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UFC Fight Night 127 from London, England is done and dusted and despite a somewhat weak card on paper – more on that later – the fighters up and down the card delivered and we got a wild and somewhat wacky night of action inside the Octagon, capped off with the emergence of a new contender at Heavyweight.
As always the night of fights saw its ups and downs, but on a night largely full of fun fights, thankfully for the fans who attended it was mostly ups. Here are the best and worst moments from UFC Fight Night 127.
#1 Best: New contenders continue to emerge at Heavyweight
Recently it feels like the UFC Heavyweight division – long considered an ageing one – is finally witnessing a changing of the guard. First, we saw the veteran Alistair Overeem brutally knocked out by Francis Ngannou, and just last month another veteran, Mark Hunt, was beaten comprehensively by up-and-comer Curtis Blaydes.
Until last night, former UFC champ Fabricio Werdum had seemed immune to this, as he’d beaten a pair of prospects in Walt Harris and Marcin Tybura in 2017 to remain ranked in the top five. But faced with former Bellator champ Alexander Volkov – himself on a three-fight win streak – Werdum’s fine run finally came to an end via a nasty knockout.
Werdum appeared to be winning in the early going, controlling Volkov on the ground in the first and second rounds in particular, but by the third, it looked like he was getting tired while the younger Volkov still looked fresh. The tide appeared to be turning and in the fourth, Volkov landed a series of hard shots from inside Werdum’s guard and then knocked the Brazilian out when the fight returned to standing.
It was the biggest win of Volkov’s career and while a lot of it might be to do with time catching up to Werdum – who didn’t appear to be in his best shape – it should still be enough to earn him at least a #1 contender’s match for a shot at the Stipe Miocic/Daniel Cormier winner. Even if Volkov doesn’t get a title shot though, this was still a huge moment for the division as it signified another one of the old guard falling to a younger opponent.
Change is afoot in the division for sure.
#1 Worst: Duquesnoy in danger of not living up to the hype
Prior to his signing with the UFC in 2017, many observers and analysts were talking up young Frenchman Tom Duquesnoy as the best prospect in the world at 135lbs. Outside of a loss to current UFC fighter Makwan Amirkhani in 2013, Duquesnoy had largely dominated his opponents on the smaller circuit and he’d been a two-division champion – at Bantamweight and Featherweight – in the BAMMA promotion.
Duquesnoy looked good in his UFC debut last April, stopping Patrick Williams, but in October he was beaten pretty comfortably by fellow prospect Cody Stamman, who capitalised on the holes in the Frenchman’s wrestling game as well as a somewhat lacking gas tank.
Last night he was supposed to right the ship against Terrion Ware – who’d already lost to two prospects in Stamman and Sean O’Malley – and while he did win via decision, it was hardly convincing. Duquesnoy landed a lot of leg kicks, but the stats showed that Ware had the advantage in overall strikes landed, and he also controlled ‘Fire Kid’ on the ground whenever the fight went down. Personally, I scored the fight 29-28 for Ware.
So why isn’t Duquesnoy living up to the hype? The reasons could be two-fold. Firstly it appears that he might’ve become so used to dominating his foes on the smaller circuit that he’s finding more tricky opponents harder to adjust to. And secondly, it seems that his gas tank is well under par – he looked good in the first round last night but got very tired afterwards. Dan Hardy suggested that a move to 145lbs could help him, but that’s debatable as he doesn’t look huge at 135lbs.
Essentially, unless Duquesnoy can make the correct adjustments to deal with stronger opponents who won’t wilt under his admittedly skilled attack, he’s in danger of failing to live up to his potential, which would be a sad state of affairs.
#2 Best: Manuwa and Blachowicz prove everyone wrong
The UFC loves to book rematches, and while some of them – Silva/Sonnen II for example – have drawn hugely, sometimes they feel pointless. Last night’s rematch between Jimi Manuwa and Jan Blachowicz was one of those pointless ones. They first fought in 2015 and it was a legitimate stinker, with a slow pace, too much clinching, and Manuwa edging a tight decision.
With Blachowicz coming off a win and Manuwa a loss, it was weird to book them against each other to begin with – the rumours were that other fighters were refusing to fight Manuwa, but either way it didn’t sound appetising. Thankfully, the fighters delivered hugely in the cage and proved all of their doubters wrong.
The fight was comfortably the best of the show – winning Manuwa and Blachowicz a $50k bonus each. This time the result was different, Blachowicz picking up a unanimous decision after edging Manuwa in all three of the rounds. The difference appeared to be the use of a ramrod jab from the Polish fighter that kept Manuwa at distance, and also the fact that Manuwa’s suspect chin couldn’t really hold up to the power of Blachowicz’s strikes.
But Manuwa fought through a couple of knockdowns to really draw Blachowicz into a brawl, and both men went through some hellacious exchanges throughout the fight. So while the London fans weren’t happy with the result as Manuwa lost, both men can walk away with their heads held high after one of the best fights at 205lbs in recent memory.
#2 Worst: When will the UFC give the UK a proper show?
A decade ago, the UFC seemed to be really pushing their brand in the UK. They would give the British fans PPV-level shows that featured some of the biggest stars of the time, from ‘Rampage’ Jackson and BJ Penn to Matt Hughes and Mirko Cro Cop. In 2018 though, those days seem long gone.
Last night’s show featured just three top ten ranked fighters – main eventers Fabricio Werdum and Alexander Volkov and 205lber Jimi Manuwa – and while the card had some intriguing prospects fighting on it, only the most blinkered UFC fan would claim it was a truly deep show on paper even if it delivered in terms of action on the night.
Which begs the question – when will the UFC give the UK a properly loaded card again? The last PPV card to come to British shores was October 2016’s UFC 204, but even that was a weaker card with only a handful of ranked fighters on show. Obviously the last two shows to come to London – last night’s and last year’s Fight Night 107 – were Fight Pass cards which are always lesser, but surely it’s about time?
The UFC’s first show in Liverpool, taking place on May 27th, was announced a couple of days ago, and right now the broadcast information hasn’t been released. With rising star Darren Till announced as headlining the show, hopefully the UFC puts some more effort in and treats the UK fans to a deeper card. Heaven knows they deserve it.
#3 Best: Edwards and Craig and the late, late show
Talk about leaving it late. The fights might’ve told completely different stories, but last night’s show went into the record books for featuring two of the latest finishes in UFC history from British fighters Leon Edwards and Paul Craig. Both men won their fights with just one second remaining on the clock in the third round.
Firstly Edwards – the prospect from Birmingham had largely dominated his opponent Peter Sobotta in the first two rounds and looked to be cruising to a unanimous decision, but after opening a cut on his opponent late in the third, he sensed his chance and was able to use some nasty ground-and-pound to put the German away right before the final buzzer.
The win was Edwards’ 5th in a row and while he’s unlikely to be facing Darren Till – who he called out post-fight – in his next match, a top ten opponent like Donald Cerrone or Jorge Masvidal would make for a good fight. He’s improved dramatically since his debut – particularly in his grappling – and the way he’s going he isn’t far from being considered a legitimate title contender.
And secondly, Scotland’s Craig, who was coming into his fight last night with his back to the wall, big time. He’d been beaten and stopped by Tyson Pedro and Khalil Rountree in his last two fights, and this was the final one on his UFC contract. And opponent Magomed Ankalaev was bringing a fearsome reputation into his Octagon debut, having won all 9 of his professional fights.
For the first two rounds, it looked like Ankalaev would make it 10, as he was beating Craig standing and mauling him on the ground when the fight went there. The third round appeared to be heading his way too – likely a 10-8 even – when Craig threw up a last-ditch triangle choke with moments to go. Somehow Ankalaev didn’t see the choke coming and didn’t react quickly enough, and with just a second remaining, he was forced to tap out.
The win goes down as one of the all-time great UFC comebacks – up there with Silva vs. Sonnen and Elkins vs. Bektic – and will probably be enough to save Craig’s UFC career. The Scottish fighter left it very late, but pulled a miracle out of the bag and provided the fans with one of the show’s most memorable moments.
