My oh my, what a show UFC 228 turned out to be, y’all. Going in, there was the normal shit talk from the casuals that this was a terrible card with no-names….um just because Conor McGregor isn’t fighting doesn’t mean it’s a shit card. But, hey – that’s why they’re called casuals.
There were also grumblings of the main event having the potential to be a snooze-fest, which legit made me laugh out loud. Tyron Woodley may have had to play it conservative against Stephen Thompson and Demian Maia (for obvious fucking reasons). But, the guy put Robbie Lawler down (which I saw live and was saddened yet wow’d all in one). So, categorizing him as a ‘boring’ fighter is just silly as we saw Saturday night.
Other than the main event, there wasn’t a whole lot of talk about this card, aside from the co-main being scrapped due to health concerns for Nicco Montano, which meant we were destined for some grade A certified bangers.
Fight(s) of the Night:
I just want to say real quick that out of 13 fights, we saw NINE finishes. So, work with me here.
Irene Aldana vs. Lucie Pudilova: This was the second fight of the night and wasn’t on TV, which means not enough people saw this scrap and that’s a damn shame. This was a rock’em sock’em robots kind of fight with both ladies fighting in a phone booth and just winging shots. It went to a razor close decision with Aldana getting the win. But, both ladies left with $50,000 for winning FOTN and we got to watch a scrap. We all won, really.
Jim Miller vs. Alex White: Jim Miller is a bad, bad man. This was his 30th appearance under the UFC banner…30th! His first octagon appearance came back in October of 2008. So, after some quick math, that’s 30 appearances in just under 10 years, y’all. He’s been in some absolute wars (2012 vs. Joe Lauzon anyone?), so this kind of longevity is simply bat shit crazy kind of tough. Miller secured his 17th win (most in UFC Lightweight history) about 90 seconds in with a rear-naked choke, then presumably drank beer all night before going on a morning hunt, because that’s what a BAMF like Jim Miller probably does.
The Entire Prelim Card on FX: All four of these fights delivered finishes with Geoff Neal having probably the most vicious KO thanks to an absolutely disgusting head kick to Frank Camacho. Neal really took Camacho apart piece by piece before landing that thumping kick to the cranium.
Charles Byrd and Darren Stewart threw down with Byrd getting the better of things for a little while until “The Dentist” landed a couple of humdingers including some gnarly elbows. That’s back to back wins/finishes for Stewart. Alijamain Sterling wow’d us with a modified kneebar win over Cody Stamann. Sterling needed an impressive win. Making quick work of Stamann (who was coming off a win over Bryan Caraway) was just that.
The final fight on the prelims felt like a testing ground fight for Tatiana Suarez as she squared off with former UFC champ Carla Esparza. This was a straight mauling. Suarez was all over Esparza from the jump. After what felt like fourteen minutes and thirty three seconds of Suarez ground n’ pounding, the official stopped the fight. I can’t stress how big of a butt kicking this was or how impressive of a performance this was for Tatiana. Suarez moves to 7-0 with her sights set on an opponent in the top five.
Jessica Andrade vs. Karolina Kozalkiewicz: Holy shit, Jessica Andrade is scary. Very, very rarely do you see a one punch knockout in the strawweight division, like…never, but Andrade put Karolina DOWN with one tap. I mean Andrade smacked her around early. But, about two minutes in, she landed a counter right with Karolina lunging in that just turned the lights out for a second. Big KO win for JA as she pushes her win streak to three in a row.
UFC Welterweight Championship
Tyron Woodley vs. Darren Till- TWood secured the bag and retained his title by D’Arce choke, though it really was a win by way of complete dominance. Woodley’s last two opponents (Demian Maia and Stephen Thompson) are the definition of ‘riddles inside mysteries inside of enigmas.’ He needed a lot of patience to beat those guys, leading to lackluster reaction from just about everyone that doesn’t understand the fight game.
Now, with those dudes in the rear view, Woodley came out firing last night. He was all over Till with Till not really landing anything at all. This was another feather in the cap of Woodley as he took on the undefeated young buck and walked away without a scratch on him.
On the flip side, this was Till’s first loss and he’s still got sooooooooo many big fights ahead of him. So, this feels like an excellent learning experience for him. He would have loved a better showing. But, I really don’t think he or his camp expected to see that version of Woodley. Which, again, that’s a lesson that can be learned all around. Next up for Woodley has to be the showdown with that deplorable Colby Covington. These two have gone back and forth on Twitter since Covington won the interim title (that I believe was stripped so hahahahahaha). It’s only a matter of time until Woodley does us all a favor and puts that ass hat down.
Other notes
Abdul Razak Alhassan opened the main card up with a :43 first round knockout of Niko Price.
Jimmie Rivera beat John Dodson by unanimous decision.
Zabit used a modified kneebar to defeat Brandon Davis in the second round.
John Mosley is the independent wrestling and TV aficionado of the SoBros Network. He graduated from ETSU with a degree in Radio, TV and Film along with a minor in Film Studies. Since graduating he’s done pretty much nothing but watch, film, edit or commentate for local wrestling promotions and is the current color commentator for Resolute Wrestling. #Preds #Titans #DefendOrVacateConor – Follow on Twitter: @SoBroMose
Check out the SoBros Shop. Subscribe to our Patreon. Give us money for no reason. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter @SoBrosNetwork. Listen on SoundCloud. Watch on YouTube.
