I think the main event stoppage was early. It's not super egregious, but come on, man. It's the 5th round of a big title fight that nobody really knew who was winning (as evident by scorecards). Usman hit him with some shots on the ground, but it wasn't anything that big. The ref should have at least given Colby the "You've got to move" warning. Again, it's the 5th round of a close title fight. If Colby was getting his ass handed to him for 4.5 rounds, OK, stop it, but he very well could have been up on scorecards. In the end, it doesn't matter, because Usman would have won on the scorecards anyway, but it wasn't a great stoppage. All it did was give Colby an excuse. Anyway, great fight. Nothing like I was expecting, but it was a fun, close, back and forth fight and we got to see Colby's jaw get broken. As one of the reporters said in the presser, it's poetic justice that his mouth will be wired shut.
As I said last night, Volkanovski clearly won, but it was close. Glad to hear that Dana and Volkanovski are both open to an immediate rematch. I think it makes sense given how long and dominant Max was champ and there's not anyone else at the moment. I don't know what would be different in the rematch, but Max deserves the chance if that's what he wants. Props to Volkanovski. I thought if he won, he'd have to use at least some wrestling. Instead he just went toe-to-toe with the best FW ever.
I don't get people knocking Nunes at all. Did she slow down a little bit? Sure, that's what happens when you're in a fight, but she still won rounds 3, 4, and 5. One judge even had round 3 as a 10-8. Did GDR have some success on the feet? Sure, but she's a world champion kickboxer with a 46-0 record that once KO'ed a dude. People are looking too hard to find flaws with Nunes. If she doesn't get a first round KO, it's "OoOoOhHhHh, she's human!" Not really. She still just dominated yet another challenger.
I had Moraes winning. If the fight was judged as a whole, I think Aldo won because that second round was clearly his, but with a 3-round 10-9 must scoring system, I thought Moraes edged out the first and third round. Props to both guys. I was completely wrong about Aldo going down. He looked great and took some shots. I was wrong about Moraes gassing, too. He looked dead at the end of the 2nd, but he dug down and took the 3rd against a legend (who is still somehow only 33).
Shout outs to Yan, Neal, Aldana, Hooper, and Matt Brown as well. I thought this card might end up sucking, but it was a good night of fights.
