Last night (Sat., March 11, 2023), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) remained in Las Vegas, Nevada, for UFC Las Vegas. However, the promotion ventured a few miles beyond the typical Apex venue, meaning there was a live audience and better fights! The main event featured a collision of Top Five Bantamweights in Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili, which was also an intriguing style clash. Disastrous weigh-ins aside, there was a great deal of talent throughout the card, so it was a lot of fun from top-to-bottom.
Let’s take a look at UFC Las Vegas’ best performances and techniques:
Merab Dvalishvili made Petr Yan look very average last night.
After a competitive first round, “The Machine” took over. His wrestling onslaught and overall relentlessness never allowed Yan to get in a word of his own, and the combination of damage and fatigue slowly nullified Yan. By the end of the fight, he was barely throwing shots, and when he did try to swing, he looked off-balanced and simply worn down.
It’s a perfect example of Dvalishvili’s trap, his cycle of constant offense that prevents opponents from doing … anything really! For a more in-depth read of that process, check out my full article HERE.
As it turns out, 20 additional pounds of fat is not the best base for MMA.
Alexander Romanov packed on about that much weight compared to his previous weigh in, and it certainly didn’t look like muscle. Alexander Volkov, meanwhile, stood far taller than his opponent, and he put on some serious muscle just a couple years ago to fill out his frame. The difference was plenty noticeable, and it played out in the fight.
Romanov couldn’t take his opponent down. He tried several times, and it never happened. He found himself stranded on the feet with “Drago,” who promptly stabbed his belly with snap kicks and found big right hand connections at distance. Romanov was forced to take another bad shot, allowing Volkov to get on top and finish with strikes.
In the opening seconds of the fight, Nikita Krylov charged forward with heavy swings, showing no respect for his opponent’s vaunted knockout power. Moments later, Ryan Spann jumped on a guillotine choke, showing no respect for his opponent’s vaunted submission grappling!
Neither man fought with any intention of staying in the cage for 15 full minutes. After those initial exchanges, however, there were almost no strikes thrown. Instead. the two big men traded positions and submission threats. Spann surprised with his scrambling ability, managing to stand up and reverse position on several occasions in the short fight.
Unfortunately for “Superman,” Krylov is simply the better submission fighter. After escaping out the back door, he dove into Krylov’s guard straight into a triangle just as his gas tank was starting to feel the insane pace. He didn’t have much left to defend, resulting in a tap that concluded the very fun grappling match.
Outside of hardcore fight fans, Raphael Assuncao is not widely considered a divisional great. That’s a tall task at Bantamweight, where there have been many generations of extremely skilled fighters.
Yet, Assuncao has earned that status. He spent the better part of a decade ranked in the Top 5-10, defeating men like TJ Dillashaw, Aljamain Sterling, and Marlon Moraes in that span. He never found himself in a title shot, not because he never put together a good enough streak, but mainly because he’s never been a huge draw.
To fans of tricky and skilled veterans, however, Assuncao has always been a favorite. Last time out, he managed to upset Victor Henry, another solid name for his resume. At 40 years of age, Assuncao fans were hoping for at least one more classic performance.
They got two rounds of it.
The Brazilian has never been the most athletic man, but his combination of strong wrestling and crafty counter punching has stymied many. For most of the fight, he kept Davey Grant’s landing percentage very low, sticking occasional punches of his own alongside calf kicks and some pivotal top control time.
Unfortunately for Assuncao, Grant is a wild man. He kept throwing massive hooks in the third, and finally, one of those overhands connected. Assuncao wore it well and wrestled to survive, but a spinning backfist later in the round really took away his legs. He again tried to wrestle, but Grant countered with a reverse triangle, quickly locking it deep and going hard with the squeeze. With short time remaining, Assuncao went unconscious, leaving his gloves in the cage afterward.
It was a brutal way to go, typical of MMA.
For complete UFC Las Vegas: “Yan vs. Dvalishvili” results and play-by-play, click HERE.
This content was originally published here.