By Thomas Mangieri
MIAMI, Fla. — UFC 314 had one of the best match cards this year so far, with big names taking on each other in the lighter weight divisions, filled with interesting and exciting matchups, along with some great contenders looking to climb the ranks.
To kick off the main card fights, Dominick Reyes took on Nikita Krylov. The fight ended with Reyes brutally knocking out Krylov almost two and a half minutes into round one with a mean left counter. UFC.com compared the knockout to the Conor McGregor knockout of Jose Aldo in UFC 194. This win marks the third knockout in a row for Reyes and has brought him into the top ten at eight in the UFC Light Heavyweight rankings.
Reyes has a lot of sauce right now in the UFC, and with three knockouts in a row, he is due to fight a top-ranked contender in the light heavyweight division for his next fight.
“Now I’m on the rise. One away from the title,” said Reyes in a post-fight interview with McKenzie Pavacich.
So it seems he has his sights set on a title fight soon, but most believe he has at least one more high-profile fight before he has a title shot. Some of the most logical prospects that he could fight next, according to Yardbarker, would be Carlos Ulberg, Jan Blachowicz, or Aleksandar Rakic.
The next fight on the card was a featherweight match between Bryce Mitchell and Jean Silva. This fight didn’t miss a beat from the last one, ending in round two with a submission. This fight was another great one, with the performance on Silva’s end taking him from unranked in the flyweight division to now being ranked at No. 11.
The fight itself was one-sided for the time that it lasted. Silva defended Mitchell’s takedowns very well throughout the fight. Takedown attempts are eventually what did Mitchell in this fight, as Silva would catch him with a ninja choke on one and submit him.
“My master, Flavio Alvaro, trains that choke 24 hours a day, so I had a feeling I wanted to knock him out, but I have to dedicate this choke, this submission win, to my master,” Silva said in a post-fight interview with UFC.
Silva is now 5-0 in the octagon with five finishes and now sits just outside the top 10 with his sights set on the top of the division. While Silva won’t get a title shot just yet, he should be taking on someone in the top 10 in his next fight. Yahoo! Sports believes that the next person he should take on is Lerone Murphy, another undefeated fighter in the UFC, ranked eighth in the featherweight division, believing that a solid fight between the two could give the winner a title shot.
The third fight of the night between Yair Rodriguez and UFC newcomer and former Bellator champ Patricio Pitbull was another solid one. While not having a knockout finish like the previous two fights, it went the full five rounds and ended in a decision. The fight was dominated by Rodriguez, fighting to his strengths and using his length to keep Pitbull away, which perfectly countered his methods of consistent pressure.
When asked about adjustments to his game plan in a post-fight interview, Rodriguez said, “Coach Mike kept on repeating to me, ‘don’t fall into his game, please don’t stay with him in the pocket,’ because I knew he was going to be really powerful and he was waiting for me to enter because he wanted to connect that right punch.”
The unanimous decision win was a big one for Rodriguez, coming off a two-fight losing streak and bringing Rodriguez up one spot in the featherweight division, now being tied for fourth with Movsar Evloev. Rodriguez has a couple of fight possibilities in the future; one could be a rematch for the title against Alexander Volkanovski. The other possibility is a fight against number two in the flyweight division, Diego Lopes, after they got into it at the UFC 314 press conference.
The next fight was one-sided, as Paddy Pimblett dominated Michael Chandler, ending the fight in a stoppage to secure a statement. Pimblett faced a lot of scrutiny heading into this fight, but his performance silenced all the doubters.
Pimblett was expected to head into the fight and take things to the ground, with him being a submission artist and Chandler being a striker. But quite the opposite happened, with Pimblett showing off how rounded of a fighter he is, taking it to Chandler on the feet while controlling the fight when it went to the ground.
The win brings Pimblett into the top ten of the lightweight division, with him telling Joe Rogan in his post-fight octagon interview who he would like to fight next.
“Anyone in the top four, top five, I want that world title,” Pimblett told Rogan. “Dustin, Justin, Charles, or the little posh boy Arman.”
With this fight showing what a well-rounded fighter Pimblett is, the future is looking bright for the Lightweight division, with many of the top fighters aging and getting close to retirement.
The final fight of the night was the highly anticipated matchup between Diego Lopes and former champion Volkanovski. With former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria vacating his title to move up to lightweight, this fight was a battle to see if Lopes could hold the title or Volkanovski could return to his winning ways.
It ended up being Volkanovski for most of the fight, while Lopes threatened a little bit in the end rounds of the fight, but for the most part, it was all Volkanovski. Volkanovski would come out with a unanimous decision, he got his belt back and became the first fighter over 35 to win a title fight in the lighter weight divisions.
This fight was one for the books. There was some doubt on Volkanovski’s behalf coming into the fight as an older fighter, and his last two fights ended with him being knocked out; people did not believe he would be able to keep up with a younger and bigger fighter in Lopes. But Volkanovski focused on his game plan of movement and staying out of heavy exchanges with Lopes and using jabs to score points with the judges.
While it was a dogfight with Lopes, Volkanovski never stepped off the gas during the fight, not getting comfortable with his lead.
He told Pavacich in a post-fight interview, “It was a lot of digging deep, in the last round I was like we need this last round, I was thinkin it could be two a piece. There were times I could not see out of my eye, but luckily I just don’t have quit in me.”
The UFC hasn’t announced the next title fight for the featherweight division, but Volkanovski has already beaten most of the top five contenders in the division. ESPN thinks that a good fight to schedule next would be against Evloev, currently tied for fourth with Rodrigues.
“A fight against Evloev appeals to Volkanovski because he likes the idea of taking Evloev’s undefeated record,” said ESPN,
UFC 314 was a great event and mixed things up within the divisions that fought, with this event being a serious contender for the best main card of the year. UFC 315 will take place on May 10 in Montreal, Canada, and has a lot to live up to.
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Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated.