UFC 221 aftermath

Yoel Romero vs. Luke Rockhold

Yoel "the soldier of God" Romero has proved that explosive knockaut win especially in third round is one of his most recognisable trademark. This time his opponent was ufc ex-midlleweight champion Luke Rockhold who lost his title against Michael Bisping at UFC 199. After his last win against David Branch, Rockhold earnd his title fight against Robert Whittaker but unfortunately Whittaker got staphylococcus infection. Romero who has lost his last fight right against Whittaker, but before that he was on 8 win streak so UFC gave him opportunity to fight for interim belt against Rockhold. Romero with outstandig performance proved that he deserved that match up, altough he failed to make 185-pound weight, as he came in at 185 pounds. Luke Rockhold started the fight carefully with good movement as he was expecting Romero's explosive rage, Rockhold won first round thanks to devastating low kicks. Rockhold even had the better opening of the second round but in the middle of round Romero aimed and successfully hit Luke with some good shots which made Rockhold looking not so fresh anymore. In the third round Romero was looking for another opportunity to explode which resulted with great combo including big left hand that sent Rockhold to the floor.
"The soldier of God" with astonishing win occured himself a rematch against Whittaker in fight for the UFC middleweight title. That is probably a last chance for this 40 year old middleweight to take a champion's belt.

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Mark Hunt vs. Curtis Blaydes

Co-main fight confronted two heavyweight hard hitters, UFC veteran Mark Hunt and 17 years younger Curtis Blaydes. It was a real test for both of them. Hunt needed to show that he is not ready to retire with 43 years on his back and for Curtis Blaydes this was the fight which could easily put him in the status of real heavyweight contender. First round showed us that Hunt still has his biggest weapon, heavy hitting hands as he scored a clean right hand which almost finished Blaydes, but thanks to his granit chin he kept going and took down Hunt to neutralise the damage. In the other two rounds Blaydes changed tactics and based on takedowns which occur him an important win.
Blaydes presented great performance as he survived Hunt's attacks and then adjusted his game to neutralise the danger of Hunt's punches with intense takedowns giving them a big importance as we all know that Hunt has more than good takedown defense but obviously not in this case. Curtis is surely building his way to the top and he is not afraid of fighting anyone, he even wants a rematch with Francis Ngannou which could be very interesting considering that Ngannou is the only one who has beat Blaydes and since that Blaydes surely improved through 5 wins streak.

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Tai Tuivasa vs. Cyril Asker

As I said in my previous post UFC put an easy barrier in front of new heavyweight prospect Tai Tuivasa who easily made through it. Tuivasa again showed that he is a really talent presenting not only his strength but also a great technique. He took a lead from beginning of the first round with great combos including devastating elbows and punches, Asker was having a real problem but he kept going showing us at least great will and solid chin. After series of big elbows Tuivasa came with some body shot adding last big right elbow that put Asker down and brought victory to Tuivasa.
Tuivasa added a new first round knockout win to his collection and confirm that he could easily be a next big thing in UFC heavyeight class with great explosive power, technique and strength.

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Jake "The celtic kid" Matthews vs. Li "the leech" Jingliang

In another fight from main card which was awarded for the fight of the night, Australian mmiddleweight Jake Matthews in front of his public gets unanonimus decision win against favourite Li Jingliang. Matthews won thanks to his great well known wrestling background but he had also some good moments in stand up especially when he put Jingliang to knockdown. Jingliang showed resistance and had some good punches but not good enough for win. Also worth to mention that Jingliang eye-gouged Matthews while he was trying to escape a guillotine and ref didn't do anything about that.

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Tyson Pedro vs. Saparbeg Safarov

In a light heavyweight fight that opened main card Pedro got spectacular submission win as he switched over Safarov while being in not so good position and locked him in kimura position. Unfortunately, Pedro didn't get a bonus for outstandig performance but there a many people who think he absolutely deserved.

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Rob Wilkinson vs. Israel Adesanya

Adesanya a new talent that UFC has dragged to its middleweight roster confirmed the hype made about him with more than good performance against Rob Wilkins which finished in fourth minute of second round as the ref stop the fight in favour of Adesanya. Adesany had a interesting statement after the fight as he call himself the dog who peed in the cage to mark his territory.

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Alex Volkanovski vs. Jeremy Kennedy

Fight between two UFC talents, Australian Jeremy Kennedy and Canadian Alex Volkanovski finished with impressive knockout win for Volkanovski in last seconds of second round after his pure domination in both rounds.

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Jussier Formiga vs. Ben Nguyen

In bantamweight fight Formiga stopped Nguyen with submission win which occur him a fight bonus.

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