The best and worst from UFC Fight Night 141: Blaydes vs. Ngannou II

The UFC’s latest excursion into China is in the books, and while the show wasn’t groundbreaking, nobody really expected it to be going in.

What we did get was a fun morning/afternoon/evening (?) of fights, with a pair of Heavyweight contenders re-establishing themselves at the top of the division.

With just five fights of the 12-bout card going the distance, the show was full of action and being a Fight Pass card, the pacing seemed slicker than the UFC’s efforts on Fox Sports 1 too.

Here are the best and worst moments from UFC Fight Night 141: Blaydes vs. Ngannou II.

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#1 Best: Ngannou isn’t finished just yet

I’ll freely admit it – even I was very cynical of Francis Ngannou coming into today’s fight with Curtis Blaydes.

After a pair of really soul-crushing losses in 2018 – his title fight loss to Stipe Miocic and then a shameful performance against Derrick Lewis – it felt like ‘The Predator’ was probably going to wash out of the UFC Heavyweight title picture and become known for being a fighter who never lived up to the early expectations set for him.

But Ngannou came into Beijing like a man on a mission, and incredibly, finished Blaydes off in just under 30 seconds.

He stuffed an early takedown attempt and then landed an overhand right reminiscent of the one Junior Dos Santos used to take away Cain Velasquez’s Heavyweight title back in 2011, and moments later, the fight was over.

Blaydes did protest the stoppage but he was clearly in trouble and it looked to me at least like he would’ve been knocked unconscious had he been allowed to continue.

Considering Blaydes was able to absorb shots from Mark Hunt in February, the power Ngannou displayed here was terrifying – not that we didn’t already know that.

The win vaults Ngannou right into title contention again and while it can’t erase the memories of his losses to Miocic and Lewis, it did prove that he still has plenty to offer to the Heavyweight division.

Whatever he changed coming into this fight, he’s got his mojo back – and that means problems for the rest of his potential opponents.

#1 Worst: In hindsight, should the UFC have booked Ngannou vs. Blaydes?

With his loss to Francis Ngannou, the title talk for Curtis Blaydes will quiet down

Hindsight is 20/20 and all, but looking back, did the UFC really need to book a rematch between Ngannou and Blaydes this early?

Or could they have perhaps waited until Blaydes had taken a shot at the UFC Heavyweight title before putting the fight together? Granted, if Blaydes had won, we’d have been discussing his chances against the Cormier/Lesnar winner, but in the end, he didn’t.

Ngannou’s win clearly vaults him back towards the top of the division, but the issue is that he’s already lost to Stipe Miocic and Derrick Lewis – two men that Cormier dealt with comfortably.

Blaydes looked like a potentially tricky fight for the champion, but after seeing him knocked silly by Ngannou, will the fans look at him in the same way now?

This would all be fine if we knew that Cormier would be sticking around past 2019. But he’s already stated that he’s probably going to retire post-Lesnar, and so who picks up the slack for the division without looking second-rate?

Should the UFC just go with a Ngannou/Miocic rematch for the vacant title? Or look elsewhere and try to push someone like Lewis back into the picture?

In hindsight, the UFC may well have been better off keeping Blaydes away from a potentially tough fight like Ngannou and giving him a stylistically better fight – like Lewis, or even someone ageing like Andrei Arlovski.

That way at least we’d have had a major up-and-comer hunting for the likely vacant title in 2019. As it stands now, the division may well be considered a mess post-Cormier, which is more than a little worrying for the UFC.

#2 Best: The Reem is back, baby

Alistair Overeem staved off any talk of retirement by destroying newcomer Sergei Pavlovich

2018 has been a pretty bad year thus far for veteran fighters. We’ve seen the likes of Carlos Condit, Thiago Alves and Jim Miller all beaten badly by younger, fresher opponents, proving that for the most part, the Octagon is no place for old men. Simply put, in MMA, time waits for no man.

Plenty of people figured the same fate awaited veteran Heavyweight Alistair Overeem today. The Dutchman had lost his previous two fights in violent fashion – to Francis Ngannou and Curtis Blaydes – and he was faced with an undefeated wrecking ball in UFC newcomer Sergei Pavlovich.

Despite being unproven at the top level, Pavlovich actually came into the fight as the betting favourite – probably due to his concussive power, and Overeem’s apparently compromised chin.

In what was somewhat of a relief for his fans though – myself included – Overeem managed to stem Father Time for another day.

He didn’t look quite as sharp as he’d done before on the feet, but Pavlovich never hurt him standing, and once ‘The Reem’ got the Russian to the ground, the fight looked like a redux of Overeem’s beatdowns of Brett Rogers and Stefan Struve.

The fight proved that while Overeem might not challenge for the UFC Heavyweight title again, he’s still a very relevant contender in the UFC’s biggest division, and now he’s training with Team Elevation, we might just see some more new wrinkles from him yet.

At 38 he didn’t look like his previous two losses had affected him at all – meaning we’ll hopefully see more of him in the future. Leave retirement for another day – or year!

#3 Best: China’s got talent

The UFC may have found a true Chinese star in Weili Zhang

If you’d have told me in 2014 – back when The Ultimate Fighter: China thoroughly flopped and the likes of Zhang Lipeng, Ning Guangyou and Yang Jianping were putting on terrible fights inside the Octagon – that by late 2018 we’d have some genuine Chinese talent to watch out for in the UFC, I’d have probably laughed in your face.

That’s clearly the case, though – and it’s an encouraging sign for Chinese MMA. Today’s card saw Chinese fighters go an impressive 6-3, with two of the three losers being the massively inexperienced Su Mudaerji and Hu Yaozong. Elsewhere though, the Chinese talent on the card fought very well.

Most notable in terms of name value was Welterweight Li Jingliang, who came from behind to TKO the tough David Zawada in the third round with a superkick to the body, of all things. The win put ‘The Leech’ at 9-3 in the Octagon and it should be time for him to step up to the top fifteen level now – something that was never expected upon his debut in 2014.

Most impressive overall, though? Weili Zhang, who outclassed Jessica Aguilar – once considered the world’s best Strawweight fighter – before finishing her with an armbar in the first round. She’s now 18-1 overall and 2-0 in the UFC – and seeing her win today made me feel like we could’ve been watching the UFC’s first Chinese title challenger.

The UFC’s push into foreign territory only seems to succeed with at least a handful of native talent, and in the form of Jingliang, Zhang, and other winners like Song Yadong and Wu Yanan, they might’ve found it in China.