UFC 284: Five Things We Learned
UFC 284 was a historic night of fights. Islam Makhachev was able to etch out a decision victory over Alexander Volkanovski to prevent his chase for double champ status and take his spot at No. 1 in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings. Meanwhile, Yair Rodriquez was able to earn the UFC interim featherweight title with a win over Josh Emmett. The card featured a ton of action and left us with a handful of lessons.
Islam Makhachev defends the lightweight title
Makhachev was pushed to the limit at UFC 284. Volkanoski was able to make Makhachev work over five rounds and nearly earned a victory. Still, Makhachev secured wins in three rounds and earn a decision victory.
From Makhachev’s perspective, he performed much better on the feet than expected. He was able to utilize his size to land solid strikes as Volkanovski pressured forward. The champion landed damaging knees from the clinch as well. Most importantly, he landed takedowns and was able to control position. Admittedly, his wrestling was not as dominant as expected, but that is more of a compliment to Volkanovski — which will be discussed shortly.
The scoring for this fight was a pretentious topic of discussion as well. In reality, it shouldn’t be.
Makhachev clearly won rounds one and four while Volkanovski won rounds three and five. That leaves round two. Essentially, the winner of round two wins the fight. That round was close, but Makhachev was the winner in my eyes, giving him three of the five rounds, which makes him the winner.
I understand why that may be tough to grasp considering that Volkanoski won round five and had momentum at the end of the fight. However, based on the current MMA ruleset, Makhachev leaves victory. With that being said, if you want to have a discussion about how the scoring system can be improved, that is not unreasonable. It does not affect how Makhachev vs. Volkanovski is scored, though.
Regardless, Makhachev is leaving UFC 284 with lightweight gold and a historic win. Now it is time to figure out who he will defend the belt against. With no clear options, that is a whole discussion of its own.
Alexander Volkanovski is still the best in the world
When the UFC rankings are adjusted on Tuesday, Makhachev will likely sit atop the pound-for-pound ranks, but is that justified?
Traditionally, if a fighter beats another fighter, they hop them in the rankings. Although, that usually only occurs because two fighters are in the same division. That is not the case for this one.
The term pound-for-pound is used to denote the most skilled fighter, without weight being a factor. At UFC 284, size and weight were a factor in the bout. Makhachev was barely able to get a victory despite being the larger man in the cage. If we are taking size out of the equation, is he truly the most skilled?
This is a bit of a catch-22. As a matter of fact, pound-for-pound rankings have always been flawed because it is impossible to evaluate a fighter’s skills without taking their size into account. UFC 284 is a perfect example of the issues that can arise alongside the use of an objective ranked that everyone finds important.
With that in mind, it would not be crazy for Volkanovski to keep him stop atop the pound-for-pound list after that performance.
Yair Rodriguez is only getting better
After a remarkable main event, Rodriguez’s outstanding performance against Josh Emmett is being forgotten. Rodriguez outclassed Emmett on the feet with quick strikes and powerful clicks. He was able to land several body shots that hurt Emmett badly.
Furthermore, Rodriguez was able to stay defensively sound and avoid the majority of Emmett’s swinging shots. On the ground, Rodriguez was able to stay offensive despite being on the bottom as he landed powerful elbows before eventually locking in a triangle choke that finished the fight.
Rodriguez has been in the UFC since 2014 which may make it a surprise to some that he is only 30 years old. At 30, it looks like Rodriguez is entering his prime. In his fight against Max Holloway, we saw him make massive improvements in his boxing. In this fight against Emmett, he expanded his game with threatening submissions of the bottom.
Needless to say, Rodriguez has come a long way since his UFC debut.
This interim title win puts Rodriguez in a great spot. Barring any unforeseen issues, he should get a crack at the undisputed featherweight gold against Alexander Volkanovski. Based on Volkanovski’s performance at UFC 284, Rodriguez will continue to make improvements if he wants to take out the featherweight champion.
Jack Della Maddalena deserves a ranked fight
Jack Della Maddalena made quick work of Randy Brown at UFC 284. After one solid hook, Maddalena made Brown faceplant before locking in a rear naked choke to finish the fight. Once again, Maddalena put his elite boxing on display and proved that he is a threat in the welterweight division.
With this type of performance, it is time for Maddalena, one of the top prospects in the sport, to begin fighting ranked opponents. The problem is that the majority of welterweights are booked with a fight.
At the moment, Neil Magny and Stephen Thompson are the only welterweights ranked outside of the top five that do not have an opponent. I am not sure anyone will be calling for either of those fights to be made. It may take a minute for a reasonable opponent to arise for Maddalena.
Fight cancellations still suck
UFC 284 was a great night of fights, but it could have been a lot better. Originally, the main card was supposed to feature a bout between middleweight Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa. Plus, Kai Kara-France was supposed to fight Alex Perez. Unfortunately, neither fight came to fruition for various reasons.
Now, everyone knows how much fight cancellations suck, but UFC 284 would have been an elite pay-per-view if one or both of the aforementioned fights would have stayed on the card. Thankfully, the UFC pay-per-view schedule looks outstanding for the next couple of months so I will get over it.
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