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Despite a pretty unfortunate ending, UFC Vegas 21: Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad turned out to be an excellent show overall.
Nobody will want to see the eye-poke ending to the main event again, but elsewhere there were plenty of classic explosive UFC moments. In fact, of the 13 fights on offer, a total of eight ended before the final buzzer.
With that in mind, here are the five most explosive moments from UFC Vegas 21: Edwards vs. Muhammad.
#1 Dan Ige lives up to his ‘$50k’ nickname with a brutal knockout
Hawaiian Dan Ige used to be nicknamed ‘Dynamite’. It seemed a fitting moniker for one of the UFC Featherweight division’s most explosive fighters.
Recently though, Ige has changed his nickname to ‘$50k’ – in reference to the amount UFC fighters make if they win one of the bonus paycheques offered by UFC President Dana White for a particularly impressive performance.
If anything, this seemed like a strange move from Ige, who up to last night had only ever won one of said bonus awards.
At UFC Vegas 21, though, Ige lived up to his new nickname, big time.
It took him just 22 seconds – although Daniel Cormier at one point thought it was anywhere between three and five – to knock out Gavin Tucker with a brutal right hand.
It was the first shot either man landed in the fight. Both men threw at the same time, but Ige landed first, cleaner and much harder.
After losing his first UFC main event to Calvin Kattar last July, Ige was in danger of slipping from relevance with a bad result here. After a knockout like this, he’ll be everyone’s talking point this morning.
#2 Ryan Spann proves his relevance to the UFC Light-Heavyweight division
The UFC’s Light-Heavyweight division is in the most interesting place it’s been for years right now, largely because Jon Jones no longer rules over it with an iron fist.
We’re now seeing a myriad of exciting contenders rise up the ladder, and many observers expected Misha Cirkunov to join them with a win over Ryan Spann last night.
Well, that didn’t happen. Instead, Spann stole Cirkunov’s thunder entirely by taking him out in the first round with a vicious knockout. ‘Superman’ dropped the Latvian-Canadian twice en route to the finish, his first UFC knockout since May 2019.
What was really impressive about this one, though, was Spann’s patience. He dropped Johnny Walker in his last UFC fight, only to get too reckless in hunting a finish. Moments later, Walker turned the tables and knocked out him out instead.
Last night, though, Spann waited for Cirkunov to return to his feet, kept calm and then finished him with a left to the temple.
On this evidence at least, it seems that ‘Superman’ is a very relevant contender in the UFC’s 205lbs division.
#3 Davey Grant’s combination work pays off hugely against Jonathan Martinez
Davey Grant has been with the UFC for more than half a decade, but thanks to a myriad of injuries and some unfortunate losses, he’s largely flown under the radar.
After last night’s win over Jonathan Martinez, though – his third in a row in the UFC – ‘Dangerous Davey’ should have much more momentum.
Aesthetically speaking, this might’ve been the best knockout on offer last night.
Grant was criticised for his looping punches in the first round. But midway through the second, he landed a combination of beauty – a right hook to the body and left to the head – that dropped Martinez like a ton of bricks.
Fascinatingly, the knockout was very reminiscent of Grant’s previous UFC win – a knockout over Martin Day at UFC 251 last summer.
The win won’t put the UK-based fighter into the UFC’s Bantamweight rankings, but it did earn him a $50k bonus – and will probably ensure there’s plenty of interest in his next fight, too.
#4 Charles Jourdain turns up the heat on Marcelo Rojo
Undoubtedly the show’s most vicious finish came on the preliminary card, when Charles Jourdain stopped Marcelo Rojo in the third round of their Featherweight clash.
The fight was largely even across the first two rounds, and it was hard to tell which fighter was ahead on the scorecards.
Evidently, though, Jourdain’s corner thought their man was behind – and told him so. The approach worked, big time. ‘Air Jourdain’ came out into the third round like an entirely different animal, and turned up the heat by pressing forward with a relentless striking attack.
Essentially, the more experienced Jourdain dragged Rojo into deep waters – and eventually drowned him, ending the fight with a barrage with just 30 seconds remaining.
The comeback was absolutely tremendous, and was reminiscent of another great UFC finish – Carlos Condit’s last-minute TKO of Rory MacDonald at UFC 115 nearly a decade ago.
How Jourdain missed out on a $50k bonus cheque is beyond comprehension, although it’s very likely that he received some sort of bonus from UFC President Dana White anyway.
#5 Eryk Anders and Darren Stewart light up the Octagon before an unfortunate ending
Arguably the night’s most explosive fight was the main card opener between Middleweights Darren Stewart and Eryk Anders. These two men went toe-to-toe for almost the entire first round until a highly unfortunate ending meant the fight was declared a No Contest.
Early on, Stewart was the man in control, taking the fight to Anders with some heavy shots that had ‘Ya Boi’ reeling. But Anders came roaring back to life and began to hurt Stewart with short-range strikes, eventually taking the hurt ‘Dentist’ down.
And as Stewart attempted to stand, Anders hit him with an illegal knee – immediately causing flashbacks to last weekend’s fight between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling.
Quite why Anders wasn’t disqualified as Yan was is a bit of a mystery. Marc Ratner’s explanation didn’t make a lot of sense, to be frank, but either way, this was a great fight.
And with neither man in title contention right now, the UFC could do much worse than to simply run it back in the near future.
