UFC Vegas 77: Five things we learned
At UFC Vegas 77, young prospects dueled throughout the card before a pair of women’s bantamweights jockeyed for a title fight in the main event. The card provided a lot of important information and helped teach a few lessons about some of the fighters on the card. Let’s discuss five things we learned at UFC Vegas 77 to recap the night fully.
Mayra Bueno Silva is a title threat
Mayra Bueno Silva made a statement in the UFC Vegas 77 main event as she submitted Holly Holm with a standing ninja choke in the second round.
Bueno Silva showed a lot of her skills against Holm. On the feet, she put her powerful punching and leg kicks on full display. Holm was finding success, however, primarily due to her ability to control the fight in the clinch. Bueno Silva did a great job of taking advantage of Holm’s heavy cage pressure and she locked up the standing ninja choke from the clinch.
That was undoubtedly the best win of Bueno Silva’s career, becoming the third woman to finish Holm; previously, former champions Miesha Tate and Amanda Nunes were the only fighters to stop Holm without it going to the judges.
The UFC women’s bantamweight title sits vacant after Nunes’ retirement. The division does have a few clear options for the next title fight. Previously, the overwhelming favorite for the next title fight was former champion Julianna Pena against Raquel Pennington. With that being said, at UFC Vegas 77, Bueno Silva needed to make a massive statement to earn a title opportunity. It is safe to say she accomplished that and deserves to fight for gold.
On top of simply getting a title fight, Bueno Silva should be viewed as a serious threat to win the title. This is mainly because of her finishing upside. Bueno Silva has a great combination of powerful striking and submission skills. A championship victory is far from a guarantee, but the potential is blatant.
Jack Della Maddalena is a flawed prospect
The UFC Vegas 77 co-main event between Jack Della Maddalena and Bassil Hafez leaves quite a bit that to recap. Let’s start with Della Maddalena, who was able to walk away with a split-decision victory.
Della Maddalena is currently ranked No. 14 and is one of the top prospects in the UFC welterweight division. The sensational boxer had a lot on the line as he was fighting a UFC debutant. The bout did not go well for him, either. Yes, he won, but he flashed a ton of red flags.
Della Maddalena is one of the best boxers in the welterweight division. As a result, Hafez’s path to victory was to out-grapple Della Maddalena for three rounds. In the fight, Della Maddalena was landing a lot of solid strikes as he dug combinations to the body while adding shots to the head. In the early stages of the bout, Hafez was able to return with power punches, but that only lasted through the first round.
The issues arose in Della Maddalena’s constant pursuit of submissions. This was most evident in his repeated guillotine attempts. Hafez was able to fight off each attempt and end up on top. Late in the fight, Della Maddalena looked like he could finish Hafez with his boxing, but he looked for a rear naked choke. That allowed Hafez to fight off the choke and reverse position. If Della Maddalena would have just defended takedowns and boxed, he would have probably finished Hafez. Instead, he fought to Hafez’s strengths and his own weaknesses, which is never the way you should approach a fight.
In fairness to Della Maddalena, he was supposed to fight at UFC 290 and made weight for the event; however, his bout against Josiah Harrell was scrapped after Harrell was diagnosed with a brain disease during the pre-fight medicals.
Therefore, Della Maddalena was forced to make weight twice in a short span. It is hard to say if that affected his performance, but it certainly did not help. Regardless, a weight cut does not affect your fight IQ.
All in all, Della Maddalena is still an elite prospect, but there are obvious flaws.
Bassil Hafez deserves a spot in the UFC
At UFC Vegas 77, Bassil Hafez may have lost to Jack Della Maddalena, but his stock went through the roof.
It is fairly common that UFC debutants end up making their debut on short notice, which can end horribly at times. Although, at other times, fighters are able to establish themselves as a UFC-caliber fighter. Hafez belongs to the latter group.
Hafez is certainly tough enough to fight in the UFC. A number of other fighters would have folded from the bodywork that Della Maddalena landed. In terms of skill, he clearly hits hard and he is an above-average grappler.
Hafez will likely be the type of short-notice debutant that takes advantage of his opportunity and makes a name for himself.
Jungyong Park is steadily improving
At UFC Vegas 77, Jungyong Park submitted Albert Duraev and took another step forward in his career.
This was an outstanding performance from Park. On the feet, he put a brutal pace on Duraev and eventually gained the momentum needed to finish the fight.
Park is now 7-2 in the UFC and is riding a four-fight win streak. The wins are great, but what is more impressive is that he looks slightly better in every fight. In every sport, athletes say they want to get a little better every day–it feels like Park is accomplishing that. In his last four fights, he has looked better and better.
The UFC roster does not have a ton of fighters with both great cardio and a great chin. Park is one of the few. More importantly, he is starting to weaponize those skills. Park has begun to push the pace with his jab and wear opponents out before using his grappling to finish fights. That is a great skill set and Park is using it more efficiently every time out.
Several young prospects shine
UFC Vegas 77 featured too many prospects to recap each separately. Instead, let’s briefly run through a few young fighters that impressed.
UFC lightweight prospect Francisco Prado got the first win of his career as he knocked out Ottman Azaitar in the first round. Prado, 21, was able to utilize his powerful striking and land several impressive shots that hurt Azaitar. The young prospect is still miles away from the rankings, but he has a lot of upside.
Nazim Sadykhov added to the impressive UFC lightweight prospect performances as he outshined fellow prospect Terrance McKinney. Sadykhov managed to deal with the early grappling of McKinney before taking the back and landing a rear-naked choke in round two.
Lastly, on the UFC Vegas 77 prelims, Melquizael Costa outclassed Austin Lingo over three rounds to earn a one-sided decision victory. This was Costa’s first UFC fight at featherweight which is his natural weight class. At 26, Costa is a really raw prospect with fun striking that should excite fans.
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