Another fight weekend is in the books. This year’s March Madness basketball tournament has been one of the wildest in recent memory, and the last couple nights of fights have been an appropriate companion. Kevin Holland‘s hype train was derailed against Derek Brunson on Saturday in a fight where he seemed more interested in networking with Khabib Nurmagomedov at ringside than actually fighting, and it only got stranger from there.
I’ll have more on the fallout from Holland-Brunson this week. For now, as usual, here’s a look at three fighters outside the main event who boosted their stock this weekend.
Saturday’s UFC card didn’t look like much on paper, didn’t amount to much in reality, but at least it turned out really goddamn weird. The main event of Derek Brunson vs. Kevin Holland was so strange that it left armchair psychologists everywhere speculating about Holland’s mental state – this came just minutes after Montserrat Ruiz won her UFC debut by literally just head-and-arm throwing Cheyanne Buys over and over again and doing nothing else.
The card was ruined by COVID to an uncommon extent, with one of the only interesting fights, a lightweight clash between Gregor Gillespie and Brad Riddell, getting called off the morning of the event. But one of the card’s standout fights not only remained intact, but produced a brilliant moment of magic: an undercard lightweight fight (why this was on the undercard I have no idea) between surging prospect Grant Dawson and the always-forgotten Leonardo Santos.
Santos is 41 years old, a legendary grappler, extremely tough, and hadn’t lost a professional fight since 2009. He’s exactly the kind of Old Brazilian Motherfucker who’s been ruining best-laid plans since this sport began. Only repeated injuries, which have limited him to just nine UFC appearances since he joined the organization in 2013, have kept him from a much higher-profile position.
Santos never loses, but his inactivity has allowed for many younger fighters to approach him and pass him by. One of those is Dawson, a 27-year-old talent who’s gone 4-0 since signing with the UFC. Dawson has seemingly flown under the radar despite his success – it’s telling that his fight was on the undercard, with little to no promotion, below fights like Ruiz-Buys – but his promise is real.
Dawson is a grappler, a strong and physical wrestler who has shown significant submission ability in his pro MMA career. He wants to take you down and tap you out – there’s no secret about it. The one issue is that on Saturday, he’d be getting on the mat with Santos, a fourth-degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, a former ADCC medalist, one of the very best and most decorated grapplers on Earth. What’s more, Dawson’s four-fight win streak came at featherweight, but as the weight cut got more and more difficult, he felt it was time to make the move. Moving up in weight comes with significant potential pitfalls, especially when the guy you want to take down is Leonardo Santos.
So as you might expect, Dawson had quite a difficult time controlling the grappling on Saturday night. After entering the fight with one of the best takedown differentials in UFC history, he just couldn’t get Santos to the ground. Dawson failed on his first 12 takedown attempts – Santos turned one into an awesome judo throw to finish on top in the first, and used another to briefly take Dawson’s back in the second.
But Dawson kept trying. All he needed is one. Dawson finally landed a takedown midway through the third round, getting vital top position throughout the final frame: still, despite a surprisingly game striking performance, it seemed somewhat likely that Santos would win the first two rounds on most scorecards. Just staying on top and punching Santos here and there for one round probably wasn’t going to quite cut it. So with eight seconds left, Grant Dawson stood up out of Santos’ guard, and threw a Hail Mary.
In easily the most amazing moment of the entire weekend in combat sports, Dawson knocked Santos unconscious at an official time of 4:59 in the third round, literally at the last second possible. He needed it. Going into those final 10 seconds, Dawson had the third round well in hand, and I could have seen an argument for him winning the first, but again, he was very much in danger of losing the decision. He knew that, and he just went for it.
Dawson’s finish of Santos shows three traits that are needed to become a true contender: persistence, awareness, and resourcefulness. Persistence, because he knew his one best chance at winning was to find a way to put Santos on his back, and he never stopped trying. Awareness, because he realized that the situation was desperate, something big was needed, and he wasn’t going to win the fight out of Santos’ guard. And resourcefulness, because when it came right down to it, he thought outside the box and found a way. After controlling their opponent on the ground for three minutes, you don’t often see a fighter just stand up and start throwing haymakers down on top of them. They’re much, much more likely to ride out the last few seconds. Dawson didn’t settle.
Even better news for Dawson: not only is he $50,000 richer, not only does he have a signature highlight, but he isn’t likely to run up against a grappler like Leonardo Santos any time soon. In the near future, it may get a little bit easier before it gets tougher.
While RIZIN doesn’t attract world-class fighters quite the same way Pride or Dream did, its shows are filled with great talents and fun styles. The promotion is far more than its really strong bantamweight or atomweight divisions. Just take a look at Roberto “Satoshi” de Souza, a rising Brazilian lightweight emerging as one of the best grappling talents outside the UFC.
Satoshi is a BJJ whiz who’s competed successfully at a very high level in the submission grappling scene, and since signing with RIZIN in April 2019 he’s made himself a must-watch talent. Only once has he been out of the first round, in a second-round TKO win over respected veteran Satoru Kitaoka in his RIZIN debut. He main-evented his first RIZIN show last summer. He’s obviously becoming A Guy.
The reason why is, as you can guess, his slick submission skills. You absolutely do not want to be in Roberto Satoshi’s guard. Just ask UFC veteran Kazuki Tokudome, who took Satoshi down early in their fight on Sunday, only for Satoshi to snatch a triangle choke out of seemingly nowhere.
The current MMA meta isn’t quite as favorable towards fighters who are nasty off their backs as it used to be, but submission skills that crisp and that sudden will play pretty much anywhere. It’s clear he’s being groomed as one of RIZIN’s top lightweight stars and a potential title contender, and delivering against Tokudome was a big step towards that destination.
That’s where things get a little, well, complicated. RIZIN’s current lightweight champion, Tofiq Musayev, isn’t fighting in the ring any time soon because he’s currently fighting in an actual active warzone: a native of Azerbaijan, Musayev enlisted in his home country’s military after full-scale war with Armenia broke out last year.
That’s led to calls from Satoshi for the instatement of an interim title, and considering the circumstances, it’s hard to disagree. Satoshi has put himself on the shortlist for any such title opportunity – the obvious opponent would be UFC vet Johnny Case, the author of Satoshi’s only career defeat, but Case is likely to be unavailable this year while competing in the PFL’s lightweight tournament.
There’s still a lot to be sorted out, but Satoshi’s going to be in the picture no matter what happens. That’s what happens when you have this much skill.
At the end of the day, sometimes we just want to see a guy get knocked the fuck out. Max “Pain” Griffin, please oblige us.
This is the good shit that we love. Watch how Kenan Song flies into the cage like he’s been hit with a car after Griffin hits him with the right hand – it looks like Song may have already been in the process of falling to the ground after Griffin tags him with the left, but the right that follows serves as a force multiplier that sends Song rocketing into the fence. Hook in into my veins.
And good for Max Griffin, who really could use this. Griffin has hung around the middle reaches of the UFC welterweight division for a while, as a heavy-handed and reliably entertaining hand who’s generally lost decisions against anyone who had a name. Heading into November, Griffin had lost four of five, was back to fighting guys making their UFC debuts, and his future was in major doubt.
Then, Griffin damn near took Ramiz Brahimaj‘s ear off with an elbow in one of the grossest finishes of the year. Then, he knocked out Song, a well-regarded fighter who’s won four of five and has displayed significant one-punch power of his own. Now, he’s calling out Geoff Neal, and people aren’t scoffing at it.
That’s called “building momentum,” folks. And that’s what this column is for, people building momentum. Let’s hope he can keep it going.
The Big Fight 