Best and Worst from UFC: Ultimate Fighter 28 Finale

The 28th season of The Ultimate Fighter is in the bag, and last night we got a very mixed bag of fights for the Finale show in Las Vegas. While the show was low on name value, we were treated to a handful of cool finishes and a pretty solid main event, but elsewhere we also got some dull fights and some massively weird moments.

The TUF finals themselves were a mixed bag again – more on that later – but it looks like we might’ve seen a new top contender crowned at 170lbs and where the division heads from there are now apparently up in the air.

Here are the best and worst moments from the TUF 28 Finale.

#1 Best: Usman stakes his claim

Usman busted Dos Anjos up after 5 rounds

Going into last night’s main event against Rafael Dos Anjos, the big question surrounding Kamaru Usman wasn’t so much about his fighting skill – he’s proven long ago that he’s an elite-level Welterweight – it was more about whether he could put on an entertaining fight and win in the process. Well, last night he again proved his skill level – he dismantled RDA over five rounds – and while he didn’t pick up a much-needed finish, he certainly did enough to entertain the fans.

RDA had some good moments of his own – most notably a hard upkick that snapped Usman’s head back late in the first round, and then a close kimura attempt in the second – but for the most part ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ simply put too much pressure on him. He mixed in his powerful takedowns with a much-improved striking game, beating RDA to the punch and busting him up, and in the end there was no doubt who the winner was. Realistically, Dos Anjos did well to survive the onslaught.

The expectation was that with a win, Usman would be next in line to face the winner of Tyron Woodley vs. Colby Covington, but surprisingly, Dana White was apparently so impressed with this showing that Usman might well jump the queue – assuming he wasn’t hurt against RDA – and be next in line for Woodley. It’d be a bit of a shocker but to be fair, Usman beat RDA more convincingly than Covington did in my eyes anyway. At any rate, this was a career-best performance from the Nigerian and it was an entertaining one too.

#1 Worst: Yves Lavigne’s gaffe causes Benavidez to get two finishes

A refereeing gaffe basically forced Joseph Benavidez to finish Alex Perez twice

Refereeing gaffes are thankfully rare in the UFC these days, but we got a classic one from Yves Lavigne last night, bad enough to cause Joseph Benavidez to essentially have to finish opponent Alex Perez twice. Quite what the Canadian official was thinking, I simply don’t know.

Midway through the first round, Perez went for a takedown, only for Benavidez to stuff it and begin landing solid punches to the side of the head. It looked like Perez was done – he certainly stopped defending himself – and Lavigne appeared to stop the fight, placing his hands on Benavidez, only to pull back when Perez suddenly went for a single leg takedown.

Naturally, Benavidez had already stopped his attack and suddenly had to switch up to defend the takedown. A few moments later, pretty much the same sequence happened and this time Lavigne stopped the fight for real.

It didn’t really affect Benavidez in the end – he cracked a joke about it post-fight – but it certainly would’ve had an effect on poor Perez, who essentially got TKO’d twice. And can you imagine the controversy had Perez actually come back to win? I’m not suggesting refereeing in MMA is easy, but an experienced ref like Lavigne should know when to step in and not flip-flop like that. This was a horrendous mistake.

#2 Best: Roosevelt Roberts’ insane guillotine

Roosevelt Roberts finished Darrell Horcher with a vicious guillotine

The FS1 prelims went so quickly last night that the UFC were able to televise one of the earlier Fight Pass bouts, and thank the lord they did, as Roosevelt Roberts’ sick guillotine tapout of Darrell Horcher was by far the best finish of the night. Roberts – who already has 4 guillotine choke finishes on his record if you count his amateur days – snatched Horcher’s neck in a way that we’ve rarely seen before inside the Octagon.

After hurting him with some strikes, Roberts found himself pressured into the fence, but quickly he laced his left arm around the neck of Horcher and then grabbed onto a guillotine, switching it up into the ‘prayer’ variant popularised by Cody McKenzie back in 2010. From there he somehow lifted Horcher off his feet, holding him horizontally for a second before he tapped out.

Guillotine chokes are relatively common but it’s rare that you see one as vicious-looking as this – the only one to come close in my mind was Scott Jorgensen’s choke of Chad George in the WEC almost a decade ago. This was a phenomenal finish and marks Roberts as a man to keep an eye on.

#2 Worst: The Heavyweight TUF bouts were pretty bad

Juan Espino dominated Justin Frazier in the Heavyweight final match

Prior to Season 28, TUF had featured Heavyweight fighters on two occasions – Season 2 and Season 10. While those seasons were full of relatively sloppy action, we did at least get some serious talent from them – Rashad Evans and Keith Jardine from Season 2, and Roy Nelson and Brendan Schaub from Season 10. On the flip side though, last night’s Heavyweight bouts didn’t give me a lot of hope.

Firstly, in the battle of losing semi-finalists, kickboxer Maurice Greene submitted former Olympic wrestler Michel Batista with a triangle choke in the first round, but it was hardly the world’s quickest triangle and it looked more like Batista simply didn’t realise it was happening before it was too late. It was a good finish for Greene but didn’t offer much hope for him against the UFC’s top big men, if I’m honest. For Batista, it probably marks the end of a brief UFC career.

The final of the tournament saw Juan Espino completely outgrapple Justin Frazier, finishing him with a straight armlock in the first. Espino admittedly looked good here, but at 38 years old and with a seemingly low athletic ceiling, can he really expect to compete with the likes of Alexander Volkov or Francis Ngannou? Frazier meanwhile simply didn’t look to be in good shape and didn’t really get a chance to come out of the blocks. It’s honestly hard to see him having any success going forward.

Nothing against any of these 4 men, who are clearly decent fighters and earned their opportunities, but it’s perhaps worth looking more at Dana White’s Contender Series – which has unearthed a couple of solid, athletic prospects (Greg Hardy, Augusto Sakai) and can be more selective – rather than another season of TUF dedicated to the big men.

#3 Best: Chiasson gives hope for Women’s Featherweight

Macy Chiasson looks like a prospect to watch at 145lbs

If we’re honest, the UFC’s attempt at a Women’s Featherweight division thus far has been a complete farce. The promotion appears to be making no secret that the division is purely a vehicle to push Cris Cyborg – a rare pay-per-view draw – and so any attempts to build a division rather than just booking her in title fights has been kept to a minimum.

TUF 28 featuring the Women’s 145lbs class was the first sign that the UFC might be changing their ways with regards to the division – we’re actually getting another non-title fight later in the month too between Megan Anderson and Cat Zingano – and the show might’ve thrown up a surprising contender for some point down the road.

Macy Chiasson came into her final match with Pannie Kianzad as an underdog, largely because of her lack of experience and the fact that she was pegged purely as a striker, with Kianzad having more fights on her record and looking more well-rounded. That wasn’t the case though, as Chiasson – a natural 145lber who was much bigger than Kianzad – dominated in all areas and eventually choked her foe out in the second round.

Nobody will be calling for a title shot for Chiasson soon – Cyborg would likely maul her – but the addition of another genuine 145lber to go alongside the champ and contender Megan Anderson suggests some hope for the division, if it’s only slim hope. If the UFC can sign a few more fighters, there might be the making of something there.

#3 Worst: Las Vegas crowds don’t care any more

Las Vegas is the home of the UFC, but smaller shows like last night's should move elsewhere

Everyone knows that the UFC’s “home” is Las Vegas and thus the ‘entertainment capital of the world’ gets the most UFC shows every year. That’s all well and good when it comes to the big shows – the Vegas crowd were rabid for October’s Nurmagomedov/McGregor fight for instance – but when it comes to smaller shows like last night’s, they simply don’t seem to care.

Fights like Antonina Shevchenko vs. Ji Yeon Kim and Darren Stewart vs. Edmen Shahbazyan were perfectly acceptable bouts, but the lack of crowd enthusiasm made them feel like two of 2018’s most dull, which just wasn’t fair really. The crowd also appeared extremely small and didn’t really get truly loud at any stage.

My suggestion – assuming the new ESPN deal keeps TUF running – is for the UFC to take these Finale shows on the road. Smaller states like New Hampshire, Delaware and Rhode Island still haven’t seen a live UFC show, and the promotion hasn’t been back to places like Iowa or Alabama since the Zuffa takeover in 2001. Why not take these shows there? The likelihood is that the UFC would get a decent crowd and most certainly a more enthusiastic one than the poor one we saw last night.