Another fight weekend is in the books. Saturday’s UFC card was, at the same time, completely cursed and extremely awesome: we had a mix of quick finishes, crazy wars and horrible rule-breaking moments, including a main event that ended on a no-contest on one of the most brutal eye pokes you’ll ever see.
I’ll have more this week about whatever the fuck happened in Leon Edwards–Belal Muhammad, and what it means for a welterweight division at a crossroads. For now, however, here’s a look at three fighters outside the main event who boosted their stock on Saturday.
Dan Ige threw basically one big punch on Saturday night. It didn’t miss.
Ige is a very talented, skilled young featherweight who has been in plenty of entertaining fights so far in his UFC career, but to this point, I had never really understood the nickname “50K,” which refers to the $50,000 bonus given out for Fight of the Night and Performance of the Night winners at UFC events. In eight UFC appearances, he had only snagged a 50K bonus once, winning Performance of the Night for a submission win over Danny Henry in 2019.
Well, he made it two on Saturday night, justifying that nickname a little bit more. It’s safe to say that this one came kind of out of nowhere. Ige’s short right land that knocked Gavin Tucker unconscious came just 22 seconds into the first round, and came from a fighter with relatively little demonstrated history of explosive one-punch power.
It wasn’t against a fighter who’s shown a glass jaw, either. Tucker has been emerging as one of the more talented rising featherweights in the division, had never been knocked out before, and appeared to be making some significant strides in his striking over his recent performances. Still, all it took was one quick blow from Ige to put the Canadian’s lights out.
There’s not a lot of fight to analyze, but we certainly can analyze the huge value it will have for Ige’s career. (Funnily enough, the 22-second KO wasn’t even the fastest of the night: welterweight Matthew Semelsberger led the show off with a 16-second one-punch pasting of Jason Witt.) Ige has displayed some high-level striking chops that earned him a place on the back end of the featherweight top 10, but his status was somewhat in question: his breakout win over Edson Barboza was a highly controversial split decision, and Calvin Kattar looked a step above him in a very entertaining July loss.
Not only does this reaffirm Ige’s position, it gives him a signature highlight. As shallow as it may sound, explosive highlights have always been arguably more important for UFC longevity than actually winning consistently. That’s just the way the guys in charge think, and it’s pretty much always been the case. Dan Ige now has one of his own. That’s gonna help his case.
Ryan Spann
Saturday was one of the roughest nights for the great nation of Canada since Shania Twain moved to the United States. That’s because just minutes after Dan Ige removed Newfoundland’s Gavin Tucker from consciousness, light heavyweight Ryan Spann did this to Toronto’s Misha Cirkunov.
Brutal – all that’s left for Canadians to fall back on now is their superior healthcare system and government that hasn’t completely abandoned its citizens. Pretty damn good for Spann, though, who entered Saturday night in a similar spot to Ige, with his spot in the top 15 at light heavyweight in a rather tenuous position.
Spann is a big, athletic young guy who quickly won his way into the 205-pound rankings after earning a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series. However, how good he actually was still registered as an important question: his biggest win was a knockout of a faded Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and he was far from convincing in a split decision victory last year against proven mediocrity Sam Alvey.
In September, Spann returned to the cage against Johnny Walker, a Brazilian glass cannon who mixes at-times exhilarating offense with brutally poor defense. Spann knocked Walker down twice in a frenetic first round, only for Walker to knock him out cold with a series of elbows while defending a takedown against the fence. It was insane, awesome, and a very rough development for Spann’s young career.
When the UFC set up the fight with Cirkunov, it seemed obvious that the loser would likely be kicked out of the top 15. Cirkunov has had plenty of losses against the division’s elite, and injuries had kept him out for about 18 months heading into Saturday. He needed to remind the world who he is. Instead it was Spann scoring with a thunderous right hand, a clipping left hook and a vicious series of ground punches, displaying the power he’s flashed throughout his young career.
Huge win for Spann, who gets a palate-cleanser after the Walker loss – it should, of course, be remembered that he was moments away from winning a first-round TKO in that one – maintains his spot in the rankings, and adds to a highlight reel that, as we’ve previously established, is important. The heavier weight divisions could always use new blood, and you should keep an eye on Spann.
As I hinted at up top, Saturday’s UFC shows was a wild blend of all of mixed martial arts’ sacred and profane. We had two no contests on the main card, including one in the main event. We had several extremely quick knockouts. We also had a couple great performances from fighters who needed it. Look no further than Angela Hill, the longtime fringe contender at 115 who turned in one of the best all-around performances of her career by absolutely beating the hell out of Ashley Yoder in the feature spot of the prelims.
Hill roasted Yoder’s ribcage in a fantastic striking performance that the 36-year-old had to have: Hill entered the night having lost consecutive split decisions to Claudia Gadelha and Michelle Waterson, both of which were relatively controversial. A couple fights later, British bantamweight Davey Grant did her one better.
Grant has had a star-crossed UFC career. Grant debuted in the UFC all the way back in 2013, but Saturday was just his seventh fight in the Octagon, having had multiple year-plus-long layoffs due to severe injury troubles. Commonly regarded as a talented submission specialist, Grant also wasn’t winning on the rare occasions he could get in the ring, having lost three of his first four UFC appearances heading into late 2019.
Nothing had gone to plan for Davey Grant, and his career desperately needed some kind of shot in the arm. His soul-search has apparently led him to the same career choice that unlocked Jan Blachowicz‘s potential: forsake your grappling roots, lean fully into your natural, untapped punching power, and start knocking some dudes the hell out.
Grant’s July KO of Martin Day, in which he knocked his opponent completely clean out with a left hook, was a revelation. We simply hadn’t seen that from Grant. And on Saturday, Grant got it done again against a fighter a clear notch or two up the pecking order from Day: quick, talented young bantamweight Jonathan Martinez, who’s looked very much like a potential future contender over the last couple years.
Grant came out looking like a loose, confident Muay Thai striker, controlling the range well with kicks and throwing heat up top. Martinez dropped him with an overhand left late in the first round, but Grant recovered well and came out in the second on fire. Grant got in a flow and started whacking Martinez with big hooks, piecing together combinations that carried with them a sense of real malice. Grant started pushing ahead with fire, putting Martinez on the back foot. And with two minutes left in the round, he went to the body with a right, then followed with a massive left hook that put Martinez out.
Now THAT’S a combination. There may still be significant holes in Grant’s striking defense, but you can’t deny the man lands with some thud. And when he really turned it on against Martinez, he looked like an unholy terror. Once on the very brink of losing his job, Grant is now remaking himself before our eyes as one of the 135-pound division’s must-see knockout artists. Not too long ago, there was a big Polish guy who was in a similar position. Who the hell knows how far this new Davey Grant could make it from here?
The Big Fight 