#ufc301

[theanticool]

Michel Pereira is an insane person. Absolutely crazy. Love it!

Michel Pereira drops Ihor Potieria with a 1-2 in the opening minute of the first round. Potieria goes to the ground and tries to throw up his legs to block and Pereira passes by literally back-flipping over Potieria's guard. Potieria tries to get up but ends up in a guillotine and is forced to tap while standing. He still ends up going out though and crumbles to the floor.

But Pereira landed on Potieria's head with his knee when he came down so we have controversy. Seemed like they might call a no contest but they gave Pereira the win which feels like the right call because holy crap that was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

[realfightjunkie]

Caio Borralho {-550} defeats Paul Craig {+400} via 2 round KNOCKOUT on UFC 301. Won’t go 3 rounds {-220} & Borralho wins inside the distance {-175} hits!

[theanticool]

Canelo Alvarez takes UD over Jaime Munguia.

Props to Munguia. He fought well early, recovered after getting knocked down and had moments late but just got caught up in Canelo's game. The counters were there from round 4 on and Canelo made Munguia pay for everything he threw. Munguia has very little in the way of defensive awareness. Canelo was blasting him with hooks to the body for Munguia to immediately drop his hands and then Canelo would hit him upstairs.

Hearn isn't going to convince me Berlanga is a legit challenger. Make the Benavidez fight damnit.

[theanticool]

Alexandre Pantoja takes UD over Steve Erceg to defend title.

Steve Erceg made a great account of himself for a guy in his 4th UFC fight facing the best flyweight in the division. Really pieced up Pantoja on the feet in a way that basically nobody has since he fought like Figgy.

Just too many poor decisions. The obvious ones were the late takedown attempts. He thought Pantoja was fading and kept shooting only to have Pantoja force a scramble and end up on top. That's what sealed that final round for him. But even early on, he was good at defending takedowns until he kept putting himself into the fence. When this fight first got announced, I think my initial question was when Pantoja charges forward behind long combos, what does Erceg look like defending takedowns? And we saw that he backs up in straight lines to the fence where even when he didn't get immediately taken down, he had Pantoja on his hips controlling action. Still, a good performance from Erceg. The boxing and elbow skills are real, though not fully realized. He'll be back before too long. Just give him a 12-18 months.

As for Pantoja, he got another title defense. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't dominant. He didn't look like an elite technician but he made it work for him. After this, I really want to see him against Amir Albazi. Think that fight could be chaos.

[theanticool]

Jose Aldo takes UD over Jonathan Martinez.

A very Aldo performance here. Martinez likes to fight in open space and Aldo is arguably one of the best to ever fight in open space. Even at 37, Aldo picked off his shots really well. Peppered in a bunch of the open guard right hands to the body with leg kicks to the lead lead. Hurt Martinez a number of times over the last two rounds, particularly with that kick. And when he rocked him with like 80 seconds left, Aldo took him down to secure the win.

[theanticool]

Anthony Smith submits Vitor Petrino via guillotine in the 1st!

Leg kicks hurt Petrino and turn him into a wrestler. Smith defends with a guillotine and Petrino tries to power through it only to end up deeper and get submitted. Lots of funny guillotine action tonight?

Smith gets a much needed win. Petrino finally gets an L. Was never high on Petrino. Fantastic athlete but one of those LHW who is not actually good at much. Not a good wrestler, grappler, or striker. Just physically imposing. Smith has made his late career off being able to outlast those guys so a loss hear would have been a real bad sign for where he was at.

[theanticool]

Joanderson Brito cuts hole into Jack Shore's leg and gets doctor stoppage win.

Brito destroys Shore with leg kicks. Like he kicked Shore's leg so much through the first 6-7 minutes, that it swelled up. Then he kicked it again, Shore went to check and it exploded. The ref called the doctor in as Brito was punching Shore in the shin along the cage and the doctor stuck his whole ass finger into the cut. Then he stopped the fight.

I feel for Shore. Weird way to lose. But if the doc was able to feel all up on his shin bone, it was probably for the best the fight was over. Brito continues to be a physical specimen in the cage. Terrific athlete and devastating offensive power that makes it hard for guys to fight him off.

[theanticool]

Steve Erceg is hitting Pantoja as hard as he can with some of these strikes. Uppercuts, elbows, etc. And Pantoja is just eating them. Just built tough.