Fight Night: UFC 301 Recap

UFC 301 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil was a pretty lackluster looking card. Following a card as stacked as UFC 299 and UFC 300 with ranked fighters is near impossible but Dana White was still able to make some interesting fights. These fights included the Co-Main event which was the return of Jose Aldo. Aldo is arguably one of the best featherweights of all time despite being knocked out by Connor McGregor shockingly defeating him in 2015. Also the Main Event which consisted of current flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja and UFC newcomer Steve Erceg.

The night began with Caio Borralho vs. Paul Craig. Now honestly I didn’t know much of anything about these two fighters going into this fight. In the fight however, there was a very clear striking advantage from the beginning. Borralhos strikes were significantly faster than Craig, and Craig did not seem willing to strike with Borralho as a result. He immediately tried to get the fight to the ground, where he assumed he could use his grappling advantage. However, Borralho did a great job of keeping the fight on the feet and picking Craig apart before scoring a huge knockout victory in the second round. 

Now we can get into the fights I know more about. The second fight of the night was between Michel Pereira and Ihor Potieria. Pereira is known to be one of the most electrifying fighters in the UFC using his unorthodox techniques to find ways to damage his opponents. That only continued in this fight were it took him only a matter of seconds to score a knockdown. That’s when classic Pereira came out as he backflipped his way past the guard of Potieria landing a knee to the chest.  Potieria was clearly damaged by this strike which allowed Pereira to lock up a very tight standing guillotine and forced the tap out after just a few more seconds. Securing the submission win in just fifty four seconds.

The third fight was Anthony Smith vs. Vitor Petrino. Petrino made it clear right away that he came to win this fight. He continously pushed the pace with his striking and heavy shots. Smith struggled to get any offense going as Petrino was battering him on the feet. However, Petrino decided to switch it up and look for a takedown. Smith managed to lock in a guillotine on Petrino and he could not get himself out of trouble on the ground. Smith squeezed his way to a submission victory just two minutes into the fight pulling off a major upset victory.

The Co-Main event of the night was the highly anticipated Jose Aldo vs. Jonathan Martinez. Aldo kept Martinez backing up for most of the fight and never really allowed him to get off any of his offense. Aldo was essentially just owning Martinez on the feet throughout the entire fight, but Martinez did have a bright spot late in the second round which looked like it may change momentum. This did not happen however, as Aldo landed a good left hook that rocked Martinez in the middle of the third. Aldo then scored a big takedown and rode out Martinez in a big  unanimous decision victory.

The main event was the flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja vs. Steve Erceg. Pantoja held relentless pressure on Erceg as he seems to do in most of his fights landing some big combinations while also mixing in his strong grappling game. In the second round momentum began to shift as Erceg began to find his range in the striking game. Erceg found his offense landing a massive elbow that cut Pantoja badly. This cut seemed to effect Pantoja significantly as he was far less active in the fourth round. Heading into the fifth with the championship still very much on the line, the striking battle was very close to close out the fight, but Erceg interestingly shot for a couple of takedowns which both ended up being reversed. Pantoja was able to end the fight on top which ultimately would earn him a  decision victory to retain the title.