UFC 203: Miocic vs Overeem – Winners and Losers

MMA is a sport that usually embraces chaos and oddities, and sometimes it’s the strange things that keep us coming back for more. Even so, as is the case with many other things in life, there’s a limit to how much can be tolerated. Perhaps there isn’t a more polite way to put this, but the entire event was just very, very strange for all the wrong reasons.

We had cancellations due to illness and elevator hijinks, a fighter weighing in late. That was just before the fights themselves, and questionable performances from some of the participants got to a point where it was hard to see what to make of the event overall. From the officiating in the co-main event, to the coaching, to the post-fight fracas, we had a lot of weird. That was just one fight, too. Let’s look at what we get from here.

Winners

Stipe Miocic – Not that I would necessarily categorize Miocic’s win over Werdum for the belt as a fluke, but it was in part due to Werdum’s recklessness that Miocic was able to make the most of the opportunity and put him to sleep. Now, he does it again, this time against an experienced former kickboxer and in front of his home crowd. It’s a shame he doesn’t get more attention in mainstream publications, but Miocic has become a pleasant surprise that went from getting finished by Stefan Struve in 2012 to beating far more experienced fighters and making it look easy. Even his loss to Junior dos Santos was widely debated by many, and he’s had four finishes in a row since then. Miocic displayed patience, used great timing and took some damage but gave it right back. His next fight is almost guaranteed to be a lot of fun.

Mickey Gall – Let’s look back for a moment where Gall was last year: from fighting on regional shows with a 3-0 amateur record, he ended up on the Dana White traveling reality show, beat his opponent and made a bold request to fight CM Punk. He gets signed, beats Mike Jackson in the interim and puts on a performance like this. It was absolute dominance and showed that he wasn’t just brought in for a circus fight, he was and is a very legitimate fighter that has now found a degree of notoriety. He beat a lesser-skilled yet more famous and visible opponent, then called out another franchise favorite, top prospect Sage Northcutt. Say what you will, but Gall is a clever go-getter and he’s bold. Good on him for making the most of the circumstances he continues to find himself in.

Jimmie Rivera – 4-0 in the UFC with an 18-fight win streak, Rivera has to be the most successful and resilient Tiger Schulmann fighter we’ve seen in the UFC. He continues to improve and impress, and he gets extra credit for pushing forward while having his eyesight impaired in his right eye.

CM Punk – Fine. I’ll lay off using his government name for once. Even those of us that were largely dismissive of the fight not long ago were interested in seeing this happen, and it took a lot for him to go through the rigors of a fighter’s lifestyle – something he doesn’t have to do – to go in there against a very good young fighter. He at least earned a great degree of respect for going through with this, and got a lot of love from the crowd when his music hit. Hey, what other song could they have possibly gone with? Any complaints or concerns here should be directed at the organization itself, but the man saw something he loved and took a swing at it. He then failed and handled the matter with nothing but class and respect.

Jessica Andrade – If Andrade isn’t growing on you, you’re not paying attention. She’s doing impressive things with a top-heavy grappling style and is very clever about her movement on the ground and what she waits for in an opponent to pounce on a better position. That’s two wins in a row, and they’re both finishes against Joanne Calderwood and Jessica Penne, two of the most well-known fighters in the division. She’s moving up and could very well end up with a title shot very soon if she keeps this up.

Yancy Medeiros – Another impressive performance from one of the younger Hawaiian talents, and with this win Medeiros is now 5-4-1NC in the UFC, but looked crisp and was definitely the better athlete. Not ready to call this a complete turnaround or anything, but he looked great here and put things together better than in some of his other outings.

Drew Dober – That’s the kind of finish that gets a lot of eyeballs on you, and Dober looked great delivering that finish. Certainly a good way to stay in the good graces of management.

Nik Lentz – Lentz now moves to 27-7-1NC-1 Draw overall, and continues to not just win, but look pretty good doing it and even getting another finish. Granted, this wasn’t an opponent that’s on his skill level (at least not yet), …

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