UFC203 will go down as one of the most bizarre pay-per-view events we've seen in the longest time. The introduction of, and subsequent destruction of CM Punk by UFC rookie Mickey Gall provided an unwelcome distraction from what should have been a card all about the UFC Heavyweight title.
CM Punk had no place being in the Octagon, no previous combat sports experience, no high-level background in anything athletic, except being a character on a scripted show. A more flamboyant Hollyoaks, if you like.
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That is no preparation for entering into the sport, and it's premier organisation known as the Ultimate Fighting Championship. These freak shows may be somewhat entertaining, and they may bring with them a few hundred thousand more viewers, but ultimately, they hurt the sport. It demeans and undermines the talent, hard work, sacrifice and abilities of those who make it even to fight on a UFC card by allowing 'celebrities' to just have a go.
What about David Beckham next? Or Kanye? That'd do numbers, right? I hope the UFC is done with this sort of thing, now.
The main event between Miocic and Overeem passed off with quite the entertaining scrap; I expected both men would respect each other's abilities somewhat and didn't think we'd see them go as wild as they did in the first round. Stipe Miocic earned the victory with at TKO stoppage with 45 seconds left in round one, to be the first man to retain the UFC heavyweight title in almost three years. A solid straight left at the one-minute mark by Overeem floored the champion, and as the Dutchman secured a guillotine it looked as if we were about to have a new belt-holder. But Miocic managed to escape the guard, get back to his feet and resume hostilities from the standing position. Stipe continued to push the pace, apply pressure which ultimately overwhelmed Overeem. A failed side-kick provided the chance to get the fight to the ground and once there Miocic managed to get the finish in seconds with hard ground and pound. What a fight!
The co-main was all kinds of weird; with Browne pulling up and asking for a time-out, mid fight, a horrific eye-poke that somehow didn't stop the fight, jumping side-kicks that belong in a Jackie Chan movie, and to top it all off, almost a mass brawl in the cage between Travis Browne's coach, Edmund Tarverdyan and Fabricio Werdum. Mental.Michael Bisping's UFC Middleweight title defence happens next month, in Manchester. Tickets went on general sale on Friday morning, and there was plenty of controversy as tickets were seemingly sold out inside of 6 minutes, but were already available on re-seller sites within one minute at unimaginably high prices, suggesting touts have managed to scalp those available looking to cash in, which resulted in a lot of unhappy UK MMA fans complaining about not just the difficulty in getting tickets, but how the event is at 3am local time as well.
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But before the UFC arrives in Manchester there's plenty of decent fights to be checking out and next weekend's Lightweight Main Event between Dustin Poirer and Michael Johnson is one you should not miss. Poirer has gone 4-0 since losing to Conor McGregor back in 2014 and a win over Johnson would put him back in the top 10 mix. Johnson has two losses in his last two fights, to Beneil Dariush and Nate Diaz, but has some excellent wins on his record and will be looking to get back on track with another in this match up.
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