UFC Fight Night Vegas 11 Covington Vs Woodley Recap

By: Matt Mascarenus

The last Fight Night card at the Apex Center in Las Vegas for at least a month before the UFC heads back to Abu Dabi, was head lined by the long awaited, bad blood boiling over,5 pounds of beef needing to be grilled matchup between Colby Covington and Tyron Woodley. Zero loved lost between these former team mates and training partners. The main card was stacked with fights rivaling any recent PPV card, including the return of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in a welter weight scrap with Niko “The Hybrid” Price, a light heavy weight bout between title hopefuls in Johnny walker and Ryan Spann, Mackenzie Dern trys to go 2 in a row against Randa Markos, and the most anticipated fighter in MMA today in Khamzat Chimaev trying to put together the most dominating UFC debut in history as fights Gerald Meerschaert in a “win and fight next week” situation (I’ll explain).

Let’s start with some exciting fights on the prelim card as Tyson Nam kicks off the card with the TKO of Jerome Rivera in the second round. Nothing, but stand up in this fight as through the first-round strikes were relatively even, but it was Nam who got a big right hand off of an inside kick from Rivera that dropped Jerome and he was not able to re cover and the ref stopped the fight. Look out for Tyson Nam on the rise in the bantam weight division after his second consecutive knock out in the UFC. Three more first round finishes on the undercard as Randy Costa, Darrick Minner and Mayra Bueno all finish their fights early. This Prelim card saw 6 out of 8 fights end in finishes with only two going to decisions.

As we look at the Main card that was kicked off with a controversial spilt decision in the middle weight division, in which Kevin Holland gets the victory. This fight could have gone either way, but you could say Stewart won the fight. Holland said in the post-fight interview that “he is ready to run it back” and that he is also ready for Khamzat Chimaev or Mia if they need him. That’s 3 in a row for Holland and four out of five in the UFC, Holland definitely a middle weight to keep an eye on.

Next up a Women’s strawweight bout featuring Mackenzie Dern and Randa Markos. Dern wanting to show her improved striking didn’t get a chance with Randa surprising everyone by grappling with Dern early in the first round. This is not wise as Dern has 6 of her ten fights in MMA finished by way of submission. She’s also a brazilin jujitsu world champion and the Daughter of legendary jujitsu practitioner Wellington Dias 6th degree black belt and son of Royler Gracie,sooooo the ground is a safe space for Dern and Markos went right in. This was all about how long Markos could last, Dern latched onto the arm and tried to attempt a omoplata which has never been done in the UFC by a women. Markos couldn’t defend any more and Dern finished her with an Arm bar submission at 3:44 in round 1, giving Dern her second win in a row and puts her 4-1 in the UFC and 9-1 overall with her only loss coming to Amanda Ribas.

Next a light heavy weight bout between Johnny Walker and Ryan Spann that could set somethings in motion with the vacant title being filled next week at UFC 253 as Jan Blachowicz fights Dominick Reyes for the strap vacated by Jon Jones. This fight was a very active first round seeing Spann score two take downs, and knocking down Walker twice as he tried to take control of this fight, but a scramble led to bad position for Spann ending up on the bottom and getting finished by punches at 2:43 in the first round. This is big for Walker, he was on a rise after three quick first round finishes in his UFC career. He was knocked off track after back to back losses to Corey Anderson via KO and a Unanimous decision loss to Nikita Krylov. Walker has since joined Jon Kavanagh at Straight Blast Gym in Ireland and changed the way prepares and fights. We will see if he can continue his climb back to the top of the light heavy weight division.

We skip ahead to the co main as Cowboy Cerrone takes on Niko Price in a welter weight banger. This fight saw strikers, strike where a point deduction was the difference in this fight that ended in a draw. Cowboy still has those body kicks and can-do damage in the clinch, but Price was still a little more dominant in the total strikes and significant strikes and the leg kicks were devastating. The story of this fight was the eye pokes in the second round which caused Price to have a point deducted which was the difference in the fight ending in a draw.

The fight of the night or the story of the night was that of Khazmat Chimaev. The Swedish Fighter that has the MMA world a buzz!! He has fought just three fights in the UFC his first coming on July 15th of this year in where he got a second-round submission on John Phillips at Middle weight he then steps up and comes back just ten days later and beats Rhys Mckee in the welterweight div via KO in the first round. This is unheard of it doesn’t happen very often. Now on this card he is scheduled to fight Gerald Meerschaert at Middle weight with stipulation he if he wins he will fight Damian Mia with a quick turnaround. It took just 17 seconds for Chimaev do knock out Meerschaert, now Mia and his camp might think twice about taking this fight, remember this fight hasn’t been booked and is still in the air. Whatever happens with Mia there’s no denying Chimaev is in a different class of fighter, he is a legit contender at both 170 and 185 and its definitely time to start giving “Borz” top five fighters.