Welp, didn't see that coming. The first couple of rounds went as I expected. Gaethje swinging for the fences and Tony eating them. I thought Tony would turn the tides the deeper the fight went, but he was just not able to really get his offense going and Gaethje's cardio held up. The high pressure-great cardio-insane chin but with little power guys haven't been faring too well lately. Max vs. Poirier and Volkanovski. Nate vs. Masvidal. Now Tony vs. Gaethje. Probably some other examples, too, but I thought Max was going to win both, Tony would win, and I didn't think Nate would win, but I didn't expect it to be that lopsided, either. Maybe that era is over in MMA?
I'm still very disappointed we don't get to see undefeated Khabib vs. 13 fight win streak Tony, but Khabib-Gaethje is a fascinating matchup. Khabib's fought wrestlers before, but I don't think he's fought anyone with Gathje's pedigree let alone combined with Gaethje's striking. Especially this safer more calculating Gaethje. I can't pick against Khabib, but it's a damn good fight and most likely going to be Khabib's toughest test to date.
I thought the Cejudo-Cruz stoppage was early. Not egregious, but I thought Cruz was pretty clearly defending himself by trying to get to different positions to try to get back to his feet. I feel for Dom. With everything he's gone through and then he seemed to be finding his range a little before he ate that knee. Then for it to end like that. Props to Cejudo, though. He keeps finding ways to get it done. I don't know if we've seen the last of him, but it was good to see him drop the King of Cringe schtick.
Francis...yeah.
Kattar looked great. Stephens seems to always kind of burn himself out early and Kattar was able to keep moving and avoid those shots. Stephens is a tough SOB, though, so to drop him like that was impressive.
Cowboy-Pettis was a good fight. Even putting my Cowboy bias aside, I thought he won. The striking was really close and Cowboy had the takedowns. I wonder if the ref not seeing the eye poke had an influence on the judge's decisions.
I thought Werdum looked terrible. A loss is one thing, but to get boxed up like that by Oleinik in the first round was not a good look. Calling that a 10-8 round wouldn't be out of the question IMO.