UFC 289 - The end of an era
On a card that looked slightly underwhelming on paper, we got some truly incredible moments. The Brazilians at the top of the card both triumphed, and on the grand return to Vancouver the Canadians all picked up wins.
Amanda Nunes rightly lays claim to the title of the greatest female fighter of all time, but at the end of her career some people have started questioning her motivation. The Julianna Pena loss was perhaps the greatest upset in the sports history, but the performance she put on in the rematch shut up all the doubters. There was no reason to doubt her this time either, because she put on an absolute masterclass. With the success of Mexican MMA this year, lots of people were high on Irene Aldana, but she just didn’t have anything for Nunes on Saturday night. The scorecards read 50-44, 50-44 and 50-43, a complete domination from the double-champ. And on the back of that, she put her gloves and both her belts (what a flex that is btw) down in the octagon and announced her retirement. It marks the end of a truly tremendous career, in which she claimed both the bantamweight and featherweight belts, beating every champion from the respective divisions in the process. It’s almost guaranteed that the featherweight division will be scrapped, but how the UFC proceeds with the bantamweight division will be interesting to follow. With Nunes gone though, it truly is the end of an era.
An era which absolutely isn’t over though, is the Olive-era. Charles Oliveira had to make a statement after losing to Islam Makhachev last time, and boy did he make a statement. Being put up against Beneil Dariush on an 8 fight win streak is an incredibly tough task… on paper. Oliveira chose to pull guard early on, and Dariush got off some ground and pound and was on his way to winning the round, but when they eventually got to their feet Oliveira started unloading. A high kick Leon Edwards would’ve been proud of is what started the finishing sequence, followed up by a couple of precise left hooks. Once Dariush hit the floor, it was just a matter of time before the ref had to step in, and Do Bronx could celebrate on the top of the cage. He also rocked the mic afterwards, and really put himself in line for a rematch with the champ, maybe even in Abu Dhabi later this year.
Feels weird to talk so much about the Brazilians in what was the return to Canada, so let’s give them some love as well. The tempo was set when adopted Canadian Diana Belbita started off the night with a decision win. After this, Kyle Nelson, Aiemann Zahabi, Jasmine Jasudavicius, Marc-André Barriault and Mike Malott picked up wins, all to the sound of a deafening Rogers Arena. And the fans truly were amazing, obviously cheering for their own, but Charles Oliveira probably got the loudest pop of them all. Dana said afterwards that they’ll definitely go back to Canada, and with fans like that, they absolutely deserve it.
Now we’re in for some amazing PPV’s and even some great fight nights in the next few months, and I can’t wait!