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What’s the story?
UFC 222 was electrifying as promised: it paved entry for up-and-coming talented fighters like Brian Ortega and Sean O'Malley; and it cemented Cyborg's legacy as the baddest woman on the planet. Everybody initially thought 222 was going to be a mess as Holloway pulled out due to an injury. Calls were made and Cyborg stepped up on short notice to face Yana in the main event, and Ortega came in as a replacement for Holloway to fight Edgar in the co-main event.
In case you didn’t know…
Frankie Edgar was knocked out for the first time in his MMA career by Brian Ortega. He startled Edgar with a nicely placed elbow and finished him off with a thunderous uppercut. This has never been done in the octagon before - nobody has ever finished Edgar inside the octagon. Brian Ortega has done that and he is still undefeated with 14 wins, no losses and 1 no contest.
In the main event, Cyborg pummeled Yana for the victory, defended her title successfully, and cemented her status as the most dominant woman inside the octagon.
The heart of the matter
We saw some great matches in the main card fights with Sean O'Malley, Andre Arlovski, Brian Ortega and Cris Cyborg scoring important wins. Suga Sean, with a leg injury, managed to get a win. Arlovski earned a decision over Stefan Struve treading slowly towards other main fights in the heavyweight division.
What’s next?
After his emphatic win over Edgar, Ortega will face Holloway for the title. Dana White confirmed this at the post fight and told reporters that the fight will be made immediately as soon as Holloway is cleared. Daniel Cormier also said after 222 that Holloway is very much interested to face Ortega and said that he needs tough competition and is happy to take that fight. Cyborg at the post-press said that she wanted Amanda Nunes next and said this is the fight that has to be made. White commented that he'll try hard to make this fight happen.
Megan Anderson, on the other hand, congratulated Cris Cyborg in a series of tweets and called her out yet again. She tagged Dana White, Joe Rogan, the UFC and Jon Anik in the following post.
Author's take
Wow! This year is turning out to be too good. We are surely witnessing some great fights this year. The Ortega, Holloway headliner and the Nunes-Cyborg super fight are going to be pretty great. We'll get to see how Holloway fares against an opponent with superior jiu-jitsu skills and a great standup game. Also, we'll have to wait to see if Nunes is a worthy opponent for Cyborg, or is it going to be the hard-hitting featherweight, Megan Anderson.
