The best and worst from UFC 230

#3 Best: It’s still Halloween for Arce and Moraes

Julio Arce and Sheymon Moraes put on a bloodbath worthy of a horror movie

The likelihood is that in terms of fight quality, all the plaudits from UFC 230 will go to Chris Weidman and Jacare Souza, but there was a fight almost as good on the prelim card, too. Halloween might be done and dusted for another year, but evidently, nobody told Featherweights Julio Arce and Sheymon Moraes that as they put on a bloody brawl worthy of a horror movie.

By the time they were done, a cut on Arce’s forehead had left a covering of blood all over both men – and all over the Octagon, too. You’d have been forgiven for believing someone had just committed a murder inside the cage with a machete if you’d tuned in after the fight was done.

But it wasn’t just the blood that made this a great fight. Moraes knocked Arce down twice and had him on the verge of being finished, but Arce wouldn’t go down without a fight, and in the first round he came close to choking the Brazilian out and then actually outstruck him in the third round.

The decision left a sour taste – a split call gave Moraes the win, but despite 29-28 for either man sounding fair, a weird 30-26 score for the Brazilian simply didn’t make sense – but realistically, neither man will lose anything from a fight this good. This was simply a great fight up there with 2018’s best, and both men deserve a ton of praise.