The best and worst from UFC Fight Night 167: Anderson vs. Blachowicz II

#1 Worst: After going two steps forward, Anderson takes another step back

Corey Anderson failed to fight the smart fight last night

Corey Anderson had been talking up a potential title shot coming into last night’s fight with Jan Blachowicz, and for good reason; ‘Overtime’ picked up arguably the biggest win of his career over the red-hot Johnny Walker in late 2019, his fourth win in a row after beating the likes of Glover Teixeira and Ilir Latifi. Even Jon Jones had mentioned the TUF 19 winner as a possible challenger to his throne.

Unfortunately, Anderson made a major error last night – he simply didn’t fight to his strengths, and he got KO’d for his troubles. When ‘Overtime’ fought Blachowicz in 2015, he simply used his wrestling to ground the Polish fighter for a decision, and while Blachowicz’s ground game has improved since then, the likelihood of him being able to stop Anderson’s takedowns still seemed slim.

And yet Anderson chose to trade strikes with him, barely even looking for a single takedown. It was a bizarre gameplan, and in the end ‘Overtime’ paid the price. Was he simply looking to bait Blachowicz in the early rounds? Or was he too confident in his striking? We’ll never know, but essentially, this feels like a blown opportunity for him.

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#2 Best: Dodson shows he’s still got gas in the tank

John Dodson picked up his first stoppage since 2016 over Nathaniel Wood

It was a bizarre decision to have John Dodson’s fight with Nathaniel Wood on the preliminary portion of last night’s show; many fans rated Wood as one of the best prospects in the entire 135lbs division and while Dodson hadn’t looked so great recently – losing two in a row – this was still a tremendous fight and the first truly big test for London’s Wood since entering the UFC.

In the end, Wood fought well – a super-exciting fight saw the Londoner arguably edge the first two rounds with some excellent striking and fast hands – but it was ‘The Magician’ who came out on top, as he landed a crushing left hand early in the third round that dropped Wood, and then finished him off with a barrage of follow-up shots.

The finish was Dodson’s first since his 2016 win over Manvel Gamburyan, and it should be a message to any up-and-comers looking to use his name value to climb the ladder as Wood was hoping to last night – this veteran still has plenty in the tank, especially if you fight him in a fight that suits him, a down-and-dirty fist-fight like we saw last night.