We had a busy weekend in combat sports, but there really wasn't any single story that stood out enough for me to write an entire piece on it. Instead, I figured I would get out some thoughts on a lot of different things. We had Jake Paul vs Tommy Fury, the return of Yaroslav Amosov, Brendan Allen picking up a huge win, and a few other things. I just want to quickly get some thoughts down and give all of those their credit.
I guess I'll start with Jake Paul and Tommy Fury. I don't really have any grand takeaway from this fight. It wasn't especially fun to watch, which is really nothing new for these influencer cards, but this one felt a little worse. I think this one was missing the novelty of the previous ones. The other ones were fun at least a little bit because it had someone we know (we as in people my age and younger) in Jake Paul fighting either Anderson Silva, Tyron Woodley, or Ben Askren. It was at least moderately entertaining just because it was weird. This one trended more into just low quality boxing territory. I thought Tommy won pretty cleanly, so I'm not sure how one judge scored it for Jake, but they ultimately got it right. Everything about the actual product though was pretty bad. The fighting wasn't great, but that wasn't unexpected. The referee for the main event was really bad though and the broadcast team as atrocious. I guess my biggest takeaway is that this sort of feels like how Jorge Masvidal vs Colby Covington felt. It was kind of fun in the build up, but now that it's over, I'm just sort of sitting here not feeling anything. Now that Jake has lost, it feels like his fights lose a lot of steam unless he has some really crazy or interesting opponent. Tommy won, which was his biggest test, but no one really cares about him, so it doesn't feel important. I haven't been a hater of these types of events, although I don't care about them a ton, but this feels like it may be the beginning of the end of big interest in celebrity boxing.
Yaroslav Amosov made his return to the Bellator cage and picked up a win over Logan Storely. His performance wasn't the most exciting thing you'll ever see, but just seeing him back was an incredible story. He's been away from the cage for about 2 years now after serving in the Ukrainian army in the war they're fighting against Russia. To see him back in action was incredible and he really dominated the fight from start to finish. He proclaimed himself to be the best welterweight in the world and he at least has an argument. I don't think I would pick him to beat Kamaru Usman, but this isn't about that. Congratulations to him on the big win and just returning to action in general.
Brendan Allen was thrust into a main event spot against Andre Muniz after Ryan Spann vs Nikita Krylov was cancelled during the main card and he took advantage of it. Allen has never been consistent, but maybe this is him turning a corner. It is very clearly the biggest win of his career and it came in the biggest spot. Muniz is a guy that a lot of people were really high on, so a win over him is pretty meaningful right now. A win over him in the make shift main event has Allen positioned for an even bigger spot going forward. He'll be getting a ranked opponent and could even be looking at someone in the top 10. This could be his one chance for a run and if he can string together some more consistent performances, maybe he has a real run in him. I know he had some callouts of guys he's fought before, but I really like the Nassourdine Imavov fight next for both of those guys.
Darren Till may have been released from the UFC. It has since been confirmed by Darren that he was released from his contract, but it seems like he has it agreed upon that he's going to be returning to the UFC at some point? I'm not really sure exactly how this is all going to play out or what the story is in full, but it's a weird one. On one hand, I can't really picture Darren fighting outside of the UFC. On the other, it's difficult to see him turning it around without a change of scenery, at least for the time being. I think he's just in a tough spot and has been met with some tough circumstances. He was on such a great run and was so popular that the UFC almost had to give him all the opportunities that he got, which he did earn. He got submitted by a much better version of Tyron Woodley than the way we think of him today. Then he got knocked out badly by Jorge Masvidal on his rise to title contention. He picked up that split decision win over Kelvin Gastelum, but then the UFC threw him right back in there against Robert Whittaker. Till competed well in that fight all things considered, but I think that's where the UFC really went wrong with him. That is also when the injuries started to really begin piling up resulting in Till having long gaps between fights and having to pull out due to injury. He eventually came back against Brunson and he didn't look good in that fight at all. He had another long gap and didn't look good against Dricus either. I'm not really sure what's next for him, but before he's going to have any success, he has to get himself healthy. I just hope he turns it around because he's fun when he's going good, but we're so far removed from that now that it's sort of hard to imagine getting back to that level any time soon.
The final thing I want talk about here is that we're in the middle of a Jon Jones fight week and it still doesn't really feel real. It's hard to get too into it because we all know how wrong these can go at the last second. I've been pretty outspoken about how I feel about Jon at this point. I don't get as excited as I used to or as into it as maybe I should be because of all of the things we have on him at this point. I definitely am getting more up for this fight as we get closer though, but I'm trying to temper expectations until they are both actively fighting. The possibilities of what Jon could actually be or look like is what is most intriguing for me. I just want to see how he moves at this weight and how it impacts his skills. How much speed has he lost because of the weight gain and how much speed has he lost because of his age? How do the skills translate against much larger opponents? What percentage of the old Jon is he? I don't have an answer to any of it. That's what makes this fight so interesting to me. Gane is the more known commodity at this stage, which is a strange thing to say, but we know what he's good at and what he's not. With Jon, we have very few things we can say about him confidently right now. It's going to be a very interesting few days in the build up and then a very interesting Saturday night.
What was your biggest takeaway from the weekend? What story was most interesting to you? What are your thoughts on Jones vs Gane or any other fight taking place this weekend? Leave any and all thoughts below. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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