The UFC will be taking a rest this weekend after giving us four monster cards in March. They will be returning on April 8th with another blockbuster. The highly anticipated rematch between Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya will take place that night in UFC 287. Don’t despair. The UFC is bringing us Unified MMA 50 this Friday to keep your plate full. The UFC may be taking a rest, but Dana White is staying busy.
Another event to look out for is Gamebred Boxing 4, run by Jorge Masvidal and Dana White. This card features legends, including Roy Jones Jr, Anthony Pettis, Jose Aldo, and more. It is a good thing Dana White is around to pick the failing professional boxing leagues off the floor. The UFC is the only entertaining game in town and last week’s card did not disappoint again.
Let’s Look at Last Week’s Main Events
Both main events on the card went the distance. The top billing featured a five-rounder between Marlon Vera and Cory Sandhagen. The number five-ranked Sandhagen dominated the match from start to finish and should have been the unanimous winner, if not for one judge that saw something different. The number three-ranked “Chito” Vera was outclassed by his lower-ranked adversary. Sandhagen seemed to be a step ahead of Vera in every exchange, proving why some people call him the most decorated striker in the bantamweight division. Sandhagen called out Merab Dvalishvilli, looking to take that number one ranking from him on his path to the title.
The co-main event featured Holly Holm and Yana Santos. Holm did not show any signs of her age (41) as she had no trouble against the younger Santos (33). Right out of the gate Holm used her experience to find the holes in Santos’s game by taking her down. She put on a flawless performance on her way to the unanimous 30-27 decision victory.
Split Decision
Middleweight Albert Duraev took on Chidi Njokuani, who jumped up in weight class to take the match. Njokuani got knocked out in his last fight and looked like that affected him in this one. Chidi seemed pretty gun-shy, not throwing the volume of punches he usually does. His game plan of trying not to make a mistake did not work, losing a split decision to Duraev. No doubt he took that fight home with him that night thinking he should have done just a bit more to have his arm raised. That is not to take anything away from Duraev, who was slightly more aggressive in the match. He did most of his damage to Chidi via the leg kick, while also mixing in a few takedowns that swayed the judges in his favor. Hopefully, Njokuani cleared the cobwebs from being knocked out in his last match. We have to wait and see if he can come back as the dominant fighter he was prior to these two losses.
Pineda With Another Finish
The featherweight matchup between Daniel Pineda and Tucker Lutz was somewhat of a shocker. Pineda came into the fight with a career record of 27-14 with three no-contests. Yet, all 27 wins came by submission or knockout. Still, the oddsmakers did not give that any weight. Pineda came into the fight as a +240 underdog. His younger opponent found out about the veteran Pineda’s skills the hard way, as he would tap out by way of a guillotine choke midway through round two. Lutz did not appear to be as strong as Pineda from the outset and attempted a takedown very early to no avail. Lutz apparently didn’t do his homework, as you really do not want to be on the mat with a finisher like Pineda.
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