UFC 269 reaction and takeaways
(Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via yahoosports)
We all witnessed history Saturday night.
Aside from all the KO’s and TKO’s from UFC 269, one underdog upset stood out from the rest. Julianna Pena, closing in as a +650 underdog at Draftkings sportsbook, upset arguably the greatest female mixed martial artist of all time in Amanda Nunes (-950) for the woman’s bantamweight title.
No one, and I mean literally no one, would have predicted this upset. Amanda Nunes is like the Michael Jordan of woman’s MMA. The Van Gogh of pummeling people’s faces in until they’re either unconscious or tapping out. Out of all the greats Nunes has taken down - Rousey, Shevchenko, Cyborg, Holm, Tate - a 32-year-old Julianna Pena was the one to break her nine title fight win streak.
The list of things I expected to happen before a Nunes loss goes on and on. The Sun to explode. The Lions to win a Super Bowl. Literally anything other than retirement.
There are plenty of great fights to get to from this card, but first I want to focus on the second-largest upset in woman’s UFC history (Holm def. Rousey). I feel like I say this every time I write about the UFC, but Dana White really blessed us again with these matchups.
The Lioness gets dethroned
This fight opened up as any other Amanda Nunes fight; Great striking, takedowns at will, and overall dominating the octagon control. It looked like we were in for another snoozefest, or just another excuse for Nunes to pad her already stacked highlight reel, but everything changed in the second round.
Rather than going with the ground and pound strategy from the first round, Nunes elected to keep the fight standing which is exactly what Pena wanted. Out of all the Nunes fights I’ve watched, I’ve not once seen her as stumbled and wobbly as she was in the second round.
There wasn’t necessarily one big highlight-reel punch to knock Nunes on her ass, rather a methodical, drawn-out ass beating. Pena’s left jab was relentless, but The Lioness kept pushing forward inevitably taking more significant strikes to the head.
After landing what felt like 100 shots on Nunes, Pena was able to take her to the ground. I’m not sure if Nunes was simply rocked from taking as many hits as she did or simply gassed, but she moved like a turtle on the ground.
With hardly any effort at that point, Pena got Nunes in a rear naked choke to submit the cham-champ and claim the title.
Now watching this upset as a UFC fan was crazy enough as is, but could you imagine watching this with money on the line? First of all, betting on a -950 favorite is never worth is, but some insanely wealthy degenerates like to throw money around regardless of the possibility of a fluke.
One bettor risked $318,000 on Nunes moneyline which would have payed out a measly $31.8k in return. Now before the fight I would have agreed a Nunes win is literally free money, but at the same time fluke shit happens all the time in the UFC.
For example, Sean O’Malley’s only loss came after a mid-fight ankle injury which forced a stoppage. He was some -500 odds to win, but fluke shit happened.
Could you imagine how that guy must have felt seeing Nunes wobble back and forth in the second round? I would be shitting bricks. Thankfully I’m not buku rich and can’t slang money around all willy nilly, so I got to enjoy this fight for what it was; one of the craziest UFC upsets of all time.
Tai Tuivasa is a man of the people
Even though Tuivasa’s fight wasn’t on the main card, his performance (and post-fight performance) are worth noting.
Riding a three-fight win streak, the Australian heavyweight was set to take on his toughest task yet in Augusto Sakai. Just looking at the two, Sakai looks like an athlete while Tuivasa looks like a damn chicken nugget. The eye test tells you Tuivasa wouldn’t be close in this fight, but his hands say otherwise.
Bam Bam got his nickname for a reason, he packs an explosive like punch each time he swings. Although he may not be the most technical contender in the heavyweight division, he sure is fun to watch. One clean punch from this guy and it’s lights out, which is exactly what happened to Sakai early in the second round.
Although Tuivasa style of fighting is fun to watch, his celebrations might take the crown. Anytime this man wins, he jumps up on the octagon, catches a beer, pours it into a random person’s shoe, and chugs a shoey like any sane 265-pound Australian would do.
Other Prelims Shanannegans
Other than Bam Bam’s knockout, two other fights stood out on the prelim card: Josh Emmett vs Dan Ige and Pedro Munhoz vs Dominick Cruz.
Any other fight card and these matchups would have been slotted in the main event, but all that means is we got to watch some killer fights without guzzling Dana $70.
Josh Emmett looked phenomenal. Ige has been around the UFC for quite some time and is a dangerous man when he’s on his game, but Emmett’s fundamentals were simply better in this fight. He doesn’t fight often, but if Emmett continues this four-fight win streak dating back to 2018 alive he could be a legitimate contender at 145.
The 36-year-old Dominick Cruz earned his second consecutive victory since falling to Henry Cejudo in his return to the UFC after a four-year absence.
The first round looked bad for the fan-favorite Cruz, and I mean really bad. He was on the verge of being TKOd several times but eventually survived the 5-minute round and lived to see another day. Cruz is an all-time great in the bantamweight division, and this fight reminded everyone of why.
After quite frankly getting his ass beat in round 1, Cruz got back in it right away. There were no crazy knockouts knockdowns in this one, Cruz just simply showcased superior striking ability and did enough to win two of the three rounds.
He certainly doesn’t look like prime Cruz anymore, but The Dominator still has some gas left in his tank.
The Suga Show goes on
In a fight that panned out how myself and everyone else expected the Nunes fight to go, Sean O’ Malley made a fool of Raulian Paiva.
From a fans perspective, it’s always fun watching Sean do his thing while the other guy flails around like Neymar after getting tackled, but I want more. I want to see Sean take on the best of the best.
He has stated publicly he believes he is the “unranked bantamweight champ,” and I completely agree. This is a guy that could not only contend, but immediately compete for the belt. The fact that he is unranked after taking six fights in the last two years is absurd.
In my eyes, O’Malley is easily top five in the division. Ranking him over guys like Jose Aldo, Petr Yan, and TJ Dillashaw is where things get tricky though.
Rumors have it that O’Malley has no interest in fighting a top 10 opponent until he signs a reworked contract with the UFC worth a buttload more money, and honestly, it makes sense. O’Malley has swiftly risen to become one of, if not the premiere box office/pay-per-view attractions in the championship. He knows what he is worth, and he wants to secure the bag before risking anything. You would do the same thing in his position.
Although it’s fun watching him beat up on these no-name guys, I can’t wait until the suga show headlines a title fight.
Charles Oliveira is the real deal
After 11 years in the UFC and 40 professional fights, Charles Oliveira earned his first official lightweight title by defeating Dustin Poirier via standing rear naked choke in the third round.
No matter how much money you had on Dustin, you can’t not love this guy. Even though he barely speaks a lick of english, Oliveira’s heart and passion for the sport is clear in any language. Oliveira has always been in the conversation but never had a true chance to shine until the interim belt came up for grabs over the summer.
Do Bronx didn’t let his opportunity go to waste and made light work of former Bellator champion Michael Chandler to earn the interim lightweight belt, yet people still doubted him. I won’t lie, I genuinely had Poirier poised to win this matchup, but the Brazilian’s Jiu-Jitsu is unmatched at 155-pounds.
After getting clobbered in the first round by Poirier’s elite standup game, Oliveira bounced back for the next two rounds. Round 2 was a dominant ground and pound performance from the champ, earning nearly three minutes of ground control before entering what would be the last round of the night.
Round 3 was back to the standup, which is exactly what you would think Dustin wants, but that sneaky son of a bitch Oliveira found a way to get Poirier’s back. Once he had the back, it was over. Dustin tried to defend, but it was almost as if it was too late, the submission was inevitable.
Although I thought Oliveira somewhat lucked into having a shot for the interim belt thanks to Dana force scheduling back-to-back McGregor v Poirier fights, he proved his worth at UFC 269. As I said in the beginning, this is far and away the most entertaining division in the UFC and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Now that Poirier had his shot, there’s almost no argument that Justin Gaethje is next in line. With a similar strike-first mentality as Poirier, Gaethje presents a near-identical matchup for the champ.