UFC 280 is in the books, and after a slow start from the prelims, the final three bouts really picked up on the action — and the weirdness.
In the main event, Islam Makhachev not only proved he’s the best lightweight in the world, he also won the title with style. After staying on top and matching up his wrestling with Charles Oliveira’s jiujitsu, Makhachev went on to knock him down and submit the top notch grappler.
In the co-main event, T.J. Dillashaw popped his shoulder out and was mostly one-armed and defenseless. Aljamain Sterling dished out some damage and a lot of ground and pound in a fight that really shouldn’t have gone that long.
Petr Yan and Sean O’Malley actually had a fun back-and-forth match. The popular young prospect exceeded expectations, but it looked like the former champion was winning more exchanges both standing and on the ground. Weirdly enough, while most people thought O’Malley got a moral victory, judges somehow awarded him with the actual victory.
Below, we analyze the pros and cons of each of the key bouts, with a quick twitter thread that’s short and fitting for people’s social media era attention spans:
O’MALLEY UPSETS YAN
PROS: That was so fun, I wanted 2 more rounds. I thought Sean would come out a “winner” for exceeding expectations…
CONS: …But I didnt think they’d make him the actual winner. It was competitive, but I thought the rounds were clear https://t.co/j9GGbLoGwe
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) October 22, 2022
STERLING BEATS INJURED TJ
PROS: Sterling looked good, none of this was his fault
CONS: TJ shouldn’t have fought. When shoulder popped and was one armed & defenseless, it should’ve been stopped. They let it go way too long. Ref, doctor, corner all failedhttps://t.co/KXt0iVMrJj
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) October 22, 2022
MAKHACHEV SUBS OLIVEIRA
PROS: I knew Islam was good, but I didn’t think he’d knock down AND sub him. Game plan was smart, doing that after wearing him down by the fence, where his guard was negated
CONS: None. I was just happy to see this from the start: https://t.co/xbvUNP1b0p
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) October 22, 2022
#UFC280 OVERALL
PROS: Islam established himself as a legitimate superstar. Khabib and others hyped him up, but he actually surpassed that. Makhachev-Volkanovski is money. O’Malley will probably improve even more from this. I’d love to see a 5-round main event rematch with Yan.
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) October 22, 2022
#UFC280 OVERALL
CONS: Goddard apparently knew about TJ’s injury? A lot of that was unnecessary. Chimaev still can’t stop fighting random people. Early decisions slowed things down, but it really picked up in the last few bouts. Speaking of decisions: https://t.co/YDvLuUBrHs
— Bloody Elbow (@BloodyElbow) October 22, 2022
And that’s about it. For more social media musings, follow me on twitter over at @antontabuena, and of course you should do that for Bloody Elbow’s official twitter account as well.
About the author
