Another fight weekend is in the books, featuring by a UFC show at the Apex, a Bellator show at the Mohegan Sun, and entertaining offerings from ONE and KSW. Rafael dos Anjos headlined the UFC show with a hard-fought unanimous decision win over Paul Felder in his return to lightweight – I’ll have more later this week about what RDA still has at 155.
But as usual, here’s a look at three fighters outside the main event who boosted their stock this weekend.
To my own eyes, Khaos Williams had all the makings of a potential star heading into Saturday night’s showcase bout with the hard-hitting Abdul Razak Alhassan. He’s a young, rising fighter with an appealing style, big-time knockout power, and a really cool name.
As I detailed in my preview of the fight last week, someone named “Khaos Williams” just feels like money. But with just 27 seconds of Octagon experience under his belt, Williams had to prove that he was worth the hype.
Well, Khaos Williams is now 2-0 in the UFC. And he still hasn’t passed a minute of Octagon time.
Dana White used to say that top heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou “hits like a Ford Escort.” Now, Ngannou is a lot bigger than the 170-pound Williams. But if the 6-foot-4, 260-pound Ngannou hits like a Ford Escort, Williams at the very least hits like a Ford Taurus driving 85 miles per hour down the interstate. Williams obliterated Alex Morono with an uppercut in the first flurry of his UFC debut in February, and needed just one straight right to put Alhassan completely unconscious on Saturday.
The sample size is extremely small, for sure, but so far we haven’t seen anyone survive taking a power shot from Khaos Williams. There may be all kinds of holes in his game for all we know, but none of that is going to matter if he keeps killing people with his first punch of the fight. It should be noted as well that Morono looked quite sharp in beating Rhys McKee on Saturday, and while Alhassan has dropped two straight since returning from a two-year layoff due to legal issues, he’s got plenty of UFC highlights of his own. Williams hasn’t beaten two complete bums.
It was impossible to see Williams stroll in there and put Alhassan into rigor mortis without getting excited about his future. It reminded me a bit of how, back in the day, there was this bit on NBA Twitter where people would write Milwaukee Bucks center Larry Sanders’ name in all caps – he did everything so loudly and so explosively that when he was on the court, he was LARRY SANDERS.
Well, to me, Khaos Williams is no longer Khaos Williams. He is KHAOS WILLIAMS. And the sky is the limit.
Just a week ago, talented middleweight grappler Brendan Allen was ready for his first crack at a fighter in the top 15 of the UFC rankings, as he was scheduled to fight powerful striker and inventive anti-grappler Ian Heinisch at UFC Vegas 13. The bout was my favorite on the undercard of Thiago Santos–Glover Teixeira, and I thought it was a fascinating matchup.
But, unfortunately, the fight was axed the day of, after Heinisch tested positive for COVID-19. The fight with Heinisch was not rescheduled – instead, Heinisch was booked for a fight with former interim title challenger Kelvin Gastelum early next year, and Allen accepted a 195-pound catchweight with Sean Strickland, who beat Jack Marshman by unanimous decision just two weeks ago.
Ultimately, the whole messy situation worked out pretty well for everyone except Brendan Allen. Heinisch, his former opponent, now has a date with the biggest name opponent of his career and an opportunity to vault himself up the rankings. And on Saturday, Strickland turned around and knocked Allen out in the second round, cementing his status as one of the UFC’s most promising middleweights.
Let’s not forget that Strickland was available to fight two weeks after going 15 minutes because his win over Marshman was just that lopsided. Strickland turned in, to me, one of the most memorable performances of the empty-arena age two weeks ago – with no fans making noise, everyone could hear Strickland loudly encouraging Marshman to fight back harder as the American pounded his face to a pulp with an endless sea of combinations.
Strickland sat in his range and absolutely battered Marshman with his boxing, and try as he might, his shorter opponent just couldn’t reach him. Allen, who recently switched camps to Sanford MMA in Florida, tried to stand with Strickland as well and display a new approach to his game. Strickland took care of Allen much the same way: he kept Allen at bay with a great jab, bouncing slick combinations off his opponent’s dome before a particularly hard one-two sent Allen packing in the second.
Strickland’s striking looks so simple that it’s almost deceptive how dangerous it is. Strickland stands right in front of his opponent and just constantly lays in punches with absolutely no wind-up – to the naked eye, they don’t look like he’s throwing with particular malice, but they cause huge damage all the same. And with two wins in two weeks, both of them dominant and impressive, Strickland has put himself in rare company in terms of quickest turnarounds between UFC wins.
Strickland’s win over Marshman was his first UFC appearance in almost exactly two years, after he suffered career-threatening injuries in a motorcycle accident in 2018. He’s since moved up from welterweight and is making up for lost time, and he’s looked better than ever in doing so. Next up should be a ranked opponent, and the chance to really make some hay at 185.
On Thursday night, Bellator featherweight champion Patricio Pitbull looked as dangerous as ever, smashing Pedro Carvalho with his powerful straight right hand within the first round to retain his title and move on to the semifinals of the Bellator Featherweight Grand Prix. Pitbull is the easy favorite to win the whole thing, and his performances over the last several years have put him in the conversation for best 145-pounder in the world.
Nothing we saw on Thursday is going to change that. But Pitbull may have a real stern test in the offing once the semifinals come around. 30-year-old Emmanuel Sanchez earned himself a shot at the belt when he beat German veteran Daniel Weichel, submitting one of the best overall performances of his Bellator career in doing so.
Over five rounds, Sanchez put together one of the best displays of pure pressure striking that you’ll ever see, averaging over 100 strikes attempted per round and winning a lopsided unanimous decision. Sanchez never let Weichel once sit down on any of his punches – instead, he forced Weichel to cut angles for five rounds, all while peppering him with a great diversity of strikes and making the fight exactly what he wanted.
Sanchez nearly finished the fight in the second round with a hard left to the body, taking all the wind out of Weichel’s sails going forward. I had the score at 50-44 Sanchez, and while the actual scores were a little bit closer, it was an extremely impressive showing from a fighter who knows he’ll be coming into the Pitbull fight as a big underdog.
One can’t forget that Sanchez and Pitbull met for the Bellator title in Sep. 2018, and while Pitbull retained his belt in a unanimous decision, it was quite competitive – almost everyone agreed at the time that Sanchez took two rounds. He was a tough problem for Pitbull to solve. On Thursday, he showed that should again be the case.
The Big Fight 