13 seconds. I can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that we just saw Conor McGregor knock out the great Jose Aldo in 13 seconds. I truly didn’t believe it would happen at all, though the the possibility was there. But 13 seconds? It doesn’t feel real. McGregor finished Aldo faster that Ronda Rousey finished title fights. How is that even possible?
There’s not much to unpack from such a short fight. Aldo looked a bit nervous during the intros, but he always looks that way. McGregor was incredibly loose, but he always looks that way. McGregor didn’t charge directly at Aldo like he normally does. He just took advantage of his first opportunity and slept him. Simple as that.
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Conor McGregor broke a UFC record with his incredible knockout over Jose Aldo.
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Conor McGregor is the new UFC featherweight champion. If UFC 193 wasn’t enough to usher in a new era for the promotion, UFC 194 certainly was. Things will never be the same.
- Chris Weidman made one major mistake – a strange spinning kick. Just one. And Luke Rockhold made him pay dearly for that – beat him up, cut him open, and took his belt. It looked a lot like the Lyoto Machida fight. Rockhold’s killer instinct is something that’s hard to describe. He’s an animal on top. He absolutely destroyed Weidman with elbows, and the fight could very well have been stopped in the third. It wasn’t though, so he took the wrestler down in the fourth and put him away. Like Rockhold in his post-fight interview, I’m having trouble finding the words to explain what I just witnessed. It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Congrats to Rockhold for an amazing win.
- That missed kick by Weidman will go down next to Chael Sonnen’s missing spinning backfist in infamy.
- Yoel Romero squeaked out the closest of decisions over Ronaldo Souza, in a fight where he started big but the momentum shifted in a big way down the stretch. Romero dared to tangle with Jacare on the ground after dropping him with a spinning back fist, and landed a ton of big shots that had Souza wobbly when he stood up after the round. The second round was a whole lot of nothing, and could have gone either way. Souza got a takedown in the third and beat Romero up a bit, though not to the degree that Romero beat him up in the first. Romero probably gets the next title shot, but I’d love to see a rematch between these two someday. Over five rounds.
- Demian Maia may be 38, but the old dog is still an amazing grappler. Many believed that Gunnar Nelson could outwork Maia on the ground and would have an advantage on the feet, but it didn’t play out like that at all. I can’t even begin to describe how much Maia dominated this fight – if you haven’t seen it, you need to check it out to truly understand. Nelson was able to reverse position a couple of times, but couldn’t do a thing with it and was quickly reversed right back. Maia outlanded him by over 150 strikes. 150! Nelson landed 5 strikes total! Pure, pure control by Maia. And it was absolutely amazing to watch.
- Maia asked for the winner of Robbie Lawler vs. Carlos Condit in his post-fight interview, and then went on a rant about the rankings. Rightfully so. He’s probably one win away from a title shot, but more attention needs to be brought to how terrible the rankings are.
- Max Holloway and Jeremy Stephens didn’t put on the exciting fight that many expected, mostly because Stephens worked hard for a takedown but couldn’t get one. Holloway won the first two rounds with the superior offense, though the first was close. He actually took Stephens down in the third, and picked up the win with the unanimous decision. He then stole the mic from Rogan afterward to call out the winner of Aldo vs. McGregor. That’s a no-no, Max!
- Urijah Faber looked like his usual self in his bout with Frankie Saenz. Saenz was very competitive, and did a good job dealing with Urijah’s wrestling, but he lost every round in my eyes. The weirdest part of the fight was Joe Rogan completely going off on a tangent about Faber being tired, then simply ignoring all of his offense in the third round while pumping up everything Frankie did. I don’t spend much time worrying about Rogan and his narratives normally, but this one was really distracting and took away a bit of the shine on Faber’s performance in my eyes.
- Tecia Torres showed off a more well-rounded game against late replacement Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger, working effectively in the clinch for a large portion of the first two rounds. She opened up with her striking in the third though, peppering Jones-Lybarger with beautiful combinations and bloodying her up. Good win for Torres, and hopefully they can put her bout with Michelle Waterson together again.
- I laughed when Goldberg and Rogan were talking about acronyms for fighters. Goldberg came out with “RDS”, which is…who, exactly? Rafael dos Santos?
- In a battle of unbeaten welterweights, TUF 3 Brazil winner Warlley Alves used his vaunted guillotine to pick up a quick win over Colby Covington. There wasn’t really much to the fight – Covington wanted it on the ground, but ended up in the guillotine. He tried to slam his way out, but no dice. Great win for Alves, who looks to be a true legit prospect at 170 with his fourth straight UFC win.
- Leonardo Santos kicked off the FS1 broadcast with a very big upset over Kevin Lee. Santos’ grappling chops are formidable, but his striking has really improved as well. He looked very impressive on the feet, dropping Lee with a beautiful counter right and finishing him off with a flurry of punches.
- Magomed Mustafaev is a bad, bad man. Joe Proctor had been a serviceable UFC lightweight in his run, going 4-3 and being pretty competitive in every fight. Mustafaev just walked right though him. He continually came forward with no regard for Proctor’s offense, stalking him and lighting him up. After hurting him to the body, he clubbed him with a couple of knees and it was over. I can’t wait to watch him fight again.
- John Makdessi and Yancy Medeiros engaged in a tepid kickboxing match that wasn’t really much of anything. The last minute had some action, with Medeiros dropping Makdessi and both of them throwing down, but the first 14 minutes were fairly boring. Medeiros won a split decision, which could be a bit controversial if the fight had been good enough to merit some outcry. But it wasn’t.
- In the opener, Court McGee and Marcio Alexandre squared off in a style clash that McGee ended up winning, though I thought it was closer than the scores made it appear. McGee wanted to grind, while Alexandre was looking for room to strike. He got that room for extended periods, but couldn’t put a stamp on rounds with effective offense. It’s Court’s birthday today, so it seems fitting that he won.