Post-Fight Stock Report: UFC 239

The ordering process for Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-views has changed: UFC 239 is only available on ESPN+ in the U.S.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday operated in its backyard with UFC 239 in Las Vegas. As always, some stocks rose and others fell.

Stock Up

No one saw his or her stock skyrocket more on Saturday night than Jorge Masvidal. The American Top Team veteran earned the fastest knockout in UFC history with his internet-breaking knockout of Ben Askren. After a tumultuous lead-up to the bout that resulted in a moment of brilliance for Masvidal, a title shot may be on the horizon for the mixed martial arts veteran of 17 years. Much was made of the follow up shots and taunting but Masvidal, always true to his character, didn’t shy away from the antics and made it clear that there was no love lost between he and Askren..

In advance of Saturday, you would have been hard-pressed to find many viewers that believed Jan Blachowicz would walk out to the Octagon and spoil Luke Rockhold’s light-heavyweight debut in such brutal fashion. Most were more interested in looking ahead to an eventual fight with Jon Jones in the near future of Rockhold, but the former KSW champion had other plans in mind and in the span of two rounds proved that he can be a problem for anyone in the division. While calls for a title shot may be a bit premature, Blachowicz completely flipped his trajectory after suffering a knockout loss to Thiago Santos in early 2019 and now finds himself straight back in the pack of light-heavyweight contenders.

Yadong Song opened up the prelims with a bang, flatlining Alejandro Perez with a single punch and extending his win streak to four, including three by stoppage. At 21 years of age with still plenty of room to grow, Song is showing the move from his native China to Sacramento, California, in order to train with Team Alpha Male couldn’t have been more beneficial to his career. With a showcase victory on ESPN, Song moves into the spotlight as one of the brightest young bantamweights on a loaded UFC roster. A Top-15 opponent may be in the cards for Song as the sky truly seems to be the limit.

Stock Down

While Jon Jones successfully defended his light heavyweight title, he looked downright lackadaisical at times in his approach to the fight with Santos. With a visibly-hobbled opponent, Jones chose to keep to the outside, working a jab coupled with low kicks instead of looking to move in and put away his severely-compromised foe. Santos succeeded where most others have failed and managed to take much of the pop out of Jones legs with vicious leg kicks throughout the fight, leading to a gun-shy Jones for five rounds of an uninspiring title defense. The fact remains that Jones is still one of the best there is but after his performance against Santos, I’m not sure many will continue to attempt to coax the Jackson-Wink MMA trained fighter up to heavyweight in search of super fights.

Holly Holm has reached a crossroads in her career. Falling to 2-5 since her victory over Ronda Rousey, the former champion is closer to retirement than she is to competing for another UFC title. While the former boxing champion is undoubtedly still a competitive fight for anyone in the division, her days of being a title contender are likely over and with a 38th birthday coming up in a couple of months, the end of the road may be in sight. While no one can take the Rousey win away from Holm, I believe it fair to say she underwhelmed throughout an up-and-down career largely due to a fighting style based around movement and a low-output kicking game.

A second UFC 239 fight night winner facing a stock plummet is Claudia Gadelha. While the former title challenge took home a lopsided unanimous decision win over Randa Markos, the fight as a whole was uneventful enough to give Joe Rogan and Paul Felder pause as they opted to point out the poor game-planning of the competitors instead of commentating on the action at hand. A gun-shy Gadelha circled and jabbed at Markos for three rounds in a disappointing showcase after her move to train in New Jersey. The fight brought Gadelha back to the win column but didn’t do much else for “Claudinha” as she begins to slip further away from being considered a contender.

On the Chopping Block

It’s been a tough fall from grace for the former Strikeforce lightweight champion. Once considered one of the greatest lightweights the sport had to offer, Gilbert Melendez fell to a 1-6 record since joining the ranks of the UFC in 2013 with a lopsided loss to England’s Arnold Allen. At 37 years of age and riding a five-fight losing streak, if Melendez isn’t looking toward retirement than he may very well find himself on the chopping block after his latest defeat. Melendez will go down as one of the old guard and potentially the greatest lightweight in the world at one point in time. But that time has passed, and after a storied career, Melendez has likely seen his last bit of action inside of the UFC.

“TUF 28” finalist Pannie Kianzad has yet to record a UFC victory following a second loss with the promotion against Julia Avila at UFC 239. Her saving grace may be the fact that she came into the bout on short notice, but Kianzad has underwhelmed when given opportunities. Throughout her bout with Avila, Kianzad was noticeably gun shy and in the third round was saved by the bell after being mounted and put in danger with submission attempts. The loss brought Kianzad to 11-5 overall in her MMA career and further away from stability within the UFC.