The Weekend Review - #3
Leon Edwards Dominates Colby | Sunny Comes Up Short & Paddy Pimblett Returns.
Evening all,
WHAT A WEEKEND.
UFC 296 delivered plenty of storylines and we witnessed the birth of a potential multi weight star in Arizona which makes it difficult to know where to start but the man below was so good and may have just transitioned into a crossover star!
LEON HUMBLES COLBY.
I could have changed the word ‘humbles’ but I will try to keep a bit of class…unlike Colby.
As I said on Friday, what Colby said was just horrible.
I am all for him playing a character but he went too far this week and Leon made him pay a pretty brutal price for it.
Watching the fight my initial thoughts were Colby was doing everything to just not get knocked out.
Almost like going to a decision was a victory for him and he could keep this whole character thing rolling on but as the dust settles it’s hard to imagine a top level competitor, someone that has been fighting to some degree his whole life, would now develop a mentality like that.
So instead of offering Colby the excuse, the praise should just go straight to Leon.
From round one, he dominated with pressure and let’s be honest, it was a striking clinic.
When he weren’t bouncing his jab off the centre of Colby’s face, he was dominating the grappling exchanges for fun.
A place that people, myself included, thought Colby had an advantage.
Leon was brilliant and he is just brilliant.
More impressive than his performance is his mentality.
To have a dead loved one taunted and still manage to be the coolest man in the arena takes an ELITE mindset.
99.9% of us would have reacted in the complete opposite way and to be able to separate the two things is why Leon is one of the best athletes walking the planet.
But because he made it so easy.
It shouldn’t be overlooked.
He has been a champion that hasn’t really got the worldwide recognition for too long.
So to me the performance is secondary. Yes, he dealt with Colby and embarrassed him for 25 minutes but he proved that you can do all that and still hold yourself in the correct way.
Colby should take a leaf.
Once his face heels up…
CARD ROUNDUP.
The WOW moment on the card came from Josh Emmett as he starched Bryce Mitchell in the opening round.
We all love knockouts but that was one of the most violent I have ever witnessed and I guess the saying ‘the last thing to go is your power’ is true.
Bryce, who had so many advantages in this fight, looked hesitant from the opening seconds and I worried for him from that point.
I still believe Emmett is past his best but if you stand and wait for someone who can punch like that…it’s only going to end one way.
For Emmett he moves on and probably secures a big fight in 24’ but for Bryce the road back will be a tough one.
Obviously, the sport of MMA doesn’t care about records but that was a very rough loss.
I hope he is still the same fighter after but I have my doubts.
The two emerging fighters on the card Shavkhat Rakhmonov and Paddy Pimblett both got wins but with contrasting performances.
Everyone is running out of good things to say about Rakhmonov but this was his most impressive performance…by some distance.
Wonderboy may be 40 but he is by no means finished and to submit him…something nobody has ever done before…is an amazing achievement.
Everyone was talking about him being 17-0 (17KO) but nobody he has fought has been even close to the level of Stephen Thompson.
I thought the rounds would finally come for Shavkhat this weekend and he made an absolutely mockery of that.
He is so well rounded, so composed and comes across with real class.
He is without doubt the welterweight champion in waiting.
As for Paddy, he got the job done against Tony Ferguson but it weren’t as clean as he would have hoped, I’m sure.
He seemed happy after but if you have your eyes on breaking this lightweight top 15, you have to make statements in big moments and I think it slipped away for Paddy this weekend.
Obviously, he is undefeated, a huge name and a talent that is still developing but maybe putting the brakes on a little bit will help him.
The argument back at that will be ‘he is almost but 29’ but I don’t see the rush.
Once you break this lightweight top 15, there is no turning back and it’s just stupidly stacked.
Killers everywhere you look.
In fairness to him, I think he looked injured from round one onwards.
He was adamant his foot was fine but it looked like a reoccurring injury of the one that just kept him out for a year.
If that is the case, it would explain the apparent lack of gas he had in the third and fourth round and although people didn’t like those rounds, I actually think he showed good composure to take the fight that and neutralise Tony.
All in all, Paddy got the job done but with eyes on bigger things…he will want to make a statement when we see him again next year.
PRELIM BANGERS.
The prelims were arguably more entertaining than the main card but the best fight by far was Irene Aldana vs Karol Rosa.
My words don’t do it justice.
If you haven’t seen it…find it.
Alonzo Menifield brought us a nice underdog winner on the picks but it was a fight I thought he could have made a lot easier for himself.
As I said last week, I felt he matched up well with Jacoby but he just didn’t look like he had the conditioning to follow up on any time he hurt Jacoby.
In the end, he got the job done but it was closer than it needed to be!
Former champ Cody Garbrandt also landed a bet for us and continued his rebuild at bantamweight.
Cody is such a likeable guy and a brilliant fighter and it looks like he finally has matured.
He was a step ahead of Kelleher all night and winning this by knockout isn’t going to define this next stage of his career but if he gets a fight with the man he called out…he could be in like for a title shot in the next 12-18 months.
The call out of Figueredo was very smart and a brilliant stylistic matchup for both men really.
If Cody was to win that…make it three out of three, I think he would start to make waves at bantamweight and it would be great for the division to have a name like that back in the mix.
GET THE FIGHT MADE!
BAM TAMES SUNNY.
This battle of the flyweights has been somewhat overlooked this weekend but if was one of the best fights I have watched in a long time.
It was clear early that Bam’s power was the difference but Sunny Edwards deserves so much credit.
His eye was bust up BAD in the second round and he could have easily got on his bike but he dug his toes in and he actually tried to win the fight.
I know he has since said he could barely see Bam but Sunny has enough experience now that he could have opted to fight in a more negative way and probably survived longer but he never.
I don’t agree with those saying he quit.
When a fighter is pulled out or pulls themselves out, I am a firm believer in it being judged case by case and when I was watching this in real time on Sunday morning…my first instinct wasn’t that he quit.
He just got beat and to be fair to him, he has owned it since.
Jesse Rodriguez proved beyond any doubt that he is the superior fighter at this moment in time and I believe this may be the start of a long run for him…potentially across a couple of weights.
I would be lying if I said he was someone I have always believed in but he silenced any doubt this weekend.
Nobody has laid a glove on Sunny for a long time. Let alone stopped him.
Bam is entering 2024 as perhaps the most exciting fighter in the world and for Sunny, the show goes on.
He is divisive, I get it.
Majority of the time I don’t agree with what he is saying or how he is acting on social media but when was the last time the boxing public bothered about flyweights?
We have a few people who shine a light on the lower divisions but the fact is most people don’t care.
They did this weekend.
Congrats to both men and I hope we one day see it again!
COMING UP.
Our final big week of the year and I will be back on Thursday with the Early Picks Post for those of you that subscribe. If not, you can below!
Failing that, The Final Word will be out on Friday evening!
See you all then!!