The best and worst from UFC 230

Despite a fraught build that saw the UFC struggle to put together a main event before settling on Daniel Cormier vs. Derrick Lewis for the Heavyweight title, UFC 230 ended up being a really fun show overall.

It’s a good sign for the UFC as, despite some alarmingly low buyrates, the quality of their PPV shows has been way up in 2018, and the last three shows, in particular, have been pretty fantastic. Sure, there were some questionable moments, but what UFC show doesn’t have them?

Here are the best and worst moments of UFC 230.

#1 Best: Jacare and Weidman go to war

It was hard to work out quite what to expect from the co-main event between Middleweight title contenders Chris Weidman and Jacare Souza. Weidman hadn’t fought since July 2017, Jacare hadn’t really looked great in his May loss to Kelvin Gastelum, and both men are primarily grapplers who don’t always use that skillset.

What we got, in the end, was one of the best fights of 2018. Right from the first round, it was clear that the two men were willing to trade off with huge shots, and defense wasn’t exactly in the forefront of either fighter’s mind. The first round clearly went to Weidman, who used his reach advantage to land jabs and right hands that busted Souza’s nose up, despite taking some heavy body shots.

Souza came out to brawl in the second, and although Weidman was willing to oblige it was clear that a phonebooth fight didn’t really favour him. He hung tough though and the fight went into the third round, where the wild trading continued right until Jacare landed a bomb to the temple that the former champion simply couldn’t recover from.

Realistically neither man should be considered a legitimate title contender any more – they’ve both got a lot of miles on their bodies, Jacare is pushing 40 and Weidman simply doesn’t look physically like he did in his prime, but they deserve massive kudos for putting on a brawl like this during what will probably be the tail end of their careers. This was a genuine Fight of the Year Candidate.

#1 Worst: What was Dan Miragliotta doing?

Referee Dan Miragliotta – AKA ‘Tan Dan’ – began his tenure with the UFC sometime around 2008 with somewhat of a worrying reputation for making gaffes. Gifs of some of them – the time he accidentally poked Heath Herring in the eye, or the time when he shoved a leaping Akihiro Gono across the Octagon – even went viral.

More disturbing though was his late stoppage during a 2010 fight between Shane Carwin and Frank Mir, in which a clearly unconscious Mir took a ton of unneeded punishment. Miragliotta hasn’t really been in the spotlight recently but last night it shone back down on him in a bad way.

Does anyone know what he was thinking with the Jacare/Weidman stoppage? Souza hit Weidman with a right hand to the temple and it was clear that the former champion was done. Weidman went crashing down, eyes completely glazed, and clearly couldn’t defend himself. And impressively, Jacare refused to pounce on him, assuming – like everyone else - that the fight was over.

Not for Miragliotta, apparently. The big referee simply stood over the fighters looking on, even allowing Weidman a weak takedown attempt before Souza was forced to drop a series of pointless hammer fists to finally trigger the stoppage.

The gaffe was particularly bad when you consider the kind of punishment Weidman had already endured during the fight – and the punishment he’s taken during a long career, in fact. I’m not saying Miragliotta is a terrible referee – the fact that he hasn’t been spoken about recently says he’s usually fine – but this was a horrible, horrible error in judgment.

#2 Best: The Stylebender is for real

When Israel Adesanya lived up to his nickname and styled on Rob Wilkinson in his UFC debut back in February, it was clear he was a prospect to watch. But then he struggled to beat Marvin Vettori and lost some of his lustre. A lot of that was gained back when he dismantled Brad Tavares in the summer, but question marks still hung around the Nigerian-Australian kickboxer going into last night’s show.

Not any more, though. Adesanya was faced with his toughest test to date – a proven, top-ten ranked veteran in Derek Brunson – and he simply destroyed him, making it look easy in the process. Brunson tried his takedowns, tried to close the distance, but Adesanya was simply on another level and never seemed in difficulty for a second.

The most impressive thing by far about ‘The Last Stylebender’ was the way he finished Brunson off. After hurting him with a counter-knee when Brunson shot in for a takedown, rather than wildly swarm on him, Adesanya picked his shots, landed clean blow after clean blow, and eventually put Brunson down with a beautiful right hand.

After the fight, Joe Rogan mentioned exactly what I was thinking myself – that the performance reminded him of Anderson Silva’s knockout of Chris Leben back in 2006. Whether Adesanya can reach the heights that Silva did is difficult to say, but there’s no doubt that he’s a title contender, and he might be the best striker at 185lbs, too. Can you imagine a fight between him and Robert Whittaker? Wow.

#2 Worst: Main event leaves mixed emotions

Okay, so no serious MMA analysts were really giving Derrick Lewis anything other than a puncher’s chance last night. He was clearly outgunned in all other areas – wrestling, submissions, cardio, even technical striking – and unsurprisingly, Daniel Cormier had no problem in taking him down, dominating him from the top, and eventually choking him out.

So why did it leave a lot of people – myself included – with mixed emotions? I think a lot of it was to do with the fact that the crowd seemed to have bought into Lewis’s underdog story, and seemed deflated when it was clear he had nothing for Cormier. They barely even popped when ‘DC’ called out Brock Lesnar post-fight.

Cormier is a curious case in that despite having great mic skills, a lot of charisma, a fun fighting style and clearly being a nice guy, a lot of fans simply can’t seem to take to him. Whether that’s the Jon Jones effect or something else, I don’t know, but it’s a little worrying for me given the UFC will clearly look to position him as the “good guy” in his upcoming match with Lesnar.

Which brings us onto another slight downer – Lesnar won the WWE Universal title on Friday and was then nowhere to be seen last night. If you believe Dana White he was never supposed to be there, but how sure can we really be that he actually wants to do this UFC fight with Cormier? Sure, he’ll make a lot of money, but he’ll probably lose badly in the process too.

The broadcast last night ended with Joe Rogan, Jon Anik and Paul Felder discussing whether a Cormier/Lesnar fight is a good or a bad thing, and despite the publicity, it’s already drawn so far, I’m not sure that I wouldn’t fall into the latter opinion.

#3 Best: It’s still Halloween for Arce and Moraes

The likelihood is that in terms of fight quality, all the plaudits from UFC 230 will go to Chris Weidman and Jacare Souza, but there was a fight almost as good on the prelim card, too. Halloween might be done and dusted for another year, but evidently, nobody told Featherweights Julio Arce and Sheymon Moraes that as they put on a bloody brawl worthy of a horror movie.

By the time they were done, a cut on Arce’s forehead had left a covering of blood all over both men – and all over the Octagon, too. You’d have been forgiven for believing someone had just committed a murder inside the cage with a machete if you’d tuned in after the fight was done.

But it wasn’t just the blood that made this a great fight. Moraes knocked Arce down twice and had him on the verge of being finished, but Arce wouldn’t go down without a fight, and in the first round he came close to choking the Brazilian out and then actually outstruck him in the third round.

The decision left a sour taste – a split call gave Moraes the win, but despite 29-28 for either man sounding fair, a weird 30-26 score for the Brazilian simply didn’t make sense – but realistically, neither man will lose anything from a fight this good. This was simply a great fight up there with 2018’s best, and both men deserve a ton of praise.

#3 Worst: Roberson vs. Marshman didn’t belong

I’ve often called into question the UFC’s card placement – as in, which fights they choose to go onto the pay-per-view portion of their shows – and last night gave us another example in the Jack Marshman vs. Karl Roberson fight. It wasn’t the worst fight of all time and I’m not knocking either man’s effort, but did this really belong on a show that fans were paying to watch? I’d argue no.

Roberson ended up winning a decision in what was a solid-but-forgettable outing, and while he’s clearly a decent prospect, it’s unlikely that he or Marshman will likely be in title contention any time soon. I know the UFC have a vested interest in him coming off Dana White’s Contender Series, and I know they were also looking to book a lot of Middleweight fights on the main card here, but the point still stands.

Before Cormier and Lewis stepped into the main event slot, UFC 230’s main event would’ve been a Women’s Flyweight title match between Valentina Shevchenko and Sijara Eubanks. That fight ended up being iced, but Eubanks remained on the card – but was placed on the prelims. Sure, her fight wasn’t great, but it was probably as good as Roberson/Marshman. Given the UFC had intended for her to main event a big show, why wasn’t she being showcased on the pay-per-view?

The placement of Roberson/Marshman wasn’t enough to ruin the show of course – it was a strong pay-per-view even with it – but the UFC really ought to be ensuring ranked contenders – or at least blue-chip prospects – fight on their pay-per-views, especially when they charge so much for fans to order them.