November 2nd – Madison Square Garden in New York City was the home of UFC 244. One of the most anticipated cards of all time. The main event: Jorge Masvidal vs Nate Diaz for the Baddest Mother Fucker Title. I’m not kidding. As Gimmicky as the UFC can get but it was very intriguing. The card also saw the resurgence of Darren Till and Corey Anderson slows down a major hype train.
I’ve been a fan of Nate Diaz since season 5 of the Ultimate Fighter. He came in with his I don’t give a fuck smart ass attitude from Stockton, California. Since then he’s second in UFC history in Fight Bonus’, all with only getting one title shot vs Ben Henderson in 2012. Jorge Masvidal has that same attitude except it’s very easy going. They both have different styles of confidence, maybe because when it comes to fighting they feel very at ease. They’ve been fighting their entire lives. Masvidal was this young kid on Kimbo Slice’s backyard fight tapes.
That’s why it was so fitting that this fight was for the BMF Title. The UFC even made a belt and had The Rock present the belt to the winner. Fight went as we expected, although I put money on Diaz, I knew he would get tagged a lot in the first three rounds. Masvidal had Diaz in trouble for three straight rounds, before the fight was stopped by the doctors because of a cut on top of Diaz’s eye. As upset as you can be, you can’t be too upset. We saw Masvidal knockdown Nate 4 times in three rounds and win every single boxing exchange. Nate had some shining moments but never had control.
After 3 rounds Masvidal is the BMF champ and you will not get any arguments from me. What’s next for these two? Conor has been showing up on twitter talking shit to both these guys. Nate wants the rematch and Masvidal wants bigger things Only Uncle Dana knows, and after his reaction to the stoppage, I don’t think it will and nor should it. We saw the fight and now it’s time to move on.
The co-main event was quielty the best fight on the card leading up to the event. Darren Till makes his Middleweight debut vs Middleweight Gatekeeper Kelvin Gastelum. Till was aggressive but a lot more tentative than usual. The man from Liverpool made sure that there was no doubt. Winning a skeptical split decision, one judge had Gastelum winning 30-27. Not sure what fight he was watching. Gastelum had a few takedown attempts that Till easily reversed. Till was the better boxer and used his leg kicks extremely well. Till at Middleweight is very impressive especially coming off two devastating losses to Woodley and Masvidal.
Corey Anderson #7 stopped the hype train that was Johnny Walker #11 in the 1st round by TKO. Everyone, including myself thought Walker was going to win. Only moments before the fight did I try to put money on Corey Anderson but it was too late. This isn’t new, the hype train always slows down. It even happened to GSP. The Light Heavy weight division is very intriguing. Jon Jones (The Goat) is sitting at the top and has his pick of the litter. Johnny Walker was a favorite but now, it’s all different. Jones can pick from Dominick Reyes, Corey Anderson, Thiago Santos and Jan Blachowicz. I think Reyes and Anderson should fight, Santos fights winner of that. Anthony Smith vs Johnny Walker is very interesting too. All this to say that the UFC shouldn’t rush the young guys.
Performances of the night: Kevin Lee for his KO on Gillespie (best of all time), Stephen Thompson and Vicente Luque for their brawl, and Corey Anderson for his TKO on Walker in the 1st. They each get 50k.