Aloha fight fans! Derek Thornton from Xclusive MMA reporting on a weekend full of ups and downs in MMA excitement! Now, aside from what we know the rest of the MMA forums are focused on (Conor McGregor), other prominent mixed martial artists do exist…like another participant from the now famous UFC 189, Louis Smolka, and Sunday with Russell Doane from the TUF21 UF Finale, or Max Holloway who is scheduled as the other half of a main event contest in Canada against the ultra-dangerous Rafeal Olivera.
Louis Smolka was masterful in a back and forth ground exchange with Irishman Neil Seery that showcased dozens and dozens of scrambles, reversals, and submission attempts that left any ground enthusiast drooling! While showing great poise and composure over a more experienced opponent, Smolka sealed a solid unanimous decision.
Hawaii’s Russell Doane participated in a battle with Jerrod Sanders at the UFC Finale Sunday, (as if UFC 189 wasn’t enough,the UFC hands us another major event) who fell to Jerrod Sanders in his 2nd consecutive 3 round fight that went to the judges. Doane fell short although being the favorite on the betting odds. This is Russell’s second decision loss which, in my judicial deduction, should be his first as the Alcantara decision was an outright robbery…professionally speaking. Doane is a fighter that never quits, is hard to submit or finish, and definitely has plenty of time to rebound from these shortfalls in judging and performance.
Max Holloway, who took the infamous McGregor to a 3 round war that ended up in a decision loss for Holloway, showed a huge test of the Hawaiians resiliency against the hype train which could have been easily derailed by the blessed one.
This fight is set for a major card in Canada as the headliner against one of the most dangerous ground fighters in the UFC, Rafael Olivera. Max is the kryptonite for McGregor! Max is young, explosive, highly intelligent, and gets better every fight. If he can get passed Olivera, he will absolutely have the Notoriousone on the radar to bring back the gold to Hawaii, and be the next UFC world champion from Hawaii…aside from the great UFC Hall of Famer Bj “The Great” Penn!
Also featured in this weekend’s MMA events, the always vocal Cris “Cyborg” finishes another quick win in Invicta, and calls Ronda Rousey out once again alleging Ronda is a runner and claims that Rousey is not only avoiding, dodging and afraid ofher but is utterly petrified of any full contact competition against her. We would love to see this fight amidst many others, and what’s beautiful is, most of these fighters are showing and proving their worth and positions in the top rankings of this sport.
This weekend was chocked full of combat both in the UFC and in other arenas which included boxing matches that, althoughovershadowed by the UFC, were well worth the watch. Not to veer too far from the octagon but the Thurman Vs. Collazo match ended in a semi-controversial TKO victory for Thurman, who did not hesitate to call out T.B.E Floyd “Money” Mayweather.
Once again I am Derek Thornton with Xclusive MMA bringing you ALL Things MMA!
Stay tuned and keep watching!