I don't think either of these fights were quite interesting or impactful enough to cover an entire post, but I did want to at least mention them. The co-main event of UFC Vegas 38 this past Saturday saw the return of Kevin Holland against Kyle Daukaus. This fight was stopped in the first round after an accidental clash of heads saw Holland knocked out for a brief moment. He came to quickly and tried to finish the round, but Daukaus was able to sink in the rear naked choke, forcing Holland to tap out. Referee Dan Miraglottia had signaled to Herb Dean, who was serving as the review official for the fight. The two of them, along with some members of the commission and some UFC officials (not sure how involved they were exactly) ultimately ruled the bout a no contest. I think most people agree that this was the right call, but is there anyone out there who has a compelling argument as to why this should have stayed a win for Daukaus? In either case, this was a really disappointing result because I was really looking forward to seeing how improved Holland actually was. He fended off the takedown attempts we saw from Daukaus, but I was definitely looking forward to seeing more than a round from him. Holland appeared on Monday's episode of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani (here) where he talked about what happened. Holland also talks about how he stopped a car thief, which is just a very Kevin Holland type story. Since that interview, ESPN's Brett Okamoto reported that Holland and Daukaus will run the fight back on November 13th.
After the dust settled from that fight, the main event pitted Thiago Santos against Johnny Walker. Santos was searching for his first victory since before his gutsy performance against Jon Jones at UFC 239. The aftermath of that fight saw Santos require surgery on both of his knees and thus a year and a half layoff. He returned last November in a fight against Glover Teixeira where Santos landed some heavy shots dropping Glover early in the first and third rounds, but I think the heavy grappling that took place for virtually the entire fight outside of those few heavy strikes used a lot of Thiago's energy reserves and eventually Santos would succumb to the rear naked choke, a win that Glover would parlay into this title shot later this month at UFC 267. Santos came back much more quickly this time in a very strange and slow paced fight against Aleksander Rakic, which he ultimately lost via decision. Johnny Walker, on the other hand, was coming off of a knockout victory over Ryan Spann after he had dropped his previous two fights. A lot of fans and media were predicting that this fight would not go the distance due to the powerful and explosive nature of both fighters, but we saw quite the opposite. Both fighters were content to be patient and only come together for brief exchanges while periodically landing some kicks from the outside. Santos was able to land the more powerful and impactful strikes, which got him the 48-47 decision win on all 3 scorecards. Santos has positioned himself for a pretty big fight in his next appearance. He was still ranked 5th after losing three fights in a row and with a nice win against Walker, he could find himself in a title eliminator type fight his next time out (probably not a number one contender fight though). Even though the decision didn't go his way here, I think a lot more of the intrigue coming out of this fight was surrounding Walker. He has largely been a fairly reckless fighter throwing wild strikes, leading to some fantastic finishes and some equally brutal losses. This fight showed us a much different version of Walker, who was much more reserved and in control. He tried to make the most of his reach advantage, which he did effectively at times. However, Walker was not nearly as aggressive as we have seen him in the past and the lack of volume was a major factor in the loss. I think most would agree that toning things down and being much more subdued and in control is a good thing for Walker, but we are also sitting here looking at him having lost 3 of his last 4. Is Walker the type of fighter who has to live and die with his wild style to have success? Or can he make minor adjustments and find success with this new patient style? Only time will tell.
Also, just as sort of an aside, Walker's corner did him no favors. Going into the 5th, the broadcast picked up Walker's coaches telling him that the fight was his to lose, indicating that he had already won the required 3 rounds. While this ultimately proved to be false, how were the coaches confident enough to not only believe he had won 3 of the first 4, but confident enough to communicate this to Walker? I'm not sure, but I have to believe if his coaches told him that the fight was even (which it was) or even if they told him that they think he's ahead but they're not sure, that Walker would have approached the round differently and potentially could have come away with a major victory. Alas, we got the result we got and now Walker will have to find a way to rebound.
Sorry for maybe a more boring post here. Neither of these fights were all that exciting, but I had a few things I did want to say about each so I just combined them. What did you think of Kevin Holland's wrestling in the brief glimpses we got? Do you think Holland wins the rematch or does Daukaus get his win for real this time? What did you think of patient Johnny Walker? What do you make of his corner giving him bad advice? What do you want next for Thiago Santos? Let me know the answers to any or all of those questions and thanks for reading.
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