#2. Jalin Turner viciously dispatches Jamie Mullarkey
UFC 272’s preliminary card was short on knockouts, even if it wasn’t short on solid action. However, that changed when Jalin Turner met Jamie Mullarkey in the final bout before the main card.
‘The Tarantula’, buoyed by winning his last three octagon bouts via stoppage, looked like a man possessed from the moment he began his fight last night. Essentially, the usually-durable Mullarkey stood no chance.
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Mullarkey did survive the first round, but it didn’t exactly seem promising for him. He was firmly outstruck on the feet and was only able to slow down the offense of Turner with a strong takedown late in the round.
In the second round, however, he was not so lucky. In the opening minute of the stanza, ‘The Tarantula’ landed a brutal right hook that dropped the Australian fighter. From there, Turner pounced and destroyed him with punches for the stoppage.
Quite how far Turner can go in the packed lightweight division is anyone’s guess, but given his huge size – he’s 6’3” and has a 77” reach – he could prove to be a handful for any 155lber in the UFC. How this performance didn’t net him a bonus $50k is anyone’s guess.
#1. Kevin Holland arrives as a UFC welterweight with a comeback win over Alex Oliveira
While it didn’t receive the Fight of the Night award – that somehow went to the headline bout between Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal – it’s probably safe to say that the most explosive fight of the night came between Kevin Holland and Alex Oliveira.
Holland’s first bout in the UFC welterweight division looked like it might go badly for him early on. It seemed like ‘The Trailblazer’ had underestimated his Brazilian opponent as he struggled for traction on the feet. Holland was knocked down at one point with a right hand. He also came very close to being choked out as the round ended.
However, rather than causing him to wilt, the bad round only seemed to fire Holland up. In the second round, ‘Cowboy’ was faced with a different ‘Trailblazer’ altogether.
Holland turned up the pressure in the opening seconds, and as Oliveira threw a low kick, the former middleweight countered with a nasty right hand that put his rival down hard.
Seconds later, ‘The Trailblazer’ pounced and finished Olveira off with a brutal salvo of ground-and-pound, pulling off quite a stirring comeback in the process.
The win was enough to net Holland a $50k bonus cheque, and while Oliveira did his part in producing an explosive encounter, it’s ‘The Trailblazer’ who will move up the ladder at 170lbs. If he can continue to fight like this, he’ll be a must-see attraction in his new division for sure.