It may not have been the barnburner they had hoped for, but for the
hometown Denver crowd, Rose
Namajunas could do no wrong.
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In the flyweight main event of UFC on ESPN 59 at Ball Arena, former
strawweight champ Namajunas (13-6, 11-5 UFC) looked to make her
case for a title shot in her new division against rising contender
Tracy
Cortez (11-2, 5-1 UFC). The first round went solidly in favor
of “Thug Rose,” who sidestepped Cortez’s advances, denied her the
clinch and shot takedown opportunities she sought, and caught her
repeatedly with clean punches. One of those, a clean left hook, sat
Cortez down in the middle of the round, but she recovered quickly.
Cortez had a slightly better Round 2, taking Namajunas’ back in a
scramble and briefly threatening before Namajunas shook her over
the top. Nonetheless, the story of the first half of the fight was
Cortez struggling to find Namajunas on any consistent basis, while
Namajunas used her superior footwork and speed to potshot Cortez
almost at will.
As the fourth round opened, Cortez was in an obvious
three-rounds-to-zero hole, and to her credit, she fought like it,
wading forward with big power punches, willing herself into the
clinch and working to bring Namajunas to the ground. It ended, as
before, with Namajunas denying the takedown and sliding out of
danger, but at least her foe could not leave things entirely on
cruise control. Cortez’s fire was nowhere near enough to outweigh
the talent and technique of Namajunas, who followed her corner’s
instructions to a tee across the final 10 minutes, touching Cortez
with her jab, avoiding any danger, and disrupting her opponent’s
rhythm with perfectly timed takedowns. Cortez nonetheless may have
carried the final round on sheer aggression, given the deliberately
low-power approach Namajunas took on the feet.
After five rounds, the cageside judges returned an unsurprising and
well-deserved unanimous decision for Namajunas (49-46, 49-46,
48-47). The win put “Thug Rose” at two straight in her new division
and leaves her an interested observer of flyweight champ Alexa
Grasso’s next defense, presumably against Valentina
Shevchenko; Cortez saaw an 11-fight win streak snapped in
defeat.
Salikhov Outlasts Ponzinibbio in Battle of Welterweight
Veterans
With Father Time looming over the cage like an unofficial third
competitor, 37-year-old Santiago
Ponzinibbio and 40-year-old Muslim
Salikhov looked surprisingly spry in the welterweight co-main
event of “UFC Denver.” A clash between two longtime knockout
artists seemed to offer the possibility of fireworks, but while the
fight was entertaining for the most part, it was also a tactical,
measured battle between two aging veterans who both came to the
cage having gone 1-3 in their last four fights. With age, altitude
and the specter of the pink slip, Ponzinibbio’s trademark
hyper-aggressive punch flurries and Salikhov’s accustomed storm of
spinning kicks were largely replaced by a bread-and-butter
kickboxing match, punctuated by the Argentinian’s surprisingly
persistent wrestling. That is not to say that they completely
abandoned what brought them to the dance, as they traded head kicks
in a razor-close Round 1 that probably only swung the way of
Ponzinibbio thanks to a late knockdown. The second round appeared
to belong to the Russian, who hurt Ponzinibbio with a left hand,
grounded him with a takedown of his own and was generally the
sharper, more accurate striker.
With the outcome very much in question, the welterweight veterans
turned in another close round in the final frame, though the Denver
crowd was not pleased by the moderate pace of the striking, nor by
Ponzinibbio’s takedown attempts. The judges rendered their verdict
in favor of Salikhov by split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29), who
snapped a two-fight skid and elevated his record to 20-5 (7-4 UFC);
Ponzinibbio (29-8, 11-7 UFC) has now lost two straight and is 2-5
since returning in 2021 from a long injury layoff.
Silva Picks Up Cut TKO of Dober in Sensational Scrap
In just two weeks, Jean Silva
has elevated his UFC profile in a way perhaps not seen since
Khamzat
Chimaev hit the Octagon like a bolt of lightning four years
ago. Silva (14-2, 3-0 UFC) fresh from his highlight-reel knockout
of Charles
Jourdain at UFC 303, stepped up a weight class to meet Drew Dober
(27-14, 1 NC; 13-10, 1 NC UFC) in a lightweight clash. Silva,
fighting a longtime Denver resident and fan favorite in Dober,
showed no particular fear of his foe’s renowned knockout power. He
caught Dober with quick, accurate counters repeatedly in the first
round, frustrating the local favorite and opening a cut near his
right eye. Dober made adjustments between rounds, and came out for
the second frame setting up his kicks with punches and doing a
better job of cutting off the cage. The results were positive, as
Dober landed some heavy leg kicks and a right hand that wobbled
Silva momentarily, as well as a sequence against the fence where
Dober teed off with uppercuts as “Lord” covered up. Things got a
bit wild late in the round as Dober hurt Silva with a superman
punch, then slipped on the follow-up and came close to eating a
murderous uppercut as he got back to his feet, but Silva may have
stolen the round with a crushing spinning back elbow in the closing
seconds. The strike left Dober wobbling on his feet and would
likely have led to a finish if there had been more time left on the
clock.
Referee Herb Dean called out the cageside physician to have a look
at Dober’s right eye between rounds, but the fight was allowed to
go on, to the delight of the Denver crowd. Likely down two rounds
to none, Dober changed things up, shooting a takedown in the
opening seconds of Round 3, but Silva defended with a guillotine.
When they separated, Dober’s cut was significantly worse, and Dean
once again called on the doctor. This time, he opined
that the fight should not go on in the interest of Dober’s safety.
The win, Silva’s second in 14 days, put him alongside the likes of
Chimaev and former middleweight champ Sean
Strickland on the list of shortest turnarounds between UFC wins
in the post-tournament era, and confirmed him as must-see viewing,
whether his next outing is at 155 or 145 pounds.
Bonfim Sprawls, Brawls to Victory over Loosa
In a welterweight scrap that smoldered and smoked but never quite
burst into a full-blown blaze, Gabriel
Bonfim (16-1, 3-1 UFC) stayed a step ahead of Ange Loosa
(10-4, 1 NC; 2-2, 1 NC UFC) for three grueling rounds.
“Marrethinha” entered the fight on the back of his first
professional loss and followed a simple but effective plan to get
back in the win column against Loosa: Land your strikes, avoid the
haymakers coming back your way, and stop the takedown. Loosa did
not make things easy for him, as he shot a beautiful blast double
in the first round, hoisted Bonfim and deposited him on the canvas,
but Bonfim popped right back to his feet and went back to work. It
set the pattern for the fight, as both men had moments of effective
offense, especially when they traded knees and punches in the
clinch, but Bonfim was just a bit more effective in all three
rounds. That dynamic grew more pronounced as the fight wore on and
both men grew tired, but Loosa more so, and the takedowns seemed to
be easier and easier for the Brazilian to avoid. After the final
horn sounded, Bonfim was confirmed the winner by 30-27, 30-27 and
29-28 scores, putting him back on track after his loss to Nicolas
Dalby last November; Loosa now has a loss and a foul-induced no
contest since his last Octagon win 10 months ago.
Erosa Guillotines Rodriguez
Julian
Erosa reaffirmed his place among the UFC’s most reliable action
merchants and picked up a key win, throttling Christian
Rodriguez (11-2, 4-2 UFC) late in the first round of their
featherweight clash. Erosa (30-11, 8-7 UFC) has become popular as
an equal opportunity distributor of highlights to his own as well
as his opponents’ reels, and the fight got off to a
characteristically wild start as both men swung freely. “CeeRod”
was likely ahead late in the round, thanks to an unblocked head
kick and enough punches to bloody Erosa’s nose, when “Juicy J”
caught a kick and hustled Rodriguez to the canvas. Rodriguez swept
to top position, at which point Erosa snatched up a lightning-quick
guillotine choke, cinching a body triangle from the bottom as he
did so. Erosa cranked on the hold, his long arms bending
Rodriguez’s neck at an alarming angle, and Rodriguez was left no
choice but to ask out of the fight at 4:49 of Round 1. The nifty
finish snapped a four-fight win streak for Rodriguez, who is now
1-1 at featherweight after beginning his UFC run at 135 pounds;
Erosa now has two wins in a row since his back-to-back losses to
Alex
Caceres and Fernando
Padilla.
Alhassan, Brundage End in Quick No Contest
The UFC on ESPN 59 main card got off to a bizarre start, as
Abdul Razak Alhassan and Cody
Brundage’s all-Denver middleweight scrap ended in a no contest
in just 38 seconds. Things did not take long to go sideways, as
Alhassan (12-6, 1 NC; 6-6, 1 NC UFC) stuffed a takedown attempt and
punished Brundage (10-6, 1 NC; 4-5, 1 NC UFC) with elbows to the
head as he worked to his knees and sought to re-shoot. The elbows
began to stray to the back of Brundage’s head, drawing a caution
from referee Dan Miragliotta without an interruption in the action.
A few moments later, several more elbows collided with the back of
Brundage’s head, prompting Miragliotta to stop the fight. Brundage
was dazed from the blows to the point that he appeared at first to
believe the stoppage had been a TKO. The cageside doctor was
summoned, and after a lengthy question-and-answer session with
Brundage, Miragliotta declared the fight a no contest due to
inadvertent but illegal strikes to the back of the head.