A 14-fight card at UFC 310 in Las Vegas was once headlined via a singular flyweight identify battle between UFC champion Alexandre Pantoja and previous two-time RIZIN champion Kai Asakura. Within the co-main match, Shavkat Rakhmonov earned his identify shot in opposition to Belal Muhammad along with his win over Ian Machado Garry. Can any person grasp with Pantoja? Will Rakhmonov be a favourite over Muhammad? To form sense of all of it, Jeff Wagenheim, Brett Okamoto and Andreas Hale trade in their ultimate takeaways on an action-packed evening of fights in Vegas.
Pantoja lacks friends, however flyweight GOAT?
Check out an inventory of reigning UFC champions, and select the 3 who’ve had the most efficient run with the belt. Islam Makhachev more than likely will are evoked, since he has reigned at light-weight since 2022. The upcoming champ to quote most likely will likely be Alex Pereira, who has made 3 defenses at brightness heavyweight in slightly a date.
Upcoming that? It’s were given to be Alexandre Pantoja. The lads’s flyweight titleholder’s second-round submission over Kai Asakura in the principle match of UFC 310 enabled Pantoja to connect Makhachev and Pereira as the one stream champs with a minimum of 3 defenses.
Pantoja, who’s No. 5 in the ESPN pound-for-pound rankings, needed to do business in with Asakura’s wild aggression early on. Then again, as soon as he found out his challenger — which took possibly part a around — he took complete keep an eye on and cruised the left-overs of the best way. By means of the year the primary around ended, Pantoja had landed greater than two times as many vital moves as Asakura (31 to fifteen). And when Spherical 2 started and the champ initiated a clinch early on, he deftly impaired it to leap on Asakura’s again, snatch him unwell, lock in a frame triangle and temporarily store a rear-naked choke that ended it at 2:05 of the around.
However Pantoja’s activity was once no longer finished. He nonetheless needed to do what champions are anticipated to do: Name out his upcoming challenger. The disorder is, Pantoja has overwhelmed ESPN’s No. 2 flyweight, Brandon Royval, two times. He has defeated the Disagree. 3 man, Brandon Moreno, 3 times. Pantoja hasn’t confronted Kai Kara-France, however the fourth-ranked 125-pounder has misplaced two of his terminating 3 fights. And Disagree. 5 Muhammad Mokaev is nowhere to be discovered — the UFC let the undefeated Russian’s word running over right through the summer season.
So Pantoja known as out some other man who’s now not within the UFC — the only whom he had simply tie for many UFC wins at flyweight, with 13. “That is one thing for you, Demetrious Johnson,” he stated in his postfight interview. “I’m the GOAT in here, and if you want to prove you’re the GOAT, come back.”
Johnson, who retired this year as a One Championship titlist, has not anything to end up to Pantoja or anyone else. “Mighty Mouse” ruled the UFC’s flyweight division from 2012 to 2018 — a reign of two,142 days, second-longest in UFC historical past. Johnson made a file 11 consecutive identify defenses. Pantoja is nowhere akin being the 125-pound GOAT.
However Pantoja does rule nowadays’s flyweight section to such an extent that the UFC had to achieve around the Pacific Ocean to discover a challenger, one that hadn’t even fought at 125 for over seven years. Now what? Can any person who’s nonetheless within the UFC — or in all of MMA — compete with this man? — Wagenheim
It’s a pristine moment at welterweight
This has been coming — and next UFC 310, there’s negative denying it. A pristine future has taken over the section. For the longest, welterweight has been dominated via the similar, little workforce of names. Kamaru Usman. Colby Covington. Leon Edwards. Jorge Masvidal. Stephen Thompson. That workforce had its year, and it was once an overly memorable moment. However until certainly one of them can flip the clock again in a gigantic method, it’s over. And even supposing Usman pulls off a significant disillusioned within the akin day, or Covington can give you the chance to cancel Joaquin Buckley‘s momentum on Dec. 14, it’s nonetheless typically over. The torch has been handed.
Shavkat Rakhmonov is the actual do business in in each and every sense of the oath, and Ian Machado Garry proved he’s as neatly via taking two of 5 rounds in opposition to him on Saturday. My supposition is those two will battle once more going forward. They usually’ll each sooner or later battle Jack Della Maddalena as a result of he’s additionally part of this pristine moment. Saturday was once a glimpse of the upcoming 5 years at welterweight. Rakhmonov is most effective 30. Machado Garry is 27. Della Maddalena is 28. The aforementioned Buckley is 30. Carlos Prates, some other call temporarily saying itself within the section, is 31. You virtually really feel a modest bit for the protecting champion, Belal Muhammad, as a result of he’ll be tasked with taking up those younger combatants, in lieu than get pleasure from big-name fights with the former moment.
That is not anything in opposition to any of the veterans, via the best way. They’re all nonetheless in a position to profitable a gigantic battle. However in addition they had their year, had their rivalries and all fought every alternative more than one instances. It was once an incredible year for the welterweight section. Upload Tyron Woodley to that blend as neatly, who fought Usman, Covington and Thompson two times. We were given the entire fights we needed out of that elegance. Now the highlight turns to the only we’re vision this year. — Okamoto
The widening elegance hole at heavyweight
Ciryl Gane gained a slim choice over Alexander Volkov, firmly entrenching the Frenchman because the UFC’s Disagree. 2 ranked heavyweight. Then again, because of the arguable nature of the outcome, it most effective reaffirmed the gulf-wide hole between Jon Jones, Tom Aspinall and the left-overs of the heavyweights.
And that might provide an actual disorder some time.
Gane has gained two consecutive fights since being steamrolled via Jon Jones in 2023. But, it’s dry to consider that Gane would provide an actual blackmail to both Jones or Aspinall, will have to he be upcoming in sequence for a identify alternative. As for Volkov, month many idea he did plethora to win the battle, the result’s the outcome, and it’s his moment loss to Gane. Ahead of dropping to Gane at UFC 310, Volkov had gained 4 consecutive fights, along with his terminating loss coming within the first around to the stream meantime champion, Aspinall.
The section is in determined want of pristine blood. Thankfully, with Jones competing as soon as a date, they’ve year to develop some pristine contenders. Then again, because it stands, the stream reduce of manage 10 heavyweights doesn’t have a batch of sure momentum to assemble a reputable opponent for whoever the undisputed champion finally ends up being in 2025.
There’ll want to be some submit within the heavyweight section quicker in lieu than upcoming if there’s hope to near the distance for the reason that stream workforce is getting older out. Until a pristine contender bursts onto the scene, this can be a section dominated via both Jones or Aspinall for the upcoming 24 months. — Hale
