BreakingDown UFC Fight Night: Barboza VS Murphy

                                                     

Women’s Strawweight - Vanessa Demopoulos (10-5) VS Emily Ducote (13-8) 

Result: Vanessa Demopulos wins by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Former LFA champion Vanessa Demopoulos has been busy while in the UFC. After her incredible 2022 that saw her go 3-0 following a debut loss to JJ Aldrich in 2021, Demopoulos lost to Karolina Kowalkiewicz while seeking a spot in the rankings last year. Vanessa struggled with Ducote, and was lucky to get out of this fight with a split decision victory. Ducote outstruck Vanessa 147-126, with 143 of those strikes listed as significant. She won shots to the head 86-76, and lig kicks 35-15. Demopoulos was also 0-3 for takedowns and slightly lost the control battle. Ducote had reason to be upset, she probably should have won this fight.

Bantamweight Bout - Alatengheili (16-9-2) VS Kleydson Rodrigues (8-3) Result: Alatengheili wins by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) A huge bounce back victory for Alatengheili after he lost to Chris Guterrez back in October. Alatengheili dominated in this fight with 8:16 of control time. He landed 3 out of 4 take down attempts. He was the more active fighter on the feet even though Kleydson landed some significant shots. Alatengheili landed 107 strikes, but only 18 of those were listed as significant. This was a get-right fight for the Chinese veteran. Women’s Strawweight Bout - Piera Rodriguez (9-2) VS Ariane Carnelossi (15-3) Result: Ariane Carnelossi wins by 2nd round DQ (Illegal headbutt) The illegal headbutt is probably the best thing to happen to Arian Carnelossi. She was losing this fight and losing badly to Piera Rodriguez. Not to say anyone would fake, but when she realized what was happening she laid there and looked unable to stand. I’m not going to question her warrior spirit, but I think she found a way out of this match with a W. Middleweight Bout - Albus Magomedov (26-6-1) VS Warlley Alves (15-8) Result: Albus Magomedov wins by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26) You might know Albus Magomedov from his time in the PFL, where he had wins over fighters like Sadibou Sy and nearly won the gold. The hype train was on him when he arrived at the UFC and knocked out Dustin Stoltzfus. So much so that in his only 2nd fight, he fought former champion Sean Strickland which he lost by TKO. The next fight, he fought unbeaten top prospect Caio Borralhom who beat him by decision. So the UFC had him take a step back and fight veteran Warlley Alves. Magomedov passed the test and dominated Alves who’s now on a 4-fight losing streak. Women’s Bantamweight Bout- Tamires Vidal (7-3) VS Melissa Gatto (9-2-2) Result: Melissa Gatto wins by 3rd round TKO (punch) Melissa Gatto lists her fighting styles as a BJJ, but this woman has serious power. The woman who KO’d Sijara Eubanks, and caused a doctor stoppage against Victoria Leonardo, came out and did the same thing to Tamires Vidal. Tamires Vidal is a former LFA champion, but she’s hit a tough spell after an exciting KO victory in her UFC debut. She’s lost two fights in a row now. Light Heavyweight Bout - Oumar Sy (10-0) VS Tuco Tokkos (10-4) Result: Oumar Sy wins by 1st round submission (rear-naked choke) The French Light Heavyweight top prospect has arrived and improved to 10-0. This guy is the real deal with an 83” reach. He dominated Tuco Tokkos in his debut, winning by rear-naked choke. What’s even more impressive is that Oumar Sy has finished 8 fights, 4 by knockout, and 4 by submission. Tough draw for Tokkos who got fed to the wolves in his UFC debut. Coming from Fury FC, he was riding a 3 fight win streak before this loss. Lightweight Bout - Victor Martinez (13-6) VS Tom Nolan (7-1) Result: Tom Nolan wins by 1st round KO (knee) The Australian Tom Nolan doesn’t know about going the distance. In his 8 career fights (7-1), 6 of those fights have ended in KO/TKO. Since coming to the UFC, he’s yet to go out of the 1st round. This was a nasty knee to finish this fight. Not bad for a guy who listed his fighting style as “Ninja.” Bantamweight Bout - Adrian Yanez (17-5) VS Vinicius Salvador (14-7) Result: Adrian Yanez wins by 1st round TKO (KO) Adrian Yanez hits so hard for the bantamweight division. And he needed that power in a big way coming off two straight knock defeats to Rob Font and Jonathan Martinez. Yanez, someone who’s been touted as a top prospect in the UFC, a former staple of LFA, got his first win since June of 2022 with his knockout win over Vinicius Salvador. Remember, before the 2-fight losing streak, Yanez had a 6-fight winning streak in which he finished 5 of those by knockout. The one that went to decision was against long time UFC veteran Davey Grant. This was a little bit of a step back as he fought an opponent in Salvador who’s had a lot of struggles adjusting to the competition in the UFC. After his knockout on the DWCS, Salvador lost to fights by decision, so this fight kind of felt like the former Arena Global champion was getting thrown to the wolves. Yanez made quick work, winning 2:47 into the first round. I’d suspect that he will probably continue to try and rebuild his confidence before trying to push back into the top 15, but his power and striking make him a threat to win any match. Women’s Strawweight - (12) Angela Hill (17-13) VS (9) Luana Pinheiro (11-3) Result: Angela Hill wins by 2nd round submission (guillotine choke) This was the most significant win of the night. Angela Hill is jumping up 3 spots in the strawweight rankings. At 39, the Alliance MMA Muay Thai striker pulled out the first submission of her career which is crazy to say. She was winning this fight in all categories two. This was a tough performance for Luana who was on a 9-fight winning streak and beat Michelle Waterson-Gomez last April. She got knocked out by Amanda Ribas, and she did not look like the same fighter who won those 9 fights. It was hard not to feel good for Angela Hill who’s been doing this for a long time and scrapped with some of the top fighters in the world. Welterweight Bout - Ramiz Brahimaj (10-5) VS Themba Gorimbo (13-4) Result: Themba Gorimbo wins by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) After losing his UFC debut, Themba Gorimbo is on a 3-fight win streak all in the span of a year. His first fight came against Takeshi Sato. In February of this year he knocked out Paul Rodriguez. This wasn’t the result that Gorimbo wanted, but he absolutely destroyed his opponent. He controlled 10:13 minutes of this fight, outstriking Brahimaj 110-15. Ramiz only landed 3 significant strikes. Gorimbo also landed 5 takedowns. Gorimbo is a technically sound fighter with knockout power. It will be interesting to see if he elevates the competition with the loaded talent in the welterweight division Welterweight Bout - Carlston Harris (19-6) VS Khaos Williams (15-3) Result: Khaos Williams wins by 1st round KO (Punch) The power that Khaos Williams has in his striking is incredible. Carlston Harris is a boxer, and has really clean striking and he didn’t stand a chance against Williams. Williams is 5-2 in the UFC after this win. At only 30 years old Khaos Williams has potential to potentially one day jump the ranking. He failed to crack the top 15, losing to Randy Brown in 2022, and Michel Pereira in 2020. Williams was actually being outstruck by Harris until he dropped the boxer with a right hook. Williams will look for a top 15 fighter next. Kevin Holland, Vincente Luque, and Neil Magny are fights that make sense to me. And Khaos Williams and Michael Page would create a lot of fireworks if those two men were locked in a cage together. Main Event: Featherweight Bout - Lerone Murphy (14-0-1) VS (12) Edson Barboza (24-12) Result: Lerone Murphy wins by unanimous decision (49-46, 50-45, 50-45) Lerone Murphy has cemented himself as one of the top contenders in the featherweight division, and one of the top prospects coming out of the UK. Since Murphy’s first fight in the UFC in 2019, where he and Zubaira Tukhugov finished in a draw, Murphy has won 6 fights in a row. In that span, he holds KO victories over Makwan Amirkhani and Ricardo Ramos, and decision victories over Douglas Silva de Andrade, Gabriel Santos, Josh Culibao, and now UFC legend Edson Barboza. This fight was Murphy’s path into the top 15. Edson Barboza isn’t a gatekeeping legend that is losing his touch. Much like fellow Brazilian Jose Aldo, Edson Barboza has looked better than he’s ever looked. With the most vicious leg kicks in the game, he was riding a two fight win streak coming into this fight. His TKO victory over Billy Quarantillo, and impressive win over Sadiq Yusuff, made him perfect in 2023. Coming in as the 12th ranked featherweight in the organization, Barboza had a tough task in keeping Murphy from rising up the ranks. Murphy dominated the total strikes in this fight by a total 259-79. Of those 259 strikes, 220 were significant. Murphy had 4 takedowns out of 6 attempts to Barboza’s 0 and controlled this fight for 5 minutes and 19 seconds. This was the first time that the speed of Barboza seemed completely outmatched. Murphy was the more active fighter, and was constantly hitting Barboza throughout. The 5 rounds seemed to not benefit Barboza, as the pressure that Murphy put on Junior seemed to take a toll. Barboza still fired off a couple really nasty spinning heel kicks that made Murphy keep a reasonable distance. After the fight, Murphy mentioned a couple names, but the one that stands out to me is Bryce Mitchell. Mitchell is coming off one of the scariest knockouts losses of all time to Josh Emmett back in December, that had some question if he will ever return. If he doesn’t, Murphy vs Aljamain Sterling would be an incredible fight. But with the star power now falling onto the featherweight division, it makes a lot more sense that Murphy might protect his new ranking against someone like Dan Ige or Calvin Kattar at a UK event. There are a lot of extremely dangerous fights in front of him (Josh Emmett, Illia Topuria, Sean O’ Malley), Murphy should look to continue to build his stock before jumping the gun on some of these heavy hitters. But Murphy’s ability to neutralize dangerous striking threats as shown in this fight should bode well for the Englishman as he climbs the ladder in this division