Last Saturday, the UFC made its way back to Anaheim, California. The event drew over 18,186 fans and offered a tremendous plethora of fights for fans with shocking victories dominating the evening.
The event opened with Middleweight Anthony Hernandez gaining a dominant second round submission win over Roman Kopylov with a rear naked choke to secure the win. The bout was immediately followed by one of the most surprising matchups of the year when former UFC Bantamweight Champion Henry Cejudo faced rising division star Merab Dvalishvili. Cejudo had been full of attention prior to the fight as Cejudo had hinted at a full retirement if he lost and had also controversially fired one of his coaches on camera. Despite the hype and a valiant effort, Dvalishvili beat down Cejudo, who was at one point being carried around the cage, to gain a unanimous decision win. It was another former champion defeated on Dvalishvili’s warpath to an inevitable Bantamweight Championship bout, which he called for after his win.
Welterweight Ian Garry was not the most loved man in Anaheim at the event. His ongoing social media feud with Anaheim native and UFC Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland drew thousands of jeers from the press conference to his split decision win in his bout with Geoff Neal. After mocking the angry crowd’s almost deafening boos, he called out an equally controversial trash talker in his own division, Colby Covington.
In the Middleweight bout, Robert “The Reaper” Whittaker and Paulo Costa went head to head. Costa landed a devastating kick to Whittaker’s head but this did not slow down Whittaker who gained a unanimous decision win over Costa. In the main event, Alexander Volkanovski, the reigning Featherweight Champion since 2019, faced the undefeated Ilia Topuria. Topuria has never lost a bout in his MMA career. Volkanovski had come off a loss in the Lightweight division against Islam Makhachev back in October. However, his fans were hopeful that “The Great” would be able to continue the dominant reign in his own division. Unfortunately for Volkanovski, this was not the case as the era of Volk came to a shocking end when Topuria landed a chin punch that sent the champion to the crown. Topuria was crowned the new champion and made himself a star in the process.
UFC’s next major event, UFC 299, will take place on March 9th in Miami, Florida and will see Sean O’Malley defend the Bantamweight title against Marlon Vera. During the event, UFC President Dana White announced that UFC 300’s main event would see Alex Pereira defend the Light Heavyweight Championship against Jamahal Hill. That event will be on April 9th in Paradise, Nevada. You can watch UFC on ESPN+ and pay per view.
