If you are like us and watch an absurd amount of mixed martial arts
each week, you probably wish there was some sort of rating system
so you would not be forced to sit through a boring fight waiting
for something to happen. In order to help, we rate the fights on
major cards for your convenience. If you happen to miss an event,
check back here for ratings so you can pick and choose which bouts
to watch and which ones to skip. Fights are ranked on the scale
shown below, based on competitiveness, the skill and technique on
display, excitement and the story and drama of the contest.
Wherever possible, the fights are described without spoiling the
outcomes. Here is the MMA Gradebook for
UFC
244:
We kick off the card with possibly the best opening fight of the
year on paper. Both men are 3-1 in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship and whoever wins probably
deserves a Top 15 opponent. The fight did not turn out to be the
barnburner I expected, but we did get a technical back-and-forth
scrap that had a little bit of everything. The fight mostly took
place on the feet, but there were some fun grappling and clinch
exchanges mixed throughout. Dawodu ended up taking home a split
decision but told UFC commentator Joe Rogan that he was not happy
with his performance. If that kind of performance does not make him
happy, I cannot wait to see what is next.
The odds were dead even on this one, but Good ended up putting on
the most dominant performance of his career and capped off his
brilliant showing with a technical knockout late in the third
round. The Team Tiger Schulmann product is now 3-2 in the UFC, with
all of his wins coming by knockout.
This was a slow and methodical beatdown from Chookagain that was
impressive but not all that exciting. Chookagain picked apart Maia
from the outside for most of the fight and allowed her to land just
20 percent of her strikes in the process. Chookagain is now 6-2 in
the UFC and could earn a title shot with this performance.
A 40-year-old knockout is usually unexpected but not with a
40-year-old Arlovski fighting.
This was an unreal performance from the 21-year-old Shahbazyan, who
moves to a perfect 11-0. Tavares is one of the toughest veterans on
the roster, and Shahbazyan smoked him in half a round. To put that
in perspective, Tavares took current middleweight champion Israel
Adesyana to a full five-round decision in 2018.
The first two rounds resulted in a boring grappling affair that
Amirkhani dominated. However, he was severely gassed going into the
third round, and it was only a matter of time before Burgos
finished him. Burgos landed an obscene 72 significant strikes in
the third round and finished Amirkhani with just seconds left in
the fight. Skip the first two rounds and watch the third.
Everyone doubted Anderson coming into this bout, and the fan
consensus was that Walker would starch him in the first round.
Instead, Anderson did the starching, as it only took him two
minutes to close out Walker. A short and wild fight, it was the
perfect way to conclude the action-packed prelims.
Who would have thought that Lee and Gillespie would draw the
highest rating of the night? This was one of the most terrifying
knockouts in UFC history and, in my opinion, the highlight of the
event.
After the best possible start to the main card, we were bound to
get a not-so-special fight between Lewis and Ivanov. This fight
went exactly as expected. They spent most of the fight clinched
against the cage. Every minute or so, Lewis would explode with a
wild combo and they would exchange in the pocket before going back
to the clinch. The exchanges on the feet were fun, but there were
not enough of them to give this higher than an average rating.
This was an unbelievable fight between two of the best
welterweights in the world. The most impressive part was Thompson’s
ability to change his game plan mid-fight and completely destroy
Luque in the second and third rounds after losing the first. Just
as we thought “Wonderboy” was out, he puts on the best performance
of his career and throws his name back into the title picture.
After a fantastic night of fights, we end up finishing the card
with two underwhelming performances. After Gastelum’s “Fight of the
Year” contender with Adesyana earlier this year, I expected a
high-paced but technical fight between the two. Instead, we got an
underwhelming leg kick battle between two guys who are possibly
fighting for a title shot. Till ended up taking home a split
decision, but both men have a lot of work to do after performances
like this.
For the first time in nearly a year of rating fights, I feel
compelled to not rate on. As far as I am concerned, this fight
never happened and the real BMF title fight will be the inevitable
rematch. This worked out great for the UFC since it can set up a
rematch with even more stakes and hype behind it, but this was a
disappointing way to crown the baddest motherf----- in the sport.
Even Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was visibly disappointed as he put
the belt around Masvidal’s waist. Masvidal put on an incredible
performance and it was a great fight while it lasted, but this
ending was just wrong.
