5. Josh Emmett is a problem
UFC 296 kicked off with a prelim match between Josh Emmett and Bryce Mitchell. Bryce Mitchell is known for his grappling and submission expertise and he came prepared with a decent enough game plan. He was aware of Emmett’s powerful striking ability, hence started the fight with a cautious approach, trying to keep his distance while looking for an opportunity to catch Emmett off-guard or perhaps even attempt a takedown. But boy, things did not go as planned for Mitchell. Emmett kept his cool and waited for his moment to strike, baiting Mitchell with feints and closing off the Octagon.
After nearly two minutes of this cat and mouse game in the first round, Mitchell attempted a right hook which Emmett dodged and countered with his own right hook which landed flush between the eyes. That was all it took to drop Mitchell unconscious on the mat. One clean punch carrying outrageous power, it was scary how much power Josh Emmett possesses because Mitchell was not only unconscious but his body literally underwent a seizure for a few seconds.
Thankfully the medics managed to give him the attention he required and after a good few minutes managed to wake him up but even then he could barely walk on his own two feet and had to be escorted out of the Octagon. It was an intense start to UFC 296 and to all the fighters in the featherweight division, be ready because Josh Emmett is coming.
4. Paddy Pimblett is no ‘baddy’
Next on the UFC 296 main card was a fight between Tony Ferguson and Paddy Pimblett. Yes I do have a soft spot for Ferguson but this is my unbiased opinion, I’m not trying to discredit Paddy. The fight was surprisingly quite entertaining and Tony did look like he had got back some of his endurance, maybe through his training with David Goggins but it wasn’t enough to get him a win. Paddy landed a couple of strong punches trying to find the finish early and dominated on the ground, his grappling was too good for Ferguson.
Although Paddy got the win, in the final round he looked gassed out and could barely stay on his feet, if the remainder of the round was fought standing I’m sure Tony would have knocked him out but luckily for Paddy he took Tony down and managed to keep him there until the end of the round. From what I saw in this fight, Paddy deserved the win but he didn’t look particularly convincing. I mean he is a young and upcoming fighter in the lightweight division and he struggled to finish off an old veteran in the worst run of his entire career.
Paddy won the fight via decision but it was close and honestly it shouldn’t be. Tony is beyond finished in the UFC, he’s not what he used to be since that disastrous knee injury. He’s slow, rusty, barely has any power in his kicks and punches and is pretty much a stationary target now. For someone like Paddy who is young and looking to make a name for himself in the UFC and maybe one day get a title shot, this is not a good look.
Any of the current top 10 fighters in the division would have managed to knock Ferguson out or submit him in the first two rounds but Paddy didn’t and he only dominated the fight on the ground, Ferguson held his own in a standing fight. After his performance in UFC 296, I personally don’t see Paddy going far unless he really trains hard and improves his ability because at the moment I can’t see him beating anyone in the top 10 of the division.
3. Sean Strickland wants all the smoke
UFC 296 was already hyped up because of the co-main events of Edwards vs Covington and Pantoja vs Royval but what made the event even more spectacular was the brawl between UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland and current number 1 contender Dricus Du Plessis. The pair are set to fight for the title at UFC 297 in January but the fire was already brewing during their press conferences a few days earlier.
Things escalated during UFC 296 when the camera zoomed in on Du Plessis and then Strickland who were seated in close proximity and only separated by a single row of fans. Du Plessis continued trash talking at the champ until Strickland couldn’t take it anymore. He calmly instructed a woman and a child who were seated between them to move out of the way before then launching himself at Du Plessis like a mad man.
The brawl only lasted a few seconds but it was sheer chaos with both of them swinging at each other until security intervened and separated them. The way Strickland calmly told the woman and child to leave and then went on berserk mode was badass and this will definitely be remembered as a UFC classic moment. Like most fans, I cannot wait for this fight in January.
2. Pantoja vs Royval rematch will be epic
UFC 296’S co-main event Pantoja vs Royval was worth the hype and turned out to be an exciting and fiery clash. From the start of the fight, both fighters wasted no time in going to work on each other. The pace of the fight was electric and both were confident on their feet, exchanging kicks and punches.
Pantoja timed his takedowns to perfection and caught Royval a couple of times but Royval had sufficient grappling skills to eventually get out of the takedowns. In the first round, Pantoja landed a kick on the challenger’s face and Royval touched his eye in discomfort signalling that it might have been an illegal blow to the eye. The referee was unmoved and in all honesty it looked like a normal kick.
However, in the second round Pantoja seemed to catch that same eye with a punch and Royval imemditely complained to the referee but again he did not seem to see it. The commentators watched the replay and declared that there was indeed an eye poke which the referee failed to acknowledge. The fight continued and once again Pantoja timed another takedown to perfection, Royval tried to break free but this time ended up in a choke and Pantoja managed to submit him on the mat.
After the fight, Pantoja seemed concerned about Royval’s eye which makes me think that he knew he got away with one and probably didn’t want to win that way. I don’t know when the rematch between these two will be but I’m certain their clash at UFC 296 will not be the last time we see the two share the Octagon.
1. UFC 296 main event was underwhelming
I was expecting a fight, you know … a real fight. Suffice it to say, I was disappointed. I think most of us would agree the takeaway from this fight is that Covington is delusional. I will get to that in a minute, but first let’s talk about the fight.
It wasn’t the worst fight ever but as the headliner of UFC 296 it just was not as exciting as I hoped it would be. This was Edwards’ second Welterweight championship defence and honestly it might prove to be his easiest one. I’m not trying to downplay Covington but let’s be honest his performance in this fight was underwhelming.
Typically in a title fight, the challenger has everything to prove and everything to gain so naturally they fight with a hunger and desire to overcome the reigning champ with everything they have especially because you never know if you will ever get another title shot. Covington had none of that in this fight, from round one he backed up against the cage allowing Edwards to control his range and movements.
He hardly put any pressure on the champ, instead mainly focusing on defence and yet Edwards seemed to land more clean hits in each round. He attempted takedowns, most of them failed and Edwards reversed some of them. He had one successful takedown in the final round but at this point Edwards was already leading the scoreboards by a mile and was more than happy to stay on his back until the end of the round.
As a challenger, Covington lacked the belief and hunger to cause problems for the champ and it was a comfortable title defence for Leon Edwards. From the champ’s perspective, he was never forced into making any difficult decisions so his measured approach remained the same each round. Edwards controlled the pace of the fight from the start by closing in on Covington and backing him up against the cage.
Edwards casually threw faint jabs and front kicks while timing his left-hooks and leg kicks perfectly and on the rare occasions that Covington tried to move forward and land a clean strike, he would easily dodge it while countering with a precise hook or jab of his own which would cause the challenger to back off once again. This was the pattern which continued throughout the 5 rounds and Edwards retained the title through an expected unanimous decision.
Back to the Covington is delusional part. Leading up to the fight, he spoke a big game about defeating Edwards and even crossed the line when he started trash talking about Edwards’ late father. He clearly tried to rattle the champ before the fight but that didn’t work because Edwards was as calm and measured as he ever was during the fight.
After the fifth round, Covington was walking around the Octagon with a big smile on his face celebrating like he had won the fight. Talk about delusional, literally no one who watched the fight would think that he had won, it was so one-sided that the judges could have given their verdict in the third round itself. To further illustrate my point, in his immediate post-match interview he said he took no damage, not a single scratch and this was the easiest fight of his life.
He said all this with a clear cut on his nose which was still bleeding, mind you. He also said that he thought he won the fight which is why he celebrated like he did. Covington is 35 years old and this was his first fight in two years. He’s well off the pace and honestly should just give it up now because he is not going to get another title shot anytime soon especially with more young upstarts climbing up the ranks in the division. UFC 296 will definitely not be one to remember for the American.
