The best and worst from UFC on Fox 29

The excitement was always expected for last night’s UFC on Fox show – headlined by Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje from Glendale, Arizona – and for the most part, the card delivered.

We got some hot finishes up and down the card, with a handful of fighters making massive steps forward and a few others facing somewhat of a stumble. Despite no really bad fights per say, there were good points and bad points as with any UFC show – here are six of them.

---

#1 Best: Dustin Poirier is finally living up to his potential

Despite still being relatively young at 29 years old, Dustin Poirier has been in the UFC for a long time – debuting in 2012, six years ago. Last night was his 20th fight in the Octagon and over that period he’s been involved in a lot of wars. Unfortunately for him – prior to last night at least – he’d always seemed to find a way to fall at the last hurdle.

His initial win streak of 4 fights – which included a win over Max Holloway – was stopped by Chan Sung Jung, and two subsequent winning streaks were snapped by Conor McGregor and Michael Johnson. It always felt, too, that Poirier found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, largely with his questionable game planning.

Last night though was a lot different – not only did Poirier engage Justin Gaethje in his type of fight – a wild brawl – but from the off, even when he got hurt, it never felt like Poirier wasn’t in control of the action, and in the end, his hard work paid off.

Will he get a title shot from this win? Probably not given both McGregor and Tony Ferguson are lurking and looking for a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov, but it seemed to be a sign that Poirier is finally living up to his elite-level potential, and that’s only a good thing.

#1 Worst: Gaethje might’ve hit the UFC too late

Justin Gaethje (shown here against Eddie Alvarez) may have entered the UFC a little too late

When Justin Gaethje signed with the UFC last year, the main talking points surrounding him were that he would provide massively exciting fights every time he got into the cage and that he probably wouldn’t quite reach the title scene due to the likelihood of his reckless nature catching up with him. Unfortunately, it feels like we’ve reached that latter scenario earlier than was expected.

Gaethje has taken a ton of damage in all three of his UFC outings, but he was only able to outlast and defeat Michael Johnson – a somewhat chinny fighter – and he’s come out on the wrong end of firefights with Eddie Alvarez and now Dustin Poirier. It seems like Gaethje’s once-iron chin is slowly beginning to fail him, and with his damage-heavy style, how long he can last in the UFC is now a question mark.

Prior to signing with the UFC Gaethje had 10 fights in the WSOF organization – most of which were also wars that saw him take a lot of punishment. It may be an unfortunate fact that ‘The Highlight’ has simply found his way into the UFC a little too late, after taking too much damage to truly make his way into title contention.

Gaethje claims he’ll retire after his next five fights, but who can say if he’ll ever reach that amount? It’d be a pity if he doesn’t, but it’s probably even more of a pity that he didn’t hit the UFC a little earlier in his career.

#2 Best: Waterson is back on track... sort of

Michelle Waterson edged Cortney Casey in a tight decision

It seems an odd claim to make, but Michelle Waterson could actually be considered one of the more important fighters on the UFC roster right now. Not only is she hugely marketable with her ‘Karate Hottie’ gimmick, but if the UFC ever decides to implement an Atomweight (105lbs) class, the likelihood is that Waterson would be the fighter they’d look to push as a potential first champion.

For that to ever happen though, it’s important that Waterson doesn’t lose too many times at Strawweight. Going into last night’s fight with Cortney Casey, Waterson had her back to the wall following back-to-back losses to Rose Namajunas and Tecia Torres. Granted those are two top fighters, but a loss is a loss.

With different judges Waterson could’ve lost last night – Casey had her in trouble on the feet and on the ground, particularly with a third-round armbar attempt that looked sunk in – but she also showed a lot of technical skill and largely managed to outwrestle a bigger and stronger opponent, and landed some big shots standing too.

In the end, though, two of the three judges saw two razor-close rounds (the 1st and 2nd) in her favor and gave her a split decision win. Casey might be able to feel aggrieved, but for the future of a potential Atomweight class, it was probably better that Waterson took the win. The fact that the fight was super-exciting was a plus point, too.

#2 Worst: Condit’s comeback has gone sour

Carlos Condit's comeback has continued to turn sour

It feels like every time I write one of these articles, one of the ‘Worst’ slides ends up being about a once-great fighter who ought to retire. This time it’s almost even worse because the fighter in question – Carlos Condit – apparently did retire in 2016 only to make the decision to return late last year. Unfortunately, it appears to have been a bad decision.

At UFC 219 he was firmly outworked by Neil Magny and last night – despite a strong first round – he was badly hurt by an up-kick from Alex Oliveira before he was submitted with a guillotine choke. It was a big win for Oliveira, but like Magny before him, the Brazilian Cowboy is a fighter that Condit in his prime probably would’ve eaten for breakfast.

The reality is that Condit was probably done – finished due to years of wars and injuries adding up – after his January 2016 loss to Robbie Lawler. Retiring after his subsequent loss to Demian Maia felt like the right call, but this comeback is simply harming his legacy.

Hopefully, Condit’s people push him into making the right call and he’ll hang it up for good after this one. He’ll go down as one of the all-time greats at 170lbs regardless, but a few more losses like last night’s would really sour his reputation, and nobody wants to see that.

#3 Best: The Middleweight division has some new contenders

Antonio Carlos Junior might be the newest contender at Middleweight

Last night’s prelim card wasn’t too heavy on names but provided some good action, and perhaps most impressively, it threw up a pair of new contenders in the aging 185lbs division. Both Brad Tavares and Antonio Carlos Junior picked up their biggest wins to date, and should probably find themselves in the top ten come Monday’s rankings update.

Tavares pulled out his first finish since 2011 in a back-and-forth fight, finishing the tough Krzysztof Jotko via a third-round knockout, while ‘Shoeface’ was hugely impressive in taking out Tim Boetsch – largely outstriking him before thoroughly whitewashing him on the ground en route to a rear naked choke submission.

Both men have taken bad losses in the past – Tavares lost to Boetsch and Shoeface was stopped by Daniel Kelly – but now they both seem to be in the best form of their careers and are on strong win streaks – Tavares winning 4 in a row, Shoeface 5.

And with the majority of the upper end of the 185lbs division – the likes of Michael Bisping, Vitor Belfort, Ronaldo Souza, Yoel Romero and David Branch – being older fighters, it’s nice to see some younger blood rising through the ranks.

#3 Worst: The Last Stylebender might not be as ready as we think

Israel Adesanya might not be ready for elite-level opponents yet

After a wildly impressive UFC debut win over Rob Wilkinson in February, kickboxer Israel Adesanya was instantly recognized as a potential future star in the UFC, with some observers going as far as to compare him to a young Jon Jones. After his very close win over Marvin Vettori last night, it might be time to slow that hype train up a little.

Sure, Adesanya clearly won – I’m not quite sure how one judge saw the fight in favour of Vettori as Adesanya blatantly landed the far cleaner strikes throughout the first and second round despite the aggression of the Italian – but Vettori was able to stay in the fight and won the third round by outwrestling ‘The Last Stylebender’. And of course, nobody would rank Vettori as one of the division’s elite wrestlers.

Simply put, Adesanya remains a high-end prospect, but he’s in no way ready for the elite of the division and it’s probably a better idea that the UFC gives him more opponents like Vettori rather than some of the tougher foes that Adesanya has called out – like Michael Bisping or Brad Tavares.

He’s still got star potential, but that could all go up in smoke if he’s badly exposed by an elite-level opponent too early in his UFC run.