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Saturday’s UFC Fight Island 6 event is in the books, and now that the dust has settled in Abu Dhabi, it’s time to go to the scorecard to see who the big winners were at Flash Forum.
James Krause. THE James Krause. Why is he here? Well, he only took another short notice fight and handed Claudio Silva his first loss since 2007. And he did it on a knee he injured in the first round. And he did it between a host of coaching assignments that have kept him busy and will keep him busy through the rest of 2020. And because he’s James Krause – old school to the core and with the kind of experience you can almost see on fight night. Not too many fighters have bridged the gap between old school and new breed, but Krause has done it. And it’s fun to watch.
Jimmy Crute versus Modestas Bukauskas was a fight I was looking forward to since the day it was announced. Two rising stars meeting this early in their UFC careers is something you rarely see in boxing, but it’s common place in the Octagon, and I was ready for three rounds of battle. Crute had other plans, halting Bukauskas in a little over two minutes. It was another reminder that the Aussie up and comer is on the fast track to big things at 205 pounds, and if he wants to fight all-action Nikita Krylov next, who am I to say no?
When you’re in the fight game long enough, you get used to certain things. One of them is that no one has ever legitimately lost a decision. I’ve been around so long that I’ve seen guys get knocked out and think they deserved a draw. So when Guram Kutateladze won a close decision over Mateusz Gamrot and believed he didn’t deserve the victory, I almost fell off my chair. Such honesty is so rare in any walk of life these days, especially in pro sports, and while I do believe Kutateladze did enough to win in a Fight of the Night that could have gone either way, his class after the fight was something memorable to see and hear. And I hope to see more of it in the coming years.
When the dust settles a hundred years from now and we look back on the history of women in the UFC, I’m going to put it out there that Jessica Andrade is going to be one of the prominent names mentioned. On Saturday, she made history by becoming the first woman to win UFC fights in three weight classes, and that’s enough for a mention. But I believe that by the time Andrade’s book is written, the former strawweight champ will be seen as one of the best in the game. Think about it – she already won a title at 115 pounds, scored some big wins at 135, and now she started her flyweight career by knocking out number one contender Katlyn Chookagian. Andrade has accomplished big things already, and I don’t think she’s done yet.
Can’t get a bigger winner than someone who earned himself a title shot with his win last Saturday night, so here in the number one spot is Mr. Brian Ortega. I have to admit I had my doubts about Ortega coming back against a fighter like Chan Sung Jung, not just because of his long layoff and the punishment he took against Max Holloway in his last bout, but because “The Korean Zombie” is a truth machine. If you’re not on top of your game, he’s going to find out, usually in a painful fashion. But Ortega looked better than ever on Fight Island, disciplined, dynamic and ready for anything. And if you’re not excited about the future matchup between “T-City” and 145-pound champ Alexander Volkanovski, you may have stumbled across the wrong website.
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