Another fight weekend is in the books. UFC 261 on Saturday will likely go down as the MMA event of the year: in front of the first full crowd of fans in over a year, we got one of the most entertaining shows we’ve seen in ages, including emphatic finishes for Kamaru Usman, Rose Namajunas and Valentina Shevchenko in the three title bouts.
But aside from that, the week featured a very entertaining ONE show and the PFL’s 2021 debut on Friday, along with a host of other interesting bouts. I’ll have more about the results of UFC 261’s big fights this week, but as usual, here’s a look at three fighters outside the main event that boosted their stock last week.
Imagine having a guy like John Lineker on your roster – extremely powerful, extremely aggressive, no regard for his own personal safety, always incredibly fun to watch, tougher than a two-dollar steak – and releasing him. The UFC has made some, let’s just say, questionable roster decisions over the last 20 years, but I’ve never really gotten that one.
Sure, Lineker missed weight all the time, had to pull out of some fights, and booking him was kind of a headache, I’m sure. But there are few fighters that consistently, reliably bring the action more than Lineker. Oh, well. The UFC’s loss was ONE’s gain.
Lineker signed with ONE in 2019, after ONE had altered its division set up and its rules to essentially eliminate major weight-cutting. Then they dropped an in-his-prime murder machine, whose one big career obstacle was being bad at cutting weight, into that no weight-cutting zone. The results have been a lot of fun. Well, fun for everybody except Troy Worthen.
They call this guy “Hands of Stone” for a reason: the hands are, in fact, made of stone. Lineker has thoroughly established himself as the top contender in ONE’s bantamweight division since the move, going 3-0 with a resounding knockout last fall of former champion Kevin Belingon. He’s done it in trademark Lineker flair – I describe his fighting style as “evil murder goblin.”
Lineker is a short guy who wades into the fray, throwing punch after punch from his hips, with absolutely no attention paid to defending his head. He trusts his chin, and in 43 pro fights, he’s never been knocked out. Against Worthen, he stood right in front of his opponent and battered him with an endless series of body blows. Worthen was tough, but it adds up. Then, BANG – straight right, directly through the guard, and the night’s over.
Lineker was already considered the certain next opponent for ONE champion Bibiano Fernandes, a veteran of nearly two decades who may go down as the best-ever bantamweight to never fight in the UFC. It should be a bout that delivers, big-time. Lineker fights always do.
Heading into the debut of the PFL’s 2021 season, 28-year-old Clay Collard promised to be one of the most interesting names in a talented crop of lightweights. Collard was a UFC washout who left mixed martial arts behind to pursue a pro boxing career, turned himself into something of a name during a surprising 2020 hot streak, and was recommitting to MMA for the first time in a few years.
It was a fascinating story, and Collard entered the 155-pound competition as a real live underdog. Still, a first-night matchup with former UFC champion Anthony Pettis didn’t bode well for our beloved scrapper. Collard is tough as nails, has a ton of heart and can punch hard, but Pettis was the prize signing of the offseason, a household name who has been one of the must-watch talents of the last decade.
Except, a funny thing happened when Clay Collard and Anthony Pettis actually got into the cage on Friday night: Collard kind of, uh, beat Pettis’ ass.
Pettis looked pretty good as recently as his last UFC fight, a win over Alex Morono in December, but he’s always had a weakness against hard-headed motherfuckers who will walk him down and put pressure on him. His creativity needs some room to breath and flow. Collard proved to be the exact kryptonite for Pettis, who looked much slower and more beleaguered than he’s been in the past.
Pettis didn’t have the same juice that he did in his best days, but Collard never gave him room to settle in. Collard came after him relentlessly for all 15 minutes, and eventually wore Pettis down. He hurt the former world champion badly twice in the second round, and was a hair’s breadth away from finishing Pettis – and in the third, when Pettis nearly pulled off a Hail Mary miracle with a a cracking head kick in the final minute, his chin held up and he managed to survive.
Fights just like this are Clay Collard’s path to success. He isn’t the quickest, sharpest or most technical. But if he can push his pace, keep walking forward and throw bombs, he’s tough and powerful enough to give problems to anyone. Even, as we found out, a former UFC champion. It was easily the biggest win of Collard’s career, and now the rest of the division is on notice.
UFC 261 was an absolutely unbelievable explosion of soul-transforming violence: whether it was Kamaru Usman exploding THROUGH Jorge Masvidal‘s head with possibly the single greatest punch ever thrown, Rose Namajunas putting Zhang Weili to bed with a heart-stopping head kick, or Chris Weidman continuing the Leg Injury Curse that Patrick Cote once started and shattering his shinbone into a billion pieces.
Throughout it all, a capacity crowd was roaring at the top of their lungs. It was a night of fights that we won’t soon forget. And on one of the best UFC shows of the last decade, a card with three championship bouts and plenty of name recognition, the Fight of the Night award went to two debuting flyweights fighting on the early prelims.
For that to happen, it had to be one hell of a fight. It absolutely was. China’s Qilengaori (nicknamed, and I can’t stress this enough, the MONGOLIAN MURDERER) did more than his share of the work making that happen, by being an aggressive and powerful brawler who seemingly had absolutely no care for the safety and long-term viability of his brain. But it was Missouri’s Jeff Molina – a protege of rapidly rising trainer James Krause – who took home the honors, completing taking the fight over with his slick boxing and earning the adulation of the crowd.
Molina earned a spot in the UFC through Dana White’s Contender Series last summer, looking impressive in a unanimous decision win against Jacob Silva and getting some notice as a striker with a mature and complete approach despite being just 23 years old. But Qilengaori – I’m telling you, the Mongolian Murderer is a surprisingly fitting nickname – put Molina on his heels with his hyper-aggressive approach, winning round one with his front-foot striking and a takedown or two.
By midway through the second round, it became obvious that our murderer friend from Inner Mongolia didn’t really respect Molina’s power. He was throwing his right hand with everything he had, and even landing it from time to time. But with just seconds remaining in the second round, Molina turned everything around.
That knockdown stole the second round for Molina, and the youngster absolutely dominated the third. Molina teed off on Qilengaori’s dome for the entirety of the closing stretch – it resembled a boxer doing heavy bag work in the gym, except he was using his opponent’s head. Qilengaori kept pushing, kept throwing, only to be countered again and again.
There were nervous moments throughout the night for Molina – if he doesn’t land that strong right hand at the end of the second, he probably loses the fight – and Qilengaori actually wobbled him in the closing moments of the third. But Molina impressed with how technical, composed and clean he was throughout the night, even when facing adversity, and a surging opponent that was pressing him and wouldn’t go away.
And, I have to say, there are few better ways to start a career than with a classic fight and a bonus on one of the biggest shows of the year. Nice one, Jeff Molina.
The Big Fight 