The best and worst from UFC 231: Holloway vs. Ortega

#3 Best: The bloody ending to the Nelson/Oliveira fight

Gunnar Nelson finished Alex Oliveira in violent fashion

Okay, so as a disclaimer, I’m not a vampire. With that said, MMA is a sport that’s largely based around violence and so it was jaw-dropping to see the finish to the Welterweight fight between Gunnar Nelson and Alex Oliveira. It was a fascinating fight on paper and in execution, it proved to be pretty great.

Early on, it looked like Oliveira’s fight. ‘Cowboy’ gave up his back to the dangerous Icelandic grappler, but managed to escape and then found a lot of success from the top position, punishing Nelson with his ground-and-pound. But that burst of confidence proved to be his undoing.

Oliveira made the error of assuming he’d always be able to succeed on the ground with Nelson, and continued to look for takedowns – forgoing his excellent striking game. In the end though, it was ‘Gunni’ who got on top – and from there he proved his superiority by taking full mount.

Nelson was already bleeding from the nose, but he decided to return the favour with one big elbow – and suddenly, Oliveira was bleeding from the forehead like a tap. Seconds later, ‘Cowboy’ gave his back and was submitted with a rear naked choke, although it looked to me like he may have tapped due to the blood loss – which would have been completely understandable.

The bloody win should put Nelson back into contention at 170lbs, and given he showed more of an ability to come back from adversity here, it suggested that this time he could really go on a title run. Hopefully he can stay healthy this time as he’s a tremendous fighter to watch given his skills.