Question time, kids. We’re here to talk about all the happenings of the past weekend, with a series of questions focused specifically on that. It’s worth examining now, becauwe we’re looking forward at a weekend packed with RIZIN, KSW, UFC, and even the big PFL vs Bellator card from Riyadh.
And you’re gonna want to keep your eye on that one, it’s a genuinely interesting and well-assembled event with some very fun action bouts. Also of interest is that ass-ugly belt they got for the winners for some reason. I swear, money really can’t buy taste.
Anyway, you know the drill. Send any and all questions to [email protected], and they don’t strictly have to be about fighting. Will I answer them sober? No promises, baby. Times is stressful.
Table’s set, time to eat. Recommended listening for you right here:
Henry gets hammered at UFC 298
Whose stock fell the most at UFC 298?
Man, it’s gotta be Henry Cejudo. Has to be. Ian Garry talked a big game ahead of his fight against Geoff Neal and didn’t put on as impressive a performance as he (or us, or maybe the UFC itself) would have wanted. Takes a bit of shine off Ian, sure. But he gets a win against a tough opponent that’s hard to look good against.
Volko? He lost to a streaking undefeated prospect that was exceeding expectations over and over. Not only that, he’s got that new UFC champ shine with a partial aura of invincibility because after all, he took that belt in a very impressive manner against one of the toughest of all time.
Dern had a sloppy bout where her standup showed some regression, but at least it was an exciting bout. Plus, she still remains relevant in the division and stays in the top 10 for now. Costa had a close and exciting fight, but expectations for him were probably not that high. He ends up essentially being right where I said he would be, and where he’ll most likely remain for the rest of his UFC career.
I haven’t done a Winners and Losers piece in years, but Cejudo had the worst fall off in my book. Yes, he had some good looks and some good moments. Yes, he’s coming off a loss, but that was also a split that was exciting and Henry held his own against a peak Aljamain Sterling. But here? Merab took ended up taking his lunch money and pecking at his bones like a vulture.
Henry just looked broken in the end. It hurts to see, because he’s such a talented fighter that’s given so much to the UFC and combat sports generally. But that kind of drubbing has to hurt your soul. It raises questions regarding whether or not Henry can hang with the elite of the division at this point, and I can guarantee that’s exactly the sort of question he’s been asking himself in the aftermath of all of this.
And frankly, yeah. He totally can. I can see Henry hanging with Marlon Vera, Petr Yan and Cory Sandhagen. But does Henry want to? Is the grind of going through more contenders to get back to the belt — where Henry clearly wants to be — to make it worth his while? At this point in his career, he’s probably not getting out of bed for anything that doesn’t lead directly to the title. That means we probably just saw the last of Henry Cejudo in the cage, and this time, for good.
You gotta feel for the guy when he gets carried up on Merab’s shoulder and walked across the cage while Merab cuts a promo before planting him on his ass. Worse still, he’s talking all that to an audience that includes Mark Zuckerberg. A tragic fate indeed. Is Henry totally washed? Absolutely not, but Henry certainly took the biggest hit from this event.
A tale of two shark tanks
Which division is more competitive, featherweight or bantamweight?
Right now, I’d have to say bantamweight. It’s a younger division doesn’t just still have a lot more moving parts, it’s still got some talents in the top 15 that are in development in Mario Bautista and Umar Nurmagomedov. Just look at these lists.
And I wouldn’t suggest by any means that Sean O’Malley is a weak or vulnerable champion at all. What I will say is that he faces rather unique challenges from some of the guys in the top ten, such as Song Yadong and Deiveson Figuereido. But those guys have a way to go before getting a crack at Sean. Take a look at the top five and right now you’ve got Merab sitting pretty at #1 and Cory Sandhagen at #3.
Aljamain Sterling is at #2 and should still be on track to leaving the division altogether. That makes him a non-factor in this whole thing. Petr Yan infamously lost to Yan in a rough split decision back in late 2022 and is currently on a three-fight losing skid that still has him at #4. Again, basically a non-factor right now. But Marlon Vera is #5, and he holds a TKO win over the current champ.
I’m taking that ranking detour for a reason. It’s a tougher batch of guys to cut through if you’re coming up. Featherweight is also a shark tank, and both are arguably the best divisions in the sport across the board. Featherweight also has a glut of longtime veterans in the top spots, whereas bantamweight seems to have more moving pieces at any given time.
Damn, he just got here…
Has Topuria always been this insufferable or have I just not been paying enough attention?
I must be living under a rock, because I haven’t seen anything truly egregious from Ilia so far. The worst thing I’ve seen or heard him say is that he’s not fighting guys like Brian Ortega because they gotta earn it or some other such nonsense. It’s hard for me to get a read on how serious he is about that.
Mostly, I’ve just seen the guy talk about his determination and his desire to be the best version of himself. So far it’s mostly stuff like this.
I mean, that’s ballsy. Bold, but not too crazy. And for all his bravado, Ilia really did seem to show a lot of respect towards Alex. I guess I just don’t see the sort of thing that has people flustered about the guy. And I guess it can’t be too bad because I don’t see too many gripes from fans on social media.
Then again, it could be the manner in which we all sort of silo ourselves off into different little subsections of social media. But major hate towards a guy like this would absolutely still pop up on my radar. Still, not everyone’s gonna love you. Some people will outright despise you with a burning passion. And sometimes that’s pretty hilarious. Peep this.
My mans was heated on this. And I have no clue what prompted any of it, nor do I particularly care. It’s funny and potentially plants the seeds for something interesting in the future. Other than Yair (and the person asking), I don’t know of anyone that really finds him that annoying.
But something really funny happens when a fighter becomes a big star. Sometimes, it just brings out the haters in full force. So while Ilia might not be getting much stress now, you can totally bank on all his old tweets being Zapurder’d to hell and all of his behavior moving forward getting extra undue scrutiny. It’s the nature of the beast when you have a fanbase this toxic.