Madison Square Garden is one of the largest stages for combat sports. Show up here and the world will take notice. Islam Makhachevthe UFC’s newest two-division champion, and Valentina ShevchenkoThe undisputed flyweight queen did just that.
He was not alone either. fan favorite carlos prates is back in the championship picture, as is michael moraleswho was not afraid of the experienced sean bradyKnocked out in the first round and getting the honor of New York.
Makhachev is better at welterweight
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Islam Makhachev dominates main event to win welterweight title
Islam Makhachev becomes the new UFC Welterweight Champion after entering a wrestling clinic.
Makhachev said he’s going to be better at 170 pounds, but of course, I wanted to see it before believing it. What’s a fighter going to say? he is going to be much worse In a new weight class? Makhachev told me a few weeks ago that due to his massive weight cut he feels he is about 60 to 70% lighter. It seemed possible, but really? Will it really be 40% better than the bigger competition? I’d say after one fight the answer looks like “yes.”
Makhachev was destroyed Jack Della MaddalenaNext leg with a kick inside round two. He defeated JDM with the same efficiency as he did at Lightweight. He looked strong, cultured, Healthy The whole week. It wasn’t Della Maddalena’s most inspiring performance – I expect she would say that at some point too – but that doesn’t take away from how good Makhachev sounded. He will be tough to beat at welterweight, which we expected.
We weren’t sure if he would actually be better than him at lightweight, and now I feel good saying that he is. The No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world just got better. We were actually seeing Makhachev as a part of it. For that reason, I’m very glad he’s here at welterweight and won’t be going back down anytime soon (probably ever). This is Makhachev’s best weight class. –Brett Okamoto
Shevchenko keeps her distance at the top
Go ahead and file it into their weight class department for a cause. But that doesn’t tell the whole story of her dominant women’s flyweight title defense against Shevchenko. zhang weiliSize certainly made a huge difference, but it wasn’t the only reason Zhang, who gave up the strawweight title to take on this challenge, had no success,
In fact the most important difference-maker was Shevchenko’s intelligence. He put up a fight that gave Zhang no chance. Certainly, he troubled his challenger with several of his five takedowns, which put him over Zhang for a long period of time (13 minutes, 24 seconds of control time). But when Shevchenko was not on top of Zhang, she strategically remained at a distance so that the smaller fighter could not touch her. Zhang reached double figures in significant strikes in only one round.
While Zhang was not doing any damage, Shevchenko was doing a lot. He battered his opponent’s body with kicks and knees, weakening Zhang’s resolve to go the distance. And in doing so, Shevchenko also dashed any fans’ expectations that this meeting would be a classic clash between the No. 1 and No. 2 pound-for-pound women.
Going into the fight, there was a good case to designate this as the highest-tier matchup between the UFC women since the reigning bantamweight champion. Amanda Nunes Challenge: chris cyborg For the featherweight title. In that 2018 superfight, Cyborg made the mistake of going one-on-one with the speedy Nunes, and she paid the price by getting knocked out in 51 seconds. Shevchenko made no mistakes in her approach in this fight and executed her game plan to perfection.
The smart next step for Zhang would be to cut the weight back down and regain his gold standard of 115 pounds. Shevchenko is 37 and won’t fight for very long, but Zhang is 36 and in no position to wait for her flyweight champ. After the fight, Zhang made no commitment to remain at flyweight or move back to strawweight. But he showed the courage that has made him one of the greats, saying, “Zhang Weili is a man who falls and gets up again.”
Hopefully we can see him do it at the weight where he is at his best. Zhang didn’t get it done on Saturday, but remains pound-for-pound elite… and the best strawweight on the planet. –Jeff Wagenheim
Morales is the biggest threat in the welterweight division
When Morales earned a UFC contract on “Dana White’s Contender Series” in 2021, he did so without the publicity that other graduates have received. And over the next four years, Morales defeated everyone who stood before him. Still, the hype over the Ecuadorian fighter living in Mexico felt low. But after what Morales did to Shawn Brady at UFC 322, he can no longer be ignored.
For the third consecutive fight, Morales refused to allow an opponent to advance to the second round. Morales shook both neil magny And gilbert burns With relative ease in Round 1. But Brady was supposed to be the real litmus test to find out whether Morales was a contender or a contender.
He passed that exam with good marks.
Morales didn’t allow Brady to do anything notable, needing just over three minutes to land punches for a TKO stoppage. Doing so on such a grand stage at Madison Square Garden made it impossible to ignore, especially with the welterweight title at stake after two bouts. Standing 6 feet tall with a reach of 79 inches, Division is intimidating. Knowing what to do with those physical features is a different story altogether. Morales, 26, is a man who is equally devastating both in the field and in standup. Against Brady, he refused to allow the wrestler to come in and easily caught him with his reach and power. He’s young, smart and a nightmare for the rest of the division. He wants a title shot, and it’s hard to say he doesn’t deserve it. If you look at the crowded welterweight picture, it’s hard to see any fighters outside of Makhachev that you can confidently say should be the favorite. And even Makhachev would likely suggest a different kind of preparation for dealing with someone like Morales.
He may not get a title fight next, but after Saturday’s performance, there aren’t many fighters who would be willing to face the undefeated Ecuadorian. –Andreas Hell
A punch revives the Prats’ spirits
With a straight left hand, Prates restored himself to welterweight contender status and reinvigorated the momentum of his team, The Fighting Nerds. That’s what knocking out a former UFC champion could be.
Prats saw his 11-fight win streak end with a defeat in April ian machado garyHe got back to winning streak after four months with a knockout Geoff NealBut to truly get back on track, he needed something big. He achieved it with a one-punch, second-round knockout leon edwardsWho had never been knocked out before in his 29-fight career.
The finish immediately elevated Prates up to the 170-pound division – but only for a few minutes. In the very next fight, Morales remained undefeated with an early finish of Brady, who is one spot ahead of Edwards in the ESPN divisional rankings. The truth is that both Prates and Morales elevated themselves and made the welterweight division stars throughout the night. — Wagenheim
