Fight Coverage
Monthly Report | November 2024
Handing Out Virtual Hardware To Some Of November’s Top Performers
The way the calendar lined up this month meant that despite pressing pause on the action inside the Octagon this weekend for Thanksgiving, November still featured four events, including return trips to Edmonton and Macau, and the annual pay-per-view show from Madison Square Garden.
And at every stop, the athletes delivered.
This month’s slate of award winners features one performance from each of this month’s four fight cards, highlighting how consistently entertaining the UFC product has been on a week-to-week basis all year, while adding some late contenders for the quickly approaching year-end awards discussions.
Order UFC 310: Pantoja vs Asakura
Here’s a look at the men and women that stood out inside the Octagon in November.
Breakout Performance: Carlos Prates
Carlos Prates Post-Fight Interview | UFC Fight Night: Magny vs Prates
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Carlos Prates Post-Fight Interview | UFC Fight Night: Magny vs Prates
/
Even prior to making his first main event appearance earlier this month, Prates was already in the thick of the chase for the UFC Rookie of the Year award, having registered a trio of stoppage wins in as many trips into the Octagon.
But then he was paired off with Neil Magny in a classic litmus test pairing that headlined the second event of the month, and the Fighting Nerds representative used it to ensure his place on the Rookie of the Year podium and force his way in the Top 15 in the welterweight division.
Sign Up For UFC FIGHT PASS Today To Watch FPI 9 On December 5
For much of the contest, Prates worked to try to pin Magny against the fence and find spots to let loose his dynamite-packed left hand, but the Denver-based veteran did well to use his movement, force the Brazilian to be defensive, and generally keep things level. But late in the frame, Prates stung Magny and started chasing him down, hemming him in along the fence.
A left hand bounced off his temple and the veteran crashed to the canvas face-first, and “The Nightmare” announced his presence as a legitimate threat in the 170-pound weight class.
As with all sporting and artistic endeavors, there are some people that just have “It” — that ineffable quality that makes them stand out from the pack and seem poised for greatness — and Prates is one of those people. He’s both charismatic and nonchalant; incredibly dangerous inside the Octagon, but also unhurried, as if he believes with unwavering conviction that all it takes is one glancing blow from the rocket launcher he calls a left hand in order for him to win each and every fight he’s in.
FOLLOW @UFCNEWS: On Facebook | On Instagram | On X
Thus far in the UFC, Prates has been proven right four times over. While they all haven’t ended as a result of his left hand — Charles Radtke ate a knee to the liver and crumpled — the 31-year-old has earned Performance of the Night bonuses in each of his wins, and showed in dispatching Magny with calm efficiency that he’s someone to keep close tabs on heading into his sophomore campaign in the Octagon.
Honorable Mentions: Youssef Zalal, Mansur Abdul-Malik, Oban Elliott, Zhang Mingyang
Submission of the Month: Jim Miller taps Damon Jackson (UFC 309)
Just about every week we see competitors hurriedly attack a guillotine choke, and more often than naught, they end up on their backs, having failed to secure the hold while simultaneously handing their opponent a favorable position.
The great Dustin Poirier chases guillotine chokes so much that “Don’t Be Silly, Jump the Gilly” has become one of his signature statements on social media, along with his constant reminders for folks to stay hydrated. Each time someone chases the choke and misses, people tag Poirier in their tweets, and if they happen to connect, “The Diamond” usually chimes in with his catchphrase or some kind of acknowledgement.
RELATED: The 10 | Detailing December’s Most Intriguing Matchups
Midway through the UFC 310 prelims, Jim Miller showed folks how to wrap up and jump the guillotine choke, clamping onto Damon Jackson’s neck and drawing out the tap to register his record-extending 27th win inside the Octagon.
Right around the halfway point of the opening round, Jackson changed levels, dipping under a Miller left in search of a single leg, but as he did, the veteran lightweight quickly attacked, fishing his left arm under the chin, connecting his hands, and pulling Jackson into his closed guard. At that point, the Fortis MMA man was dead to rights, and after a couple beats on the canvas stuck in no man’s land, he tapped.
This finish stood out as the top submission of the month for a couple reasons.
Jim Miller Post-Fight Interview | UFC 309
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Jim Miller Post-Fight Interview | UFC 309
/
First, it’s just so expertly done from a technical perspective. As I said, we see folks rush in this position and fail to finish time and again, but as soon as Miller attacked the hold, you knew Jackson was stuck because the 41-year-old is such a technician in there. Rarely does he chase things that he doesn’t have a high probability of finishing, and while he’s yet to catch a kimura inside the Octagon, we’d seen Miller secure this hold in three previous fights, and you knew he wasn’t jumping this one without supreme confidence that he had it wrapped up.
And secondly, Miller is just one of those guys you want to root for — a consummate professional that has made the walk more times than anyone else in UFC history, and after coming up short at UFC 300 earlier this year, it was admittedly nice to see him bounce right back with a dominant effort.
There were a bunch of quality submission finishes this month, but none resonated more than this one.
Honorable Mentions: Zalal vs Jack Shore, Charles Jourdain vs Victor Henry, Jasmine Jasudavicius vs Ariane da Silva, Tresean Gore vs Antonio Trocoli, Da’Mon Blackshear vs Cody Stamann, Reineir de Ridder vs Gerald Meerschaert, Gabriella Fernandes vs Wang Cong
Knockout of the Month: Shi Ming stops Feng Xiaocan (UFC Fight Night: Yan vs. Figueiredo)
Shi Ming Finishes Feng With Vicious Head Kick | UFC Macau
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Shi Ming Finishes Feng With Vicious Head Kick | UFC Macau
/
Circumstances play a major factor in determining what performances end up taking home month-end honors. Sometimes that means championship bouts carry more weight than non-title affairs, and in other instances, it means that efforts like this one by Shi Ming rise to the top of the list of knockouts for the month of November.
Down 20-18 on two of the three scorecards heading into the third round of her Road to UFC strawweight finale clash with Feng Xiaocan, Shi needed a finish in order to earn her place on the UFC roster. The trouble was that through the first 10 minutes, Shi had trouble getting inside and connecting with force on her taller, rangier adversary.
Prodded by her corner to chase down the finish, Shi feinted a level change early in the third round and fired a right high kick that caught Feng flush, her shin crashing into the 22-year-old’s neck, instantly turning off her lights.
In a flash, Shi went from being down on the scorecards to having landed a spot on the UFC roster and she did so in spectacular fashion.
Shi Ming Post-Fight Interview | UFC Macau
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Shi Ming Post-Fight Interview | UFC Macau
/
Head kicks have been in fashion over the last couple years — from Leon Edwards and Justin Gaethje in Salt Lake City back-to-back years, to Muslim Salikhov hitting a spinning heel kick on Song Kenan just a couple fights after this finish in Macau — but this one really stood out because of everything that was tethered to it.
Shi was a considerable underdog heading into the contest, was down on the scorecards, and was struggling for a way to connect. Seconds later, the fight was over, she was victorious, and her place on the roster was secured.
Honorable Mentions: Dustin Stoltzfus vs. Marc-Andre Barriault, Prates vs. Neil Magny, Elliott vs. Bassil Hafez, Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Mickey Gall, Xiao Long vs. Quang Le, DongHun Choi vs. Kiru Singh Sahota, Muslim Salikhov vs. Song Kenan
Fight of the Month: Erin Blanchfield edges out Rose Namajunas (UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Albazi)
Sitting on press row in Edmonton watching this fight, you could feel this fight slowly starting to shift.
Namajunas started well, using her movement and superior speed to stick-and-move, keeping Blanchfield from closing the distance and turning this into a grind. But as each minute ticked off the clock, Blanchfield kept pressing, kept trying to force the issue, and somewhere late in the second round, it started to feel like the momentum was shifting.
As the fight progressed, the New Jersey native continued to claim a little more ground — landing more shots, forcing Namajunas backwards, finding success in the clinch and on the canvas — until you could feel Blanchfield take full control of the fight.
Now, it was never a case of “she’s running away with this one,” but you could almost see in their respective body languages that the tide had turned and the ascending young talent had gotten the better of things. Namajunas’ pace and output slowed, while Blanchfield was simply unrelenting, and while her striking remains a work in progress, she was able to consistently do enough over the final three rounds to earn the unanimous decision and the biggest win of her career.
This is going to be one of those fights we look back on in a year or two as being critical to Blanchfield’s development and progression as a fighter. Having spoken with her in the past, she always believed that five-round fights would favor her for the exact reason having five rounds to work aided her here.
Erin Blanchfield Post-Fight Interview | UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Albazi
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Erin Blanchfield Post-Fight Interview | UFC Fight Night: Moreno vs Albazi
/
Nothing really seems to dissuade her, and while she doesn’t fight at a break-neck pace, the constant pressure and forward movement Blanchfield deploys is a lot to deal with. Combined with her ability to wear shots well, her work in the clinch, and her steadily developing striking, “Cold Blooded” is becoming an absolute handful to deal with inside the Octagon.
Beating Namajunas solidified her place in the title conversation and should set her up for another marquee assignment to start 2025. And whomever she ends up facing first should hope they’re not booked for a five-round fight, because the New Jersey product proved in Edmonton that she’s built for those kinds of battles.
Honorable Mentions: David Onama vs Roberto Romero, Mauricio Ruffy vs James Llontop
