UFC 285 is in the books and it was arguably one of the best PPV events in the last couple of years. We have seen two championships change hands which was a shock to the world.
The one that shocked the world was when Alexa Grasso submitted Valentina Shevchenko in round 4 to become the new women’s flyweight champion. She was the only fighter in the flyweight division to defeat Shevchenko and the only one to ever finish her as well.
Then we had the greatest to ever do it in Jon Jones making his long-awaited return to the octagon as he took on the former interim heavyweight championship Ciryl Gane. Many people had questions about Jones’ abilities to come back from a three-year layoff, up a weight class against the biggest and strongest opponent of his career.
Well, he passed all those tests with flying colors as the fight wasn’t even remotely close at all. Jones came out and immediately brought it to Gane, didn’t give him any room to operate, and absolutely smothered him with pressure. He eventually attempted the takedown and it was over shortly thereafter as he tapped out Gane with a first-round guillotine choke.
It was an eye-opening performance for those who forgot what Jon Jones was capable of and now he is a two-division champion and will be taking on former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic at International Fight Week in July.
UFC 285 Fight Results
UFC 285 was an amazing fight card with a ton of great fights that absolutely delivered for fight fans all around the world. Check out the results for the full UFC 285 event:
Jon Jones def. Ciryl Gane via Guillotine Choke (2:04 Round 1)
Alexa Grasso def. Valentina Shevchenko via Rear-Naked Choke (4:34 Round 4)
Shavkat Rakhmonov def. Geoff Neal via Standing Rear-Naked Choke (4:17 Round 3)
Mateusz Gamrot def. Jalin Turner via Split Decision
Bo Nickal def. Jamie Pickett via Arm-Triangle Choke (2:54 Round 1)
Cody Garbrandt def. Trevin Jones via Unanimous Decision
Dricus Du Plessis def. Derek Brunson via Corner Stoppage (5:00 Round 2)
Amanda Ribas def. Viviane Araujo via Unanimous Decision
Marc-Andre Barriault def. Julian Marquez via KO/TKO (4:12 Round 2)
Ian Machado Garry def. Kenan Song via KO/TKO (4:22 Round 3)
Cameron Saaiman def. Mana Martinez via Majority Decision
Tabatha Ricci def. Jessica Penna via Armbar (2:14 Round 2)
Farid Basharat def. Da’Mon Blackshear via Unanimous Decision
Loik Radzhabov def. Esteban Ribovics via Unanimous Decision
There were eight finishes out of the 14 fights which made this PPV worth the wait. We saw some great performances but those that stand out to me were the submission by newcomer Bo Nickal, the submission victory by Shavkat Rakhmonov, and the TKO victory for Dricus Du Plessis.
Nickal came into his UFC debut with just three professional fights to his name but after his dominant performance against Jamie Pickett, he showed that he is levels ahead of those who are at a similar stage of their professional careers.
Rakhmonov showed that he is a legitimate threat to the welterweight champion whether that be Leon Edwards or Kamaru Usman after March 18th. He showed a lot in his fight against Geoff Neal, he showed that he can go deep in fights, he can take a punch, and he can beat legitimate contenders in the welterweight division.
Du Plessis put South Africa on the map when he put a beatdown on top-five middleweight Derek Brunson. He fought through some early adversary and ultimately broke Brunson in the second round his corner had to stop the fight in between rounds. He is now 5-0 on the biggest stage, the sky is the limit now that he has cracked the top five in the division.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
