This past Saturday's UFC card certainly wasn't the best MMA event of the year and it lost a lot of it's luster when we lost the main event, Derrick Lewis vs Serghei Spivac. This was probably one of the most uninteresting cards of the year for the UFC without that fight, but this is what happens when we get those super stacked PPVs. The surrounding events tend to suffer. We have the week off for American Thanksgiving this weekend, but we'll be back the following week with a great event leading into UFC 282 on the 10th. With that said, we have to put this card to rest and give everyone involved their due.
I actually didn't get to watch the opening fight of the night, but I did see the highlight of the finish. Natalia Silva seems to have a pretty decent ceiling in the UFC so far. She's very young and already really talented. Her striking is fairly solid and she's only going to be getting better with more time in the gym. She picked up a great finish in this one and the hype will only be higher going into her next fight. I don't think rushing her along is the right way to go, so I wouldn't expect an opponent of significance for her next fight. I think someone like Julianna Miller, Antonina Shevchenko, or Victoria Leonardo would be the proper level of fight.
Brady Hiestand picked up his first win in the UFC, but it didn't come without a bit of adversity. He got clipped early and dropped with a solid punch, but after that, he really didn't have much of an issue. His grappling was really just a level above that of Fernie Garcia and he was able to smother him for the final two rounds of the fight. Hiestand presents an interesting skill set and I think with some small adjustments and a little bit of growth, he could have a very nice UFC future ahead of him. I think an opponent like Christian Rodriguez, Johnny Munoz Jr, and or Aoriqileng would make sense for him next time out.
Vanessa Demopoulos has gone on a really nice run here as of late and she extended her win streak with another impressive win. I'm very guilty of underrating Demopoulos by quite a bit during her time in the UFC, but she does enough well that she is going to handle subpar competition without issue. She's not flashy on the feet, but she is scrappy, and we saw her get a knockdown in this fight against someone who should have been a better striker. Her grappling is going to be the key for her and she's pretty solid on the ground. If she can improve her wrestling, then she may have an even higher ceiling than I ever imagined. I think someone like Randa Markos, Loopy Goodinez, or Piera Rodriguez could be the type of opponent she's looking at next time around.
Ricky Turcios had a bit of a bounce back performance after a very strange loss where he just didn't fight like himself at all. He was much more of his typical self this time around, although I don't think he fought to the best game plan. I thought striking would've been a better path for him, but he was getting hurt at space, so that is a factor as well. He initiated a lot of the grappling sequences and while he probably had the better ground game, I think Natividad was the better wrestler. That resulted in a really close fight that I think most people actually scored for Natividad. This is two odd performances in a row from Turcios, although this was much closer to the fighter he's been historically than the last one. I think an opponent like Guido Cannetti, Mana Martinez, or Danaa Batgerel would fit what Turcios is looking for.
Miles Johns won what was probably the worst fight on the card, but this is a results based business. Johns did what he had to do and he did so after taking the fight only two weeks out. He's not a guy with great cardio to begin with, so he realistically couldn't have pushed a pace and had a chance here. The fight being the way it was had more to do with Morales not being willing to do much of anything. It isn't a fight that is going to be in the highlight reel for Johns at the end of his career, but it was a nice win for him nonetheless. I think a Kyung Ho Kang, Daniel Santos, or Davey Grant type of fight makes sense for Johns whenever he returns.
Jennifer Maia was probably the fighter on the card that was most in need of a win and she just edged it out. She just seemed to be a step of Moroz for the most part and the grappling never became a huge factor. Maia just had her timing down from the jump and was able to land the harder and more solid strikes for the most part. It was still competitive, but it seemed pretty safely a Maia win. Now that the losing streak is over, she can hopefully just focus on moving forward without the pressure of potentially fighting for her UFC career. She could be in line for a fight with Erin Blanchfield next though as they're close to each other in the rankings and Blanchfield is a rising contender looking to fight up. Maybe a Vivi Araujo fight could be in the mix for Maia as well.
Charles Johnson picked up his first UFC win in somewhat controversial fashion. Most people scored the fight for Zhalgas Zhumagolov and I can't say I disagree. It was a close fight though and I thought Johnson did fight fairly well, at least a times. He sometimes gets into this flow state where it's almost like he's doing a light sparring session and that's when his volume kind of tails off. I think that happened a bit here, but Zhalgas does limit volume pretty well in the first place. Whichever was more at play limited Johnson's volume and made it a competitive fight, but Johnson got the nod. I think someone like CJ Vergara, Victor Altamirano, or Cody Durden makes sense for him next.
Jack Della Maddalena kept his hot streak going with another impressive win. I think Jack needs a pretty solid step up in competition because anyone beneath him, he's just going to shred. His technical boxing and volume are just going to be way too much to handle for the lower to mid level competition he's faced so far. It will be interesting to see what happens when he gets a good grappler, but his striking is clearly on a level that he hasn't faced in return yet. I think fighters like Khaos Williams, Alex Morono, and Randy Brown are the next level in his progression.
Muslim Salikhov is in an interesting spot. He's clearly on the back 9 of his career, but he still has some very good skills. I think it is probably likely that the UFC keeps giving him these younger fighters that they're trying to build up, but I think I would rather see him against some older fighters for the last few appearances of his career. I think opponents like Max Griffin and Gunnar Nelson make some degree of sense for Salikhov going forward.
I've very obviously underrated Waldo Cortes-Acosta to this point. His boxing is a bit better than I've given him credit for and, as long as the fight is purely striking, his cardio does hold up to a certain degree. I'm not all of the sudden buying in that he's a future title challenger, but he is out performing what I have said about him in his first two UFC fights. I don't think pushing him is the way to go and he needs the slow build as he rounds out his skill set, especially his grappling. I think an opponent like Chris Barnett, Tanner Boser, or maybe even Andrei Arlovski would make some sense for him.
Kennedy Nzechukwu was probably the biggest winner of the night as he registered a huge knockout win in the makeshift main event. Cutelaba had a decent first round, as he normally does, but Kennedy turned in around in the second after landing some big knees. He put Cutelaba on the back foot and landed some really powerful follow up shots that put Cutelaba back down after he worked his way up onto a knee. If Kennedy were to put it altogether, he has the tools to be very dangerous in this division. He seems to be figuring things out and turning in more consistent performances, so maybe this was just the first step in seeing Kennedy really take off and maximizing his potential. I think matchups with Da Un Jung or Dustin Jacoby would be fun next steps for Kennedy.
This is coming out a bit later than intended, but it is what it is. Who was your biggest winner of the afternoon? Leave any additional comments below. Thanks for reading, have a good day, and happy American Thanksgiving for those who celebrate.
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