The UFC Fight Night 89 card at Ottawa card featured some of Canada’s finest athletes, but as it would turn out, not their share of the spoils as a night of topsy-turvy fights was capped off by Stephen ‘Wonderboy” Thompson castling the country’s own Rory MacDonald.
Ranging from a high level, tactically-fuelled ‘chess match’ that was the main event, to an all-out stand-and-bang war that Steve Bosse and Sean O’Connell put on, the card was replete with fights that were as varied in their narratives and implications as they were in their nature.
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Coming off a stacked card that was UFC 199 and with the MMA fraternity keeping one eye on the looming landmark that is UFC 200 on July 9th, UFC Fight Night 89 at Ottawa more than held it’s own amidst all the furore and provided entertainment aplenty for fight fans.
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See the full results card here.
#5 A Women’s revolution?
Considering that Cyborg made her UFC debut last month, at a 140 pound catchweight no less, and the fact that the fight between Joanne Calderwood and Valerie Letourneau was the first one at Flyweight, the subtext is pretty self-evident.
The UFC is looking at expanding Women’s MMA and perhaps even into two whole new weight classes at 145 and 125 pounds.
Taking into account the IV ban imposed recently by USADA, athletes have been forced now more than ever to compete at natural weight classes, instead of dehydrating themselves and making a much lower weight.
And Letourneau, Calderwood and Cyborg may not be the only women who come out and express the trouble they face in cutting weight and competing at a lower weight class; on the contrary, they may well be the first ones to do so.
#4 Stand and Deliver
It may have been a reckless albeit maverick spirit that seized Max Holloway and Ricardo Lamas in the final 10 seconds of their fight at UFC 199, but Steve Bosse and Sean O’Connell embraced it willingly throughout the entirety of their fight.
It was almost as if the volcanic eruption of a fight between Travis Browne and Andrei Arlovski had been dragged out through three whole rounds, with O’Connell rocking and almost finishing Bosse in the first round and the Canadian returning the favour in the second.
And despite completely throwing caution to the wind in the third, both men braved the other’s best shots and were willing to stand and trade to take the fight to the distance.It was a surprise that it even lasted that long, but what wasn’t surprising was that it took the Fight of The Night honours by the time it was done.
#3 Donald Cerrone at Welterweight
If Conor McGregor’s loss to Nate Diaz exemplified anything, it was that jumping up weight classes could well end up as a risk that outweighs the rewards for the unsuspecting, or even for the over confident.
And despite the laid back approach that Cowboy reflected in the lead up to the fight, his performance against veteran Patrick Cote betrayed no signs of complacency. Rather, his approach of employing a wrestling heavy game in the first round took the sting out of Cote’s offence and laid him vulnerable to be picked off in the remaining two.
For a fighter famous for his legendary chin, it highlighted the effectiveness and variety of Cerrone’s offence that Cote was often made to look clueless and caught in limbo for the majority of the fight; neither convincing in defence nor displaying conviction in offence.
He seemed neither like a fighter who could stick his chin out and charge at his opponent, trusting it implicitly, nor like one who was bothered with shoring up his defence in hope of catching his opponent on the counter, en route to getting finished in the third round.
Patrick Cote isn’t a mediocre fighter by any stretch of imagination, but he was nonetheless made to look like one.On the other hand in keeping with his reputation, perhaps unsurprisingly, Donald Cerrone was prepared to make a quick turn around and fight at UFC 200 again.
#2 Title shot for Wonderboy!
If his decimation of former Welterweight Champion Johnny Hendricks didn’t do it for you, then Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson surely convinced you of the legitimacy of his title aspirations with the performance against perennial contender Rory MacDonald.
Gangly, sprightly, and ridiculously accurate, Wonderboy’s striking arsenal at range was once again in full display as he outclassed one of the most well-rounded fighters in the UFC with consummate ease.
By the end of the fight, MacDonald was left nursing a broken nose that apparently hasn’t recovered since the Robbie Lawler fight, while Stephen Thompson solidified his claim to a shot at the Welterweight crown after Champion and Tyron Woodley dance at UFC 201.
By his own admission, Wonderboy figured from Rory’s opening stance in the first round that the fight would play out more akin to a chess match rather than a full blown war, and by golly, wasn’t he proved right?
Rory MacDonald hardly managed to get close enough to Wonderboy to keep him locked in the clinch or to take him down, and even when he did, he was met with solid intercepting strikes and an opponent extricating himself from the pocket like oil from water.
It was an emphatic performance from Thompson, who has fast grown into the poster boy for the “movement movement” that has set the MMA world alight in recent times. And few would dispute that it was also one that has registered him as a shoo-in for the next title shot.
#1 Where does Rory go from here?
Fighting out his contract against a dangerous opponent like Wonderboy was perhaps an ill-advised move for any fighter, but it credits immensely towards Rory MacDonald that he was willing to take the risk, and better still, avoid offering excuses after the fight.
Although to be honest, this was a version of MacDonald that seemed gun-shy; a pale shadow of the man that stood toe to toe with Robbie Lawler and locked unyielding eyes with him after a blood-soaked round of fighting.
Perhaps it could purely be attributed to Wonderboy’s ability to dictate the range throughout the fight so astutely.
Or maybe it had to do with the fact that a father soon-to-be had a lot more than just the cost of his next training camp riding on the outcome of the fight. As remote and quite frankly, cold-blooded, as Rory may seem, he is, after all, human.
The UFC may have an unhealthy stranglehold over fighter pay for as long as the formation of a union is averted, which could yet be a long way away given the individualistic nature of the sport.
And for fighters like Rory MacDonald that are courageous enough to bet on themselves in a game as fickle as MMA, more often than not and rather unfortunately, only the UFC holds the answer to the question, “what next?”
