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UFC 232 always did look like a major show on paper and there’s no denying that it ended the world’s biggest MMA promotion’s 2018 with a bang. Whether that bang was a good thing or not is another question entirely.
We saw the two title matches at the top of the card both end in dramatic fashion, and a range of cool finishes and fun fights up and down the card. Really, of the televised bouts, the only dull fight was Andrei Arlovski vs. Walt Harris, a plodding affair that brought to a close the UFC’s time on Fox.
Here are the best and worst moments from UFC 232.
#1 Best: Nunes shocks the world
I’ll freely admit it, coming into UFC 232 I felt Amanda Nunes had little to no chance of beating Cris Cyborg for the UFC Women’s Featherweight title. I even wrote a piece detailing why this would be another win for Cyborg. How wrong I was. Cyborg came out looking impatient and winging punches in her famed berserker style, but Nunes simply absorbed a couple and caught her with cleaner, more accurate – but no less powerful – shots that knocked her silly in under a minute.
Given Nunes took 5 rounds to finish Raquel Pennington, and never really hurt Valentina Shevchenko, to see her spark out Cyborg – who had rarely even been stunned in almost a decade of fights at the top – was unbelievable. This was an upset that probably ranks up there with Serra over GSP, Holm over Rousey, and the other greats, although I certainly wouldn’t call it a fluke. Had the show ended there, I would probably be a lot happier writing this right now, but well, we’ll get to that later.
At any rate, the crowd treated this like the coronation of a true superstar as well, and given Nunes had proven to be a weak pay-per-view draw beforehand, this could be a watershed moment for her in terms of her star power – similar to Anderson Silva’s 2010 win over Chael Sonnen. Who ‘The Lioness’ fights next is a total guess given she now holds the 135lbs and 145lbs titles, but it’ll likely be a big deal regardless. Simply put, this was an awesome moment.
#1 Worst: The Jon Jones fiasco
Okay, so enough has been written over the past week about Jon Jones’ pre-fight drug test and the positive test for turanibol supposedly caused by his use of the banned substance in July 2017 that I won’t go into depth about that here. But what I will talk about is the bitter taste that the end of the show left in my mouth, as Jones destroyed Alexander Gustafsson in the third round to reclaim his UFC Light-Heavyweight title.
The whole thing didn’t feel right from the start – from Jones’ entrance that used the defiant Queen song We Are The Champions, all the way through to the post-fight interview that saw a grinning Jones call out his old rival Daniel Cormier for a third fight.
I can’t profess to be an expert in the field of PEDs and some might call me hypocritical given Alistair Overeem – who was banned for PED use in 2012 – is one of my favourite fighters, but this whole situation felt worse than any simple failed test, as the moving of UFC 232 to Los Angeles from Las Vegas and all of the weird explanations feel like the UFC is covering up for Jones’ indiscretions.
Why they would want to do that also doesn’t make sense given this is a fighter who clearly only has his best interests at heart – Dana White himself labelled him a “sport killer” back in 2012 – but it’s only more frustrating when you see what a talented fighter he is in action, as we did last night. Gustafsson tried, but he was simply outmatched.
Joe Rogan called Jones possibly the best fighter of all time during his entrance, and on talent alone he’d definitely be up there. But his trio of failed or questionable drug tests knock him out of the running in my opinion, and that’s why it was simply disappointing to see him come out on top again last night.
#2 Best: Volkanovski stakes his claim
Jose Aldo, Conor McGregor, and Frankie Edgar. That trio of former UFC champions have plenty in common, but one of the threads that joins them is the fact that before last night, they were the only fighters to have wins over perennial Featherweight contender Chad Mendes. After last night, Alexander Volkanovski can join that exclusive list.
Outside of Amanda Nunes’ knockout of Cris Cyborg, Volkanovski’s big finish of Mendes was probably the highlight of the show to me. ‘Alexander The Great’ did it the hard way too, as he was taken down on a handful of occasions and took a bunch of hard shots, including suffering a knockdown in the second round. But he stayed cool under fire, kept pressuring Mendes back, landing his jab and working the body, and eventually it paid off with a big KO at the end of the 2nd.
The Australian prospect is clearly a contender for the Featherweight title now, and given champ Max Holloway has already beaten Aldo and Brian Ortega, you could argue that only Edgar and perhaps Renato Moicano are in front of him for a title shot. Given that Moicano and Aldo are due to face off in February, there could be an argument for giving Volkanovski the next title shot outright. His promo post-fight certainly made it sound interesting.
It’s always nice to see a fighter pick up the biggest win of their career, and this was certainly it for ‘Alexander The Great’ – in one of the best PPV openers of 2018, too.
#2 Worst: The weird ending to the Zingano/Anderson fight
The prelim match between Cat Zingano and Megan Anderson was one of my most highly anticipated fights on this card as I felt the winner could be in line to fight for the UFC Women’s Featherweight title in 2019. After a weird ending just a minute into the fight, that doesn’t really seem likely at all now. It was perhaps the worst ending to any fight in 2019.
After a brief feeling-out period, Anderson threw a high kick which largely missed, but one of her toes caught Zingano in her right eye. Cat instantly turned away and stopped fighting, and referee Marc Goddard had to step in to stop the fight.
There was no question that Zingano was unable to continue – she has since confirmed that she thought her eye was ruptured, although thankfully that apparently isn’t the case – but should it have been ruled as a TKO for Anderson?
Personally, I’m not sure. The current rules would say yes, which is why Anderson was given the win, but had the stoppage come from an errant finger poke, then the fight likely would’ve been ruled a No Contest. So should the use of a toe rather than a finger make it so different? I honestly don’t believe it should.
This wasn’t Anderson’s fault, the referee’s fault, the CSAC’s fault or the UFC’s fault, but it’s certainly something that needs looking at in the future. It was a very unfortunate way to end what looked like a great fight on paper.
#3 Best: Silva de Andrade’s corner work
The preliminary fight between Petr Yan and Douglas Silva de Andrade looked set to be one of UFC 232’s most exciting battles, but in the end it turned out to be largely one-sided, as Yan simply punished ‘D’Silva’ throughout the fight with his sharper strikes and once the fight got into the second round, his devastating ground-and-pound.
Once the second round ended, it was clear that Silva de Andrade was pretty badly hurt, bleeding from more than one area on the face, and when his corner attempted to treat his cuts, the Brazilian instantly turned away in pain. And so his corner, seeing no way for their fighter to win, simply called ‘No Mas’ and stopped the fight.
This was a breath of fresh air in a sport which has seen corners force badly hurt fighters to go back out for another round, as we saw in May when a beaten Raquel Pennington continued to fight Amanda Nunes until a merciful 5th round TKO.
The loss takes nothing away from Silva de Andrade – he was simply beaten by a better fighter in Yan – and fighters and fans alike won’t look down on him or his corner for the stoppage. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a shift in MMA towards corners protecting their fighters – not forcing them to continue due to a prevailing macho culture that seems to have been accepted beforehand.
#3 Worst: Penn and Condit face the end
Two of UFC 232’s best finishes came in the form of slick submissions, as Ryan Hall tapped out BJ Penn with a beautiful rolling heel hook, and Michael Chiesa finished Carlos Condit with a pretty unique one-armed kimura. So why aren’t those finishes on the ‘best’ list? It’s all about their opposition, really.
Condit hasn’t looked the same since his insane January 2016 war with Robbie Lawler, and since then he’s lost 4 straight fights, including last night’s tapout to Chiesa. Penn meanwhile has already retired twice before and is now on his second ill-advised comeback. The last time he won a fight was in November 2010. Essentially, neither man should really be competing in the UFC right now.
Whether last night will be the last rodeo for either man is anyone’s guess. MMA has always been a sport that sees its legends hang on for too long, and a sport in which the reputations of younger fighters are built on the bones of their predecessors.
But hopefully, for their own good, Penn and Condit both decide to stop now. After all, we don’t want any more fights like Chuck Liddell’s recent comeback in the future, do we? Last night’s fights were simply sad to watch, despite the great finishes.
