Making the Grade: Passes/Fails from UFC 177: Dillashaw vs. Soto
T.J. Dillashaw staved off an extremely game Joe Soto (who?) in the main event to defend his UFC bantamweight title, Tony Ferguson prevailed in a split decision over Danny Castillo in a rather non-descript main event and Bethe Correia danced all over Shayna Baszler.
You already know all the results from UFC 177 on Saturday night. At Haymaker, we like to go beyond who won and who lost. Here is what we took away from the fights in Sacramento:
PASSES
UFC 177
We're not even sure what this was, but it was pretty damn awesome.
This always happens, doesn't it? A card looks awful on paper, doesn’t have many interesting fights and is lacking in big-name draws. Then the fights air and they bring down the (not-so-packed) house. Yeah, UFC 177 was the latest case of that. UFC president Dana White said the event was the most panned in the history of the UFC and then it delivered with a ton of excitement, including four out of five finishes on the main card.
Yancy Medeiros' ridiculous inverted guillotine might have been the biggest highlight. Then there was a more-competitive-than-expected main event between T.J. Dillashaw and late fill-in Joe Soto and a relentless barrage from Bethe Correia leading to a TKO of Shayna Baszler. There wasn't a bad fight on the main card. A fan has to decide what is most important to him or her on an event-to-event basis. Maybe star power is what brings you in. Maybe it's just sheer violence and you don't care who the competitors are. If it's the latter, the UFC is usually a pretty solid purchase.
Rogan questions Barao
When the FOX Sports 1 broadcast cut away to a backstage interview Joe Rogan was conducting with Renan Barao on Saturday night, it almost felt like we were watching an NFL game or NBA telecast. The UFC is sometimes hesitant to bring important issues to light, but did not dance around Barao and his injury while cutting weight. Rogan, a very opinionated anti-weight cut voice, went right after Barao and called the entire thing "embarrassing." Good for him. This is a serious issue and this was the appropriate time to call it into question.
Barao had to pull out of the UFC 177 main event after slipping and hitting his head while cutting weight. Not only did the UFC lose a main event, but Barao didn't get paid a penny to show up in Sacramento. No one was a winner in this mess, but at least the UFC addressed it. There was transparency. The UFC is also being open by airing Nevada Athletic commission hearings regarding its fighters on the Fight Pass digital network. All of this is a step in the right direction and the beginning of the UFC taking a more mainstream approach to its more controversial topics.
Bethe, please
Bethe Correia is a one-woman Four Horsewoman wrecking crew.
Bethe Correia is exactly what the dull UFC women's bantamweight division needs. She is by no means the savior or even someone who can give Ronda Rousey a viable challenger, but she has charisma -- and boy, can she dance. Correia has manufactured a feud with Rousey and her friends and it just might result in a title shot at some point, perhaps in Rousey's next fight. Why not? Cat Zingano and Gina Carano could still be another six months away from being ready and that's assuming Zingano gets by Amanda Nunes at UFC 178 on Sept. 27.
Correia gives the UFC a story it can tell for Rousey. She has beaten Rousey's confidantes, Jessamyn Duke and Shayna Baszler, and has looked impressive doing it. The rivalry writes itself. And Correia is doing a great job selling it. She is a loud voice in a division filled with fighters who don't do a lot of speaking up. Rousey's last opponent, Alexis Davis, did so little to sell that title fight that she even had her Instagram page private up until two days prior to the bout. Correia, meanwhile, is all piss and vinegar. She's made herself relevant. It's excellent news for a staggering weight class.
FAILS
UFC 177
Joe Soto (left) was a veritable unknown when he came into the UFC 177 main event on short notice against T.J. Dillashaw.
Point the blame wherever you like, but it's hard to deny that UFC 177 was the least star-studded UFC event, possibly ever. Only two top-10 ranked fighters competed: T.J. Dillashaw and Bethe Correia. Dillashaw's opponent in the main event, Joe Soto, was making his UFC debut and is most known for being Jon Jones' junior-college roommate and losing to Joe Warren in Bellator. The co-main event of Tony Ferguson vs. Danny Castillo was devoid of name recognition and only thinly relevant in the lightweight division.
Even before Renan Barao was forced out of the headliner after slipping and hitting his head in a weight-cut related incident, UFC 177 was weak. The co-main event was supposed to feature Demetrious Johnson defending his flyweight title against Chris Cariaso, but when Jones got hurt and had to pull out of the UFC 178 main event against Daniel Cormier, Johnson-Cariaso slid into that spot. At least the UFC was attempting to make UFC 177 interesting with two title fights. Freak things do happen, though, and this was awful luck.
The Horsewomen falleth
Are Ronda Rousey's friends jinxed?
We're not really hung up on Ronda Rousey and her crew's "Four Horsewomen" nickname. Some people loathe the implication that Rousey, Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir are MMA's answer to the revered pro-wrestling stable. We kind of enjoy the name and the gimmick. But man, it sure seems like it has been downhill for all of them since they began calling themselves that.
Duke has lost her last two fights in the UFC and neither has been close. Shafir lost her first career bout by knockout last month. And now Baszler has joined the "L" club, getting TKO'd by Bethe Correia in the second round Saturday night at UFC 177. That's a pretty ugly record, even when you factor in Rousey's dominance as the UFC women's bantamweight champion. It's a shame Baszler and Duke can't just form a tag team in MMA.
Shut the 'Funk' up
If only Ben Askren played the game for a second.
We all know Ben Askren wants to be in the UFC, so why is he kicking a hornet's nest? UFC president Dana White had some fairly nice things to say about Askren after UFC 177 even though the two clearly don't see eye-to-eye. Askren won the ONE FC welterweight title Friday by beating Nobutatsu Suzuki in Dubai and White told reporters that if the former Bellator champ keeps winning, he will probably get a shot in the UFC. That's the most complimentary White has ever been of Askren, who was not wanted much by the UFC when he left Bellator and became a free agent.
It also might be the last complimentary thing. Askren responded to White's words on Twitter with sarcasm. "Funky" beats to the march of a different drummer and is extremely outspoken -- two things that make us want him in the UFC badly. The other reason is that he's one of the best welterweights in the world and can compete with any of the top 170-pounders in the company. But Askren has to play the game a little bit if he wants the chance to prove himself in the UFC -- and make some good money to boot. The UFC doesn't need him, so being disrespectful to the boss won't help whatever leverage he might have, if any.
EPIC FAILS
Cutting the crap
The UFC has given Henry Cejudo an ultimatum: move up to 135 or get out.
Drug testing is the hot-button topic in the UFC and MMA right now. Between TRT being banned earlier this year, the mess around Chael Sonnen and the recent spat of failures, performance-enhancing drugs are at the forefront of conversation. The UFC is even reportedly about to begin testing on a wider level, which is great news for everyone involved, especially the fighters. But this past weekend brought to light one of the sport's dirtiest not-so-secrets: the abuse of cutting weight.
Weight-cutting has been going on for as long as weight classes have existed. It's a way of life in wrestling and has carried over to MMA. Former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao had to pull out of a main event title fight Saturday due to complications from trying to reach 135 pounds. Barao walks around at closer to 160 and has a steep cut to get down to his fighting weight. He said it wasn't a bad cut, yet he fainted and hit his head coming out of a bath one day before his bout with T.J. Dillashaw. Henry Cejudo also fell ill due to the difficulty of losing a lot of weight and was forced out of his UFC debut against Scott Jorgensen.
The long-term effects of siphoning off weight and putting it back on are not completely known, but it's far from healthy -- especially the way some fighters do it. With all the talk about the risks of PEDs and head injuries, weight-cutting poses plenty of dangers itself. Depleted, weakened fighters are more likely to be hurt in a fight. And it might not be the same as a punch or kick to the head, but cutting a lot of weight isn't good for the brain either. Maybe same-day weigh-ins or two weigh-ins are the answer. Either way, it needs to be addressed before something worse than the UFC losing a main event occurs.
