1. Derrick Lewis’s Last Minute Finish
Down on all the cards heading into the final 30 seconds of the fight Lewis had no choice but to throw all his eggs into one basket, we’ve seen many fighters go for broke late in a contest, rarely does it ever pay off. Derrick Lewis nailed the hail mary play in dramatic fashion.
Fan favourite Lewis sent the crowd into a frenzy which would set the pace for things to come. The Black Beast has had his share of injury troubles but he’s 13-2 in the UFC with 10 of those wins coming by way of knockout. The win on Saturday marks two wins on the bounce against highly respected contenders, Derrick Lewis is now fighting Daniel Cormier for the Heavyweight Title at Madison Square Garden on November 3rd.
2. Derrick Lewis’s Post Fight Interview
Punching power isn’t the only attribute Lewis is gifted with, he also has a funny side which is best displayed on his Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/thebeastufc/?hl=en.
Derrick Lewis has managed to gain a big following on social media throughout his career owing mostly to his humorous personality, all his social media sites received a huge boost following UFC 229 and it had nothing to do with his athletic performance. He’s got a reputation for pushing the boundaries during his post-fight interviews, UFC 229 might have been his best work yet.
Take a look for yourself.
3. The Fight of The Night Bloodbath
On paper, Tony Ferguson vs Anthony Pettis looked like a potential classic, it did not disappoint. The fight had a little bit of everything, Ferguson looked to be down and out when Anthony Pettis had him wobbling around the octagon.
Ferguson would rally to land some elbows which caused a cut on the top of Pettis’s head, the ensuing blood gave the fight an extra visual stimulus with both fighters painted in crimson adding to the drama. Ultimately Ferguson started to gain control towards the end of the second round.
Pettis also suffered a fracture to his right hand sometime during the second, upon receiving this news on the stool between rounds 2 and 3 Pettis’s coach Duke Rufous made the decision to withdraw his fighter from the contest to save him further damage. The fight was waived off & an emotional Tony Ferguson was reduced to tears following the most troublesome year in his professional career.
In October of 2017, Ferguson defeated Kevin Lee to claim the Interim Lightweight Title, he was scheduled to face Khabib Nurmagomedov to crown an Undisputed Champion, however, weeks before the fight Ferguson had a freak accident tripping over some loose wire in a media studio which caused a ligament tear in his right knee.
Unable to compete Ferguson was stripped of his title & the Undisputed Championship was contested without his involvement. This fight against Pettis was Ferguson’s shot at redemption, now he is once again the rightful contender to the belt his longtime rival Khabib Nurmagomedov currently holds.
4. Khabib Nurmagomedov’s Performance
Even though Khabib was 26-0 entering UFC 229 there were still some doubters who claimed he hadn’t been tested enough by the higher ranked fighters in the 155lb weight division. It was a fair criticism, the stage was set for Khabib to finally set the record straight.
A fight which seemed somewhat even on paper with both guys excelling in each other’s weak areas (I analysed this in my preview which can be found here http://www.slickstermagazine.com/ufc-229-khabib-mcgregor-highlights-predictions/) turned out to be another brutally dominant victory for Khabib. He was surprisingly calm when striking, even managing to score the only knockdown of the fight.
In these big fights you get a true sense of a fighters quality, Khabib looked comfortable under the bright lights, his decision making was perfect he managed to execute his gameplan without running into any trouble at all. The only bit of bad news for Khabib is his record of not losing a single round in the UFC was ended when McGregor edged the third on the official cards, his streak ended at 31 only two short of the all-time record of 33 rounds held by Georges St-Pierre.
Excluding the third round, it was a familiar pattern for a Khabib Nurmagomedov fight. Takedown, smash, repeat.
McGregor had fired some personal insults at Khabib in the run-up to this fight, mocking his faith & questioning his father’s integrity. It was all fun and games as per usual for McGregor, Khabib made him pay for every unsavoury word spoken. McGregor’s suffering was finally ended when Khabib submitted him with an adapted neck crank, crushing Mcgregor’s jaw under the pressure of his squeeze.
The statistics speak for themselves when evaluating Khabib’s dominant run in the UFC, http://www.ufc.com/fighter/Khabib-Nurmagomedov. Onwards and upwards for the eagle of Dagestan.
5. The Brawl After the Main Event
The biggest talking point to come out of UFC 229 was, of course, the post-fight melee between first Khabib and a member of McGregor’s team (Dillon Danis) and then a few members of Khabib’s team swarming Conor in the Octagon.
It all kicked off when Danis exchanged words with Khabib from outside the cage immediately after the fight had finished, khabib then jumped over the cage and attempted a flying stomp, the two had a brief scuffle before being separated by security.
Whilst this was going on McGregor was isolated inside the cage, it looked as if he attempted to punch one of Khabib’s cornermen (20-second mark in the video below) who was trying to get closer to the altercation between Khabib and Danis. McGregor was then confronted by the man he attempted to punch as well as another one of Khabib’s team members who appeared to punch McGregor from behind.
https://youtu.be/GG0EsWvUEi4
Everyone was escorted safely into the back except for Khabib Nurmagomedov, he was adamant the belt ceremony should still be completed. Dana White was concerned the act would incite a bad reaction from the crowd, possibly ending with crowd members throwing objects towards the octagon, endangering the safety of the people seated ringside.
Khabib eventually softened his stance, he was the last man to leave the octagon.
I have watched every single UFC pay-per-view event since UFC 71, this is the first time anything like this has ever happened at a UFC event. As soon as Khabib scaled the cage there was an instant feeling of something bad was about to happen. Dana White who is the president of the UFC was understandably upset with what happened, I don’t entirely agree that it was all bad press for the company.
The incident is definitely a bad example for young martial artists in respects to conduct, it also compromises the UFC’s reputation concerning the crowd’s safety during events.
Did it not bring added publicity to the event though? I am certain there are people who didn’t buy the card but upon finding out what happened searched for videos of the post-fight scenes. Is it so different to the UFC using footage of the bus attack which injured two fighters as part of the promotion for Khabib vs McGregor?.
If there are going to be no boundaries set by the UFC in terms of what can be said and done during the build-up for a fight then it’s going to be difficult to contain the consequences that come with that, we are dealing with let’s not forget the most elite level of fighters on the planet.
If you look at the type of video clips that go viral most of it is comprised of outlandish behaviour and contentious comments. The numbers don’t lie, controversy creates public interest, this was billed as “The Biggest UFC Event of All Time” and it turned out to be true just not for the reason many people expected it to.
All video content embedded in this article belongs to UFC/Zuffa LLC.