Last weekend’s UFC Fight Night, headlined by Henry Cejudo and Song Yadong, was an extremely underrated card that was a roller coaster from the start of the early prelims. The card took place last Saturday at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. It was the first time in over a dozen years that the UFC returned to Seattle. The card started off hot, with the first seven fights of the night ending by finish. The first fight that didn’t end by finish was actually Alonzo Menifield vs Julius Walker, which was awarded fight of the night, deservingly. It was an absolute slug fest where both fighters landed over 85 significant strikes and it was a miracle that they were standing at the end of the 15 minutes.
Another fight I really liked was the American underdog, Ricky Simon, who knocked out the heavy favorite in Javid Basharat. Basharat is a veteran who has held the belt for a time, so it was awesome to see Simon get the win in the way that he did.
It’s rare to see the prelims outshine the main card but that was the case this past weekend. A high class fight that didn’t get the recognition it deserved was the Fili vs Costa fight. Costa’s mixed martial arts were too much for Andre Fili’s strike and wrestling style of fight, allowing him to submit Fili by guillotine choke. It’s interesting to see two different style fighters take the cage to see which style prevails in the chess match.
The main event was the most disappointing part of the night. The young up-and-comer, Song Yadong, fought against the experienced Henry Cejudo. The fight had to be stopped early from an eye poke from Song, making Cejudo unable to see and go on. It would have been the cherry on top of an underrated card if that main event could have ended by KO or something cool, but it was a card that we didn’t expect to be great, and was.
It was an unbelievable way to hold us over while we wait for the Periera vs Ankalaev pay-per-view fight, set to kick off at 6pm on March 8th, from the fight capital of the world, Las Vegas.
