UFC Fight Night 89 Results: The Real Winners and Losers from Ottawa
UFC Fight Night 89 went down Saturday night from the capital city of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
In the main event of the evening, the stakes were high, as welterweights Rory MacDonald and Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson squared off. For MacDonald, this was the last fight on his contract and first since his war for the ages with Robbie Lawler last year at UFC 189. After that loss, a win would surely help vault MacDonald into free agency with plenty of negotiating momentum.
A Wonderboy win would be his seventh in a row and would surely position the karate champion for a title shot.
In the co-main event, fan favorite Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone faced the stiffest test of his new life as a welterweight when he stepped in against Canadian favorite son Patrick Cote.
And those were just the top two contests. There was intrigue up and down the 13-fight slate, and as always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. These are the real winners and losers from UFC Fight Night 89.
Full card results appear on the final slide.
Winner: Stephen Thompson
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So, about that title shot.
Thompson showed he's a true contender and worthy of fighting for the championship when he outfoxed and outfought MacDonald for a unanimous-decision victory.
Wonderboy fought his fight, as the saying goes. This was a striking match, with Thompson keeping MacDonald outside and on the ends of his long limbs.
"Title shot, baby!" Thompson told broadcaster Jon Anik in the cage after the fight, when Anik asked him what was next. "Title belt. Robbie Lawler. I want the winner of Robbie Lawler and Tyron Woodley in New York."
That was a reference to November's scheduled card in the Big Apple—the UFC's first in the Empire State after New York legalized pro MMA earlier this year. Lawler is set to face Woodley later this summer for the welterweight belt. A New York fight toward year's end would make a lot of sense.
Loser: Rory MacDonald
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MacDonald landed some heavy blows, particularly toward the end of the bout, but for the most part, he was simply reluctant to engage.
It's an old specter for The Red King, for whom relative inactivity has long been a challenge. Sometimes, it just seems like it takes him a long time to pull the trigger, and that was the case Saturday night. Single strikes never gave way to combinations, and takedowns were almost nonexistent, especially if you don't count those visually interesting but ineffective Imanari rolls in the early going.
As Fox Sports 1 analyst Brian Stann noted on Twitter, there was "not enough pressure [and] only one real [takedown] attempt" from MacDonald. To Stann, it appeared there "could be some rust" as a result of his year away from fighting.
This is certainly not the way MacDonald wanted to enter free agency. But he's still only 26 years old and remains a very talented and popular fighter, particularly in his native Canada. There will be other opportunities for MacDonald.
Winner: Donald Cerrone
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Patrick Cote began his career as a light heavyweight. Donald Cerrone began his as a lightweight. So it stood to reason Cote might have an edge in strength Saturday night.
But with Cerrone's move up to welterweight came a marked increase in power. Cowboy hammered the notoriously tough Cote to snag a technical knockout victory halfway through the third round.
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Winners: Steve Bosse and Sean O'Connell
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If you didn't like this fight, you don't like fighting.
Light heavyweights Steve Bosse and Sean O'Connell waged 15 minutes of tempest in a teapot, with each man landing massive blows over and over again.
How did neither man earn a stoppage? It's more a testament to the chins on these two guys than it was to their power, which was definitely in evidence.
This was the fight of the night by any metric, and it might have moved Bosse beyond the level of glorified hockey brawler. He might be the UFC's new go-to brawler at 205 pounds, and O'Connell also cemented his status as a truly entertaining competitor. There's always a market for that.
Winner: Canada
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The main and co-main events didn't go the way of the Great White North, but on the whole it was still a good night for Canada.
On the evening, Canadians finished 6-4. Randa Markos, Elias Theodorou, Misha Cirkunov, Jason Saggo, Olivier Aubin-Mercier and Steve Bosse all came away with victories. Jonathan Meunier, Valerie Letourneau, Cote and MacDonald took losses.
For an MMA-happy country that hasn't hosted a whole lot of events lately, this was a successful night.
Winner: Misha Cirkunov
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We have a new fighter to watch in the UFC light heavyweight division. That fighter is Misha Cirkunov.
Three fights in the UFC, three finishes, most recently a third-round arm-triangle submission over a hard-hitting but one-dimensional Ion Cutelaba.
The Latvian-Canadian is now 12-2 as a pro and still only 29 years old. He could be a breath of fresh air to a division that gets pretty stale once you get past Jon Jones. To date, Cirkunov hasn't faced top competition. Time to rectify that.
Loser: The Barn Cat
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Maybe it's the nickname. Maybe it's the heavy-metal entrance music. Maybe it's the scrappy fighting style. Maybe it's the fact he looks a little like your company's computer guy, just a lot more, you know, lethal.
Whatever it is, Tamdan "The Barn Cat" McCrory sure does have a lot of admirers in the MMA fan base. He returned to the UFC in December after a six-year hiatus and upset Josh Samman in his first bout back.
He wasn't able to keep the momentum going Saturday night, when Krzysztof Jotko knocked him out with a crushing left hand to the forehead (!) in less than one minute (!!).
Tough break for the farmyard feline. And don't look now, but Jotko is now 18-1 overall and 5-1 in the UFC. This was his fourth straight win in a row, and he hasn't been crushing cans. Along with McCrory, Scott Askham and Tor Troeng are victims in the streak. This could be a middleweight to reckon with.
UFC Fight Night 89 Full Card Results
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Main Card
Stephen Thompson def. Rory MacDonald by unanimous decision
Donald Cerrone def. Patrick Cote by TKO, 2:35, Round 3
Steve Bosse def. Sean O'Connell by unanimous decision
Olivier Aubin-Mercier def. Thibault Gouti by submission (rear-naked choke), 2:28, Round 3
Joanne Calderwood def. Valerie Letourneau by TKO, 2:51, Round 3
Preliminary Card
Jason Saggo def. Leandro Silva by split decision
Misha Cirkunov def. Ion Cutelaba by submission (arm-triangle choke), 1:22, Round 3
Krzysztof Jotko def. Tamdan McCrory by KO, 0:59, Round 1
Joe Soto def. Chris Beal by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:39, Round 3
Elias Theodorou def. Sam Alvey by unanimous decision
Randa Markos def. Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger by unanimous decision
Colby Covington def. Jonathan Meunier by submission (rear-naked choke), 0:54, Round 3
Ali Bagautinov def. Geane Herrera by unanimous decision
Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter.
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