Making the Grade: UFC 273: Volkanovski vs. Korean Zombie Edition

There were a lot of storylines set to play out at UFC 273, and the card did not disappoint where high drama was concerned.

Despite the fact that there were two titles fights, Khamzat Chimiev was the main attraction. The undefeated middleweight took on Gilbert Burns for his first title bout. This was a fight that would ultimately determine if Chimaev was a serious contender or perhaps a lacking pretender after he laid waste to every single opponent he had faced prior to Saturday night.

Meanwhile, Alexander Volkanovski was the actual headliner at UFC 273 and he faced a daunting challenge from fan favorite fighter Chan Sung Jung, who readily admitted prior to the event that this would probably be the last time he’d compete for gold in his career.

Of course there was also the long-awaited rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan after their first fight ended in controversy following an illegal knee that led to a disqualification. Yan spent much of the year calling Sterling a fraud, after he won the title. Yan was unable to continue due to the illegal strike. The New Yorker had much to prove.

There was a lot of discussion about the event, so let’s talk about what happened and what didn’t. This is Making the Grade for UFC 273: Volkanovski vs. The Korean Zombie.

PASSES

Revenge Is Sweet

Aljamain Sterling didn’t really get to celebrate becoming UFC bantamweight champion after winning the title because of the circumstances surrounding his win. Sterling was photographed by his family and friends holding the belt that he claimed when Petr Yan was disqualified. This made him look bad because he was proud to claim himself to be champion, even though his opponent deserved it.

Fast forward nearly exactly one year and Sterling had undoubtedly a lot to unleash in his rematch against Yan.

He was facing all sorts of criticism and Yan claiming an interim bantamweight title with a thrilling performance over Cory Sandhagen only added to his growing legend ahead of UFC 273.

Sterling was prepared to take on every Yan challenge and won the fight by winning five hard-fought rounds. Nothing came easy for Sterling but he definitely had the most dominant moments in the fight, especially in the second and third rounds where he suffocated Yan on the ground.

Yan’s ability to win the last two rounds helped him make it a close fight — probably a lot closer than Sterling wanted considering the abhorrent judging that haunts this sport so often. In the end, Sterling got the victory, he got redemption and now he can hold his head high as the undisputed UFC bantamweight champion.

Sterling enjoyed slamming everyone who doubted his winning award. He even sent out a hilarious apology form via social media. Sterling has absolutely earned this moment in the sun because the past 12 months has rarely presented any silver lining in the dark cloud that hung over his title reign.

Sterling may run into Yan again one day again in the future and perhaps the ugly cycle will begin again but for now he deserves this victory lap along with dunking on everybody who ever tried to call him a fake champion.

The Real Deal

Hype can be both a blessing and a curse when it comes to combat sports but Khamzat Chimaev made the most of his opportunity at UFC 273 with an impressive win over Gilbert Burns.

Despite a blistering start to his career — 10 fights, 10 wins and 10 finishes — Chimaev had never faced top notch, proven competition that would vault him from prospect to contender. Although he was able to defeat solid fighters with wins over Gerald Meerschaert and Li Jingliang, neither one of these fighters has ever been highly ranked.

That’s why Chimaev needed to support everything he has ever said by winning over Burns Saturday night, but the end result was undoubtedly even more important for his future in UFC.

Chimaev was not only tested, but Burns also pushed him to breaking point, leaving him stunned, injured, and wobbling several times in three rounds. Burns blasted Chimaev with punches that likely would have floored most welterweights yet “Borz” just kept coming back for more while delivering plenty of his own punishment during the 15-minute slugfest.

Sure, Chimaev’s aura of invincibility has been shattered because he didn’t just walkover Burns as many expected him to do but there’s a million reasons why the way he won at UFC 273 was even more important to his future. Chimaev had to endure some really bad moments, especially in the second round, before eventually coming back to win the third and claim the victory.

That’s invaluable time in the cage with a legit savage like Burns, which will better prepare Chimaev for the fights that are surely awaiting him now that he’ll sit near the top of the UFC welterweight rankings.

You can sometimes win

even if you lose.

Gloria Clemente tried to impart those words of wisdom to Billy Hoyle once upon a time and it turns out she was rather prophetic — at least when it came to the slugfest between Chimaev and Burns at UFC 273.

Burns didn’t have anything to lose in a fight such as this on paper.

He was much higher ranked than Chimaev, and if he won, Burns would surely hear critics say that he just exposed an unproven prospect. Burns could lose to the media hype around Chimaev, which has been crushing every other welterweight in recent weeks.

Thankfully even in defeat, Burns somehow walks away looking even better than he did heading into UFC 273.

Burns gave Chimaev everything he could handle — he landed a whopping 119 significant strikes against the Chechen mauler when his past four opponents in the UFC had only connected with two. Read that again — Chimaev had absorbed two significant strikes through four fights until Burns lit him up with 119 on Saturday night.

Burns’ performance was so outstanding that UFC president Dana White even committed to giving him both his show and win money (which should have happened anyway but that’s a conversation for a different day) and he also leaves with an extra $50,000 bonus for Fight of the Night.

Yes, Burns lost and that never helps when it comes to his future aspirations to fight for the title again but at the same time, he also likely became one of the scariest contenders for anybody else looking to leapfrog him in the division. Burns also has the potential to make a huge payday if he is able to fight Chimaev once again in five rounds, or even with the UFC title at stake.

Burns will certainly look back at the fight and recognize the mistakes he made that kept him from winning rather than losing but he has no reason whatsoever to actually feel defeated.

FAIL

Something Must Change

UFC 273 featured plenty of memorable moments but judging still fell short, even if the officials scoring the fights didn’t egregiously rob anyone who deserved a victory.

The complaint at this event really comes down to one round in particular in the co-main event where Sterling defeated Yan to claim the undisputed bantamweight title.

In the second, Sterling took the fight to the ground and dominated Yan for the better part of five minutes while constantly seeking submissions while also unloading some devastating punches from the back position. His control time was off the charts as Sterling just suffocated Yan with his superior grappling and there were a few dicey moments where it appeared he could be on the verge of finishing the fight.

To his credit, Yan survived but Sterling clearly won a lopsided round yet not a single judge actually scoring the fight gave him a 10-8 on the cards.

What gets lost so often when scoring fights is the actual criteria laid out for judges, especially what constitutes a 10-8 round. In the old days, fighters would only earn a 10-8 round if they very nearly finished an opponent — we’re talking total obliteration to the point where a stoppage could have been justified.

This is no longer the case. This is some verbiage taken directly from the :

scoring criteria.

“A score of 10 – 8 does not require a fighter to dominate their opponent for 5 minutes of a round. The score of 10 – 8 is utilized by the judge when the judge sees verifiable actions on the part of either fighter. Judges shall ALWAYS give a score of 10 – 8 when the judge has established that one fighter has dominated the action of the round, had duration of the domination and also impacted their opponent with either effective strikes or effective grappling maneuvers that have diminished the abilities of their opponent. Judges must CONSIDER giving the score of 10 – 8 when a fighter shows dominance in the round even though no impactful scoring against the opponent was achieved. MMA is an offensive based sport. No scoring is given for defensive maneuvers.”

Based upon those factors, Sterling deserved a 10-8 score in round two across the board yet all three judges failed to do so. The final call was a split decision and imagine if the win went the other way to Yan — at worse Sterling would have been looking at a draw with a 10-8 second round yet the judges managed to rob him of that.

Judges have to normalize handing out 10-8 rounds where it’s warranted and Sterling’s second round against Yan is quite possibly the best example of how officials keep getting it wrong.

EPIC FAIL

Enough Is Enough

Speaking of normalizing things in MMA — a corner stoppage or just stopping a fight between rounds rarely ever happens but somebody should have rescued “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung on Saturday night at UFC 273.

Through the first three rounds, Jung absorbed 96 significant strikes as Volkanovski just teed off on him with a blistering offense that showcased the best of the reigning UFC featherweight champion. Jung got put down in the closing seconds of the third round yet managed to survive, largely because he was saved by the bell.

Jung laid on the canvas for a few seconds afterwards before dragging himself back up to the feet before then lumbering over to his corner. At that point, Jung was wearing a lot of damage on his face and hopes for a comeback were dwindled down to almost nothing.

But Jung being a warrior — the kind of fighter who earned a nickname like “The Korean Zombie” thanks to the unbelievable durability he’s shown throughout his career — never hesitated to go back out for the fourth round. That’s the kind of moment where either his coaches or the referee should have prevented him from taking any further damage.

Corner stoppages, also known as “throwing in the towel”, have been controversial. Many fighters have spoken out against the practice while flat out saying they’ve instructed their coaches to never stop the fight under any circumstances. There are many fighters that argue no stoppage should be made until the opponent is completely unconscious and wiped out.

In both cases, the coach and referee have to rescue the fighters.

After watching Jung take a lot more punishment at the beginning of the fourth round Herb Dean stopped the fight. It wouldn’t have made any difference if he had to stop the violence before Jung got another round.

The same goes for Jung’s coaches, who had to recognize that he was taking an inordinate amount of damage without offering much resistance to actually threaten Volkanovski during any point in the fight.

Yes, stranger things have happened where a fighter looks done only to get resurrected and pull off a miraculous comeback but those instances are few and far between. Jung should have been done on the stool when the third round ended and both his coaches and the referee failed to rescue him from further harm even if the fight only lasted another 45 seconds.

Overall Grade for UFC 273: B+