Another fight weekend is in the books. Last weekend was really one for the ages in MMA, to be honest with you. In the Bellator main event, Sergio Pettis scored one of the most stunning knockouts in recent MMA history – down three rounds to favored challenger Kyoji Horiguchi and seemingly destined to lose his bantamweight title, Pettis knocked Horiguchi cold with an unbelievable spinning backfist in the fourth round to steal the win. And in the main event on Saturday, Jose Aldo added to his GOAT case with another masterful performance over a top contender, Rob Font.
I’ll have more on both fights this week. But for now, as usual, here’s a look at three fighters outside the main event who boosted their stock this weekend.
Both of the top two fights on Saturday’s UFC cards promised to be real striker’s delights, but the co-main really looked to be something special. Both Rafael Fiziev and Brad Riddell entered Saturday night among the most promising rising lightweight contenders in the world, and ranked among the division’s best pure stand-up fighters – add that to the fact that Fiziev and Riddell had both trained and coached with each other at the acclaimed Tiger Muay Thai gym in Thailand.
It also promised to be a fascinating clash of styles. Fiziev, the dynamic aggressor, with a tendency to burn a lot of energy in the first two rounds. Riddell, a more calculating counter-striker, who knows how to get his reads and turn it up once he finds his rhythm later in a fight. But on Saturday, we saw a much different Rafael Fiziev.
Four months after a thrilling win over Bobby Green where a gassed Fiziev had to desperately hang on in the third round, Fiziev came out determined not to let that happen again. Fiziev fought a patient, calculating, tactical fight for two and a half rounds, never over-extending, forcing Riddell to come forward and then making him pay when he entered.
And, then, when the time was right, he killed Riddell with some spinning shit, because this sport is awesome.
It was a beautiful finish not just for the aesthetics and the impact of the wheel kick, but for how expertly Fiziev baited him into it. Fiziev has a terrific left body kick from southpaw, the threat of which Riddell was conscious of all night. With Riddell on the back foot, Fiziev switches to an orthodox stance – the threat of the left body kick removed, Riddell feels comfortable circling out to his right. The second he does that, he finds his path cut off by Fiziev’s foot swinging into his face at 300 miles per hour. Ballgame.
Just another reminder that fighters of this caliber of skill are operating on a level that’s almost incomprehensible to us normal idiots. In the most crucial minutes of the biggest fight of his pro career, Fiziev is capable of thinking this strategically and setting a trap good enough to catch a striker of such high acclaim. That’s why the 28-year-old Fiziev has shot up the rankings over the last year, and why he’s quickly made himself a factor in the UFC’s premier division. Rafael Fiziev is going to get some big fights in 2022.
Sometimes all someone needs is one chance, and they’ll show you something you never thought possible from them. Consider the case of the “Action Man,” veteran middleweight Chris Curtis, who in just the last month has gone from little-known journeyman to a rising contender in the biggest MMA organization in the world.
Curtis has been a pro since 2009. He lost his first career fight. Over the next decade-plus, he fought in literally dozens of different regional promotions. It took him nine years before he got his first significant opportunity: an appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2018, where he won by knockout but was still passed over for a UFC contract. He was picked to compete in the PFL’s 2019 season at welterweight, reached the playoffs, lost to Magomed Magomedkerimov in the quarterfinals and announced his retirement afterward – and then fought again in the semifinals later that same night when Magomedkerimov wasn’t cleared to fight Ray Cooper III.
With perhaps the shortest retirement in MMA history already over, Curtis went back to the regionals. He had a Bellator fight scheduled against Austin Vanderford last year, but tested positive for COVID and didn’t get rebooked. By the time this fall rolled around, Curtis was, in his own words, “hilariously broke.” What does “hilariously broke” mean? According to him, $10 in his bank account.
But Curtis finally got his chance, stepping in as an injury replacement to fight well-regarded middleweight prospect Phil Hawes at Madison Square Garden last month. Hawes had won seven straight fights and was a prohibitive favorite. After almost an entire round of one-way traffic for Hawes, Curtis shocked the world by knocking him out with a counter left.
Curtis finally had a foothold, and a financial lifeline. And after just a few weeks on the shelf, he jumped right back in there Saturday night against 25-year-old Brendan Allen, one of the more talented young 185ers the UFC has in the fold. After two straight wins, this was supposed to be a good platform fight for Allen, but he had two separate opponents pull out. Well, platform this, motherfucker. The Action Man showed up and dunked on him.
Realistically, Chris Curtis has been UFC-caliber for a long time. He had already turned in a Contender Series performance that would have earned him a contract easily if it had happened a year or two later. He has 28 career wins and a wealth of experience. His only losses in the last half-decade are to Magomedkerimov and Cooper, two super talents who would likely acquit themselves quite well in the Octagon. But for whatever reason, that opportunity simply had not come until now. Curtis has made the most of it.
And after 12 years wandering the MMA wilderness, Curtis has – in the span of a month – beaten two very legit young talents and placed himself in the mix. It’s a wonder what making a little bit of money can do. Curtis finally has more than $10 in his bank account, and he can focus that much more on making himself the best mixed martial artist he can be.
And for that reason, even at 34 years old, it’s likely that we haven’t seen the ceiling of what Chris Curtis can be. As we’ve seen, all he needed was just one shot. The UFC is better of now that the Action Man finally got it.
I’ve been doing this blog for a little while, and I’ve committed quite a few takes to the public record. Some have been right, some have been wrong. If I had my way, none of them would ever be wrong, but you can’t worry about that too much. But when I did feel like kind of a dope when Manel Kape hit the UFC, I hyped him the hell up, and then he fell flat on his face.
Kape inked with the UFC last year after emerging as one of the standouts in RIZIN’s talented bantamweight division. When Kyoji Horiguchi was forced to relinquish his bantamweight title due to a knee injury in 2019, it was Kape who was chosen to battle Kai Asakura, perhaps RIZIN’s most popular native star, for the championship – Kape stunned the Saitama Super Arena by knocking Asakura out in the second round to take the belt.
Kape decamped for the UFC not long after, to considerable excitement from yours truly. Before the year started, I listed Kape as one of my five potential UFC breakout stars of 2021. But when the UFC tossed Kape straight into the deep end to start out, against established top-10 flyweight Alexandre Pantoja, Kape never got into a groove – he flashed the athleticism and talent we had seen in RIZIN, but didn’t do it enough. Primarily due to his low output, he lost via unanimous decision. The next month, he lost a split decision to Matheus Nicolau, and all of a sudden, Manel Kape’s job was in danger.
Kape might have saved his UFC career with a flying knee KO of Ode Osbourne in August, but he still had a very long way to go to regain his lost hype. But on Saturday, Kape finally gave us a full glimpse of just why he was so highly regarded.
Opponent Zhalgas Zhumagulov started hot against Kape, looking to push a pace too hot for him and get him out of the way early. Kape waited him out, stayed responsible, and turned it up when he got the opportunity. Once Kape took the initiative and turned the momentum of the fight, it was a straight line to the finish. Kape overwhelmed Zhumagulov with his speed and athleticism, which are impressive even at 125.
THAT was the Manel Kape who excited us with his promise in RIZIN. THAT was the Manel Kape we hoped we’d see when he signed with the UFC. Most importantly, he was decisive. He has all the talent you could want, but the pure verve wasn’t there his first two fights – whether it was the huge jump in competition, whether it was the nerves of fighting in the UFC, whether it was the million other adjustments he had to make.
Maybe having his back up against the wall is what Kape needed to turn it on, but it looks like he’s well and truly settled in now. And that, my friends, is really cool shit.
The Big Fight 