Best and Worst of UFC Fight Night 152: Change in the co-main event; Favourite fighter back in form

UFC Fight Night 152 took place on Saturday in Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York. The fight night event saw the main event take place between Rafael Dos Anjos and Kevin Lee at Welterweight, while the UFC Fight Night co-main event saw Antonio Carlos Junior take on Ian Heinisch.

While the results declared the ultimate outcome of all the fights, in this article, we are going to take a look at the best and worst moments that happened at UFC Fight Night 152.

Without any further ado, let's get into it.

#1 Best: The Undercard

One of the things that are the universal truth in any UFC event, is that most of the audience come and book tickets for the fights which are on display on the main card. The Preliminary card is an afterthought in every sense of the term.

Often the undercard is ignored, and the performances from fighters there are disappointments and unimportant. As a result, there is never much expectation from the undercard and it just remains something to get through to get to the main card.

This was not the case at UFC Fight Night 152.

The UFC Fight Night 152 Preliminary Card saw 7 bouts, with 5 of them ending in a finish, and one amazing featured bout which stole the show.

Michael Pereira made a huge debut with a KO, while Julio Arce started things off with a bang. Zak Cummings made an incredible comeback and submitted his opponent in the literal last minute.

Aspen Ladd and Sijara Eubanks took things to the next level with some amazing displays of action in the featured fight of the Preliminary Card. It was one of the best fights of the night, and possibly of the year so far, with the action coming hot and heavy.

#2 Worst: The Decline of Megan Anderson

Megan Anderson came into the UFC as one of the better-known fighters in the world of MMA.

Felicia Spencer was not as well known, but after yesterday's showing, she took another step towards becoming a household MMA name.

Megan Anderson is well-loved in the MMA community, and her long-legged strikes, as well as her likeable personality, has helped her to become a star and one of the fan favourites. However, she is currently 1-1 in the UFC, with the only win on her record coming from a very controversial win she got against Cat Zingano.

In their fight, she hit Zingano in the eye accidentally, thereby causing a horrible injury. However, it did result in her win.

A win against Spencer was vital for Anderson to be able to continue on her successful route, but she tapped out with less than 90 seconds to go before the end of the 1st Round to a Rear Naked Choke.

#3 Best: Desmond Green

Going back to the Undercard one more time, there was one performance which stuck out for everyone to take notice.

Rochester's own MMA fighter Desmond Green was on the card, and his performance was one which stuck out for the brilliance with which he delivered in each of his fights. He was the favourite to win against a newcomer like Charles Jourdain.

Truth be told, it was not the fight which left the audience glued to the screens to see what developments will take place, but there was a certain factor which lends enough credence to the fight for it to be on this list.

Green has the hometown jitters, fighting in front of fans who were clearly supporting him with everything and he was determined to not let them down.

He was able to pull off the important victory in front of his fans, which led to one of the most heartwarming.

#2 Worst: The absence of Neil Magny

Neil Magny was initially supposed to be in the co-main event of the night in a fight against Vicente Luque. The fight was one that many were looking forward to, as both fighters were capable and as such were a good match for each other.

However, that did not end up happening. Only days before the two were supposed to step into the Octagon to face each other, Neil Magny tested positive for Di-Hydroxy-LGD-4033.

Magny has claimed innocence of the doping and claimed that he did not do so intentionally. While this claim is yet to be backed up, it left Luque without an opponent. He had to step down from the co-main event and instead faced Derrick Krantz.

While Krantz is a capable fighter with 34 fights under his belt, he made his UFC debut with the fight. As a result, it was not quite the matchup that people had been expecting for Luque, who won quite easily in the first round.

#1 Best: Rafael Dos Anjos is back

Every MMA fan will be coming away from UFC Fight Night 152 quite happy.

Why?

Because, it is safe to say, that this was the best Rafael Dos Anjos performance that the fans have been witness to in ages. He came into the fight on the back of two huge back-to-back losses. The losses might have been against top fighters like Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman, but that did little to benefit Anjos.

Finally, against an opponent like Kevin Lee, Rafael Dos Anjos did what he does best. He changed up his game.

He started hitting takedowns on Lee, tiring him out on the ground. For a change, it was Lee who was landing strikes on their feet.

The end came in beautiful fashion in the fourth round, when a tired Lee was trying to escape Anjos. RDA slipped on the Arm Triangle Choke and was able to win via submission.

RDA is back in form and other fighters better watchout.

Edited by Sripad