Another fight weekend is in the books, one headlined by the UFC’s first pay-per-view event of 2021 on Saturday night, where millions of illegal streamers watched Dustin Poirier shock the sporting world by becoming the first man ever to knock out Conor McGregor in the main event.
I’ll have more this week on Poirier’s landmark victory, both from his perspective and the perspective of the loser. But for now, as always, here’s a look at three fighters outside the main event who boosted their stock in a big way last week.
I first laid eyes on Michael Chandler 11 years ago. It was his second pro fight, on the undercard of a Strikeforce Challengers show headlined by eventual UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. From there, he soon made his way to Bellator, where he fought for a decade, winning three lightweight titles and becoming one of the promotion’s signature stars.
I watched almost all of Chandler’s Bellator fights as well. I’ve essentially been there for his entire MMA career. I’ve seen plenty of times just how overwhelming Michael Chandler can be in the cage. But I have to admit: even I doubted Chandler’s chances in his long-awaited UFC debut Saturday night against established contender Dan Hooker.
Chandler is the kind of athlete a baseball scout would describe as “toolsy.” Terrific explosive athleticism, humongous one-punch power, All-American wrestling. But we saw his flaws and limitations exposed several times in his Bellator career – I saw Hooker as a technically superior and more durable fighter, and I personally expected him to control the fight from range and start Chandler’s UFC run off on a down note.
Way to make me look like an asshole. Michael Chandler, welcome to the fucking show.
With one monster left hand (and one big post-fight promo), Michael Chandler made himself an in-demand UFC contender, and changed the calculus of the lightweight division. Khabib Nurmagomedov is hardly going to come out of retirement to fight Chandler – even Dana White now seems convinced the undefeated legend isn’t coming back – and Dustin Poirier shot down any idea of a meeting with Chandler after his main event win on Saturday. But when you’re already in a position to call guys like that out – and people aren’t laughing at you or calling you a jerkoff for doing it – that’s pretty decent work.
Poirier now seems destined to face Charles Oliveira for the lightweight championship at some point this year. That would leave Chandler with who – Justin Gaethje, maybe? That’s a main event anywhere in the world! Pretty heady company to be in after just one UFC fight. Michael Chandler has been a UFC fighter for two minutes and 30 seconds and he’s one win away from a title shot in the premier division in the sport.
To me, it brought to mind Junior dos Santos‘ UFC debut in 2008, when JDS arrived on the scene by knocking former Pride star (and future UFC champion) Fabricio Werdum with a soaring uppercut in the first round. It made JDS an instant name, but he had to win six more times before he finally got a shot against Cain Velasquez. Chandler’s road won’t be nearly as long.
And the thing is, if you’ve watched Michael Chandler’s career, you could always see this kind of potential. There were bumps along the way: the losses to Will Brooks, the Patricio Pitbull fight, the time his leg almost fell off against Brent Primus. Chandler reached the top several times, but rarely stayed there long. But with one punch, he validated all the ups and downs of the past 10 years.
He turns 35 years old in April. He’s finally on the biggest stage. And Michael Chandler showed on Saturday that, after all these years, he has the stuff to climb the tallest mountain in MMA.
Last week gave us a very rare treat: face-punching on a Wednesday morning! The UFC tossed us a random ESPN card that started at 9 a.m. on Jan. 20, headlined by a top-10 welterweight clash between Michael Chiesa and Neil Magny. And let’s be real: what was I gonna do, my day job? Watch the inauguration? Screw all of that, I’m watching fights.
The timing of the show, the relative lack of talent booked, and the fact that it was on opposite Joe Biden’s inauguration, means that I doubt many people tuned in. But that’s a shame: it means they missed Chiesa putting on an absolute clinic. In easily Chiesa’s biggest fight since moving up to 170 – and one of the biggest fights of his career – Chiesa turned in one of the best displays of scrambling and positional grappling you’ll ever see.
Chiesa earned 49-46s across the boards – I personally thought he took all five rounds – by flawlessly implementing his gameplan against one of 170’s toughest gatekeepers. Chiesa is a pressure grappler through and through, and he had little trouble taking Magny down repeatedly throughout the fight, from a number of different positions.
To his credit, even though Magny spent most of the bout on his back, he never gave up and never stopped fighting. Magny was working to escape every single second Chiesa was on top of him – it was in those moments that Chiesa really shone. Chiesa seemingly won every transition of the fight, giving an incredible account of his strength, flexibility, positional awareness and grappling knowledge.
Really, it was a masterclass, and tremendously fun to watch. And even more important, it ran Chiesa to 4-0 since he moved up to welterweight in 2018. Chiesa was always a massive lightweight, but it’s been very encouraging to watch his game translate to the higher levels of the 170-pound division. Magny is extremely long, strong, and has won plenty of fights by staying on his opponents and wearing them out. Even so, he couldn’t do much to stop Chiesa.
And now that he’s passed the Magny Gate, big fights lay ahead for Michael Chiesa. Chiesa said after the fight that he wants odious Nazi Colby Covington – maybe Chiesa’s can become a true American hero.
You can always count on shit getting wild on a Conor McGregor pay-per-view, even if the antics don’t actually involve Conor himself. Things got a little chaotic on the undercard in the last hours before the show went on: first, talented prospect Nasrat Haqparast had to drop out of his fight with Arman Tsarukyan on Friday after an undisclosed illness.
Stuff like that happens, especially during COVID times. The much weirder story involved the main card fight between Matt Frevola and Ottman Azaitar, an undefeated knockout artist who entered the week as one of my favorite prospects at 155. Azaitar and his team were apparently caught by security smuggling people into the bubble, resulting in his fight being canceled and Azaitar getting cut from the UFC.
That left Tsarukyan and Frevola, both promising lightweights who had already cut weight – Tsarukyan unsuccessfully, he missed weight by about a pound – without opponents. So, naturally, they got paired up on a day’s notice and sent out there to throw down. Not an ideal scenario for anyone, but at least they didn’t make the long trip to Abu Dhabi for nothing. And given these unfortunate circumstances, Arman Tsarukyan looked freaking excellent on Saturday.
Just 24 years old, Tsarukyan has been bubbling under for a while as one of the best young lightweight prospects in the sport. But given the spotlight – nothing will get eyes on you like fighting on a Conor McGregor show – Saturday was something of a coming out party. Tsarukyan controlled every phase of the fight, running his win streak to three with a 30-27 unanimous decision.
Frevola wanted to make things chaotic on Saturday, but Tsarukyan simply didn’t let him, dominating with his excellent wrestling, sharp boxing, and relentless cardio. Tsarukyan took him down over and over, settling Frevola into the places he wanted him to be, and piecing him up with sharp combinations when the two were on the feet. And maybe it’s just youthful stamina, but Tsarukyan absolutely wore Frevola out with his pace and his activity over three rounds, which to me was the most impressive part of his game.
Tsarukyan entered the fight as a comically large betting favorite – I saw as big as -900 in some places – but managed to back up those prognostications. He very much looks like a fighter who can be a big factor moving forward at 155. He said after the fight that he wants a top 15 fighter next, and I say give it to him. What are Gregor Gillespie or Drew Dober up to?
The Big Fight 