges who gave Rua the rounds for getting a knockdown didn't give Yancy Medeiros the round when he knocked down Francisco Trinaldo in their fight earlier. They've only given Rua the round because he's a Brazilian legend and that's bullshit.
Mauricio Rua has now lost 5 of his last 9, If this fights wasn't in Brazil then he would've lost 6 of his last 9. Rua is currently ranked 8th which is a joke he is (8-8 UFC) he's coming to the end of his career and could potentially fight Ryan Bader, all those below Bader are rematches but I'd much rather see him fight someone like Jimi Manua, Nikita Krylov or Ilir Latifi.
Cris Cyborg vs Leslie Smith
This was a quick domination just as we all expected. Cyborg murdered Smith in under half a round knocking her down and finishing her with ground and pound. Smith protested it was an early stoppage but when Cyborg turned her upside down on the floor she looked like she was gone. Plus we would only have seen more of the same.
The Cyborg story is very interesting now because it sounds like she's going back to Invicta to defend her championship but we want her in the UFC, there's no depth to the 145 division that is anywhere near Cyborg's standard and we're left a situation similar to the mens 125 division. However, there's some interest in a few 140 fights namely one Germaine de Randamie who just won her last fight by KO and is a slightly bigger fighter. Cyborg claims she can't make 135 which is bullshit, all she needs is to bring in Mike Dolce and lose some muscle from her decades of steroid abuse and she could do it. This would be incredible for the womens bantamweight division and a fight with Ronda Rousey would be incredible.
Ronaldo 'Jacare' Souza vs Vitor Belfort
Vitor looked noticeably smaller and softer than his last two fights and USADA have hit him real hard and looks not even close to his earlier form. This was a 1 round domination by Jacare he beat Vitor on the feet, took him down and then smashed him until he couldn't defend himself on the ground.
For Jacare this is very simple, he deserves a title shot. He needs Rockhold to cleanly beat and maybe finish Michael Bisping in their fight and hope that his knee injury returns before Weidman's injury heal. If Bisping beats Rockhold in a close decision then that could be a rematch and then he's looking at a #1 contender fight against Weidman.
For Vitor I think he needs to be looking down the rankings potentially at someone like Robert Whittaker or the winner/loser of Mousasi vs Brunson any of those could be good fights.
Stipe Miocic vs Fabricio Werdum
People who read this blog will know that I don't really like Werdum and didn't like him as a champion so I'll try to be impartial. I think that Werdum panicked when Stipe hit him with a few shots and he couldn't really land so he got more aggressive then he got clipped which wobbled him then he decided to sprint after Miocic who took a few steps back and threw a right cross with about 50% power maybe even less as he was retreating and both his feet weren't on the floor and it sent Werdum face first to the canvas completely knocked out pulling an 'Aldo'.
The Heavyweight division is a very interesting picture at the moment with a few people who could potentially get the next title shot. There could be the rematch with Werdum which I think is the most deserving, Werdum was on a 6 fight win streak before getting slept by Miocic although his win streak stretches back 4 years. There is also Alistair Overeem who I think is the most exciting match-up and the one I would choose, Alistair is on a 4 fight win streak and with 2 exciting heavyweight strikers for the title, who doesn't love that?! There is also the Velasquez vs Browne fight to take into account, if Cain wins at 200 then he's also looking at a title shot.
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