UFC 266 was a night to remember with one of the best fights of the year with Alex Volkanovski defeating Brian Ortega with some exciting back and forth moments, Valentina Shevchenko once again showing her dominance in the Flyweight division with a dominant victory over Lauren Murphy and the return of Nick Diaz. A shoutout to some of the fights on the prelims with one of the best first rounds you'll see in Merab Dvalishvili vs Marlon Moraes and Dan Hooker impressive well rounded performance against Nasrat Haqparast.
The main event was a close one to call before the fight with Brian Ortega's striking looking impressive against the Korean Zombie showing he had vastly improved in that department after Max Holloway gave him in lesson in striking. Volkanovski showed that he's just on a different level than Ortega using his pressure and power to win the fight although had to come through some adversity on 3 occasions getting caught in tight submissions from Ortega but somehow kept his calm didn't tap and got out with many other opponents likely to be finished showing his next level toughness. Although Ortega lost he still gave a good account of himself showing an improvement in the striking department from his previous title fight with Max Holloway but ultimately Volkanovski cardio and pressure were too much, I doubt it'll be Ortega's last title fight in his career he just needs to keep improving in the striking and integrate more of a takedown threat to utilize his world class Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Overall though Volkanovski and Max Holloway are just on another level than the rest of the featherweight and a third bout is expected providing Max can defeat Yair Rodriguez in November.
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Valentina Shevchenko once again reminded us that she's one of the most skilled mixed martial artists on the planet regardless of gender or weight class putting on a clinic against Lauren Murphy, Murphy was no easy opponent winning her last 5 fights and beating other top contenders but Shevchenko is just on another level than the rest of the division. It seems she has no weakness, her striking is world class and she can use her wrestling to take you down and put a beating on you with ground and pound using her Judo throws expertly to get her opponents down. Murphy looked stuck waiting for an opening not wanting to go into the fire and potentially get finished but sometimes as a big underdog in the fight where her skills aren't matched with the champion your gonna have to take some to give some, no one wants to get it but Murphy didn't take enough risks in my opinion. Where does Valentina go now? She's cleared out the division and will most likely be waiting a while for a worthy opponent so I think her only options are to fight Nunes for a third time after she fights in December or for Rose Namajunas to come up a division and fight her.
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It was hard to predict how Nick Diaz would look in his return after 6 years absence from the sport and although you could see his speed has decreased I thought up until the stoppage was a pretty close fight Nick landing more strikes albeit with less power and Robbie Lawler causing the more damage. I had it 1-1 going into the third but I think if it was a 3 round fight Nick might have continued and seen it out but as it was a 5 rounder may have decided not to continue because he still had two and half rounds to go. Nick Diaz looked out of shape especially after seeing him earlier in the year lean and in good condition, it didn't seem like he wanted to be there which you could tell from his walk into the octagon and his whole demeanor on fight week, a more motivated Nick who was in shape may have given Robbie more problems as you could see his skills were still there but not being in top shape at this level isn't going to end well. I think this was Nick Diaz's last fast in the octagon, maybe this was a quick money grab or maybe he wanted to give it one last go but you could see his heart wasn't in it.
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The first two fights on the main card saw Curtis Blaydes defeat Jairzinho Rozenstruik by decision and Jessica Andrade beating Cynthia Calvillo by TKO. It was a typical Curtis Blaydes performance taking down his opponent and keeping him there trying to land ground and pound, you could see the skill difference on the ground with Rozenstruik not really knowing how to get up pulling guard and hitting from the bottom which does more to keep your opponent on top. It was an expected outcome although Blaydes did have to deal with his eye shut and with more activity from Jairzinho he may have been able to finish the fight but his style is typically looking for that one punch to end the fight but if you can't find that shot then the judges aren't typically going to favor the fighter with less activity. Blaydes is in a weird position where he won't fight for the belt anytime soon after losing twice to current champion Francis Ngannou but he beats the guys outside the top 5, I don't think he's a big enough name for Stipe or Jon Jones to want to fight him especially when those two will want a title shot. The women's flyweight division is in a weird spot where Valentina Shevchenko has beat all of the top contenders and despite a solid win for Jessica Andrade over Cynthia Calvillo she just got finished by the champ so there's no chance of a rematch anytime soon and the only way she gets back in there for a championship fight is by winning at least two more fights. Andrade's power has shown to be a problem for most opponents she's faced even giving strawweight champion Rose Namajunas a black eye in their second bout, her power was the factor in this fight against Calvillo winning by TKO more impressive when you consider how hard it is to finish Calvillo.
The prelims also lived up to the hype with rising heavyweight Chris Daukaus knocking out Shamil Abdurakhimov, Dan Hooker getting back in the win column defeating Nasrat Haqparast and with one of the best rounds you'll see as Merab Dvishvilli overcame a storm to beat former title challenger Marlon Moraes. The win for Chris Daukaus should line him up for a big fight up at heavyweight with a bout against Derrik Lewis reportedly scheduled for December. It was also good to see Dan Hooker back in the win column and taking a step back in competition which will no doubt improve his confidence after being finished by Michael Chandler. Merab Dvilishvilli showed great heart almost being finished by Marlon Moraes in the first round but as Moraes has shown before his gas tank can run out quickly especially as he tried to finish the fight and after Merab came through the storm he used his wrestling to beat on Moraes and end the fight, the win makes bantamweight even more interesting setting Merab up for a big fight in the future.
