Another fight weekend is in the books. There were no shocking results coming out of UFC 266: champions Alexander Volkanovski and Valentina Shevchenko retained their belts by wide margins in fights they were expected to win, and Nick Diaz looked like a fighter who hadn’t competed in six years in a loss to Robbie Lawler.
But how it all happened was memorable. Volkanovski survived multiple extremely dire situations to beat Brian Ortega by unanimous decision in one of the most thrilling fights of the year. Meanwhile, Diaz put on a gutsy performance in his long-awaited return to the cage, throwing bombs in the trenches for two and a half rounds before Lawler won by TKO.
I’ll have more on both men this week. But for now, as usual, here’s a look at three fighters outside the main event who boosted their stock at UFC 266.
There’s a new contender in the UFC heavyweight division. He’s a 32-year-old Philly cop with a lot of loose skin and fire in his hands. His name is Chris Daukaus. Better get acquainted.
Daukaus has been on an absolute tear since signing with the UFC last year: four fights, four knockout wins, with none coming later than the early second round. He’s joined England’s Tom Aspinall as the best breakout heavyweights of the past year, and while Aspinall may be the safer long-term bet to become one of the division’s best, you can’t deny what Daukaus has been doing. And on Saturday, his rapid rise claimed its first top-10 victim: No. 7-ranked Shamil Abdurakhimov, whose ass Daukaus summarily whipped.
There’s a caveat to this win, of course: Abdurakhimov hadn’t fought in two years, owing to numerous fight cancellations and delays due to COVID issues, various injuries and illnesses (both to Abdurakhimov and his prospective opponents, including a scheduled July 2020 fight with Ciryl Gane) and visa issues. During all that time off, Daukaus has been building his name, and has gotten himself into noticeably better shape than when he started in the UFC. It showed on Saturday.
This much leaner Daukaus – he weighed in at around 230 pounds for the Abdurakhimov fight – gives up a lot in size, but more than makes up for it with his blinding speed for a heavyweight. And the loss of weight hasn’t affected his power one bit. Abdurakhimov is a plodding brute, every bit of 260 pounds, but Daukaus sparked him. He arguably knocked him out twice: referee Mark Smith might have been justified in stopping the fight in the first round, when Daukaus floored the Russian with a monstrous left hook right before the bell.
The minute rest between rounds proved only to be a temporary reprieve. Daukaus throws everything with intent, but in that second round, he was throwing with all-caps INTENT. Owner of perhaps the quickest pair of hands in the heavyweight division, he looked on a completely different level. And shortly into the round, he smashed Abdurakhimov with a straight right so violent, so completely on the button, that it caused Shamil to hock a loogie all over the cage.
That’s how you make an impression on a big show. Daukaus’ continued weight loss, and the weight disadvantage he’ll give up against the best heavyweights, might cause some to suggest that he may be best suited to move down to 205 in the future. I disagree. Daukaus’ striking speed is something that makes him special in the land of the giants, and it’s working for him at a very high level. Why give that up unless you absolutely have to?
Chris Daukaus brings the heavyweight division something you don’t usually see. And with big fights approaching, that makes him worth tuning in for.
As always, the UFC flyweight division is more barren than the surface of Mercury, and it didn’t get any better on Saturday. First, Shevchenko decimated Lauren Murphy in the co-main event, marking yet another challenger who has measured herself against the world’s best 125-pounder and come up woefully short.
Perhaps knowing this would happen, the UFC attempted to use its first main card fight to set up the next challenger: Cynthia Calvillo would have assuredly earned a title shot had she gotten past Jessica Andrade, Shevchenko’s most recent victim. Instead, Calvillo never looked like she belonged in there with Andrade, who knocked her out in the first round.
So who even the hell else is left who could conceivably challenge Shevchenko? Not even someone who could actually give her a competitive fight – someone who would even justify receiving a title shot? I don’t know. But the answer may end up being Taila Santos.
A 28-year-old from Brazil with a 18-1 record, Santos won by a lopsided unanimous decision against Roxanne Modafferi on Saturday night, her third straight win. It was the expected result. Modafferi is a women’s MMA original who has had a fantastic career – she’s fought more times than any female mixed martial artist in the history of the sport – and has stayed competitive to this day.
In her late 30s she’s made a habit of finding a way to outwork and outfox fighters much younger than her and completely physically superior to her – Modafferi is almost undoubtedly the least athletic fighter in the UFC. Her fortune had to run out eventually, and it did on Saturday. Santos completely overpowered Modafferi, neutralizing the ground game of a very dangerous BJJ theat and controlling the action on the feet.
Santos didn’t come away looking like a world-beater – the fight wasn’t particularly entertaining. But the completely ripped Santos looked like an incredibly impressive physical specimen in the cage, and the strength you’d expect those muscles to generate showed up during the fight. Santos was a much bigger stand-up threat than Modafferi, who’s never been a great striker. She played it safe and used her wrestling, but stayed in control throughout.
Normally, I’d say that a win like that – in a depleted division – should leave Santos one really good win away from a title shot. But the state of 125 is so bad that it might be enough on its own. I don’t think that Santos would have much of a chance against Shevchenko, and she could use more time. But with no one else around, we might see her fighting for a title very soon.
A long time has passed since Oct. 6, 2018. That’s when a young kid named Jalin Turner – fresh off an impressive win on one of the first episodes of Dana White’s Contender Series – was thrown into the fire in his UFC debut. 23 years old, and just 10 fights into his pro career, Turner was asked to go in there and give a fight to Vicente Luque, who had finished six of his last seven UFC bouts. It was a bizarre bit of match-making, and it didn’t end well for Turner.
Jalin Turner took a crack at one of the best welterweights in the world, and found that it wasn’t for him. So he moved down to lightweight, where he’s one of the biggest and lankiest competitors in the division. And over the last three years, Jalin Turner’s been turning himself into something.
Turner was one of the standout stars of the UFC 266 undercard, looking absolutely brilliant in a first-round submission of Uros Medic, another young, lanky talent who’s also looked very good early in his UFC career. Turner pieced Medic up completely on the feet, effectively using his great range while also providing significant forward pressure. And when he got Medic hurt, he pounced on his opportunity, taking Medic’s back and finishing the rear-naked choke.
It was a remarkably clean performance against a fighter in Medic that has looked extremely promising so far in the UFC, and himself is one of the rangiest fighters at lightweight. It may have been the tipping point pushing Turner from an under-the-radar prospect to one of the most exciting young talents in the 155-pound weight class.
First, you see the performance, and how radically improved Turner has looked since his first few UFC tilts – he’s figuring out how to use his natural gifts, and his opportunism when sensing the moment for the finish is shining through. Then, you look at the measurables: 6-foot-3, 77-inch reach, still just 26 years old. Those numbers may be a serious problem for the established names at 155, if Turner keeps progressing.
155 is a shark tank, and Jalin Turner is years away from being much of anything yet. But how good is he going to be at 30? Keep a very keen eye.
The Big Fight 