UFC Fight Night 63 (UFN 63) is in the books. Exciting as this card was, it seemed to raise as many questions as it answered. In the weeks leading up to UFN 63, the focus was not on the card in Fairfax, Virginia but instead on a pay-per-view that was still over four months away. Clearly UFC officials were not sure how to sell this card and maybe it was with good reason. With two of the top five featherweights in the world set to square off in the main event one might think the stakes would be high. However, when both fighters have recent losses to the featherweight champion it doesn’t do a lot to push either fighter in a positive direction. So what did we learn from UFN 63?
The first thing I wanted to see at UFN 63 was how well former Ultimate Fighter winner and Pacific Northwest standout Julianna Pena would do in her return to the Octagon. After suffering a knee injury that sidelined her for a year’s time, many people were curious to see just how well Pena would respond to the layoff and if her surgically repaired knee would give her any trouble. On the surface this was a solid fight for the Washingtonian. Pena faced a small amount of adversity after being taken down early in the matchup by Milana Dudieva but quickly reversed the position and took control from then on. She showed good hip pressure, as she stayed in mount and unloaded a strong ground and pound attack which eventually got her the stoppage victory.
Great win for Pena, but what was there to learn from this fight? I think what I learned was that if Pena hopes to have a chance against bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, she is going to need to fix some pretty big holes in her game. Right out of the gate, Pena showed that her striking can be a bit sloppy as she plodded forward throwing wild punches in the direction of Dudieva. Striking like this can help a fighter get inside an opponents range but that isn’t usually where you want to be with Rousey. Additionally, she was taken down rather easily in the fight; she said afterwards that she expected to be taken down by her opponent. While Pena was able to reverse the position rather quickly, the same would be much harder to do against the powerful Rousey. Rousey has completed 80% of her takedowns in the UFC and it is from the secured top position she usually finds armbar submissions waiting for her. Pena will have to drastically improve her takedown defense if she hopes to have any success against the champ.
A fight that left many people dumbfounded was the matchup between Jorge Masvidal and Al Iaquinta. This matchup was one of those fights that many anticipated being a fight of the night contender. Both fighters came into the bout with a 6-1 record in their last seven fights and it appeared that the winner of this fight would be getting close to cracking the top-ten in the lightweight division. Instead of things going great and the fans being treated to a spectacular fight, what we got was confusion, anger and a bad decision. After three rounds of fighting, the judges were split in their decision and awarded the victory to Iaquinta. To most, this seemed like a horrible decision and the fans made it clear that they were not happy with the outcome. A few uncalled expletives later, Iaquinta went from the benefactor of a bad decision to the villain who stole one. His “F-bomb” laden outburst fueled the fire and made this rather forgettable fight all too memorable.
What was learned from this fight? I don’t know if this is something I learned as much as it is something that is being reinforced – judges have a terribly hard job that I want no part of. I watched this fight three times. First I watched it live, second I watched it trying to imagine there being less blood (bloodiness doesn’t equate to winning but it’s hard to remember that sometimes), and finally I watched it with the commentary on mute. During the first viewing, I thought Masvidal won the fight but I anticipated the judges giving it to Iaquinta, purely based on the way he took his foot off the gas and Iaquinta pushed his to the floor. The second go-round, I was positive that Iaquinta won the fight fair and square. Then my last viewing it was completely obvious that Masvidal won the fight. This only proves how hard it can be to score. Another thing that one can takeaway from this is that while it can be endearing to be the tough guy and swear into a microphone, there is a time and a place for it. Al Iaquinta showed very little class in victory (or defeat depending on who you ask) and that might very well be the reason we are still talking about this. If Iaquinta had got on the microphone and said he understood that this was a close fight and he would do his best to finish his future match-ups, the fans would have still booed but it would have been a nonissue following the event. Now here we are four days removed from the card and the Vine of Iaquinta swearing is getting more views than Miley Cyrus’ Instagram. A fight this close certainly leaves people wanting things cleaned up, and I think more than anything fight fans learned that there absolutely needs to be a rematch.
The main event of this card was the one thing that shook off the negativity of Masvidal vs. Iaquinta. This fight pitted Chad Mendes, the number one ranked featherweight in the world, against Ricardo Lamas, the number four ranked featherweight. With both of these fighters suffering recent losses to featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo, it was clear that neither fighter was going to earn a title shot with their performance in this fight. The expectation for this fight was simple – just give us an awesome fight. All expectations were met if you were looking for awesomeness. Chad Mendes showed why he is the top ranked challenger to the champion in a performance that allowed him to use his speed, power and footwork to overcome the length and power of Lamas. An exciting fight card that is finished off with a dominant first round TKO stoppage is pretty ok in my book.
Here’s the sad part. What I’m pretty sure everyone learned from this fight was that Chad Mendes is absolutely the second best 145 pound fighter in the world. He is athletic, his striking is great, he has power and he can wrestle circles around almost anyone in his division. That being said, he cannot beat Jose Aldo. He’s tried twice and failed both times. It is rare, very rare that a fighter is granted a third title shot against the same champion. It is going to take quite a bit more from Mendes if he hopes to challenge Aldo for the strap again soon. It seems that Mendes’ only hope is Aldo moving up to lightweight (there have been rumors for years) or Aldo losing to Conor McGregor. Both of those options are big ifs, and it seems Mendes is going to have to pray for one or the other if he wishes to reach his goal of hoisting UFC gold.
Clearly there was a lot to learn from UFN 63. As the days pass, all the things that have been learned will push and pull fighters to make choices that hopefully lead to success. Julianna Pena will work on her weaknesses to better prepare for a match with Ronda Rousey. Jorge Masvidal will probably keep his foot on the gas in future fights. Chad Mendes … well, he will keep being the best fighter not named Jose Aldo in the featherweight division, and he will certainly being training for a third shot at the champ if it ever comes his way.
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