Sports
The Real Winners and Losers from UFC Fight Night 169
0 of 6Josh Hedges/Getty ImagesIt was a busy night in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.While a slew of wannabe presidents were courting primary voters two states away in South Carolina, some wannabe members of the UFC’s pay-per-view set were plying their trades on a “free” broadcast by the sport’s premier premium cable streaming service…
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Josh Hedges/Getty Images
It was a busy night in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.
While a slew of wannabe presidents were courting primary voters two states away in South Carolina, some wannabe members of the UFC's pay-per-view set were plying their trades on a “free” broadcast by the sport's premier premium cable streaming service from the Chartway Arena in Norfolk, Va.
And while the names involved don't quite rival those that'll be working the UFC 248 side of the street next weekend in Las Vegas, they nonetheless put on an eventful show for the enthusiastic fans who made the trip.
Eventful for a lot of reasons, but you'll get no hints here—beyond our saying that anyone who spent a long time in line at the snack stand, or in front of the refrigerator, missed a lot.
Suffice to say 12 fights yield a lot of winners and losers of all shapes and sizes.
Read through to see what happened or to simply to decide whether your list jibes with ours.
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If you had places to go on Saturday night, this was the ESPN card for you.
While the network's typical Fight Night show starting at 8 p.m. ET tends to run about three hours or more, the goings-on from Norfolk—thanks to a submission, two TKOs and two KOs in five main-card fights—were wrapped up in lightning-quick style shortly before 10 p.m.
Three of the five bouts ended in the first round and the other two ended in the second, yielding a grand total of 21 minutes, 18 seconds of combat before cage-side announcers Brendan Fitzgerald and Michael Bisping tossed broadcasting matters over to a post-fight team that included Kamaru Usman and Anthony Smith.
By contrast, four of seven bouts on the preliminary show lasted their full three rounds and went to unanimous scorecard decisions.
Magomed Ankalaev's controversial bout with Ion Cutelaba was the shortest on the main show, ending in just 38 seconds and making the main event between Deiveson Figueiredo and Joseph Benavidez—which ended six seconds short of seven minutes—a competitive marathon by comparison.
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There was a championship belt in the building.
There was a championship at stake in the Octagon.
But if you were banking on a title actually changing hands—or, more accurately, being won—on Saturday night, you walked away unfulfilled.
Because No. 3 flyweight contender Figueiredo missed the 125-pound weight limit by better than two pounds on Friday night in Norfolk, his crushing TKO victory over No. 1 contender and previous two-time title challenger Benavidez was rendered hollow in its aftermath.
The flyweight belt had been vacated after champion Henry Cejudo moved to bantamweight.
Benavidez had lost two previous title bouts with former champion Demetrious Johnson and could have won the title had he beaten Figueiredo, who was not eligible to win it after the weigh-in miss.
Still, the win was Figueiredo's seventh in eight UFC bouts and the stoppage was his 15th overall.
“We're sad for him because he's still not the champion,” Usman said. “He won't be able to go down in history, at least not yet, saying that he won that belt.”
Figueiredo was declared the winner at 1:54 of the second round, shortly after he'd landed a single, devastating right hand that put Benavidez flat on his back and helpless to defend the three subsequent hammer fists that prompted the quick rescue by referee Dan Miragliotta.
The punch came shortly after a brutal head clash in the center of the cage that left Benavidez spurting blood from a cut over his left eye. The Texas-born veteran, who made his UFC debut in 2011, was wiping blood away as he retreated and still seemed dazed when the decisive shot landed.
“It's like I'm in the middle of some freaking nightmare,” Benavidez told Bisping. “I had a lot of visions of talking to you afterward, but this wasn't how they looked. Everyone goes through ups and downs and this is mine, on full display. But I'm lucky to be alive, I guess.”
Figueiredo apologized to the crowd for missing the weight and removing some of the drama.
“You guys deserved a big main event,” he said. “The belt is coming. I'm going to be the next UFC flyweight champion. Next time, I'm going to get the weight and the belt will be around my waist.”
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Megan Anderson hasn't always been ready for the mixed martial arts prime time.
She pulled out of a 2017 fight with Cris Cyborg and lost a 2018 date with Holly Holm by unanimous decision. Just a year later, she was beaten by first-round submission by then-UFC newcomer Felicia Spencer.
But Saturday night showed she's got momentum, and fan favoritism, on her side.
The 6-foot tall Australian arrived in Norfolk with a win in her most recent fight, and she doubled the streak to two in a row in memorable style against Norma Dumont.
Anderson dropped a charging Dumont with a perfect right hand to prompt a stoppage from referee Kevin MacDonald at 3:31 of the first round, then revved up the Chartway Arena crowd by suggesting she was ready for a match with UFC women's featherweight champion Amanda Nunes.
“It took me a while to get where I needed to be,” she told Bisping. “I'm finally glad I got to showcase my power.”
When Bisping mentioned Nunes, Anderson cupped her hand to her ear and said, “What do you guys think?” then followed with “I'm the only featherweight that is on a win streak, so let's f***ing go.”
On the way back to the locker room, Anderson capped off the night by taking up a fan's offer to chug a beer out of a shoe. Nunes subsequently took to Twitter and suggested she was up for a match with Anderson, or Spencer, who won her own Saturday bout by first-round stoppage, too.
“I like both winners tonight,” she said. “Now it's up to Dana White. I'm ready for either.”
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Everything about the bout between Ankalaev and Cutelaba was comprehensively compelling.
Their light heavyweight weigh-in on Friday was particularly intense, and Cutelaba amped things up Saturday by strutting across the Octagon during Bruce Buffer's introductions, drawing his hand across his throat and chest-bumping his soon-to-be foe before the fight had officially begun.
Which made the end every bit as frustrating as the build-up had been magnetic.
A head-kick specialist by trade, Ankalaev took an initial advantage by landing a series of his secret weapons to the right side of his Moldovan foe's skull. He followed with individual punches that left Cutelaba visibly wobbly and reeling, but seemingly not yet ready to surrender.
Referee MacDonald saw it differently, however, cutting short the action in the middle of a follow-up flurry—a decision that instantly made him unpopular to the beaten man, the assembled crowd and Bisping.
It all took 38 seconds.
“The ref made a huge mistake,” Bisping said. “It's a very, very difficult job, so I don't want to throw him under a bus, but on this occasion he got it wrong. Yes, he's wobbling, but that doesn't mean the fight should be stopped.”
Ankalaev wasn't too pleased with the result either, and he responded to the crowd's chorus of boos with double middle-finger salutes in the center of the Octagon and as he walked back to the locker room.
The win was his fourth in a row, matching Jon Jones for the longest streak among the 205-pounders.
“It's not my job, but I know I hurt him so I believe it's fair,” he said. “(As for a rematch), I'm ready any time.”
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Nicknames in sports are hardly a new concept.
Particularly in combat sports, where the search for menacing taglines had veered toward the tired and, frankly, repetitive … at least until Saturday night.
Because when Luis Pena entered the Octagon in Norfolk, he raised the bar.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow us to present “The Violent Bob Ross.”
The lanky featherweight with electric hair was born in Italy and raised in Little Rock, Ark., and operated largely under the radar until reaching the UFC in the middle of 2018. Four wins in six fights have followed, with the latest coming via unanimous decision over late replacement Steve Garcia.
His was the best, but it's not as if Pena's was the only worthwhile nickname on the ballot.
Spike Carlyle, dubbed the “Alpha Ginger,” was a first-round TKO winner over Aalon Cruz at featherweight, while Jordan “The Native Psycho” Griffin earned a second-round submission over fellow featherweight TJ Brown.
Rest easy, folks. The game is in good hands.
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Main Card
Deiveson Figueiredo def. Joseph Benavidez by TKO, 1:54, Rd. 2.
Felicia Spencer def. Zarah Fairn by TKO, 3:37, Rd. 1.
Magomed Ankalaev def. Ion Cutelaba by KO, :38, Rd. 1.
Megan Anderson def. Norma Dumont by KO, 3:31, Rd. 1.
Grant Dawson def. Darrick Minner by submission (rear-naked choke), 1:38, Rd. 2.
Preliminary Card
Kyler Phillips def. Gabriel Silva by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
Brendan Allen def. Tom Breese by TKO, 4:47, Rd. 1.
Marcin Tybura def. Serghei Spivac by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).
Luis Pena def. Steve Garcia by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
Jordan Griffin def. TJ Brown by submission (guillotine choke), 3:38, Rd. 2.
Spike Carlyle def. Aalon Cruz by TKO, 1:25, Rd. 1.
Sean Brady def, Ismail Naurdiev by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27).
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