The best and worst moments from UFC 228

#3 Worst: Rivera and Dodson fail to make their case

John Dodson and Jimmie Rivera put on the night's only dull fight

On a show like UFC 228, filled with solid fights up and down the card, the UFC had to make a difficult decision when it came to which prelim would replace the canceled Montano/Shevchenko fight on the pay-per-view main card. In the end, they decided to go with John Dodson vs. Jimmie Rivera – two top-ten Bantamweights – while leaving the likes of Aljamain Sterling, Tatiana Suarez, and Diego Sanchez lower down the card.

In hindsight, it was a mistake. Dodson vs. Rivera turned out to be the worst fight on the entire card, as neither man appeared to fight with a lot of urgency, and in the end Rivera got his hand raised via decision, managing to outpoint Dodson by landing more leg kicks and punches while avoiding the quick counters of ‘The Magician’.

It was a strong win for Rivera in terms of name value but probably won’t do a lot for his title aspirations given the knockout ability of Marlon Moraes – the man who defeated him in June – and the larger profile of former champ Dominick Cruz. As for Dodson, he has all the tools in his arsenal – but I just wish he’d fight less as a counter-striker and more as the aggressor more often if only to make more excitement in his fights.

With 12 decisions between them in their UFC careers perhaps the powers-that-be should’ve seen this coming, but both men have had fun fights in the past too. This one felt like a bad clash of styles – both men looking to employ an in-and-out gameplan and Rivera able to deliver just a little more – but it left the Dallas fans booing, a rare sound for such an exciting card overall.