In a fight that should have brought some clarity to the
middleweight title picture, the main event of “UFC Louisville”
instead brought more confusion—though Nassourdine
Imavov was not to blame.
In the main event of UFC on ESPN 57 on Saturday at KFC Yum! Center
in Louisville, Kentucky, Imavov and Jared
Cannonier met in a high-level matchup of 185-pound contenders.
The first two rounds saw both men struggle with the other’s
weapons: Cannonier had his head snapped back repeatedly by Imavov’s
lightning-quick jab, especially his double jab, while Imavov had
difficulty with Cannonier’s calf kicks and his enormous strength
and leverage when wrestling against the cage. Cannonier appeared to
have the slight edge going into the middle round, landing the
slightly heavier blows, including some vicious leg kicks, and it
was Imavov who initiated the ground game in Round 3, quickly
dragging the “Killa Gorilla” to the canvas, then taking his back
standing. Cannonier managed to escape without damage, but Imavov
finished the round landing clean shots in the middle of the cage,
the most momentum he had had all night.
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Imavov went right back to work in Round 4, taking the center of the
Octagon, refusing to engage Cannonier on the periphery as he had in
Rounds 1 and 2, and rocked him with a right hook. Cannonier
staggered away and Imavov pursued, pouring on punches. Cannonier
appeared to recover somewhat but Imavov continued to tag him with
clean shots. Cannonier stumbled toward the fence after a flurry of
punches, hurt but seemingly alert and defending himself, when
referee Jason Herzog moved in for a standing TKO stoppage.
Cannonier was calm but indignant in protesting the call
immediately, and the finish is likely to spark debate in the weeks
to come, but it goes down as a win for Imavov at 1:34 of Round 4.
The win extended the Dagestani-born Frenchman’s unbeaten streak to
three straight since his loss to Sean
Strickland, leaving him in the thick of the hunt for a
middleweight title shot, and he used his time on the mic to call
out Strickland for a rematch at the UFC’s upcoming card in France.
Cannonier, who had won two straight since his unsuccessful bid for
the title, saw that modest streak snapped in defeat.
In a do-or-die moment for any future contender aspirations—and
perhaps even for his place on the UFC roster—Dominick
Reyes did it. In the co-main event of “UFC Louisville,” the
onetime light heavyweight title challenger (13-4) returned to
action for the first time in over 18 months and snapped a
four-fight losing streak by knocking out Dustin
Jacoby (19-9-1) in the first round. Neither man seemed to truly
settle in; Jacoby went on the offensive immediately, coming forward
with punches and his dangerous low kicks, while Reyes gave ground
and looked to counter. Perhaps mistaking Reyes’ strategic
withdrawal for retreat, Jacoby pursued aggressively. Too
aggressively, it turned out:
“The Devastator” caught Jacoby with a short left hand that wobbled
him, then as “The Hanyak” charged in again, landed a two-punch
combination punctuated by a knee that rocked him
badly. Jacoby went careening against the fence as
Reyes gave chase, winging punches at him. The first salvo mostly
missed, but when Reyes began to connect with flush punches while
Jacoby staggered in place, referee Dan Miragliotta stepped in to
stop the action. The stoppage, at the two-minute mark of Round 1,
gave Reyes his first win in nearly five years, and at age 34,
perhaps a new lease on life in the division where he came
tantalizingly close to winning the title from Jon Jones at
UFC 247. Jacoby, whose second run in the UFC saw him climb into the
Top 10, is now reeling, having lost four of his last five.
The youngest fighter in the UFC put his lone professional setback
further in the rearview, as Raul Rosas
Jr. withstood all the chaos Ricky
Turcios could throw at him on his way to a second-round
submission win. Their bantamweight clash, which had been scheduled
to take place in February but was postponed when Rosas fell ill
during fight week, proved to be worth the wait. Turcios launched
himself at Rosas as soon as the fight began, throwing his customary
storm of punches, kicks, and takedown attempts calculated to cause
scrambles. Rosas stayed calm and appeared to be winning for most of
the round thanks to accurate counterstriking and positional
superiority on the ground, but the best moment of offense in the
first round was when Turcios took Rosas’ back and forced him to
defend himself from a rear-naked choke or face crank. The second
round got off to a similarly frantic and competitive start, but
Rosas was ready to tame the storm.
He took Turcios’ back during a scramble, locked up a body triangle
and applied a rear-naked choke of his own. Turcios
defended capably for a time, but Rosas adjusted his grip, slipped
his arm under the chin and elicited the tap. Referee Blake Grice
stepped in to save Turcios at 2:22 of Round 2, marking two wins in
a row for Rosas since his decision loss to Christian
Rodriguez last year.
In a clash of finish-minded middleweights, Brunno
Ferreira survived one of the most entertaining rounds of the
year before blowing up Dustin
Stoltzfus with a spinning back elbow. Ferreira (12-1) and
Stoltzfus (15-6) went to war immediately, exchanging punch flurries
and wild wrestling sequences. Stoltzfus seemed to be getting the
better of the exchanges through the first half of the round, when
Ferreira caught him with a spinning back elbow. It foreshadowed
what was to come,
as moments later “The Hulk” spun again, this time catching
Stoltzfus flush. The Pennsylvanian staggered and fell,
and while he was attempting to return to his feet when referee
Jason Herzog interposed himself to stop the fight, Stoltzfus did
not lodge any complaint, and in fact appeared to acknowledge the
rightness of the stoppage. The sensational finish left Ferreira 3-1
in the UFC with all four fights, win or lose, ending by first-round
knockout. Stoltzfus has now alternated wins and losses in his last
five Octagon outings, dating back to 2021.
Zachary
Reese wasted no time in bouncing back from his first career
loss, taking just 20 seconds to wipe out Julian
Marquez with a body kick and punches in their middleweight
bout. Reese (7-1) met the brawling Marquez (9-5) willingly, but
with an acute sense of space and distance.
The finish was set up by a hard left kick to the body, then capped
off with a beautiful right uppercut that split Marquez’s gloves and
landed squarely on the mouth. “The Cuban Missile
Crisis” collapsed in a heap and Reese swarmed with hammerfists.
Referee Dan Miragliotta jumped in for the stoppage, which Marquez
protested, though on unsteady legs. The quick finish left the
“Savage” 1-1 in the UFC, while Marquez saw his losing streak
extended to a career-worst three straight.
In the main card opener, Punahele
Soriano announced his arrival to the UFC welterweight division
in brutal fashion, grounding and pounding Miguel
Baeza for three one-sided rounds. Both entered the cage with
something to prove, as Soriano (10-4) was dropping from
middleweight for the first time, while Baeza (10-4) was returning
from a nearly two-year hiatus due to a back injury requiring
surgery. Soriano looked outstanding in his new weight class,
turning to the wrestling chops which often went underused at 185
pounds. The first round was a strange affair, as Baeza spent much
of the five minutes working for a heel hook, then a kneebar.
Soriano appeared to be in danger for a few moments, but managed to
escape without damage. More importantly, he fed a steady stream of
punches to Baeza while defending himself, a stream which only
intensified once his leg was out of danger. Once Round 2 began, the
rout was on. Soriano grounded Baeza quickly and hammered him with
ground strikes. Referee Rob Mooney
looked on closely, ready to save the Floridian, but Baeza kept
moving, blocked some of the blows, and generally stayed busy enough
to stave off the stoppage. It was a moral victory at best, as
Soriano did the exact same thing in Round 3, once again taking
Baeza down and mauling him from top position for most of the round.
The bruising performance, instantly a candidate for “Beatdown of
the Year” netted Soriano the decision by two 30-25 scores and one
very conservative 30-27. With the win, Soriano announced himself as
someone to watch at 170 pounds, while Baeza’s future appears
uncertain after his fourth straight loss, including two knockouts
and Saturday’s one-sided drubbing.
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