Take a look back at the seven days in mixed martial arts, which included fight cards from UFC, Legacy Fighting, WSOF, and several other promotions.
Along with looking back at the fights that took place over the weekend, this week-in review includes the latest news, TV ratings, and fight announcements.
The MMA Recap
1. In the main event of UFC 170, Ronda Rousey (9-0) retained her women’s bantamweight championship in the first round when she dropped Sara McMann (7-1) with a sharp knee to the body and referee Herb Dean called a stop to the contest.
Several individuals that watched the fight complained on social media about the stoppage, exclaiming that it was premature.
Unfortunately for Dean, he also put himself in a position to be criticized with what many considered to be a late stoppage in the welterweight match-up between Mike Pyle (26-9-1) and TJ Waldburger (16-9). After rocking Waldburger a few times int he first two periods, Pyle hurt his opponent with a knee in the third frame and teed off on him for quite some time with ground and pound until the bout was called.
The rest of the main card saw Daniel Cormier (14-0) make short work of opponent in Patrick Cummins (4-1) with a TKO win in a little over a minute, Rory MacDonald (16-2) take home a decision against Demian Maia (18-6) in what was an exciting, back-and-forth fight, and Stephen Thompson (9-1) end Robert Whittaker’s (11-4) night in the opening frame with a stiff right.
A quartet of decisions took place on the Fox Sports 1 preliminary portion of the event.
Top women’s bantamweight Alexis Davis (16-5) used her wrestling to win a close, split decision over Jessica Eye (10-2, 1 NC). In a pair of bantamweight bouts, Raphael Assuncao (22-4) welcomed Pedro Munhoz (10-1) to the UFC by out-striking him in each round, and highly-touted prospect Aljamain Sterling (9-0) edged out Cody Gibson (11-4) on the judges’ scorecards. And lastly, Zach Makovsky (18-4) climbed another rung up the flyweight ladder thanks to a convincing decision victory over Joshua Sampo (11-3).
Prior to the FS1 card, two fights took place on Fight Pass. In those two bouts, Erik Koch (14-3) made an impressive UFC debut at 155 pounds by finishing Rafaello Oliveira (17-8) with a flurry of punches, and Ernest Chavez (7-0) used his grappling to obtain a split decision triumph against Yosdenis Cedeno (9-3).
Rory MacDonald and Demian Maia won Fight of the Night honors, while the two Performance of the Night bonuses went to Ronda Rousey and Stephen Thompson.
2. On the sixth episode of The Ultimate Fighter Nations, Canadian middleweight Sheldon Westcott (8-1-1) wrestled four-time Judo Olympian Dan Kelly (5-0) down to the ground and submitted easily with an arm-triangle choke.
With the victory, Westcott joins Tyler Manawaroa (10-0) and Elias Theodorou (8-0) in the next round of the middleweight bracket. Next week’s fight is a welterweight contest between Canada’s Olivier Aubin-Mercier (4-0) against Australia’s Jake Matthews (6-0).
3. Legacy Fighting returned with Legacy Fighting Championship 28, and in the main event, up-and-coming middleweight Bubba Bush (7-2) retained his championship by submitting Rakim Cleveland (8-4) in the second round with a rear-naked choke. Bush controlled the majority of the contest with his wrestling, top control, and submission attempts.
The co-main event contest between featherweight prospects Damon Jackson (8-0) and Hunter Tucker (6-2) played out just like the Bush fight. Jackson secured the victory in the second with a rear-naked choke after using his wrestling to control Tucker throughout the bout.
Also on the card, Cosmo Alexandre (6-1), a muay thai and kickboxing veteran turned mixed martial artist, put away Rey Trujillo (14-13) in the first frame with an elbow, knee combination in the clinch, and former UFC and WEC bantamweight Damacio Page’s (17-9) aggressiveness on the feet paid off with a second round TKO win over Matt Lozano (4-2).
4. The World Series of Fighting ran a show out of it’s Canadian branch on Friday night, and former Bellator welterweight Ryan Ford (22-4) looked great with a brutal front kick knockout of Joel Powell (7-4) within the first minute of their scrap.
What else stuck out from the event was two time NCAA champion wrestler Steve Mocco (4-1) losing for the first time in his career to Smealinho Rama (7-1). Mocco dropped a unanimous decision to the former MFC Heavyweight Title challenger.
Former UFC Heavyweight Tim Hague (16-8) returned to the winner’s column by finishing Lee Mein (6-13), the father of UFC fighter Jordan Mein, in the first round with strikes.
5. Vale Tudo Japan put on one of the more notable cards in the country in quite a while.
Japanese featherweight veteran Hiroyuki Takaya (18-11-2) finished Yojiro Uchimura in the first frame of their fight with strikes. The win was Takaya’s first since 2011.
Former UFC lightweight title challenger Caol Uno (30-16-5) won a fight in the featherweight division by outpointing Jesse Brock (16-8). The win was the 38 year-old’s fourth straight.
Mamoru Yamaguchi (26-9-4) used to be one of the top flyweights on the planet, but his decline continued with a submission loss to Czar Sklavos (9-3).
And finally, 24 year-old bantamweight Yuta Sasaki (16-1-2) continued to strengthen his case for a shot in the UFC with a rear-naked choke victory over Teruto Ishihara (6-2-1).
6. Brazilian bantamweight prospect Anderson Dos Santos (10-1) extended his winning streak seven with a first round knockout of two-time UFC fighter Marcos Vinicius (20-7-1) at Talent MMA Circuit 6.
7. At Australian Fighting Championship 8, Nick Patterson (13-4-1) was awarded a unanimous decision over former UFC lightweight Bernardo Magalhaes (12-4).
The News
1. Rashad Evans and his training team released a statement that the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion is expected to be sidelined for six months due to his knee surgery.
2. In what has become a regular occurrence every time Ronda Rousey fights, Cris “Cyborg” Justino made some news on Inside MMA when she made her plans of dropping down to 135 pounds and attempting to fight Ronda Rousey public.
3. The knee injury that forced Rafael Silva out of a Bellator bantamweight championship fight with Eduardo Dantas will likely keep Silva out four months according to what Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney told The MMA Report earlier in the week.
4. Rebney also informed The MMA Report that Bellator season eight featherweight tournament winner Frodo Khasbulaev continues to have VISA issues and will not be able to fight in the United States until those issues are cleared up and that Will Brooks would be one of the most likely candidates to welcome Gilbert Melendez to Bellator if the former Strikeforce champion does indeed come to the promotion.
Fight Announcements
UFC Fight Night 37 – March 8th
FLW Bout: Brad Pickett (23-8) vs Neil Seery (13-9)
UFC Fight Night 38 – March 23rd
LW Bout: Mairbek Taisumov (21-4) vs Michel Prazeres (17-1)
TUF Nations Finale – April 16th
LHW Bout: Steve Bosse (10-1) vs Ryan Jimmo (18-3)
BW Bout: Dustin Kimura (11-1) vs George Roop (14-10-1)
UFC on FOX 11 – April 19th
FW Bout: Sean Soriano (8-1) vs Estevan Payan (14-5, 1 NC)
UFC 172 – April 26th
LW Bout: Danny Castillo (18-6) vs Isaac Vallie-Flagg (14-4-1)
MFC 40 – May 9th
MW Title: Sam Alvey (21-5, 1 NC) vs Wes Swofford (9-4)
UFC Fight Night 40 – May 10th
FW Bout: Nik Lentz (24-6-2, 1 NC) vs Manny Gamburyan (13-8)
FLW Bout: Kyoji Horiguchi (12-1) vs Darrell Montague (13-3)
FLW Bout: Chris Cariaso (16-5) vs Louis Smolka (7-0)
HW Bout: Ruan Potts (8-1) vs Soa Palelei (20-3)
MW Bout: Ed Herman (21-10, 1 NC) vs Rafael Natal (17-5-1)
WW Bout: Ben Wall (7-1-1) vs Justin Salas (11-5)
UFC 173 – May 24th
FW Bout: Sam Sicilia (12-4) vs Doo Ho Choi (11-1)
BW Bout: Chris Holdsworth (5-0) vs Kyung Ho Kang (12-7, 1 NC)
Ratings Report
1. The preliminary overnight viewers for the UFC Fight Night 36 card on Fox Sports 1 was 1.4 million.
2.The sixth episode of The Ultimate Fighter Nations drew 78,000 viewers. The viewership total is down from last episode’s 187,000. It’s important to note that the sixth episode aired on Fox Sports 2 and aired an hour later than the usual start time in America.
Quick Results
UFC 170
Main Card
W BW Title: Ronda Rousey (9-0) def. Sara McMann (7-1) via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 1:06
LHW Bout: Daniel Cormier (14-0) def. Patrick Cummins (4-1) via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 1:19
WW Bout: Rory MacDonald (16-2) def. Demian Maia (18-6) via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
WW Bout: Mike Pyle (26-9-1) def. TJ Waldburger (16-9) via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 4:03
WW Bout: Stephen Thompson (9-1) def. Robert Whittaker (11-4) via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 3:43
Preliminary Card
W BW Bout: Alexis Davis (16-5) def. Jessica Eye (10-2, 1 NC) via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
BW Bout: Raphael Assuncao (22-4) def. Pedro Munhoz (10-1) via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
BW Bout: Aljamain Sterling (9-0) def. Cody Gibson (11-4) via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
FLW Bout: Zach Makovsky (18-4) def. Joshua Sampo (11-3) via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
LW Bout: Erik Koch (14-3) def. Rafaello Oliveira (17-8) via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 1:24
LW Bout: Ernest Chavez (7-0) def. Yosdenis Cedeno (9-3) via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
Legacy Fighting Championship 28
MW Title: Bubba Bush (7-2) def. Rakim Cleveland (8-4) via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 1:33
FW Bout: Damon Jackson (8-0) def. Hunter Tucker (6-2) via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 3:24
LW Bout: Cosmo Alexandre (6-1) def. Rey Trujillo (14-13) via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 3:38
BW Bout: Damacio Page (17-9) def. Matt Lozano (4-2) via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 3:31
BW Bout: Eli Tamez (7-0) def. Nelson Salas (4-3) via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
MW Bout: Evan Thompson (4-0) def. Allen Nelson (2-2) via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)