by Last night was a heated and very good UFC 235 from Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena. While no one truly thought Anthony Smith had any chance at taking down Jon Bones Jones, the rest of the card provided plenty of even matchups that didn’t disappoint.
Here are just a few things that stood out to me about the night.
Diego Sanchez looked great, almost as if he dipped into the fountain of youth to dominate and outwork Mickey Gall in a second-round stoppage. The gas tank of Gall is in serious question after last night, and for Sanchez, the move back to welterweight looks like the right one. Sanchez also remains a crowd favorite no matter his spot on the card.
Cody Stamann looked good in his win over Alejandro Perez, but not great. Stamann will need to start putting fighters away when given these chances on ESPN television. All 3 of his UFC wins have been by decision and that needs to change!
Johnny Walker knocking out Misha Cirkunov is only a scary sign of things to come. This guy is good, very good! He just needs to learn how to celebrate better as he hurt his arm and shoulder doing a simple worm like maneuver. Walker is 3-0 in the UFC with 3 KO’s in a total time of less then 3 minutes.
Jeremy Stephens sure looked confident that he won that fight, despite losing on all 3 judges score cards. That was kind of strange.
Cody Garbrandt made need to change his style and quickly. After getting knocked out for the third straight time, the second time in the first round. He will have to go back to the drawing board. Kudos to Pedro Munhoz with an impressive effort.
Herb Dean screwed Robbie Lawler twice in one round to give Ben Askren his first UFC victory. Simply put, the fight should have been stopped earlier in the first round when Lawler was beating a defenseless Askren silly. Then at the end of the round when Lawler was stuck in a headlock, but clearly fine when Dean stopped the match to everyone’s shock. This will need a rematch set up quickly.
I first saw Kamaru Usman fight live when I was covering UFC 210 in Buffalo back in 2017. I knew that night that this man was a future world champion. Last night he proved why with a dominant effort against a defenseless Tyron Woodley. The former champ appeared as if he had no answers for Usman.
Anthony Smith did absolutely nothing against Jon Bones Jones and proved why he didn’t even deserve this title shot. Smith was the example of “tomato can” challenger. Jones said he wants to fight 4 times in 2019, and you can expect to see at least one more paper challenger for him to hit that number.
Vince McKee – CEO of KEE On Sports Media Group
