UFC 290: “A Card for the Ages”

An eventful and impactful card took place on Saturday July 8 as UFC 290 was one of the best cards in recent memory. 

Nine out of thirteen fights were finished inside the distance. One of the fights that went the distance was the co-main event flyweight title fight between Brandon Moreno and Alexandre Pantoja. 

Pantoja prior to this fight, had already defeated Moreno twice. Once in The Ultimate Fighter and the other back in 2018 in the UFC. Pantoja came out victorious once again this time via split decision in a fight that will go down as an instant classic. Both men maintained a high pace throughout the whole fight and at the end it was the Brazilian who reigned victorious. 

A major storyline going into this fight card was Robbie Lawler. His fight against Niko Price was his last fight from his illustrious career. It only took the legend 38 seconds to knock out Niko Price in his farewell bout. Fans inside the arena erupted and appeared as the beginning of an exciting, unparalleled night. 

Lawler’s farewell KO set the tone leading into the main card. 

Bo Nickal did what Bo Nickal does best as he finished undefeated UFC newcomer and short-notice replacement Val Woodburn in just 38 seconds. The former Penn State wrestler put on a show to open up the main card on PPV. 

Jalin Turner and Dan Hooker had the responsibility to carry the momentum and they succeeded. A back-and-forth battle, with both men not giving up any ground, went the distance as Dan Hooker picked up his second straight win. The Hangman now rides a 2-fight win streak after his victory in a war against The Tarantula. It will be interesting to see who Hooker faces in his next outing. 

Following Hooker’s win, Robert Whittaker and Dricus Du Plessis shared the cage in what was a very important matchup in the middleweight division. Whittaker was a big favorite going into this one as many including other fighters were quick to count out Du Plessis. The South African pushed past the doubt as he executed his gameplan. His constant pressure eventually overwhelmed Whittaker as he finished him via TKO in the second round. 

Du Plessis had a face-off with the champion Israel Adesanya and will fight him next.

Finally, it was time to unify the featherweight belts. Interim champion Yair Rodriguez has been touted as a fighter who may present new problems to the undisputed champion Alexander Volkanovski. 

The fight began and the Australian threw that out the window. Volkanovski brought out his wrestling for this fight, a style he used to incorporate more into his game before, as he applied immense pressure to Rodriguez. After two rounds dominated by the champ, Volkanovski stunned Rodriguez in the third and immediately followed up with the takedown that has been very successful all fight. “The Great” started to rain down from the top position as “El Pantera” began to cover up. After some hard ground and pound shots, referee Herb Dean decided he had seen enough and called a stop to the bout. 

Volkanovski put on one of his best performances to date and retained his undisputed featherweight championship.

 A magical night ended with a magical performance by the newly crowned UFC pound for pound champion. The tone is now set for the next PPV card UFC 291 on July 29, which has tremendous depth from top to bottom.