The best and worst from UFC Fight Night 125

So another UFC event is in the books – UFC Fight Night 125 took place in Belem, Brazil last night and it was quite a good show actually. The show lost its semi-main event on the day of the weigh-in when Pedro Munhoz missed weight and his fight with John Dodson was scrapped, but for the most part, the remaining fights delivered, with some exciting finishes up-and-down the card.

The UFC Fight Night series always has its fair share of good and bad points, but this was one of the better efforts in recent memory, as the majority of the fighters came to put on a show. Here are the best and worst of UFC Fight Night 125.

#1 Best – Valentina Shevchenko has arrived at 125lbs

Valentina Shevchenko could become a dominant champion at 125lbs

When the UFC introduced the Women’s Flyweight (125lbs) weight class in 2017 through a season of The Ultimate Fighter, you always got the feeling that the eventual champion would come from elsewhere rather than the reality show. Nicco Montano currently holds the title after beating Roxanne Modaferri, but after last night it’s hard to see anyone but Valentina Shevchenko taking it into 2019.

Shevchenko had been a top contender up at 135lbs despite being undersized, and last night’s fight with newcomer Priscila Cachoeira was her first official one in her new weight class. She didn’t disappoint, destroying Cachoeira both standing and on the ground before mercifully finishing her with a second-round rear naked choke. It was as one-sided a beating as we’ve seen in the UFC recently.

‘The Bullet’ is a known quantity amongst UFC fans so it seems pretty clear that she should challenge for the 125lbs title in her next fight and to be honest, I can’t see any way that Montano beats her, no offense. Shevchenko arriving at Flyweight could produce a dominant champion as Joanna Jedrzejczyk was for years at 115lbs, and that would give the new weight class a massive shot in the arm. This was clearly the best part of last night’s show.

#1 Worst – Home cooking saves Machida

Eryk Anders seemed to have done enough to beat Lyoto Machida but came out on the wrong end of the decision

Going into last night’s fight with Eryk Anders, former Light-Heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida was looking for his first win since 2014, as he’d been on a skid of three fights to sandwich a suspension for PEDs. And indeed, he picked up that win as the judges awarded him a split decision victory. But did he really win that fight? I don’t think he did. I’m not saying the judges were favouring Brazilian fighters, but the massively pro-Machida crowd may have helped to sway them.

Sure, Machida wasn’t brutally knocked out as he was against Derek Brunson in October, but after an encouraging first round, it appeared that Anders was the one pushing the action, landing the better strikes and doing far more damage, cutting Lyoto badly with a knee in the third round. Machida was never out of the fight as Anders clearly had holes in his game, but I felt the Brazilian won the 1st and 5th rounds at best and should’ve lost the decision.

Despite calling out Michael Bisping post-fight, Machida is likely to be matched with another nasty up-and-comer next – someone like Paolo Costa – and that just doesn’t bode well for ‘The Dragon’. Realistically, as he’s pushing 40, his loss to Brunson should’ve signalled his retirement. But this win – one he shouldn’t have gotten, really – might put him in line to receive another knockout which is worrying. It was a double-edged bad point of the show.

#2 Best – Thiago Santos delivers again

Thiago Santos is one of the UFC's most reliable and violent action fighters

While he’s not in any conversation when it comes to Middleweight title contention right now, there’s no denying that few fighters inside the UFC guarantee action quite like Thiago ‘Marreta’ Santos. The hulking Brazilian striker picked up his ninth win in the Octagon last night by knocking out Anthony Smith, and impressively it was his eighth finish too – tying the legendary Anderson Silva’s record for the most finishes in UFC Middleweight history.

Obviously, Santos’s competition hasn’t been anywhere near as good as the competition Silva was facing, but you’ve still got to be impressed by someone who has the killer instinct to put away 8 UFC-calibre opponents. Last night he looked sloppy and downright reckless at times, but it didn’t matter – when it came down to it, Smith simply couldn’t hold up to the power of the man whose nickname translates to ‘Sledgehammer’ in English.

Can he move into the top ten soon? I’m not sure – every time he’s looked to step up before he’s faltered, with losses to Uriah Hall, Gegard Mousasi and an inexplicable loss to Eric Spicely sending him back down. And at 34 years old we’re likely looking at the best ‘Marreta’ we’re going to see. But realistically, I don’t care – Santos is a man who I’m always happy to see on a UFC main card because his fights almost guarantee violence. And why else do we watch the UFC?

#2 Worst – The weight issue

Michel Prazeres missed weight by five pounds and then smothered Desmond Green

The issue of missing weight reared its ugly head again on this show, and I’m actually going to talk about a different aspect of it here. Two fighters missed weight – Pedro Munhoz by four pounds and Michel Prazeres by five pounds. Their respective opponents – John Dodson and Desmond Green – had a choice to make and chose different paths. Dodson decided against fighting a heavier opponent as he’d lost previously to a weight-missing John Lineker, while Green decided to take the fight, with a caveat.

Prazeres was told he had to weigh in on the night of the event at 173lbs at the heaviest – almost 20lbs over the 155lbs Lightweight limit – but came in at 180lbs, only for Green to take the fight anyway. And it showed – Green won the first round but seemed to tire out badly, and found himself simply outmuscled by the larger, stronger Prazeres. Sure, Green took 40% of Prazeres’s purse, but he also came away with a loss to his record, meaning he won’t be moving up the ladder anytime soon.

Dodson meanwhile was told he’d be paid “a portion” of his show purse, meaning a lot of his training expenses won’t be covered. So for the opponents of weight-missers, what do you do? Do you refuse the fight and lose out on money? Or take the money but risk a career-damaging loss? The UFC needs to fix this quickly by agreeing to pay the full “show” purse to any fighter who makes weight, regardless of whether or not their opponent fails to make the fight.

#3 Best – Brazil delivers again

UFC events in Brazil almost always deliver a hot crowd and good action

Counting last night’s show, the UFC has now been to Brazil 30 times since they first returned there in 2011, and seemingly every time they’re there – with the exception of one or two shows – it seems like the fighters manage to deliver in spades when it comes to excitement inside the cage. This may have something to do with the UFC tending to book some squash matches in favour of local fighters on these Brazilian cards, but to put it quite simply, UFC shows in Brazil are just plain fun.

The crowds are far more into the shows than when the UFC books shows in the US – especially for the undercard fights – and the chants in Portuguese of “you’re gonna die!” are simply deafening when it comes to a Brazilian fighter against a foreign one, particularly for popular Brazilians like Lyoto Machida and Thiago Santos. And that seems to trigger more aggression in the fighters, which only makes for better action.

Last night was the UFC’s first show in Belem in the state of Para, but the beauty of Brazil is that it’s such a huge country that there are plenty of other big cities the UFC has yet to visit. Shows in Manaus, Salvador and Recife are simply musts for the UFC to tick off at some point in the future, and with the constant flow of Brazilian fighters heading into the UFC, it seems like hot crowds in the South American country are practically a guarantee every time they visit.

#3 Worst – Timothy Johnson’s wall-and-stall gameplan

Timothy Johnson is one of the most boring fighters to watch in the UFC

I honestly don’t like to dog on fighters as I’m not a pro fighter and realistically I have no idea how much sacrifice they put into an event like last night. But unfortunately, it’s hard to praise some fighters at times and Timothy Johnson is one of them. His wall-and-stall driven victory over Marcelo Golm was the worst fight on last night’s show by a country mile, and it isn’t the first offense from Johnson, who debuted in the UFC in early 2015.

His fights against Jared Rosholt, Marcin Tybura, Alexander Volkov and Daniel Omielanczuk all stunk, and given that at least half of those fighters have shown themselves capable of entertaining fights, it seems like the common denominator is always Johnson, whose favourite gameplan of pressing his opponent into the cage and working dirty boxing is simply never entertaining. Last night’s terrible fight with Golm was like the prototype Timothy Johnson fight and it was awful.

More disappointing was the fact that Golm had some hype around him as a possible prospect coming into the fight and that was totally deflated by Johnson’s smothering win. I understand that the UFC needs tough gatekeepers like Johnson and his UFC record of 4-3 means he belongs on the roster, but can we please keep him on the preliminary fights from now on so he can’t drag down a main card with one of his dull fights?