Another fight weekend is in the books, and as always, we had some good action. The UFC’s Las Vegas show featured Glover Teixeira attaining Maximum Glover, nearly getting knocked out twice by Thiago Santos but stubbornly refusing to die, and ultimately earning one of the biggest wins of his 18-year career by third-round submission.
I’ll have more about what that fight means for the future of the UFC light heavyweight division later this week. For now, as usual, here’s a look at three fighters outside the main event who boosted their stock this weekend:
It’s a credit to the depth of the UFC’s bantamweight division that a fighter like Raoni Barcelos is still unranked. Since signing with the organization in 2018, the 33-year-old Brazilian has looked like an absolute stud, winning five in a row in impressive fashion. But after this latest performance – a unanimous decision win over Khalid Taha on Saturday – nobody can afford to ignore Barcelos anymore.
Barcelos came away as the single most impressive-looking fighter to enter the Octagon on Saturday night. He’s incredibly well-rounded, and he’s a threat in every area of the game. He’s a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who’s trained on the mat since he was young under the tutelage of his father, a seventh-degree coral belt in BJJ. He’s a high-level wrestler who competed on the Brazilian national freestyle wrestling team. And on the feet, he looks sharp and dangerous, mixing his strikes beautifully and throwing everything with precision and malice.
Barcelos was an absolute joy to watch on Saturday. Taha is no slouch himself – the Lebanese-German bantamweight has heavy hands and has scored some real highlight KOs during his career. He’s very dangerous. But Barcelos was in control the entire time, attacking on the feet, attacking on the ground, always hunting for a finish wherever he could find an opening for one.
Barcelos’ stand-up looked beautiful, as he brilliantly flowed through crisp and powerful boxing, thumping Muay Thai knees and hard calf kicks that took the wind out of Taha’s sails. He mixed everything up, kept Taha guessing, and drowned his opponent in a sea of combinations. He also flashed some really good takedowns, and, the second the fight hit the mat, was constantly threatening submissions.
The Brazilian looked extremely dangerous in every phase of mixed martial arts, and appeared to be someone who will be a major factor in the bantamweight division very soon. Barcelos is a gem. I can’t wait to see what he does next.
While Barcelos was simply fighting to gain a little attention in a crowded division, one of Saturday’s other standout performers – Chinese strawweight Yan Xiaonan – was fighting for bigger stakes. Yan has also gone undefeated since signing with the UFC in 2017, but has been brought along slowly in the deepest and most talent-laden women’s division the organization has on offer.
But at 5-0 entering this weekend, Yan had entered the top 10 of the rankings and was looking to score the kind of win that could have her within sight of a date with her countrywoman, strawweight champion Weili Zhang. She found it on Saturday, when she scored an impressive unanimous decision win over top-five contender Claudia Gadelha, a former title challenger who has been among the UFC’s top strawweights since the division was founded.
Yan answered a lot of questions on Saturday. She’s a very skilled and technical Sanda boxer who wins by fighting at a fast pace and never letting up, but she’s relatively slight for the division – one wondered how her lack of physicality would stack up against Gadelha, one of the most muscular and powerful women fighting at 115, and one who always tries to take her opponents down.
At times, that gap was apparent. Gadelha was able to muscle Yan against the cage and take her down multiple times. But nevertheless, I thought Yan won all three rounds, due in part to her revival of the old art of winning a round off your back. Gadelha managed to get her to the ground, but after those takedowns, Yan was busier – she outlanded Gadelha from guard, pounding her over and over with punches and slicing elbows.
By the second round, Yan had started to stuff Gadelha’s takedowns, and she took the fight by the throat. Yan has fast hands and kept Gadelha off of her with a crisp jab, using excellent movement and footwork, and turning the Brazilian veteran’s head into a speed bag. Every single time Gadelha even thought about ducking to try and change levels, Yan was bouncing four punches off her dome. She established the range, took control, and the striking gap widened and widened until the final bell.
On Saturday, Yan faced the kind of fighter who could overpower her and interrupt her endless boxing exhibition. But when Gadelha threatened to do just that, Yan worked even harder until she turned the fight into what she wanted. It was an excellent performance, and she’s vaulted herself much closer to that title shot.
ONE’s welterweight division was the one on display on Friday, as champion Kiamrian Abbasov faced off against undefeated challenger James Nakashima in a great main-event scrap – battling a broken nose and Nakashima’s relentless wrestling attack, Abbasov rallied to knock the former Nebraska Cornhusker out in the fourth round to defend his title.
But in the co-main, one of the organization’s biggest rising stars continued his rise to the top. Timofey Nastyukhin is a bomb-throwing Russian who caused a sensation last March, when he welcomed one of the organization’s biggest-name signings ever – former UFC lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez – to ONE by knocking Alvarez the hell out in the first round.
Alvarez’s last four opponents before facing Nastyukhin: Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, Poirier again. It was one of the most stunning KOs we’ve seen in the last few years. Those who followed ONE knew that Nastyukhin fought with power and intensity and would be no pushover, but Alvarez was considered one of the sport’s elite competitors.
The win over Alvarez instantly made Nastyukhin a major name to watch, but a serious knee injury forced a long layoff. He finally returned to the cage on Friday, looking great up at welterweight against long and sharp Dutch kickboxer Pieter Buist, winning a unanimous decision.
At 5-foot-7, Nastyukhin is quite small for the 170-pound division – in an organization that allowed real weight cutting, he’d almost undoubtedly be fighting at 155, or maybe even 145. But where he lacks in length, he makes up for by throwing everything with absolutely evil intent. The 6-foot-2 Buist had an almost comical height and reach advantage on Friday but it didn’t matter a single bit, as Nastyukhin came right after the Dutchman and overpowered him en route to the win.
Buist, who entered the fight on an eight-fight win streak, never got out of first gear. Nastyukhin loves to rush in throwing big overhand shots and hooks, and time and again countered Buist’s refined kickboxing by simply catching his kicks and blasting his face in with an overhand right. His wrestling and ground-and-pound looked powerful too – he can get a bit wild and one could see a powerful striker finding Nastyukhin’s off switch, but Buist was unable to get it going.
Buist was ranked as one of the top contenders in ONE’s welterweight division, and Nastyukhin’s performance against him was one of the most impressive of his career. Abbasov had to fight hard to retain his title against Nakashima – he may not have to look far to find his next challenger.
The Big Fight 