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The UFC’s first show in Russia, Fight Night 136 was a card largely devoid of big names, but filled with prospects and veterans from Eastern Europe looking to put on some exciting fights for what was an energized crowd. For the most part they succeeded and with this experiment in the books, I’d assume the UFC will be back in Russia for a bigger card soon.
Of the 12 fights on offer we got 5 finishes, and for the most part, the fights that went the distance were largely entertaining. As always there were high points and low points, too. Here are the best and worst moments from Fight Night 136.
#1 Best: Oleinik continues to surprise
When the UFC signed veteran Aleksei Oleinik back in 2014, the Ukrainian wasn’t expected to make much of a dent in the Heavyweight rankings. Sure, he was on a 9 fight win streak and had submitted legend Mirko Cro Cop in his last fight, but he was also shopworn and already 37 years old.
Four years down the line and Oleinik is likely to crack the UFC’s top ten at Heavyweight this week coming off last night’s impressive submission of Mark Hunt. Oleinik didn’t make it look easy – he was being lit up on the feet by Hunt with only his toughness keeping him in the fight – but once he got the Kiwi veteran to the ground, he wasted no time in strangling him to pick up the victory.
Perhaps no other fighter in the UFC has as apt a nickname as Oleinik. He really is a Boa Constrictor inside the cage – largely slow-moving, apparently sluggish and hittable, but once he’s got you in his grip you’re probably doomed. Of his 6 UFC wins, 5 have come by submission.
Quite where he goes next is anyone’s guess – if he takes Hunt’s spot at #8 then maybe a fight with fellow veteran Alistair Overeem would work as the other fighters higher up are all booked. Either way though, anything he can continue to squeeze out of his UFC career – pun intended – is a bonus as he wasn’t ever expected to make it this far. Fair play to him.
#1 Worst: Bad refereeing mars the undercard
Ten-year UFC veteran CB Dollaway was already in a weird place coming into last night’s show. Initially pegged to face Omari Akhmedov, when the Dagestani withdrew with an injury he was replaced by Artem Frolov – for about three days that is – until Frolov backed out and was replaced by newcomer Khalid Murtazaliev. If anyone thought those changes would help Dollaway, they were mistaken.
Dollaway simply didn’t look anything like the fighter who was once a contender at 185lbs – he looked sluggish and jaded from the off and when Murtazaliev landed a big body kick midway through the opening round, it was all downhill for him. By the latter part of the second round, Dollaway was trapped on the ground simply covering up, taking punch after punch from the newcomer.
If the fight had been stopped there it really wouldn’t warrant a mention, but with about 45 seconds to go, for reasons unknown referee Herb Dean allowed Dollaway to take probably somewhere between 20 and 30 un-needed strikes. Even when the buzzer sounded for the end of the round, Dean was asking Dollaway if he could continue and only ended the fight when ‘The Doberman’ confirmed otherwise.
It was a largely rare gaffe for Dean, who is usually one of the more solid officials inside the UFC, and was up there with the worst refereeing calls in MMA history. The only defense I can think of for his call is that perhaps he felt Murtazaliev’s punches weren’t coming with much power as he was tired. Either way though, this was a stain on the card, and a stain on a promotion which has always prided itself on fighter safety.
#2 Best: Is 205lbs finally becoming interesting again?
Once considered the UFC’s glamour division, Light-Heavyweight has been struggling for talent for some years now, and the interest there has largely been kept purely on the basis of a small handful of super-talented fighters (Jon Jones, Daniel Cormier, Alexander Gustafsson) and then popular veterans going back as far as the PRIDE days like Mauricio Rua.
Re-signed for this card, Ukraine’s Nikita Krylov was the fighter expected to help to re-energise the division, but in the end that didn’t happen at all as he was submitted in the second round by Jan Blachowicz in remarkable fashion – an arm triangle almost from the side. But rather than mean that 205lbs continues to become a wasteland, we actually saw a pair of performances that suggested the division isn’t done just yet.
Firstly, Blachowicz – the Polish fighter is now 6-4 in the UFC, which doesn’t sound impressive, but he’s on a four-fight win streak, with one of those wins being over Jimi Manuwa, who was responsible for an earlier loss. And more to the point, 2 of his last 4 wins have come by submission – which suggests he’s tidied up his grappling, formerly the weak point of his game and the part that cost him those 4 losses before.
And on the undercard, we saw one of the night’s most violent finishes from prospect Magomed Ankalaev. He debuted in the UFC back in March and was expected to do big things, but ended up losing in an upset to Paul Craig. Last night though, he finished Marcin Prachnio with a savage head kick and a series of punches.
Both finishes signified one thing – maybe 205lbs isn’t in as bad of a state as we’ve all been led to believe.
#2 Worst: No country for old men
One major disappointing theme for this card was how bad most of the veteran fighters on show ended up looking. Mark Hunt obviously lost in the main event, but that wasn’t quite as bad as a couple of other examples. Realistically, that fight could’ve gone the same way had Hunt been in his late 20s; Oleinik is that good on the ground.
But elsewhere, we saw hardened UFC veterans losing to fighters they simply would’ve walked through in their primes. After a worrying KO loss to Curtis Millender in February, Thiago Alves looked slightly better last night, but still seemed sluggish and lacked aggression and ended up losing a decision to newcomer Alexey Kunchenko. In 2008, Kunchenko would likely have been destroyed by ‘The Pitbull’ as he didn’t offer anything great, but it’s not 2008 anymore.
The same could be said for Andrei Arlovski’s performance against Shamil Abdurakhimov. Andrei is still trying desperately to recapture his old magic but again, were he in his prime then there’s no way he’d be losing to a fighter as unmemorable as Abdurakhimov. It looks like the former champion’s athletic gifts are finally waning, this time for good, even if his chin is now holding up better than it once did.
Veterans losing to great up-and-comers is one thing, but to see them losing to no offense, journeymen, is another. If only fighters themselves would realise sooner when it’s time to hang it up.
#3 Best: That wild Petr Yan fight
One of the fights flying under the radar last night was the Bantamweight clash between Russian prospect Petr Yan and late replacement Jin Soo Son, who took the fight when Douglas Silva de Andrade was forced out. Son missed weight too, coming in one pound over the 136lbs limit. But as we’ve seen before, sometimes fights nobody’s keeping an eye on turn out to be the best.
Yan won the fight by a pretty clear-cut decision – two 30-27’s and a 29-28 – but it was a much closer fight than those scores indicated. And more to the point, it was unbelievably exciting. Yan came out looking to impose a crisp boxing game on his foe and for the most part he did, cutting him up with sharp punching combinations from the pocket. But Son simply didn’t seem to care, as he continually walked through Yan’s offense, with a smile on his face too.
It wasn’t a perfect performance from Yan either as he gave up a number of takedowns to Son, but in the end, there was only one clear winner. In terms of who managed to win over the fans, though, the answer might’ve been different. All UFC fans, regardless of where they’re from, love a fighter who bites down on his mouthpiece and keeps on swinging despite taking a beating – and Son seems firmly cut from that mould. Yan will go further – he’s been calling out John Lineker for his next fight – but off the back of a showing like this, Son’s UFC career will probably be a long one too.
