Another fight weekend is in the books. Saturday’s UFC 268 from Madison Square Garden was one of the best shows of the year, featuring Kamaru Usman again conquering Colby Covington in a competitive five-round main event, and Rose Namajunas retaining her strawweight title by split decision in an excellent fight. That’s not even scratching the surface of the amazing bouts and memorable moments we got. So, as usual, here’s a look at three fighters outside the main event who boosted their stock in a big way at UFC 268.
Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor are more or less out of the picture, but somehow the UFC lightweight division has never felt hotter. The premier division in the sport’s premier organization has an exciting new champion with an inspiring backstory, Charles Oliveira, who will be meeting ascendant mainstream superstar Dustin Poirier in a can’t-miss title fight next month. And on Saturday night – likely with the next shot at the world title on the line – Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler collided in one of those fights you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
The Gaethje-Chandler matchup seemed destined to be a classic: two of the world’s most exciting action fighters, two insane freaks who simply love nothing more than to just fucking throw down, meeting in the world’s most famous arena with very high stakes. It was somehow more heart-pounding than anyone could have envisioned.
Chandler was marvelous, answering every doubt about his chin and his gas tank that has followed him since he first emerged in Bellator over a decade ago. It was one of the performances of his career, a singular display of toughness and firepower that would have overcome almost everyone he could have ever faced. It wasn’t enough to overcome Gaethje.
Over the last few years, we’ve been privileged to watch Gaethje grow in ways previously not thought possible. The Gaethje that rose to stardom in the WSOF and was instantly inserted near the top of the UFC pecking order was a marauder, an animal who knew no restraint. But after losing fights to Eddie Alvarez and Poirier, Gaethje made the choice to refocus himself under head coach Trevor Wittman, making the necessary changes to prolong his career and make it to the top.
Under Wittman, Gaethje still has license to be who he is, but he’s become more selective about when he goes full chaos. (UFC 268 was basically one long advertorial for Wittman’s skill as a coach – Usman, Namajunas and Gaethje, all Wittman fighters, pulled out wins in extremely difficult fights. Wittman’s the best in the game.) That more refined approach, combined with his granite chin, pushed him to victory on Saturday.
When Chandler came out like a house on fire in the first round – as Chandler is wont to do – Gaethje was so much more patient than he would have been three or four years ago. He was able to take some of Chandler’s best shots and survive. In the second round, he opened up opportunities with his hammer leg kicks and his powerful hands, including a very well-timed and well-considered uppercut that dropped Chandler and led to his biggest moments in the fight. He also reminded everyone watching of an important lesson: Justin Gaethje can wrestle. He may not enjoy it, but he can do it. And just because Khabib was able to take him down, your garden-variety Division I All-American isn’t going to be able to.
And when Chandler came at him like a PCP zombie in the third round, Gaethje was able to stay disciplined and continually fend Chandler off, even though his opponent still had some good moments. I’m not sure 2017 Justin Gaethje wins that fight – he gets drawn into an firefight even more insane that quite possibly ends in him unconscious on the canvas, like what happened against Alvarez.
But because of all the growth Gaethje has undergone over the past few years, he emerged victorious in quite possibly the Fight of the Year. And when Oliveira and Poirier mix it up in a few weeks, he’ll be waiting.
A few months ago, the UFC announced the signing of kickboxing superstar Alex Pereira with a large amount of accompanying hype, and perhaps just as much skepticism. Pereira is still a relative neophyte in mixed martial arts – he carried just a 3-1 pro record before inking with the sport’s biggest promotion – and previous expeditions into the UFC straight out of kickboxing (remember Gokhan Saki?) hadn’t been smashing successes.
There are plenty of great kickboxers trying their hand at MMA recently – for one, world No. 1 welterweight Cedric Doumbe just made his debut in the cage last week. But Pereira has one thing none of them else have: a knockout of UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in the kickboxing ring, courtesy of his legendary left hook.
Without that highlight on his record, it’s likely the UFC doesn’t look twice at Pereira until he develops a much more impressive MMA record. Adesanya himself didn’t debut in the UFC until he was already 11-0. But Alex Pereira nevertheless made his UFC debut at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, tossed out there and told to prove himself.
And you know what? This experiment may end up paying off. Alex Pereira is here, and he is spectacular.
Opponent Andreas Michailidis, who entered with a 1-1 UFC record, approached this fight intelligently. He was fighting one of the world’s best and most dangerous kickboxers, so he wasn’t going to kickbox with him. Instead, Michailidis got the clinch early and made sure there was no space in between them, controlling the first round against the fence.
But, encouragingly, Pereira’s takedown defense held up. And when given the opportunity to display his creativity and attacking flair at the outset of the second round, the Brazilian wasted no time. The switch knee that knocked Michailidis out was sudden and landed with pinpoint accuracy, and was one of the standout moments of a standout show.
You get the feeling that this could not have gone better for the UFC. Pereira has a great kickboxing pedigree, but kickboxing isn’t a widely followed sport in the United States. They were rolling the dice that Alex Pereira would prove UFC-caliber and allow them to build something up towards a rematch with Adesanya.
Step 1 on that road? Completed it, mate. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Heavyweight Chris Barnett – known as “Beast Boy,” or in his earlier career, “Huggy Bear” – is the kind of guy who never makes the big time. The 35-year-old Barnett is round and jiggly at 5-foot-9, 265 pounds. That frame belies some truly stunning athleticism, and that combined with his taekwondo background means that he often does things that you’d never expect to see from a guy in his body, but his size, conditioning and limited all-around skill have consigned him to irrelevance his entire career.
Over the last 12 years, Barnett fought everywhere except the places where you make money. He was a fixture in the days of HDNet Fights. He spent significant time fighting in Japan and South Korea, taking on sumo wrestlers at multiple New Year’s Eve shows. Barnett finally made his UFC debut against Ben Rothwell as a late replacement in May, but didn’t look like he really belonged.
Barnett is an extremely fun and exuberant personality, and has long been one of the quirkiest characters in the sport. He had received his shot at the big time against Rothwell, and fell far short. He was what he seemed to be all along – a fun character, nothing more.
Until suddenly, impossibly, his magic moment came on Saturday night.
In what promised to be the most Sickos fight all year in the UFC, the promotion called Barnett in to fight Gian Villante, the one-time light heavyweight who’s ballooned up to over 260 pounds in his later career. Villante was at the end of the road, but it seemed obvious what the thinking was. The show is in Madison Square Garden, and Villante is a New Yorker. In what was almost undoubtedly going to be Villante’s final UFC fight, let’s give him one of the few guys in the fold someone he can beat, and hope for a big hometown pop when he wins.
But New Yorker or no, nothing Villante could have done would have gotten a third of the reaction that Barnett got from the exceptional spinning heel kick that made him an instant star. After dancing his way to the ring and sweating his way through a boring first round, Barnett became the UFC’s latest viral sensation with his spinning kick KO win and cannonball front flip celebration, making his career in a hundred different ways at once.
UFC 268 was the revenge of the journeymen. Aside from Barnett’s win, middleweight Chris Curtis – a well-traveled 35-fight veteran who’s fought in the PFL and about a thousand regional promotions over the last decade-plus – came in as an injury replacement and knocked out highly regarded middleweight prospect Phil Hawes.
But it’s moments like the one Barnett had on Saturday that reaffirm your love for the sport of MMA. Many fighters like Chris Barnett have come and gone in anonymity. They never get a moment like that. But Chris Barnett did, in doing so striking a blow for the underclass of mixed martial arts. He is the hero we all deserve.
The Big Fight 