UFC 251: The Ripple Effect

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By Anthony “Zute” George

Spoiler Alert: This is not a fight report, per se, but results of UFC 251 are revealed.

UFC 251, the first card at Fight Island in Abu Dhabi, is just as much about the production than the fights itself. Due to the Coronavirus, Fight Island indeed appears to be the home for many UFC cards. The other being the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. With that dynamic, the microscope will no doubt be out. Will it do well? Will the fact that there is still no major fan audience be a distracting factor?

Will the safety protocols put in place be enough, and will they indeed work? Many of these answers have a wait and see attachment. The first, will it do well, will depend heavily on the pay per view numbers. As far as no major fan audience, in many ways, the answer is in the eye of the beholder. For me, I did not notice the minimal crowd while the action was going on. With that being said, the viewers are not the only ones who must answer that question. How does it affect the fighters? And how would these fights be different if put forth in front of a ravenous crowd for the fighters themselves?

As far as safety protocols go, only time will tell. Immediately, I did not like the fact that some people who worked the corners were not wearing masks, and there were absolutely zero social distancing measures taken during the post-fight show, however. I am not sure why so many safety and quarantine measures were made just to see those slips through the cracks, so to speak. Time will tell.

Of course, with all sports, an examination of the product itself is salient. On paper, UFC 251 was as good as it gets in combat sports. On the Main Card, fans were given three promising title fights and a female fight that could have been a main event fight under the right circumstances. But paper only ever tells a small percentage of any sports story. The finished product should always be the headline. Therefore, let us look at The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of UFC 251.

The Good:

Fantastic opening bout between Davey Grant and Martin Day. A fight of the night candidate. A solid come from behind effort for Grant, as he captured a much-deserved performance of the night bonus.

Solid performances from budding stars Amanda Ribas and Jiri Prochazka, after Saturday’s performances, fans will no doubt be craving for more.

Fans witnessed a classic battle between Petr Yan and Jose Aldo. Yan’s youth and striking savvy proved too much for the veteran Aldo. But not because of a lack of effort. Yan has a crowd-pleasing style and should provide fans with a roller coaster ride as the new bantamweight champion.

The sensational fight between The Thug Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade. The clear choice for fight of the night. Showing once again how mixed martial arts is so ahead of boxing in its respect for female athletes.

The Bad:

Paige VanZant. Indeed, she is sexy, she is eye candy, and yes, she can fight. However, she has not done much recently to warrant a spot on a main pay per view card. Her opening bout with Amanda Ribas was not worth the price of admission for fans. At the very least, Paige must show she can win a couple of fights on the preliminary card before we see her in that sport again.

Roman Bogatov’s lightweight debut in the UFC did not do anything for him. He failed to impress and is now more remembered for fouls, rather than MMA skills. Ouch!

Kamaru Usman did absolutely nothing to squelch his very disrespectful nickname of Snozeman. I will let you in on a little secret. When you hear someone say, you really have to understand the sport of mixed martial arts to appreciate what you are watching, is a translation for, yes, I know this could be as dull as watching paint dry, but you are watching a very skilled painter. There is no doubt Usman is one of the most skilled MMA fighters in the world today. And he performed well in what was an impossible spot for him. If he beats Jorge Masvidal, he did so against a guy who took the fight on ridiculously short notice. Had he lost, the narrative would have been, how could he lose against a guy who took the fight on such short notice, ‘See, he is trash.’ With that said, Usman is typically not a thrilling fighter to watch, and Saturday night, he cured a lot of insomnia much more than he created excitement. I recommend not placing Usman on the main event for a pay per view card for his next few fights. When you are in such a spot, you know you are going on late in the night for the East Coast audience. Not the ideal spot for fans to appreciate Kamru’s long and short strokes.

The Ugly:

The scoring the scoring, oh the scoring. These judges are affecting careers. It is terrible when everyone except for two paid officials felt that Max Holloway did more than enough to win his title back. But that was far from the only mishap of the night. How did two judges come to the conclusion that Jorge Masvidal did not win the first round? What is most ugly about this is since Usman clearly won the rest of the rounds and the fight, there will be little noise about it. The fact that the right guy way should not shade such incompetence. The scoring in the Muslim Salikhov Vs Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos fight was also very troubling. I am not sure if Muslim even won the match, but there is no way he won all three rounds, as one judge suggested.

The scoring in the Fight of the Night was also questionable. Namajunas clearly won the first two rounds. Making the 29-28 score in favor of Andrade horrific. However, why was round three not a 10-8 round for Andrade? If that were the case, a draw of 28-28 would have been the result. The trouble with the philosophy of scoring in MMA, precisely what constitutes a 10-8 round, is as convoluted as to how to actually pronounce Petr Yan’s name; I have heard it pronounced at least three different ways. It is hard to provide didactic lecturing to judges when the guidelines for a 10-8 round are continually changing and not agreed upon. I am not sure what the right answer is. What I do know is this, if the third round of Andrade Vs Namajunas was not a 10-8 round, then such a round should not exist save for a complete one-sided massacre.

Speaking of a one-sided massacre, the failure of referee Leon Roberts to stop the Yan/Aldo fight sooner than what he is the ugliest of the ugly. There is no excuse for such incompetence, and Roberts should not be able to be a referee again until after he goes through some intense training and lecturing. A horrific ending to an otherwise great fight.

Overall, UFC 251 was a solid B+. Fans who spent their money will not be complaining when they awake on Sunday.

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