Another fight weekend is in the books, and on Saturday night, the legendary lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov strengthened his GOAT case by running through Justin Gaethje – then stunned the world by announcing his retirement.
I’ll have more on Khabib’s legacy this week, but as usual, here’s a look at three fighters outside the main event who boosted their stock this week.
Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker entered his co-main event fight with Jared Cannonier on Saturday almost as a little bit of an afterthought. It was Cannonier, after all, not Whittaker, whom Israel Adesanya had named as his desired next challenger last month. Saturday’s fight was Cannonier’s chance to secure himself a look at the 185-pound title – for Whittaker, who lost the belt to Adesanya last October, the future was a little less clear.
In fairness, Whittaker’s recent performances hadn’t inspired too much fervor. Whittaker was humiliated in front of his home country when Adesanya killed him in Melbourne, and after suffering a crisis of confidence and desire, Bobby Knuckles returned to the ring in July and looked… fine, in a decision win over Darren Till. A number of MMA fans and journalists scored the fight for Till, and while Whittaker had found a way, he didn’t exactly remind you of the man who blasted his way to a championship in 2017.
But on Saturday, Whittaker put all those concerns to bed. The Australian looked absolutely awesome in a unanimous decision win over Cannonier. Whittaker broke Cannonier’s arm with a body kick early in the first round, setting the tone for a masterclass in everything that has made Bobby Knuckles elite over the last few years.
Whittaker’s controlled the fight with his movement, understanding of angles, and a cracking jab that started to swell up Cannonier’s face later in the fight. He consistently beat Cannonier to the punch, and while the former heavyweight had some success early in the fight with some sharp leg kicks, they didn’t seem to really affect Whittaker’s movement or activity.
From the second round on, Whittaker separated himself. His use of the jab was fantastic – once he fully established that jab’s dominance, he started to work combinations off of it to devastating effect. One such combo early in the third round finished when Whittaker badly hurt Cannonier with his famed right high kick, and while Cannonier narrowly managed to survive, Whittaker had all three scorecards locked up.
It was a fantastic and refined stand-up showing from one of the best technical strikers in the UFC. And while Whittaker may have entered the Cannonier fight as something of an afterthought, that’s not how he left it. A rematch with Adesanya appears to be almost certainly in his future, and he did everything he could on Saturday to make it interesting.
UFC 254 had some pretty interesting fights on it, from top to bottom. And when former lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos had to pull out of his fight with rising star Islam Makhachev after testing positive due to COVID-19, there seemed like plenty of options to replace the bout on the main card.
You showcase incredibly promising bantamweights Casey Kenney and Nathaniel Wood, two of 135’s most skilled young fighters who put on a clinic that was so quick and action-packed that it looked like it was being played at 200-percent speed. You could go with the always-entertaining welterweight staple Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira in his fight with top European talent Shavkat Rakhmonov. You could even go with Tai Tuivasa and Stefan Struve, because Lord knows the UFC loves giving main card spots to bad heavyweight fights.
What they actually chose was somewhat of a head-scratcher: a middleweight fight between two relatively little-known debutants, two-time Contender Series alum Phil Hawes and 4-0 Jacob Malkoun, a friend and training partner of Robert Whittaker. It was easily the most anonymous fight on the card, and now it was being elevated to a prime spot.
It only took us 18 seconds to find out why. Phil Hawes… welcome to the show.
Hawes has carried some hype with him for a few years now, but it’s taken him a while to put it all together and earn a spot in the UFC. He wasted absolutely no time making an impression in his first Octagon appearance, immediately coming after Malkoun and putting his lights completely out with a swarming series of powerful rights and lefts against the cage.
In pro wrestling, that’s what you’d call a “squash match.” Malkoun, a talented grappler and a good prospect in his own right, could do nothing to stop Hawes from just getting in his face and killing him. A former junior college national champion wrestler, Hawes is a great athlete with a ton of power who is now looking like one of 185’s biggest future stars. He wasn’t supposed to get this kind of spotlight – a main card fight on one of the biggest PPVs of the year – this early, but he absolutely made the most of it.
After leaving Malkoun laying unconscious, Phil Hawes walked up to one of the ringside cameras, pointed at the cage floor, and said “This is mine now.” And hell, man… keep doing that, and pretty soon it will be.
Honorable mention to heavyweight Tai Tuivasa, who might have saved his UFC career by cranking Stefan Struve with a massive uppercut for a Round 1 knockout. Tuivasa looked slimmer and more comfortable in the clinch than we’ve seen him before, and his performance was very encouraging. Do a shoey in the big guy’s honor today.
I had fully penciled in Tuivasa for a spot on this column, until Magomed Ankalaev did him one better in the very next fight. On Saturday, Ankalaev finally put an end to the saga of one of 2020’s most cursed fights, when he decisively knocked out Ion Cutelaba in the first round.
Ankalaev and Cutelaba first met back in February, in a matchup of two of the light heavyweight division’s best young talents. What ensued was quite possibly the worst stoppage in UFC history: referee Kevin MacDonald stepped in after just 38 seconds, after Ankalaev rocked – but didn’t even drop – Cutelaba during an early exchange. A fully conscious and still-throwing Cutelaba was absolutely bewildered when MacDonald pulled him away, and so was every single person watching the fight.
That, of course, necessitated a rematch. It took us eight months to finally get it done – the fight was postponed on Aug. 11, and then again on Aug. 29, after two positive COVID-19 tests from Cutelaba. When they finally stepped in the cage on Saturday, we were going to get a resolution, one way or another. And in just over four minutes, Ankalaev confirmed our suspicions: even if there hadn’t been an early stoppage the first time around, he was gonna knock Cutelaba out regardless.
Absolutely clinical with the counter right-left combo, and then he pounds Cutelaba completely unconscious with the old Kevin Randleman murder hammerfists. No question anymore.
Like seemingly every Dagestani who has ever lived, Ankalaev has an extensive sambo background, but since beginning his pro MMA career he’s established himself as one of light heavyweight’s best and most powerful counter-strikers. Ankalaev gets hit at a rate lower than almost any 205-pounder in UFC history – he lets you come forward, and makes you pay every single time you try to get something going.
In Cutelaba, Ankalaev was facing an extremely talented fighter with a ton of great tools, but his aggressive mentality played right into Ankalaev’s hands. Cutelaba wanted to come forward and walk the Russian down. In response, Ankalaev completely sniped his ass.
Ankalaev is now 5-1 in the UFC, winning four of his last five by KO (since it’s on the official record, we’ll count the first Cutelaba fight on here as well), with his only pro loss coming in his UFC debut against Paul Craig – a fight Ankalaev was handily winning until Craig caught him in a Hail Mary triangle choke literally right before the final bell.
He’s absolutely earned a look at one of the established top-10 guys at light heavyweight, and hopefully in a relatively quick turnaround. Hey, Nikita Krylov… you up?
The Big Fight 