The Real Winners and Losers from UFC Fight Night 233
After a rousing event in Austin, Texas, last Saturday, the UFC returned to Las Vegas on Saturday with the under-the-radar UFC Fight Night 233 card.
The event was originally set to mark the UFC's return to Shanghai. It would have been the promotion's first visit to the bustling Chinese metropolis since 2017, when Kelvin Gastelum knocked Michael Bisping into retirement, but it was not meant to be. The promotion ultimately decided to move the event to Las Vegas, but the card had already been put together by that point, and it was clearly built for the Asian market, with a host of fighters from China and South Korea on the bill.
In the main event, Chinese bantamweight contender Song Yadong looked to defend his No. 7 spot in the rankings against the No. 15-ranked Chris Gutierrez. The winner won't be up for a title shot but certainly took a step in that direction.
The co-main event also featured ranked fighters, with No. 8 light heavyweight Anthony Smith taking on the No. 11 seed Khalil Rountree. Rountree sought his fifth straight win, while Smith, who stepped in on short notice to replace Azamat Murzakanov, looked to make it two in a row after a split-decision win over Ryan Spann.
Earlier on the card, Germany's Nasrat Haqparast took on Australia's Jamie Mullarkey at lightweight, while former flyweight title challenger Tim Elliot faced rising Chinese talent Sumudaerji at bantamweight. Those scraps were preceded by seven others in some of the UFC's most entertaining weight classes.
Winner: Mixing It Up
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In the UFC Fight Night 233 main event, Song Yadong provided a great reminder that there are levels to this sport.
Song, the UFC's No, 7-ranked bantamweight, was back in action against Chris Gutierrez, who was perched at No. 15 ahead of the card.
Despite fighting way up the rankings, Gutierrez started pretty strong and seemed to frustrate Song a bit with his evasive movement.
"This guy controls the distance very well," Song said in his post-fight interview.
Despite a frustrating start, Song quickly began to show that, despite being known for his knockout punching, their are layers to his game. The Chinese fighter first began to diversify his striking attack by adding in kicks, then started looking for takedowns, and in the process, exposed Gutierrez as somewhat limited by comparison.
By the time the five-round fight was over, he had landed 160 strikes to Gutierrez's 105 and completed two of three takedown attempts to rack up just over 11 minutes of control time on the mat—the recipe for a clear-cut unanimous-decision win.
After his victory, Song set his sights on former bantamweight champion Petr Yan. That's a great fight, and one the UFC might well put together. Whomever is next for the Chinese fighter, however, will have to prepare all the more thoroughly after his layered performance in Saturday's headliner.
Loser: Ranked Light Heavyweights
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It's a scary time to be a top light heavyweight. Not only does the path through title lead through fearsome champion Alex Pereira, but now the fighters in the Top 10 have to contend with Khalil Rountree.
Rountree earned his spot in the light heavyweight Top 10 in Saturday's co-main event, defeating former title challenger Anthony Smith via third-round TKO. Smith took the fight on short notice but remains a world-class light heavyweight under any circumstances, making this the biggest win of Rountree's career.
What made the victory truly impressive, though, was the way he got it done. He has a long history of vicious knockout wins—particularly since his stint training in Thailand—and his win over Smith was among the best.
In fact, Rountree might be the biggest knockout threat in the division right now—even when including Pereira. He's now third all-time for most knockouts in the weight class, coming just behind MMA legends Chuck Liddell and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, with seven. He's also tied with Carlos Ulberg for the longest active win streak in the weight class, at five.
In his post-fight interview with commentator Paul Felder, Rountree called for a championship showdown with Pereira. He admitted he might need to win another fight or two to make it happen, but effectively set the stage for a future scrap between them.
Whenever it happens, the winner could safely be called the most intimidating fighter in the light heavyweight division.
Winner: Getting It Done in One
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After Andre Muniz's rather tedious decision win over Park Jun Yong, many viewers were surely feeling eager for an exciting finish. As luck would have it, we got two quick finishes back-to-back right after.
First up, former flyweight title challenger Tim Elliott made quick work of China's Sumudaerji at bantamweight. Elliott, who is ranked No. 10 at flyweight, took the fight on short notice, replacing his foe's original opponent, Allan Nascimento.
The short camp was no problem for him. He got to work with his grappling right away, and once the fight was on the mat, put his opponent to sleep with an arm-triangle choke. It took him just over four minutes to make it happen.
Elliott's finish of Sumudaerji briefly reigned as the fastest finish of the night, but it was beaten in the very next fight, when Nasrat Haqparast took on Jamie Mullarkey at lightweight. As expected, the two strikers quickly got to work on the feet. Mullarkey had a couple of nice lands early but was ultimately rocked by a Haqparast left hand. When Haqparast had his opponent hurt, he swarmed, landing punch after punch until the referee intervened. It took him less than two minutes to get it done.
Both Elliott and Haqparast will benefit greatly from their quick wins in Sin City. Elliott was riding a submission loss to Muhammad Mokaev at flyweight but will kick off the new year following a big win. Haqparast, on the other hand, will start 2024 on a three-fight streak, and that might be enough to earn him a fight with a ranked opponent.
Loser: Doing the Bare Minimum
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In the first bout of the UFC Fight Night 233 main card, Brazilian middleweight Andre Muniz bounced back from consecutive losses to Paul Craig and Brendan Allen with a hard-fought split-decision win over streaking Korean Park Jun Yong.
It was a crucial win for Muniz's career. In fact, it might have even saved him from being cut by the UFC. However, it really didn't seem like his best work.
Muniz won the fight with his grappling. After 15 minutes, he had succeeded on a whopping 11 takedowns, and racked up almost 10 minutes of control time, per UFCStats.com. Unfortunately, he seemed to forget that he was in an MMA fight and not a grappling match, landing just 14 significant strikes despite being in control of two thirds of the fight. His striking output was so glaringly low that commentator Paul Felder repeatedly made reference to it, noting that ground strikes would not only help the Brazilian win rounds, but open up opportunities for his trademark submissions.
It's great to see the Brazilian back in the win column, and his victory over Park should set him up for another big fight with somebody on the fringes of the top 15. However, his game plan in Las Vegas made for frustrating and tedious viewing that definitely didn't endear him to fans or the UFC matchmakers.
Winner: Flyweight Firepower
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The flyweight division finally seems to be catching on with fight fans, but the weight class has always had its fair share of haters. At one time, it was so unpopular that the UFC seriously considered dropping it altogether—and that was at the height of Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson's record setting title reign.
One of the main criticisms of the flyweight division is that 125-pound fighters don't win by knockout as often as their larger, heavier peers. Statistically, that may be true by a slight margin, but there were two flyweight fights on the UFC Fight Night 233 bill, and both bucked the trend.
First up, as we've already covered, we were treated to the latest appearance from Japan's Tatsuro Taira, who improved to a perfect 15-0 with a second-round TKO of Carlos Hernandez.
Several fights later, South Korean flyweight Park Hyun Sung had a very similar win, stopping Australia's Shannon Ross with second-round punches, also staying unbeaten in the process.
The two fights were a reminder of how entertaining the flyweight division can be when it's at its best. The fighters are fast and incredibly technical, and while they might not have as much stopping power as the fighters in the weight classes above them, they're still capable of serious damage.
Winner: The Mean Machine
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Steve Garcia lived up to his "Mean Machine" moniker on the UFC Fight Night 233 undercard, scoring one of the most brutal finishes of the year against Brazil's Melquizael Costa.
Costa started strong in their fight, tying the underdog Garcia up against the cage for most of round one. In round two, however, Garcia came out guns blazing, and after flooring his foe with a punch, chased him to the mat to finish things off. For a moment, it looked like he would get it done with a rear-naked choke—it would have been the first submission win on his record—but instead, he battered and bloodied the Brazilian with punches and elbows until the referee had seen enough.
With the bloody second-round stoppage, Garcia has now won three straight fights with brutal knockouts or TKOs, and has finished 12 of his 15 wins with his strikes.
"I almost had a choke in there, I thought I was going to have to pull out my white belt," he joked in his post-fight interview with commentator Paul Felder.
When asked who he'd like to fight next, Garcia set his sights on a spring scrap with featherweight fan favourite Nate Landwehr. That seems like a fight, and one Landwehr is probably up for, but whomever gets the offer to fight Garcia next might think twice after watching his finish of Costa.
Loser: Chinese Fans and Fighters
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It's still not clear why the UFC decided to cancel its return to Shanghai. Whatever the reason, it's definitely unfortunate, and a big blow to the Chinese MMA scene.
The most obvious losers are fight fans in China, who haven't had a visit from the UFC since 2017. There's clearly a huge appetite for MMA in the country—particularly with Zhang Weili ruling over the strawweight division—and after so long without a UFC event, you can bet they would have made themselves heard in the arena.
The Chinese fighters competing on the card suffered in a directly related way, having been deprived of a very rare chance to compete on home soil in front of fans with the same passport.
To make matters worse, they were moved to the Apex, which can only accommodate a handful of fans and is deafeningly quiet compared to an arena with a crowd. The facility is crucial to the UFC's current business model, but it offers almost nothing in the way of atmosphere.
Lastly, the UFC's return to Shanghai was also originally set to include the finals of the Road to UFC tournament, which has seen some of the best prospects in Asia competing for UFC contracts, including former ONE Championship star Li Kai Wen, who has the potential to become a big star in China.
Those fights will now occur at a later date, but it's too bad for the tournament finalists, who originally believed they had a chance of closing out the year as UFC fighters.
Winner: Hope for a Japanese UFC Champ
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Thirty years into its existence, the UFC has still never had a Japanese champion. A few fighters have come close, such as Kyoji Horiguchi and Yushin Okami, but so far none have managed to bring a UFC belt back to the country.
Tatsuro Taira could be the fighter to change that.
The Japanese flyweight was back in action in the second bout of the UFC Fight Night 233 undercard, taking on Carlos Hernandez, who stepped in to replace David Dvořák on short notice. The switch didn't seem to bother Taira, who spent most of Round 1 dominating his foe on the mat. He then finished things with punches in Round 2.
With the win, Taira is 15-0 overall. He has finished four of his wins by knockout and seven by submission. His last five wins have occurred in the UFC, and before he joined the promotion, nearly all of his fights were against opposition with substantially more experience and winning records.
In his post-fight interview, Taira called out Dagestan-born Brit Muhammad Mokaev, who is also undefeated at 10-0, and ranked No. 9 at flyweight. Mokaev is set to fight Alex Perez on March 2 and will be closing in on the Top Five if he wins, so Taira is unlikely to get his wish just yet.
Having said that, he's looking more and more like a contender every time he steps in the Octagon and will undoubtedly be mixing it up with the division's top fighters in short order. If he keeps winning, it's just a matter of time before he's fighting for the belt.
UFC Fight Night 233 Full Card
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Main Card
Song Yadong vs. Chris Gutierrez
Khalil Rountree def. Anthony Smith via TKO at 0:56 of round three
Nasrat Haqparast def. Jamie Mullarkey via TKO at 1:44 of round one
Andre Muniz def. Jun Yong Park via split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29)
Prelims
Kevin Jousset def. Song Kenan via unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
Park Hyun Sung def. Shannon Ross via TKO at 3:59 of round two
Steve Garcia def. Melquizael Costa via TKO at 1:01 of round two
Luana Santos def. Stephanie Egger via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28 x2)
Tatsuro Taira def. Carlos Hernandez via TKO at 0:55 of round two
Talita Alencar def. Rayanne Amanda via split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29)
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