On Saturday, the mixed martial arts leader returned for its latest event, UFC Fight Night: Rose Namajunas vs. Tracy Cortez.
After a rare weekend off in the aftermath of the UFC 303 pay-per-view late last month, the promotion kicked off its schedule for July by bringing the Octagon back to Denver. The main event came in the women’s flyweight division, with surging prospect Tracy Cortez receiving a major opportunity to climb the ranks against Rose Namajunas.
“Thug Rose,” a former two-time strawweight champion, was originally set to do battle with top five contender Maycee Barber. But with “The Future” out injured, the #11-ranked Cortez filled in on short notice, looking to extend her undefeated UFC record by adding the biggest scalp to her résumé thus far.
Elsewhere on the card, prominent names like welterweight veteran Santiago Ponzinibbio, always entertaining lightweight Drew Dober, and middleweight knockout artist Abdul Razak Alhassan were among those making the walk inside Ball Arena.
But did those athletes come together to put on an entertaining night of MMA? Let’s find out with all the positives and negatives from UFC Fight Night: Namajunas vs. Cortez.
Positive – The Flyweight Revolution
For a while now, the strawweights have quite clearly made up the premier women’s division in the UFC. Before its demise last year, featherweight was virtually non-existent anyway. As far as bantamweight goes, aside from Kayla Harrison and a few names like Irena Aldana, underwhelming. Flyweight? Well…
Across a number of years, the 125-pound weight class could be summed up as Valentina Shevchenko destroying her competition and a group of largely uninteresting contenders battling for a second place that not many paid attention to.
Now, with a new champion at the helm, a fresh crop of actually high-level and intriguing contenders, and some seriously talented up-and-comers, the tide has firmly turned in the women’s flyweight division.
When it comes to the third of those groups, one of the leading names was in action on Saturday night as Luana Santos moved to 3-0 on MMA’s biggest stage. The Brazilian welcomed Mariya Agapova back to the cage after a two-year layoff. Just like her previous fight in 2022, the Kazakh was left getting the life squeezed out of her while locked in a gruesomely tight rear-naked choke.
Despite her best efforts to fight the hands, Agapova was forced to tap out. And with that, Santos has joined Natália Silva and Karine Silva as another Brazilian prospect threatening to shake up a flyweight title picture that already boasts rising names like Manon Fiorot, Erin Blanchfield, and Maycee Barber.
Oh, and a fourth category I forgot to mention: gritty flyweights who will just throw down. Thanks Jasmine Jasudavicius and the debuting Fatima Kline for reminding me with one of the night’s best fights.
Speaking of Jasudavicius, however…
Negative – Dirty
So are we just going to ignore what Jasudavicius did at the end of her fight?
Jasudavicius once again delivered the goods inside the Octagon, pitching a shutout against a highly regarded newcomer in Kline. Unfortunately, she pulled off a dirty and classless move to add a stain to the result.
After attempting a choke in the final seconds, the horn sounded. Instead of releasing the hold and returning to her feet following the conclusion of the fight, the Canadian released it and launched an elbow at her opponent’s head.
In a similar case earlier in the night, Andre Petroski had already began to throw his punch at Josh Fremd when the first-round horn sounded. Jasudavicius had not. Just like Kline was aware that the fight had ended when she was released from the submission attempt, Jasudavicius knew that the fight had ended when she opted to take a cheap shot at her opponent.
For whatever reason, not much was said by the commentary team about the illegal shot, and it wasn’t exactly a hot topic on social media either. Perhaps that’s down to Kline’s reaction, which saw her avoid any animosity and simply move on.
But having also pulled the hair of Tracy Cortez in their 2023 fight, Jasudavicius is going the right away about gaining a reputation for ugly antics.
Positive – ‘Quik?’ Yeah, You Don’t Say…
Montel Jackson has something in his hands reminiscent of dynamite.
The 32-year-old Wisconsin native has long been one of the bantamweight division’s most intriguing prospects. But that’s been the case for years, with inactivity preventing him from rising the ranks toward those in contention at 135 pounds and fulfilling his potential.
Prior to Saturday’s event in Denver, Jackson hadn’t competed in 15 months since a statement knockout of Rani Yahya at the Apex. With those kind of gaps between fights, an emphatic performance is required in a return fight to remind the division.
“Quik” did that quikly (intentional, thanks. Please don’t email us a correction), sending Da’Mon Blackshear to sleep with a clean left hand after just 18 seconds — the second fastest knockout in the division’s history.
I’d say reminder to the division firmly sent, wouldn’t you?
That’s now five straight wins for Jackson and eight in his last nine. That form should bag a chance to climb the ladder next time out, providing that “Quik” is able to get back in the cage relatively soon.
For the sake of his own career and for the enjoyment of us, the fans, the quiker (intentional, again…) he makes the walk again, the better.
Positive – Uppercut From Hell
The term ‘turn up for the books’ comes to mind…
One of the most intriguing matchups on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card pitted the highly touted Joshua Van against former LFA champion Charles Johnson in the featured prelim. The Burmese prospect entered the Octagon with a perfect 3-0 UFC record in tow and many predicting big things for him.
And through two rounds, it appeared the unblemished nature of his Octagon slate and big forecasts for success down the line would continue. Van was simply too good for Johnson in most exchanges and should have raced to a lead on the scorecards (he somehow didn’t, with one judge instead having Johnson up two rounds).
In round three, though, tables turned in a gigantic way. “InnerG” came out from his corner to throw down, and “The Fearless” lived up to his moniker by obliging. That ultimately led to his downfall, however, as he found himself backpedaling after getting rocked.
Van was not given any time to recover, with Johnson pouncing to land a truly vicious uppercut that sent the Burmese 22-year-old to the canvas with such a thud that the referee immediately scrambled to intervene.
From what we’ve seen, it’s hard to say that Johnson has the talent to make a real run up the 125-pound pecking order. But with three wins from three fights in 2024, and having turned away the challenges of promising prospects like Van and Azat Maksum, it’s easy to acknowledge “InnerG” as one of the flyweight division’s most entertaining names.
Negative – Not An Ideal Start
When it comes to setting the tone, the main card opener in Denver firmly failed.
The middleweight matchup between Abdul Razak Alhassan and Cody Brundage always looked likely to deliver a quick finish. And it was the Ghanaian powerhouse on track to finding it after putting pedal to the metal from the word go.
Unfortunately, “Judo Thunder” soon began losing control of his offense and finding the back of Brundage’s head. Despite referee Dan Miragliotta’s warnings, Alhassan threw another particularly egregious elbow to the back of the head, leading to an intervention.
Now, I neither want to guess the effect the blatantly illegal blows had on Brundage nor accuse him of looking for a way out. But as soon as the fight was paused, there was zero doubt in my mind that it wouldn’t restart. Perhaps that was due to the memory of Brundage’s disqualification win over Jacob Malkoun last year.
On this occasion, the American didn’t get a free win. And while it wouldn’t be ideal for him to have had another DQ win added to his record, I find it hard to see the logic in Miragliotta not ruling it as such. At one point do multiple illegal shots post-numerous warnings become not accidental? And even if the argument is that Alhassan was just careless, should that not be better punished?
The accurate and consistent enforcement of rules in MMA remains an uncrossed bridge toward absolute sporting legitimacy.
Positive – As Advertised
Some fights just can’t possibly underdeliver on how they appear on paper. Drew Dober vs. Jean Silva is among ‘some fights’.
Silva has had some two weeks. First, he had the disappointment of missing weight ahead of UFC 303, but that asterisk on his International Fight Week outing was largely erased when he put in a violent showing to knock out Charles Jourdain.
A move up to lightweight was not surprising, but just 14 days later to square off against a formerly ranked contender at 155 pounds like Dober? Yeah, that was a shock.
It’s hard to think of many assignments for a divisional debut that come tougher than Dober, but “Lord Assassin” did not make it look as such. From the very first seconds, he found a home for his shots, leaving his veteran opponent leaking from above the right eye in the first round.
In round two, Dober gave as good as he got at times, even landing the kind flush superman punch that brings out a joyous giggle from hardcore fans. But toward the end of the frame, a stiff spinning elbow from Silva (joyous giggle 2.0) further opened up the cut above the American’s eye.
Speaking of spinning elbows, the Brazilian landed another in round three, and that was all she wrote. The ringside physician rightly took one look at the gaping hole in Dober’s eyebrow and said enough was enough.
Would we have liked a final-round brawl to cap off the clear Fight of the Night? Of course, but we got that for the best part of two and a half rounds, so let’s be grateful. Welcome to 155 pounds, “Lord Assassin.”
