On Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston, UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya put his title on the line against top contender Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC 271. This was an intense fight, much closer than the first. Adesanya won his belt by unanimous decision. The rest of the card was equally as interesting, with Tai Tuivasa upsetting Derrick Lewis in dramatic fashion, Jared Cannonier punching his ticket to a middleweight title shot, and the last hurrah of an MMA legend.
It was an incredible night of fighting. To honor that, I am borting Bill Simmons’ article idea Handing awards based upon the lyrics to a pop culture .. And since UFC 271 took place in H-Town, there is no better way to show my love than by turning this over to the queen of 80s and 90s love songs, Whitney Houston.
“I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone’s shadows.”
To Israel Adesanya who is one the most outstanding fighters that we have ever seen but is still not the greatest midweight of all time. That’s okay .
Heading into UFC 271, a ridiculous narrative emerged of whether Adesanya was close to overtaking Anderson Silva as the GOAT middleweight. These calls will only increase after Saturday’s win by Adesanya over Anderson Silva, who is undisputedly the best middleweight fighter in the world. Adesanya has held the belt for 861 days and defended his title four times. Silva held the belt for 2,457 days and defended his belt 10 times. Adesanya doesn’t live in my neighborhood. It’s that easy. But I’m getting the sense that Adesanya doesn’t want it to stay that way forever.
Adesanya, at the post-fight press conference, argued that although he has five titles defenses his fight against Whittaker (a title unification bout in which he was interim champion) should be counted as one. This was a bizarre argument considering he is currently second in the divisional title defenses. It’s also one that makes little sense if he looks at his own GOAT argument. Eugene Baremen, Adesanya’s coach, stated last week that the team will be making another attempt at the light-heavyweight title. It feels like Adesanya wants to stand out as one of the best fighters in history. He still has a long way to go, but I’m not sure I’d bet against him given what we’ve seen thus far.
To Robert Whittaker, who fought his heart out but came up short for the second time, and now faces a very interesting question: What’s next?
Whittaker is 0-2 against Adesanya, and a third fight between the two is going to be a hard sell for the foreseeable future. Whittaker was decisively beaten in their first encounter, and though he believes he “did enough” to get his hand raised at UFC 271, the reality is that Adesanya won at least three rounds, if not four. If he wants a third crack at the champion, Whittaker will need to stack up some more wins, something he says he’s OK with doing.
But that’s a very difficult task, even for Whittaker. Historically, people in his position — the Rich Franklin predicament, as I like to call it — have not been able to work their way back to a third shot. They tend to stay put and fight a mixture of veteran and rising superfighters. Unfortunately for Whittaker, there aren’t that many legends available at 185 for him to face. He’ll have to continue to fight for new blood. And given his record against Adesanya, he’s going to need more than three wins to get back. He probably needs at least five. Yeesh.
Bobby Knuckles always has the option of changing weight classes. Considering he’s not a huge middleweight, light heavyweight seems like a lot to ask of Whittaker. But the man did previously compete at 170, and he probably isn’t any bigger than many of the top welterweights running around. Perhaps he decides that a run at a second belt is something he’d be interested in. Personally, I’d love to see him fight Kamaru Usman.
To the biggest winner of UFC 271, Tai Tuivasa.
Derrick Lewis is not a man that many people want to be dancing with, but Tuivasa insisted all week that he was. Tuivasa then backed it all up, brawling with Lewis before knocking “The Black Beast” out cold with an elbow. Then, he continued dancing by moving around the octagon as a hero.
Tai Tuivasa hit the shimmy after knocking out Derrick Lewis pic.twitter.com/iZhh4Uymmw
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 13, 2022
It wasn’t hard to hear Tuivasa’s performance. He then said to the Houston crowd, “always down, get down,” and that it was “The King of the Shoey .”
.”
*Side note: Tuivasa should ABSOLUTELY walk out to “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” for his next fight. Someone ping the man.
“I’ve been around enough to know, that dreams don’t turn to gold.”
To Derek Brunson, who will never challenge for a UFC title.
Heading into UFC 271, Derek Brunson was riding the best streak of his UFC career, and finally, finally on the cusp of a title shot. All he needed to do was rely on his wrestling one last time, grind Jared Cannonier out for 15 minutes, and “Blond” Brunson would at last have the chance to prove he’s the best middleweight in the world. If he had 10 more seconds at the end of Round 1, he may well have done it.
At the end of the opening round, Brunson landed a beautiful counter right hook that floored Cannonier. Brunson jumped up on Cannonier and took his opponent’s back. He then landed a beautiful counter right hook that floored Cannonier.
Brunson lost his championship hopes. He scored an instant takedown when the second round began, but Cannonier soon got up to make it look like he was done. Cannonier quickly took control of his movements and put him down violently. Afterward, he reaffirmed that his next fight will be his last, effectively ending any hope he had for winning gold.
Made a title push . Number 3 vs 4 in the world . It was not enough. Life lessons . I’m all right, but it will be hard. Let me fight one more time. Blessings all
— Derek Brunson (@DerekBrunson) February 13, 2022
*Shout out Derek Brunson. He was a great fighter but never managed to climb the mountain. It was a great effort.
“How will I know? (Don’t trust your feelings).”
To Judge Robert Alexander who was within an hour the dissenting judges who won fights for Roxanne Modefferi and Jared Vanderaa. He obviously does not know, and should never trust his feelings.
“All at once, I finally took a moment and I’m realizing that you’re not coming back.”
And speaking of Roxanne Modafferi, this one goes out to her, “The Happy Warrior” who finally said goodbye to the fight game after 20 years and 50 fights.
One of the major storylines coming into this week was the retirement fight of Modafferi, one of the true pioneers of the sport. Modafferi was given a tough task for her final assignment, taking on MMA Fighting’s 2021 Rookie of the Year, Casey O’Neill, a very talented flyweight prospect. Many expected O’Neill would run through “The Happy Warrior”, given her lack of athleticism, and because Modafferi’s name is often overlooked. Modafferi, however, did not disappoint.
Modafferi lost nearly as many fights as she won, and never took home a major MMA championship. But she has been in this sport from the beginning, and was a tough out every time she stepped in the cage. Moreover, she’s one of the few people who have spent any significant time in MMA who are universally beloved. She’s now gone.
