The race for title contention in the UFC's middleweight division has never been hotter, and two of the major players in the championship mix stepped into the Octagon for a high-stakes affair at Fight Night 70.
Former light heavyweight champion and recent 185-pound title challenger Lyoto Machida squared off with surging powerhouse Yoel Romero in the showcase bout of Saturday night's card in Hollywood, Florida. The Dragon has been a threat to the middleweight crown since dropping down from the 205-pound fold in 2013, but a recent rough patch has put that elite status in jeopardy. Losses in two of his last three showings going into his tilt with the Soldier of God put Machida in an absolute must-win situation if he wanted to keep his future title hopes alive.
Though Romero came into his bout with the elusive Brazilian striker having won five straight fights inside the Octagon, there was little room for error where he was concerned as well. There are multiple contenders jockeying for a shot at Chris Weidman's middleweight crown at the present time, and a loss on Saturday night would undoubtedly cost the 38-year-old powerhouse valuable ground in the hunt for a championship opportunity. That said, a victory over the former two-divisional title challenger would keep him moving up the divisional ladder and put him one step closer to his ultimate goal.
Both Machida and Romero had a lot on the line at Fight Night 70, and it was the former Olympian who got the job done on Saturday. While Romero and Machida spent the first two rounds in a technical chess match on their feet, the Cuba native's confidence began to rise as he held his own with one of the most dangerous strikers in the game. Everything changed in the third round as Romero used his world-class wrestling to put Machida on the ground, where he unleashed a violent storm of elbows that left the former champion out cold on the canvas.
While defeating Machida is undoubtedly the most impressive win of Romero's career, the surging contender showed so many positive elements that his stock should go through the roof in the aftermath of Saturday night.
Let's take a look at the good, bad and the strange from Fight Night 70.
The Good
Yoel Romero is a beast.
The Olympic silver medal-winning wrestler turned mixed martial artist has been making noise in the middleweight ranks over the past two years, but he absolutely stamped his presence as a legitimate threat to the 185-pound crown at Fight Night 70.
The Soldier of God arguably put on the best performance of his career as he went toe-to-toe with the Dragon for two rounds before snuffing him out with a brutal flurry of elbows in the third.
The upper tier of the middleweight fold is a shark tank at the current time, and Romero confirmed his place on the title radar with his victory on Saturday night. Yet the most interesting thing about Romero's position is what will come next for the American Top Team representative. The 38-year-old was slated to face fellow contender Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza on two previous occasions, but injuries to both men forced those fights to be cancelled.
With champion Chris Weidman slated to face Luke Rockhold sometime later in 2015, that leaves Souza standing as the odd man out in the title mix. But after Romero finished Machida, picking up his sixth straight victory inside the Octagon, the Alligator is no longer alone in that picture. Romero versus Souza in a title eliminator needs to happen, and you have to believe that's what will be next for both men.
***
After a three-fight skid put him on the brink of unemployment, Lorenz Larkin made the decision to drop down to the welterweight division. It was the best decision of his career. Since moving down to 170 pounds, the California-born striker has looked like a wrecking machine, as the confidence that would sporadically appear in his game has surfaced as a full-time attribute.
Larkin dipped into that reserve as he came out on the winning end of a fierce slug fest with Argentinian Santiago Ponzinibbio in the co-main event at Fight Night 70.
While Larkin was able to establish his range in the early going, Ponzinibbio refused to take a backward step. He continued to press the action despite being peppered with counter punches and having his lead leg hammered with kicks. Even though Ponzinibbio showed resilience, Larkin poured on more than he could handle in the second round, as the Riverside native unleashed a beautiful combination that led to the second-round TKO finish.
***
Some fighters are big for the weight class in which they compete, but Antonio Carlos Jr. looked like one of the largest middleweights in MMA in his fight against Eddie Gordon on Saturday.
Shoeface's monster frame smothered The Ultimate Fighter Season 19 winner in their tilt, and the size advantage was definitely something Gordon struggled to overcome. Carlos Jr. walked down the Serra-Longo product ever step of the way, and if he wasn't tagging him in the stand up game, he was landing shots when Gordon's back was on the canvas.
The 25-year-old Brazilian would go on to pick up the submission victory via rear-naked choke in the final minute of the fight, putting himself back into the win column in impressive fashion.
***
Knockouts, by their very nature, are violent, but what Thiago Santos did to Steve Bosse at Fight Night 70 was an entirely different class of brutality.
Shortly after the referee stepped aside inside the Octagon, the former hockey player began his approach to start the ruckus and Marreta unleashed a devastating left-footed head kick that forced the Canadian into an abrupt sleep on the canvas. It took just 29 seconds for Santos to blister Bosse on Saturday night and pick up his third victory in his last four outings.
Santos' knockout was as explosive as it was ferocious, and he could very well be on his way to picking up $50,000 worth of bonus money because of it.
***
The featherweight division is a talent-rich collective in the UFC, and Hacran Dias wants to establish himself as a major player in the 145-pound fold. While he dropped two of his first three fights inside the Octagon, the Nova Uniao product has finally started to build some momentum, picking up his second straight victory in the featherweight ranks by defeating Levan Makashvili on Saturday night in Florida.
Though the 31-year-old Brazilian wasn't able to close out a pair of submission attempts he appeared to have locked up, Dias still did enough to take the fight on the judges' scorecards to pick up the split-decision victory. Although his performance was forgettable, whatever Dias' post-fight victory scream was garnered some attention.
***
Alex Oliveira continues to prove he doesn't need much notice to bring his best on fight night. The rangy Brazilian has competed three times inside the Octagon—all of which have come with little time to prepare. That said, Cowboy has operated with a high rate of success and picked up his most recent win on Saturday against newcomer Joe Merritt.
Oliveira used his grappling chops to control the former football player turned mixed martial artist en route to picking up the unanimous decision victory in what was already his third showing of 2015.
***
When both fighters are making their official debuts for the promotion, it's a good bet that some furious action will follow. That was definitely the case when Tony Sims and Steve Montgomery stepped into the Octagon on the preliminary portion of Fight Night 70, as neither man wasted a moment letting the bad intentions fly. While the Colorado native's crisp boxing made the American Top Team product's flowing mullet snap back with hard shots, the Creepy Weasel landed a perfectly timed knee that buckled Sims' legs.
Yet MMA is a game of sudden turns, and just as Montgomery hurried after his wounded opponent, Sims blistered him with a left hand that spelled the beginning of the end for Montgomery. The Team Elevation fighter landed two more shots for good measure and in doing so put an impressive stamp on his long-awaited showing under the UFC banner.
The Bad
Combat sports is an unforgiving business, and Lyoto Machida will have some serious decisions to make following his loss at Fight Night 70.
There are few fighters on the current UFC roster who have more accomplishments or a better resume than the Dragon, but the past year has been a telling one in regard to where Machida stands in the bigger picture at the elite level of the middleweight division.
The 36-year-old Brazilian striker was handed his first loss at 185 pounds when he was edged out by champion Chris Weidman at UFC 175 last July. The Shotokan karate master rebounded with a victory over C.B. Dollaway, but suffering a second-round submission finish to Luke Rockhold back in April served to put his hopes for a rematch with the All-American on ice.
The Team Black House fighter went into his bout with Yoel Romero at Fight Night 70 with a firm understanding of the situation he was in. The former two-divisional title challenger knew a win over the Soldier of God would keep his dream of another championship alive, but a loss at the hands of the Cuban powerhouse would push him out of the middleweight title picture for the foreseeable future.
Those circumstances, mixed with a quick turnaround, made for a high-risk, high-reward affair. It was a gamble Machida lost in punishing fashion.
The former light heavyweight champion failed to make Romero respect his power during the first two rounds, which allowed the 38-year-old Florida transplant to continue pushing forward. It was only a matter of time before the former Olympian implemented his wrestling game, and he chose the third round to use that attack. Romero's first takedown attempt put Machida on his back before a rapid burst of elbow strikes separated the Brazilian from his consciousness.
The loss was the third setback Machida has suffered in his past four fights and the second consecutive defeat in which his opponent finished him. That's a rough stretch for a fighter who was once known as the most elusive competitor inside the Octagon and signals a change in status for the perennial contender.
What Machida has done during his time under the UFC banner has made him a surefire Hall of Fame inductee in the future, but his time within striking distance of another title came to a violent close on Saturday night.
***
Missing weight in your first UFC fight is a bad way to get things started, but Lewis Gonzalez pulled a double whammy by also being one half of a sloppy fight on his debut. Granted, his opponent, Leandro Santos, took the matchup on short notice, but the 15-minute bout felt more like 15 hours.
It was three rounds of lackluster action, with Buscape doing enough the unanimous decision on the judges' scorecards. And while neither man came out of the fight with anything to brag about, the loss and missing weight definitely put Gonzalez off to a rough start at the highest level of the sport.
The Strange
Let's talk about the card for Fight Night 70 for a moment.
While the UFC continues to blaze through the calendar year throwing out events at an incredible rate, there is always the argument that oversaturation has taken hold. Nevertheless, most events have at least several solid bouts in which the names are recognizable to casual MMA fans and are built around a headliner fight fans can typically get excited for.
The main event on Saturday night between Lyoto Machida and Yoel Romero certainly qualified in the anticipation category, but the supporting elements that are usually laced throughout the lineup were noticeably absent. On paper, Fight Night 70 appeared to have all the relevancy of a show put on by a smaller promotion that somehow managed to land a bankable name and a surging contender to draw fans in.
Saturday's card would have been a big deal for a smaller promotion, but this is the UFC we are talking about. It severely lacked in appeal in the lead up. Granted, there were other forces at play, and those elements certainly played a factor into how things would ultimately shake out where Fight Night 70 was concerned.
The card was originally slated to be the finale for The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 4 but was moved to Florida just weeks out from the June 27 date. This shake-up caused a huge fallout, as several Brazilian fighters were unable to secure visas in time for the event and were removed from the card.
The most notable of the group was welterweight finishing machine Erick Silva, who was going to face Rick Story in what was originally set to be the main event of TUF: Brazil 4 but was slotted as the co-main event at Fight Night 70 before it fell apart in the chaos.
With a handful of bouts removed on extremely short notice, Fight Night 70 never stood much of a chance. When you pair those conditions with the fervor created by Jose Aldo's rib injury and potential removal from his upcoming featherweight title tilt with Conor McGregor at UFC 189, there was simply no room in the minds of MMA fans for what was going to take place on Saturday night.
And that's strange because there is nothing fight fans love more than free squabbles. That said, the fighting faithful are also a sharp bunch, and Machida versus Romero wasn't going to be enough to spark the excitement that can usually be found attached to a UFC event.
There is no reason for fans to fret, however, because the five UFC cards coming in fast and furious fashion will go a long way toward erasing the memory of what happened at Fight Night 70.
On a final note let's talk about what is quickly becoming the biggest story to come out of Saturday night's event: Yoel Romero's post-fight rant following his victory over Lyoto Machida.
Given he's a devout Christian, it's nothing strange to hear talk of Jesus and the like coming out of his mouth, but when his speech appeared to mention homosexuality, things took a different turn.
The middleweight contender typically uses a translator because he doesn't speak strong English, but Romero told Jon Anik he was going to speak English in his interview and launched into whatever that was.
I say that because I honestly do not know what he said. The entire thing was pointed out to me by a fight fan on Twitter because the original run of this article made no mention of it, and after viewing the interview multiple times, I still have no idea of exactly what was said. Romero addressed the matter at the post-fight press conference, apologizing for any misunderstanding that took place.
Romero told the media in attendance he was speaking about the "American Dream," but that seems to be a stretch from starting out his post-fight interview with a pointed barb at America and asking "What Happened?" Romero would go on to mention Jesus several more times, and despite the fighter insisting he made no slanderous remarks, the message came just one day after the Supreme Court ruling that made gay marriage legal in the United States.
Props to @davidbix on the Vine, which is posted below for so you can all hear and decide for yourselves.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
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