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UFC 288 took place tonight in Newark, New Jersey, here are some quick results, and quicker takes from the main card.
Charles Jourdain defeats Kron Gracie 30-27 across the board.
Takeaway – Kron Gracie hadn’t fought in 3 years and it showed. Jourdain wasn’t overly impressive but took what was given to him and cashed it in for a victory. Gracie drops to just 5-2 overall in his career and 1-2 in the UFC. Meanwhile Jourdain rights the ship after two straight losses coming in.
Movsar Evloev defeats Diego Lopes by scored of 30-27,30-27, 29-28
Takeaway – There were multiple submission attempts sunk in deep by Evloev that almost ended this several times by tapout. In the end, Lopes hung tough, but Evloev piled up the points, despite having 2 different opponents scheduled for this card until finally stepping in there with Lopes for the convincing victory.
Yan Xiaonan defeats Jessica Andrade by TKO in 2:20
Takeaway – This was never close as Xiaonan destroyed Andrade before knocking her out for good midway through the opening round. She will now go on to challenge newly crowned UFC Strawweight champion Zhang Weili.
Belal Muhammad defeats Gilbert burns by UD 50-45, 49-46, 49-46,
Takeaway – This fight was awful and slow as both men were injured and kind of slogged their way through it. This somehow earned Muhammad a title shot against the UFC Welterweight Champion Leon Edwards. Not sure why the announcers went on and on about how great Muhammad was, he simply beat an injured fighter by doing just enough.
Aljamain Sterling defeats Henry Cedujo by Split Decision to retain the UFC Bantamweight Championship.
Round One starts off strong with Cejudo taking the champ down. However, Sterling battled back for a late round takedown of his own and closes the period strong. I’d give the round to Sterling ever so slightly as well based solely that he did more with his takedown then Cejudo did.
Round Two went to Cejudo as he just barely took it as he found his range and slowly began to pick up points.
Round Three started off with a great shot from Cejudo to drop Sterling and begin to take control of the round. Sterling fought back nicely to win the clinch game. Sterling went on to dominate the rest of the round until the finals seconds when Cejudo took him down. The round still went to Sterling.
Round Four was another back and forth round until Sterling did just enough at the very end to steal the round and take a commanding 3-1 lead on my scorecard.
Round Five was dominated by Cejudo from start to finish, including a powerful shot towards the end, and a forceful takedown they sent Sterling flying backward.
I had it 3-2 Sterling
The judges had it
48-47, 47-48, 48-47 in a split for Sterling. Yet again, Sterling doesn’t get a clean dominant win and the questions remain.
