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UFC Portland: Dodson vs. Lineker Highlights, Results, and Recaps

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 3:16 p.m. ET

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UFC Bantamweight John Lineker (Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports)

UFC Portland brought fans a solid card the week before UFC 204. The 12-fight card was capped off by an excellent main event between John Dodson and John Lineker.

The MMA world did not expect much from UFC Portland, seeing it as just another fight night on this slew of non-stop UFC events. Late injuries to the main card only added to these feelings.

When fight night came around, those expectations were met. The event never found a rhythm, with a brutal stoppage seemingly always followed by a bland decision (except for the prelim to main card transition).

Then the spectacular main event made it all worth it. John Dodson and John Lineker threw down for five rounds to the crowd’s delight.

UFC Portland FOX Sports 1 Main Card

What a main event it was between John Dodson and John Lineker. John Dodson employed a strategy that involved skirting around the canvas to avoid dangerous exchanges with “Hands of Stone,” while Lineker took the center of the Octagon and stalked Dodson for five rounds.

Dodson effectively used leg kicks to keep his distance from the slower Lineker in the first round and clearly took the round on the scorecards. When the fighters did exchange, fans that blinked missed 10 punches.

“The Magician” was much more accurate, landing an excellent 52-percent of his 191 strikes. However, Lineker was much more active, throwing 322 strikes over the 25 minutes but landing only 92. The judging of the fight certainly came down to personal preference, and it was the definition of a toss-up.

Rounds three and four were clearly won by John Lineker. He did not do much different from the rest of the fight, but was able to unload combinations after stopping Dodson’s movement along the fence. It was an excellent fight with several great exchanges between a couple of heavy hitters in the bantamweight division.

The only negative of this fight is the fact that John Lineker missed weight again. The former flyweight was forced to move up to bantamweight after missing weight four times, including a number-one contender bout with Ian McCall.

The Brazilian’s stature would cause him severe issues with the bigger featherweights, so hopefully he can get his weight all sorted out. Up next for him will be a top contender match against either TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt (whoever does not get the next title shot).

Alex Oliveira missed weight by an awful five pounds for this match, his first fight back at 155 after two welterweight bouts. At welterweight, his strategy was to use his massive frame to impose his will on opponents, so he certainly had the same plan against Will Brooks.

However, Brooks was the much more effective grappler throughout the fight, landing several beautiful takedowns. Unfortunately, Brooks popped a rib in the first round, and was in visible pain for the remainder of the fight. He still landed a takedown in the second round though.

Alex Oliveira took advantage of the injury after an early knockdown in the final round by pinning Brooks against the cage and battering the body. As Oliveira completed a takedown from the clinch, Brooks grimaced and that was the beginning of the end.

“Cowboy” threw a couple of hard punches to the body, then pinned Brooks’ arm down with his leg. From there, a few more punches put away the former Bellator champion.

The Brazilian was not graceful in victory however, as he began to make obscene gestures to his opponent, including a Jon Jones-esque crotch chop. Brooks stumbled over and threw his mouthpiece at Oliveira and the two were separated. The taunting was definitely something you did not want to see from a fighter that missed weight.

Not much to say about this fight. Josh Burkman fought with his usual conservative style, and newcomer Zak Ottow was content with battering Burkman with leg kicks whenever he stepped in.

It was a close fight that could have gone either way, but the judges sided with Ottow instead of Portland’s own Joshua Burkman.

The high point of the night was the absolutely stunning upset victory from Brandon Moreno over top flyweight contender Louis Smolka. Smolka was set to fight Sergio Pettis, but Pettis was forced out a week before. In his place stepped in TUF 24’s 16th seed, Brandon Moreno.

Moreno scored an early takedown and Smolka was doing his usual solid and active guard work after rushing in carelessly with strikes. Things got interesting when the fight returned to the feet.

Smolka landed a single leg takedown with his head next to the hip of Moreno. The Mexican quickly wrapped up a guillotine, then brilliantly blocked Smolka’s attempted pass to side control, which would have led to Smolka’s safety. Instead, Moreno kept him in guard and swept Smolka to mount.

Again the fighters rolled over and Moreno sinched up the choke, forcing Smolka to tap one and a half times. Moreno has made his presence known at flyweight and completely upped the legitimacy of the current TUF season.

Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports

UFC Portland FOX Sports 2 Prelims

What a battle this was. Joachim Christensen and Luiz Henrique da Silva (AKA Frank Waisten) went to battle in this light heavyweight duel. Henrique da Silva would bum rush Christensen and find most of his success there on the taller fighter, including a knockdown in round one.

Not to be outdone though, Christensen responded with a brutal knockdown in round two.

Christensen held top position for a while, until da Silva scored a beautiful sweep from half guard. For the second straight fight, da Silva gained full mount and began dropping bombs.

Christensen was forced to roll and give up his back, and da Silva responded by pulling off an armbar from back mount. Spectacular grappling work from da Silva. He certainly seems like a light heavyweight to keep an eye on in the future.

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The most important preliminary fight of the card rankings-wise was 12th-ranked Hacran Dias taking on Andre Fili. Dias did miss weight and was also preparing to fight Brian Ortega until two weeks out from the fight.

It was a match-up between the very conservative Dias and the hyper-aggressive Fili. In this fight, the man who pushed the pace was the victor. Fili scored an early knockdown on Dias and limited the Brazilian’s output for the remainder of the round.

Round two was a close one, with both men landing a takedown, but Fili won the exchanges on the feet. Despite Justin Buchholz doing his best to hype up Fili in between two and three, Dias came out and won the final round securing several takedowns.

Despite his efforts, all three judges believed Fili won the first two stanzas. Afterwards, Fili called out 15th ranked featherweight Renan Barao, because Fili believes he should be ranked.

This heavyweight matchup was a battle between volume and power. Shamil Abdurakhimov is an active striker, while Walt Harris tries to take your head clean off.

Abdurakhimov was desperate for a takedown, shooting eight times and succeeding once on the former basketball player. Despite his lack of success with wrestling, Abdurakhimov’s activity was enough for two of the three judges to give him the nod.

Keita Nakamura had one plan when this fight started: get the fight to the mat. And he was successful, scoring five takedowns on Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos over the fight. But it was ultimately deemed that dos Santos’ striking effectiveness was more consequential in the judges eyes.

The first round clearly went to Nakamura, with dos Santos carrying Nakamura on his back for most of the opening round. Nakamura struggled to take dos Santos down for two minutes, eating strikes during that time. Nakamura took the Brazlian’s back though, albeit briefly.

Again in the third, Nakamura took the back of dos Santos, but it was not enough to outdo dos Santos’ top control, arm triangle effort, and striking success.

Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports

UFC Portland Fight Pass Prelims

Both men in this one were looking to bounce back from knockout defeats in their last bouts.  Early on in the first round, Marquardt scored a takedown on McCrory, who is very comfortable from guard.

The first round mostly contained McCrory shooting up submissions from his back and Marquardt defending wisely. The best attempt being a rubber guard to triangle switch that was very slick from “The Barn Cat.”

The second round again featured a takedown from Marquardt, but McCrory was much less active this time around. When the referee stood them up against the cage, this happened:

A brutal head kick that followed a right hand that rocked McCrory and that was that. Marquardt has reached the tail end of his career, but knockouts like this one and his knockout against CB Dolloway prove he still has plenty of pop if you’re not careful.

Ion Cutelaba entered the UFC win column for the first time with a dominant performance against Jonathan Wilson.

Wilson simply could not handle the pressure of Cutelaba on the feet. The Moldovan walked him down for 15 minutes and forced Wilson to run away at times. For those keeping track at home, Cutelaba landed 92 strikes to Wilson’s 32.

Curtis Blaydes showed he is more than just a wrestler with a strong performance against Cody East.

The very dangerous Cody East landed several hard shots and even three takedowns in the first, but Blaydes weathered the storm with four takedowns of his own. Blaydes also landed more shots on the feet for what it’s worth.

The pendulum swung all the way in Blaydes’ direction in the second round, with the wrestler scoring a takedown 30 seconds in and dominating from there. The finish came when East attempted to stand up.

That’s 0-2 in the Octagon for the Lookin’ for a Fight alum. Given the extensive criminal record of the heavyweight, he might be on a shorter leash than most.

This was another striker vs. grappler battle on the card, with Faszholz committing to punches, and Vieira working her takedowns.

Vieira did not do much with her takedowns, forcing the referee to stand up the bantamweights several times. Unlike the Zaleski dos Santos-Nakamura fight, the judges favored the grappler in this one.

The most unique part of the fight came in the third round when Vieira landed a buttery smooth takedown off a clinch knee from Faszholz.

UFC Portland was not the best card, but had a great main event and an incredible upset. Add in some post-fight taunts and a brutal head kick knockout and you got yourself a solid FS1 card.

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