Perhaps now the rest of the Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight division will view Volkan Oezdemir in a more serious light.
“Poster Boy” engaged Oezdemir at point-blank range but was not prepared for the return fire. He absorbed a burst of short uppercuts and left hooks, one of which buckled his knees and sent him careening backward. Oezdemir gave chase, bullied the compromised Englishman to the mat and separated him from his senses with subsequent punches.
“It was a matchup of two really strong strikers with knockout power,” Oezdemir said. “We both go for the kill. Of course, it’s going to be explosive and really fast. I know I’ve got power. I think I showed in my last two fights that with a full camp I’m unstoppable.”
Operating out of the Combat Club gym fronted by Henri Hooft, Oezdemir finds himself on a five-fight winning streak and sees himself as the No. 1 contender for light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
“I think I proved that,” he said. “[Manuwa] was supposed to be fighting for the belt next, so my goal is to go for the belt right away. I want to be the fastest-rising guy for the belt.”
Manuwa was not the only favorite to fall, as Renan Barao (-142), Renato Carneiro (-175) and Andre Fili (-346) all failed to meet expectations.
A former bantamweight champion who has seen his better days, Barao was victimized in a unanimous decision loss to Serra-Longo Fight Team upstart Aljamain Sterling. Two of the three cageside judges awarded a 10-8 round to Sterling (+111), who swept the scorecards with 29-28, 29-27 and 30-26 marks.
“I think once your pegged as one of the greats in this sport and you run into a guy who really doesn’t have much of a resume with standup and all this stuff, it might look like you got a cakewalk fight,” said Sterling, a onetime Cage Fury Fighting Championships titleholder who has rattled off back-to-back victories since his split decision defeat to Raphael Assuncao in January. “I think he realized tonight [that] I’m no cakewalk for anybody.”
Meanwhile, Carneiro crashed and burned in his first professional setback, as he submitted to a third-round guillotine choke from former Resurrection Fighting Alliance champion Brian Ortega. The Brazilian conceded defeat 2:59 into Round 3, an ill-conceived takedown attempt having led to his demise. Ortega (+135) has finished each of his last four opponents -- Carneiro, Clay Guida, Diego Brandao and Thiago Tavares -- in the third round.
Finally, promotional newcomer Calvin Kattar leapfrogged Fili in the featherweight pecking order and pocketed a unanimous decision in a three-round undercard battle at 145 pounds. All three cageside judges scored it 30-27 for Kattar (+296), a Team Sityodtong export who has recorded nine straight wins.