What mattered most at UFC 307 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City? Here are a few post-fight musings …
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5
Happy trails, Carla Esparza
There wasn’t a much more fitting way for the fight between Carla Esparza and Tecia Pennington to end than a debatable decision.
The judges all saw it for Pennington (including a questionable 30-27), and a result former two-time UFC strawweight champion Esparza (19-8 MMA, 10-6 UFC) ended her MMA career in a somewhat frustrating manner.
An argument can be made Esparza should’ve gotten the nod, which would’ve made it an ideal final fight scenario. But MMA isn’t that giving, it seems, so this is what Esparza has to deal with. She took it well in the moment, embracing in the crowd applause and tearing up with Joe Rogan during her post-fight interview in an emotional moment. Then with her son Donovan in her arms wearing a cookie monster outfit, Esparza laid her gloves down in the center of the cage and left.
The amount of times we’ve questioned MMA retirements in this column over the years is otherworldly. But for this one? I have no doubts. Esparza has been concrete in her retirement decision from the moment she announced it more than two months ago, and it’s nice to see she can go out on her terms.
No matter how you feel about Esparza’s style of fighting, you cannot deny her success in the sport. She won “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series, was a two-time divisional champ and has her name all over the record books for her body of work.
Finally, Esparza is a genuinely nice person from all my experiences over the years. It has been a privilege to cover her career and the access she’s provided along the way, and hopefully the UFC will eventually honor her with a well-deserved spot in the UFC Hall of Fame.
4
Joaquin Buckley breaks through
Joaquin Buckley needed a signature win to beef up his resume so he could call for the biggest fights in the welterweight division, and he got it with a third-round knockout of Stephen Thompson.
The fight wasn’t going perfect for Buckley (21-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) to the point of the finish. “Wonderboy” was doing well with counter striking and getting up from takedowns, but it also felt like Buckley’s power was a ticking time bomb. It finally went off with less than three minutes left on the clock, and Buckley is now 5-0 since he dropped to 170 pounds from middleweight.
After the fight, Buckley effectively used his microphone time with Rogan and called out Kamaru Usman. It’s a great callout, but he might not get it. Welterweight is stacked right now and everyone is gunning for Usman thinking he’s on the downfall with a three-fight losing skid. Maybe he is? But only one person is going to be the next to help give us those answers.
At worst, Buckley put his name in the hat to be considered for that matchup, which would likely be a title eliminator for him.
3
Was Jose Aldo robbed?
Mario Bautista achieved the biggest moment of his career when his hand was raised by split decision against UFC Hall of Famer Jose Aldo to extend his winning streak to seven fights in the bantamweight division. Unfortunately for him, no one outside those close to him seemed to like it.
That goes especially for the Salt Lake City crowd, who showered Bautista (15-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) with boos during his post-fight interview and sullied his moment. Did he deserve that? It’s hard to say, honestly. It was a close fight. It seemed to be tied going into the final round, and the boxing effectiveness of Aldo (32-9 MMA, 14-8 UFC) was certainly understated by the commentary team.
I’ve said so many times in this column that we can’t call close fight robberies. I’ve made exceptions over the years, but honestly, this isn’t one. Our love of Aldo leads to an inherently skewed view, and although Bautista didn’t do much to hurt him, he has just as good an argument going the other way to win.
Aldo still looked good, though, and although this was a major hit in his title aspirations during this post-retirement comeback run, there’s still lot of compelling fights at 135 pounds for “The King of Rio” going forward.
2
The future of women’s bantamweight takes shape
The UFC 307 main card essentially featured a four-woman tournament to set the foundation of for the women’s bantamweight division.
Things opened up with Kayla Harrison (18-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC) doing her part by getting the unanimous decision win over Ketlen Vieira, but it wasn’t as impressive as she promised it would be going in. She was cut open for the first time courtesy of some nasty elbows from Vieira, but the two-time Olympic gold medalist showed the will to win and got her hand raised.
Then in the title-fight co-headliner, Julianna Peña (11-5 MMA, 8-2 UFC) created the ideal scenario for the future of the weight class when she reclaimed the belt – even if it was a robbery split decision in the eyes of many over Raquel Pennington.
Peña flubbed setting up the most intrigue going forward by declining to acknowledge Harrison and create more heat and instead challenge Amanda Nunes to come out of retirement for a trilogy. I understand why she did that, but it’s a bit frustrating, as well.
I wouldn’t blame Nunes one bit if she saw Peña’s performance and decided to come back. That seems like a big payday against an opponent she’s already dismantled. But if Nunes wants to do best by the weight class, she would let Peña and Harrison fight it out to set up the biggest comeback possible.
1
Alex Pereira further solidifies legend status
Alex Pereira entered his name in the conversation for single greatest year by any MMA fighter of all time when he defended his light heavyweight title for the third time in 175 days against Khalil Rountree.
Pereira has been the UFC’s saviour this year by stepping up to headline cards when the promotion needed him most, and he once again came through when he stopped Rountree by fourth-round TKO.
Rountree’s hot start in the fight created drama and intrigue, but Pereira’s methodical attack ultimately made the outcome a bludgeoning in his favor. The entire circumstances of this win only became more impressive in the post-fight press conference when “Poatan” revealed a litany of struggles he had to endure to get in the octagon and have his hand raised.
Pereira is no doubt the 2024 Fighter of the Year after this stretch. Some will say the winner of Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway at UFC 308 later this month has a case. They do, in fairness. But it’s not strong enough. What Pereira has done this year will not be repeated frequently going forward, and the fact he finished every fight in his path only adds weight to this.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 307.
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