UFC 303: Five Things We Learned

UFC 303: Five Things We Learned

UFC 303 was one of the most hectic fight cards in recent memory. The event saw its high-profile fights shuffled and changed consistently. The event even featured a fighter competing on hours’ notice. All of that chaos gave a few fighters the chance to shine. Let’s recap UFC 303 and discuss the most important lessons from the event.

Alex Pereira Continues To Craft His Legacy

In the UFC 303 main event, Alex Pereira knocked out Jiri Prochazka with a switch kick to the head. It was a beautiful knockout and added to Pereira’s quickly growing MMA legacy.

This was one of Pereira’s more dominant UFC showings. In the first round, Prochazka was unable to find as many openings as he did in the first matchup. At the same time, Pereira was consistently landing counters. The round was topped off with a left hook that dropped Prochazka with a second left in the round. In the second round, Pereira quickly landed the head kick that closed the show.

Pereira’s performance marked his second title defense of the light heavyweight championship. That added to his legacy. The two-division champion has done a lot of great things in the sport, but he does not have many title defenses under his belt. It looks like he will be attempting to add to that number in the future.

Diego Lopes Deserves A Big Opportunity At UFC 306

The UFC 303 co-main came together on short notice as Diego Lopes and Brian Ortega agreed to fight. On fight night, Ortega was ruled medically unfit to compete and the fight was in danger of being scrapped. The UFC called Dan Ige to fill in on a few hours notice. Ige accepted the fight and was allowed to compete because his medicals were still up to date.

Lopes did not go through the same process as Ige to compete, but he was not fighting under ideal circumstances. Ortega and Ige are two completely different fighters. Ortega is an elite BJJ practitioner while Ige is a powerful boxer. It was a very different fight.

In the fight, Lopes did a solid job of using his power to make Ige hesitant. In the early exchanges, Ige showed a lot of respect to Lopes and did not take too many risks. On top of that, Lopes was landing threatening shots in the clinch and worked to the back in the second round.

The third round went to Ige as he was the fresher fighter. In that round, he landed a lot of damaging strikes. Still, Lopes survived to win a decision.

Lopes was unable to get the finish over Ige. That should not be held against him, however. Ige has never been finished in his career and has fought a dangerous list of opponents.

In his octagon interview, Lopes called for a fight at UFC 306. That event will be a Mexican Independence Day event at the Las Vegas Sphere. Lopes deserves to fight at that event and should be given a big opportunity. The fact that he took the original matchup on short notice and accepted a replacement on an hours notice should be rewarded.

Dan Ige Pulls An All-Time BMF Move

The opposite side of the UFC 303 co-main event saw Dan Ige take a massive opportunity on just a few hours notice.

Ige was unable to get his hand raised at the end of the fight, but his willingness to save the co-main event on fight day was an all-time BMF move. Ige literally went from getting ready to enjoy the pay-per-view to fighting. It does not get much crazier than that. If that wasn’t enough, he was threatening a comeback victory in the late moments of the fight.

Similarly to Lopes, Ige deserves a big opportunity against a highly ranked featherweight. That may be slightly more difficult because he is coming off a loss and has fought several high-ranked opponents. Still, his UFC 303 heroics should be rewarded.

Ian Machado Garry Wins In Unimpressive Fashion

At UFC 303, Ian Machado Garry picked up a decision win over Michael Page. It was a close bout, but Machado Garry used his grappling to win the first and third rounds. The third round was quite close too.

The issue with Machado Garry’s performance is that he is not winning is a dominant fashion. For 99% percent of fighters, that is not an issue. Machado Garry is not one of those fighters.

This is the criticism you get when you proclaim you are one of the biggest stars in the sport and will become an all-time great. Those are the standards Machado Garry has set for himself.

The worst part is that Machado Garry is not putting himself in a position to become a star. In the history of MMA, all of the biggest stars finish fights. Conor McGregor did not become Conor McGregor with boring decision wins. Alex Pereira showed the difference an exciting finish makes in the main event. Max Holloway is a bigger star today than he was during his championship reign because he finished his last two fights. Now, Machado Garry has won his last three fights by decision. That needs to change if he wants to become the star he is proclaiming to be. This UFC 303 recap would be wildly different if Machado Garry landed a finish.

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Joe Pyfer Gets Back On Track

On the UFC 303 prelims, Joe Pyfer violently knocked out Marc-Andre Barriault to get back in the win column. It was a strong performance that reminded fans of Pyfer’s potential.

Pyfer is a compelling prospect, but he lost a lot of hype because of a decision loss to Jack Hermansson. This fight was a much better showing. Pyfer landed a right hand that hurt Barriault and he pressured him with a combination. Ultimately, as Barriault fell Pyfer landed a big ground-and-pound shot that put him out cold.

This performance does not mean that Pyfer will become a champion. It is always a positive to see a fighter bounce back after a high-profile loss. The fact that Pyfer’s UFC 303 recap revolves around a victory is great.

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