UFC Fight Night 93 Results: The Real Winners and Losers from Hamburg Fight Card
UFC Fight Night 93 went down Saturday afternoon, U.S. Eastern time, from the city of Hamburg, Germany. It was the UFC's fourth visit to Germany and first to Hamburg, and the European flavor of the card was in keeping with the backdrop.
The main event of UFC Fight Night 93, which aired entirely on the UFC's Fight Pass subscription streaming service, saw Belarusian Andrei Arlovski take on well-traveled American veteran Josh Barnett. With the former being 37 years old and the latter being 38, these two were fighting to prolong late-career runs in the contending half of the UFC heavyweight division.
Popular light heavyweight Alexander Gustafsson was a heavy favorite to swing the co-main event Sweden's way against underdog Pole Jan Blachowicz.
All told, 14 of the card's 22 fighters were European. Which ones delivered, and which fell short? As always, the final stat lines reveal only so much. These are the real winners and losers from UFC Hamburg.
Full card results appear on the final slide.
Winner: Josh Barnett
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There was an amazing exchange in the fight's first 30 seconds. Both men charged in and rocked each other with big right hands, although neither could notch the finish.
It was all downhill from there. Both men seemed to lose their wind after that first exchange and never fully recovered. Viva los heavyweights!
Barnett went to his smothering clinch game, which ate up valuable seconds and stamina from Arlovski. The Belarusian tried to keep things in space and rely on his right hand to do the damage.
But with endurance fading, Barnett came on, stifling Arlovski against the fence and then on the ground. In the second round, a fading and frustrated Arlovski eventually rolled over and gave up his back. Barnett took it gratefully and locked on a fight-ending rear-naked choke.
Barnett did it all despite eating what looked like a potentially serious eye poke in the second round.
"I'm a born fighter," Barnett told broadcaster Dan Hardy in the cage after the fight. "I took an eye gouge over in the corner but, they didn't see it. ... I could feel my eye swelling up. ... It happens."
It certainly does. The early exhaustion didn't help anyone enjoy the fight, but it was a solid win for Barnett and shows he's still a viable commodity in a thin division.
How about giving him the winner of October's bout between Derrick Lewis and Marcin Tybura? I'd watch that.
Winner: Alexander Gustafsson
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It wasn't pretty, but a win is a win.
That phrase could preface just about every fight on this Hamburg card, and it was true again for Alexander Gustafsson. He needed a W and got one Saturday—his first since March 2014—with a decision over a game Jan Blachowicz.
As ESPN.com's Brett Okamoto tweeted, "Gustafsson leans hard on the wrestling, takes Jan Blachowicz down at will. Not his most impressive fight but a much needed win."
Blachowicz is a hard hitter and came out firing early, marking up The Mauler with jabs and punishing him with uppercuts to the body. Impressively, Gustafsson absorbed it all, even if it wasn't so reassuring to see him eat so many unanswered strikes.
Reflecting his training time with Phil Davis, Dominick Cruz and others at Alliance MMA in California, Gustafsson swung the bout with his underrated wrestling. When he sensed danger, Gustafsson easily took the action to the mat, putting Blachowicz on his back—and was he helpless there or what?—and slowly sapping the big Pole's cardio and general will to live.
It's hard to believe Gustafsson and Ryan Bader have never crossed paths. Perhaps it's time to rectify that? If Gustafsson can handle Bader, he'll be back at the top and ready to rematch either Anthony Johnson or Daniel Cormier. He just needs to get back to the time before his chin was his only line of striking defense.
Loser: Ashlee Evans-Smith
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On a fight-for-fight basis, this was not the world's most exciting card. Did I mention that already?
Decisions can still be exciting, but in Hamburg's case, they were not. And that's a shame, since there were seven of them.
So when women's bantamweight Ashlee Evans-Smith pounded out undersized short-notice replacement Veronica Macedo with ground elbows, she looked to be in the catbird seat for a post-fight bonus check.
Hopefully she didn't count that money before it arrived.
On the second bout of the main card, Swede Ilir Latifi had the fans at his back and a round in his pocket after flooring Ryan Bader early.
About halfway through the second frame, Latifi changed levels and darted inside. But Bader was waiting for him and landed a perfect knee strike on Latifi's big skull. The Swede fell back and hit the canvas in a heap.
Bader walked away, no more shots needed. He locked up the bonus check as well with one of only two knockouts on the night.
Better luck next time, Ashlee.
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Winner: The German Faithful
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The UFC Fight Night 93 audience was in full throat for all the European competitors. Three of them, though, got the kind of receptions reserved for the hometown boys and girls.
German fighters did their countrymen proud Saturday, with judo ace Nick Hein using a more well-rounded game to dispatch Tae Hyun Bang by decision to open the main card and Jessin Ayari and Peter Sobotta taking their own decisions on the undercard.
"He was tough, but when I'm fighting at home in Germany, I'm going to win!" Sobotta said in a statement provided by the UFC to media members after the fight.
None of them will leap into the Top 10 on the strength of these performances, particularly in the crowded lightweight and welterweight divisions where they compete.
Still, you can always build on a win, and that's the name of the game given the UFC's ongoing MMA construction project overseas.
Loser: Rustam Khabilov
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The Dagestani Rustam Khabilov appeared in the first fight of the evening and earned a decision there over Leandro Silva.
So why is he a loser?
There was a time when Khabilov was considered one of the sport's hottest prospects, be they from his part of the world or any other. Two losses in 2014 and 2015 dampened that hype. Lackluster wins like the plodfest that occurred Saturday aren't enough to recapture the mo.
Which is noteworthy given that, just two years ago, Khabilov fought Benson Henderson at the top of a card. He lost that fight, but Saturday's win, at the very bottom of a card that aired entirely online, is still a bright juxtaposition.
Khabilov is still just 29 years old and plenty talented. But he needs to move beyond this conservative, grinding style if he wants to recapture the hearts and minds of fight fans.
UFC Fight Night 93 Full Card Results
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Main Card
- Josh Barnett def. Andrei Arlovski by submission (rear-naked choke), 2:53, Rd. 3
- Alexander Gustafsson def. Jan Blachowicz by unanimous decision
- Ryan Bader def. Ilir Latifi by KO, 2:06, Rd. 1
- Nick Hein def. Tae Hyun Bang by unanimous decision
Preliminary Card
- Jessin Ayari def. Jim Wallhead by split decision
- Peter Sobotta def. Nicolas Dalby by unanimous decision
- Ashlee Evans-Smith def. Veronica Macedo by TKO, 3:14, Rd. 3
- Taylor Lapilus def. Leandro Issa by unanimous decision
- Christian Colombo vs. Jarjis Danho ruled majority draw
- Jack Hermansson def. Scott Askham by unanimous decision
- Rustam Khabilov def. Leandro Silva by unanimous decision
Scott Harris covers MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter.
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