UFC on Fox 21 had a lot of fan favorite names on it. Carlos Condit! Paige VanZant! Joe Lauzon! Anthony Pettis!
Unfortunately, only half of them had good nights. Find out which ones below.
Carlos Condit Gets Retired by Demian Maia
In a rare turn, a Carlos Condit fight didn’t end up being a total bloodbath. Photo by Expert MMA.
Takedown, back take, rear naked choke, tap. That was the entire main event, with Demian Maia forcing Carlos Condit to submit in under two minutes. That really, really stinks because it was so easy to get high hopes for the fight. Notes:
- Condit’s probably retiring. He was teasing retirement after his fight with Robbie Lawler and this probably didn’t help matters.
- Maia’s probably the best finisher in MMA today. His BJJ is just on a completely different level from everyone else, and nobody seems to have the tools to keep up, never even mind contend.
- Maia’s not getting a title shot, though! Wonderboy, Nick Diaz and Georges St-Pierre are all in front of him in line and all three would make more money.
Anthony Pettis Has a Spectacular Comeback
Anthony Pettis earned a much-needed win but He doesn’t quite have the swag back yet. Photo by Sherdog.
We all love some Anthony Pettis here at Fight State…but boy, things were looking bad for him entering UFC on Fox 21. With three losses in a row entering the night and a rough matchup in top-five featherweight Charles Oliveira, it seemed like he might have been on the cusp of getting sent to World Series of Fighting. Instead, he shocked the world by roughing up the BJJ expert early and submitting late. Notes:
- Great win for Pettis. He punched himself out a little with some first-round ground-and-pound, but held it together late.
- Submitting Charles Oliveira is a big feather in Pettis’ cap. Oliveira was unanimously ranked in the top-10 of the division and has tapped good opponents like Hatsu Hioki, Nik Lentz and Myles Jury.
- This wasn’t a TRUE return for Pettis, though. He didn’t have that champion’s swagger he did back in his days as champion, and that hurts him with his kick-focused style.
Paige VanZant Gets Back in the Win Column!
— caposa (@GrabakaHitman) August 28, 2016
Paige VanZant made her way back into the cage against Bec Rawlings. After getting bullied around in the first, VanZant landed an ugly, terrible flying kick clean on the chin. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t good, but it worked like a charm. Rawlings crumbled and VanZant finished it from there with punches. Notes:
- Despite the fun finish, this was a terrible performance by VanZant. Rawlings was supposed to be a tomato can for her, but she ended up getting completely overwhelmed early before scoring a miracle KO.
- The UFC brass played this up like it was an amazing knockout. It wasn’t. PVZ threw that same terrible flying kick at least five times in the fight and it just happened to eventually land.
- PVZ’s athleticism is officially not up to snuff in the strawweight division. Sure, she can make the Alex Chambers of the world look bad, but the fact that she was pushed around by Rawlings is a wakeup call. She just don’t got it.
The Best of the Rest
Total non-surprise! Joe Lauzon and Jim Miller had an exciting fight! Photo by Sherdog.
- Chad Laprise looks like the best hope the UFC has in Canada if Georges St-Pierre isn’t coming back or sticking around. He absolutely demolished Thibault Gouti on the preliminary card with some heavy hands.
- Sam Alvey continues to look like a monster against any low-tier fighter, knocking out Kevin Casey.
- Jim Miller vs. Joe Lauzon 2 wasn’t as good as the original, but was still very fun. Miller won via controversial decision, but both men gave it all.
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