In the simplest terms, Joe Pyfer has
arrived as a middleweight contender.
In the main event of
UFC Seattle on Saturday night, the rising middleweight
contender faced by far the greatest test of his career in two-time
former champion Israel
Adesanya. Pyfer wasted little time in trying to secure a
takedown, but “The Last Stylebender” calmly fought it off against
the fence. Adesanya took the matador’s role, barely slipping some
huge power shots from the Philly native and coming back with slick
counters, including a couple of nasty leg kicks and an intercepting
knee that clearly stung. Pyfer landed a beautiful takedown with
under 30 seconds left, but the round expired before he could truly
capitalize.
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Adesanya continued to work on Pyfer’s lead left leg in Round 2,
drawing greater and greater reactions, but absorbed several big
right hands. Unbelievably, Adesanya acquiesced in a brawl in the
middle of the round, getting in several heavy shots of his own but
getting hurt by Pyfer, who corralled him against the fence and
threw a stream of hooks as the former champ covered up. Pyfer took
down a hurt-looking Adesanya and moved instantly to mount, then
took Adesanya’s back, where he worked patiently for a rear-naked
choke. Adesanya escaped the choke and squirmed out of back control,
only for Pyfer to follow him to mount, then again to back mount.
With Adesanya flattened out in the center of the cage and offering
no resistance as Pyfer slugged his head with both hands, referee
Herb Dean was forced to intervene at 4 minutes, 18 seconds of the
second round.
With his fourth straight win, Pyfer moved to 16-3 overall, 14-5 in
the UFC, and is a serious player in the title picture. Adesanya,
whose first career losing streak now stands at four, fell to 24-6
overall, 13-6 in the UFC.
Grasso Posterizes Barber
In the co-main event, Alexa
Grasso wrecked Maycee
Barber in such a shocking fashion that we were forced to ask
the unlikely question: Can a fighter win “Knockout of the Year” and
“Submission of the Year” for the same fight? The flyweight
contenders’ bout, a rematch of their first meeting five years ago,
began as a tense, tentative contest on the feet. Both women took
their time getting their bearings in the relatively uncommon
southpaw vs. southpaw matchup. Barber seemed eager to close the
distance, marching forward behind her jab as Grasso gave ground and
flicked out her own jab as well as some low kicks. A tactical and
deliberate opening round turned to chaos in an instant, however,
when Grasso hit Barber with a grazing right hand in the pocket,
followed by a flush left that melted Barber in her tracks. In a
flashback to her shocking title win over Valentina
Shevchenko, Grasso was on Barber’s back in an instant, cinching
up a rear-naked choke. Barber made no move to defend and referee
Mike Beltran pulled Grasso off of her at 2:42 of Round 1.
A tense and frankly disturbing scene followed, as the cameras
stayed focused on Barber for over a full minute while she lay
unconscious, eyes wide open, under the care of the cageside
physician. Grasso, for her part, knelt respectfully and looked on
as her stricken foe was attended to. After review, the result was
announced as a knockout rather than a submission, on the
understanding that she had been out cold by the time Grasso applied
the choke. With the win, one of the most shockingly violent of this
year or any other in the UFC, Grasso moved to 17-5-1 overall, 9-5-1
in the UFC and, significantly, 6-2-1 at flyweight; Barber fell to
15-3 overall, 10-3 in the UFC.
Chiesa Secures Hero’s Farewell
Michael
Chiesa spent far longer savoring the moment than he did making
it, as the retiring Washington state native throttled Niko Price in
just 63 seconds. Price stepped in on a week’s notice for the
injured Carlston
Harris, but the moment felt inevitable almost without regard
for who stood in the blue corner. The fight itself played out as a
classic “Maverick” performance: Chiesa navigated a few tentative
striking exchanges against the similarly lanky, awkward Price, then
secured a takedown, moved to his opponent’s back in a flash and
cinched up his trademark rear-naked choke. Price tried to fight it
off, slamming both of them to the ground in an effort to dislodge
Chiesa, but to no avail. Chiesa adjusted the choke, squeezed and
waited a few seconds for the inevitable tap. The win sent the “TUF
15” lightweight winner into the sunset on a four-fight win streak
and with a record of 20-7 overall, 15-7 in the UFC. Price, who
looked as if he might be contemplating retirement himself, fell to
16-11 with two no contests overall, 8-11 with two no contests in
the UFC, and has lost four straight.
Douglas Wrecks Erosa
Lerryan
Douglas (14-5; 1-0 UFC) could not have scripted his UFC debut
much better, as the former
Legacy Fighting Alliance featherweight champ annihilated
Julian
Erosa (31-13; 9-9 UFC) in the first round. Erosa has built a
surprising run in the UFC over the last few years with
back-and-forth barnburner fights, but Saturday was all one-way
traffic in Douglas’ favor. The “Gunslinger” was simply too fast,
too accurate and too powerful for Erosa, chewing up the native
Washingtonian’s lead leg within the first minute, then repeatedly
beating him to the punch. Erosa was as tough and game as ever, and
never stopped trying to turn the fight around with his own big
punches and kicks, but Douglas slipped or parried the strikes
coming his way, then returned fire. By the midpoint of Round 1 the
end seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Erosa went down from a
crushing jab, then was dropped again by another.
“Juicy J” scrambled to his knees, looking perhaps to drag the fight
to the ground, but Douglas shucked him off and flattened him with a
final, pinpoint left hand. Referee Blake Grice
had seen enough, and he pulled the Brazilian off his stricken foe
at 3:33 of Round 1.
Belgaroui Dominates Abdul-Malik for Third-Round TKO
Yousri
Belgaroui (10-3) made it look easy, outstriking Mansur
Abdul-Malik (9-1-1) from pillar to post in their middleweight
main card attraction. Conventional wisdom held that Belgaroui would
need to contend with the American’s wrestling and concussive
punching power in order to get his own game going, but he was in
the driver’s seat from the start. He used good lateral movement,
his long jab and especially his calf kicks to hurt and frustrate
Abdul-Malik, who struggled to cut off the cage, especially once he
began visibly limping on his battered lead leg. The already
dominant performance was turned to a rout in the middle of Round 2,
when Belgaroui popped back up after being briefly taken down. The
Tunisian-Dutch kickboxer teed off on a tired-looking Abdul-Malik,
dropping him in the closing seconds. There was a moment of
confusion as to whether referee Mike Beltran had waved the fight
off as a TKO or simply separated them at the horn, but they came
out for Round 3, at which point Belgaroui picked up where he left
off. To his credit, Abdul-Malik came out swinging big haymakers,
trying to salvage a miracle win, but Belgaroui was simply too
fresh, too dialed in and too good on the feet to fall victim to a
Hail Mary punch. Belgaroui slipped all of the desperation punches,
quickly wall-walked his way back up from a takedown, and resumed
throwing hammers. The finishing sequence was set up by a straight
to the body and an uppercut to the jaw that left Abdul-Malik
reeling, exhausted and wobbling backward on his feet.
Belgaroui gave chase and drilled his foe with a final, brutal knee
to the head. Abdul-Malik went down in a heap and
Beltran was there for the stoppage, staving off further punishment
and giving the Glover
Teixeira protégé the TKO win at 3:39 of Round 3. The win left
Belgaroui at 2-0 in the UFC with two wins over more highly touted
prospects; Abdul Malik’s first career loss left him at 3-1-1 in the
promotion.
McKinney Blitzes Nelson
In the lightweight main card opener, walking statistical anomaly and Washington
state native Terrance
McKinney (18-8; 8-5 UFC) delivered one of his nastiest
lightning-strike finishes yet, burying Kyle Nelson
(17-7-1; 5-6-1 UFC) under an avalanche of kicks and punches in just
24 seconds. “T.Wrecks,” as is his custom, ran at Nelson as though
launched from a cannon, throwing a flurry of punches that missed or
glanced off of the Canadian’s guard. Nelson managed to fire back
one strike before
McKinney nailed him with a head kick. From the moment,
11 seconds in, that Nelson ate that kick until referee Herb Dean
moved in for the rescue, McKinney landed at least 20 unanswered
blows. The win put McKinney back in the won column after his
submission loss after his December loss to Chris
Duncan, and considering he has yet to win a “Performance of the
Night” despite being the most reliably violent man in the UFC this
decade, there might not be a happier person in the world that the
promotion now hands out automatic finish bonuses.