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UFC 297 was not the best card. As a matter of fact, if I had to rate it on a scale of 1-10, I’d give it a 4. On paper, going into the event, we were quick to notice how there were no ranked fighters on the undercard and eight of those fighters were coming off losses. All four of the opening fights were loser vs. loser. The main card wasn’t much better, but at least it had ranked fighters.
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How bad was UFC 297
Our biggest takeaways from UFC 297 were that Chris Curtis is not, in fact, an “Action Man” unless forced into it. He is perfectly content to point fight until then. Priscilla Cachoeira has now been involved in two of the most lopsided fights in history, and both times she was on the losing end. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say she might want to consider a different career path.
Polyana Viana also got soundly beaten, as well. She may very well have hit her ceiling, and here too, I wouldn’t mind if she just rode off into the sunset. Malcolm Gordon didn’t even get mic time when he so clearly wanted to retire after Jimmy Flick finished him, but Daniel Cormier was not interested in that man’s swan song.
Charles Jourdain getting a split decision was the ultimate gift to him and the judge that awarded him the fight was likely his mother because that man got beat up all three rounds. I had it 30-27 for Woodson, and then, to add insult to injury, it seemed like the wrong name was read because Jourdain was celebrating for a moment before DC rained on his parade.
The co-main event had some moments where I thought Pennington was going to get a finish, but Mayra Bueno Silva was content to let her legacy languish under the old “come down here to the mat and fight me” butt-scoot moment. Not to mention her gas tank clearly has a hole in it. Just wasn’t a very fun fight, but I’m still glad “Rocky” got the win. Even though Strickland was ugly and hateful, she still had a measured, eloquent response when interviewed after her fight.
The main event was a slop fest. Two guys that likely had a game plan going in and decided somewhere along the way to completely abandon it (reckless abandonment!) in lieu of sloppy overhands being spammed from any and all angles. Did the fight have its moments? Sure, but overall, it was an ugly mess. With this fight being the capstone of UFC 297, the last thing I thought when I went to bed Saturday night was what an awful state the middleweight division is in.
What else did you talk about besides UFC 297?
We also welcomed back Tim Bissell for an update on the Hatsu Basho that is currently underway. We got updates on all our fun characters like Double Boob, Peach Prince, Cocaine Bear and now a new figure, the Flying Monkey. Find out how our Yokozuna is doing and who will likely be christened with a new Ozeki title.
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