UFC 294 was held in the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on October 21st. The PPV event had been highly anticipated as it was the impending rematch between UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Islam Makhachev and former champion Charles Oliviera. However, Olivieria suffered an injury during training and could not take the fight. Oliveira was subsequently replaced by UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski, who was looking to become the fourth man in UFC history to simultaneously hold two championships in two separate divisions. Volkanovski and Makhachev had previously matched up in February. There was also a highly anticipated middleweight title eliminator bout between Khamzat Chimaev and former UFC Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman.
The night started out with a bantamweight bout that saw Said Nurmagomedov defeat Muin Gafurov with a guillotine choke submission win in 73 seconds. This was a big win for Nurmagomedov as he bounced back from a loss in March. The night continued with more quick finishes when middleweight Ikram Aliskerov demolished Warrlley Alves with a flying knee to get a TKO win after two minutes. The fight between Magomed Ankalaev and Johnny Walker ended after three minutes in a widely criticized move that almost caused a riot. According to the doctor who made the call, an accidental illegal knee rendered Walker unable to continue. After the fight ended, Walker shoved a referee and demanded for the fight to continue. The two fighters had to be separated and UFC owner Dana White had to get involved to calm both fighters down. Afterwards, he blasted the doctor for his decision. Many others took to social media to criticize the decision, though UFC legend Chael Sonnen backed the doctor’s decision and chose to blame the referee for what ensued.
The Chimaev and Usman fight was the only fight that went the distance with both fighters slugging each other. However, Chimaev came out on top with a majority decision win. Chimaev showed respect to Usman and revealed that he had suffered a broken hand. Despite the win setting up the likelihood of Chimaev facing UFC Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland, Strickland told reporters that he wasn’t impressed by the win and that Chimaev “doesn’t deserve a shot.” Other UFC fighters such as Justin Gaethje and Paulo Costa, Chimaev’s original opponent, criticized the scoring and said Usman was the real winner.
The fight between Volkanovski and Makhachev lasted for three minutes as the crowd was stunned speechless when Makhachev knocked out Volkanovski with a devastating head kick. The Light Heavyweight Champion left another body in his trail of victory in the UFC. One interesting statistic from the night is that all four winners from UFC 294 as well as Ankalaev hailed from Russia, with all except Chimaev (who is Chechen) coming from the Dagestan region.
The next major UFC event is UFC 295 on November 11th in New York City. It will be headlined by UFC Heavyweight Champion Jim Jones defending his title against Stipe Miocic. You can watch UFC via PPV and ESPN+.
