UFC Fight Night 223 attracted buzz for all the wrong reasons,
with many using it as a bellwether for the decline of
Ultimate Fighting Championship main events and cards as a
whole, which I've noticed and written about
for the past three years. Regardless, the main
event was grappler,
Mackenzie
Dern, versus always tough
Angela Hill
at women's strawweight.
Dern came into the contest desperately needing a win, as she had
lost 2 of her last 3, and most, myself included think it should
have been 3 out of 3. After losing a unanimous decision to
Brazilian striker
Marina
Rodriguez, she won a highly controversial split decision over
Tecia
Torres that
most had for “The Tiny Terror,” including all
three of Sherdog's scorers. After that, she lost again versus
Xiaonan
Yan. In a sign of how quickly fortunes can change in fighting,
Dern was a big -250 favorite against her foe, before losing via
majority decision. Yan is now one of the first names mentioned as
the next challenger for the strawweight crown.
Hill, meanwhile, had been enjoying a nice resurgence. After losing
5 of 6 fights, some of them tantalizingly close split decisions
that could well have gone her way, many wrote off Hill, who is
currently 38 years old. However, Hill responded by winning
back-to-back decisions as an underdog over solid foes in
Lupita
Godinez and
Emily
Ducote.
While Hill managed to win Round 2 by keeping it on the feet, Dern
dominated the fight whenever she got takedowns, mercilessly abusing
her opponent with ground-and-pound and deep submission attempts.
Hill survived to the final bell, but Dern inflicted multiple 10-8
rounds en route to a lopsided, unanimous decision triumph.
In the co-main,
Edmen
Shahbazyan battled
Anthony
Hernandez. Shahbazyan was one of the most hyped fighters in all
of MMA for most of 2020, with the then 22 year-old recording a
beautiful head kick knockout of ranked contender
Brad
Tavares in just under half a round early that year. With a
perfect record of 11-0, he seemed destined for a title shot soon.
However, after three straight brutal losses, two by stoppage, and
all featuring Shahbazyan gassing before being brutalized by
ground-and-pound, the hype was gone, with the Armenian wisely
taking a year off from fighting. He returned in late 2022 with a
second-round knockout of dangerous
Dalcha
Lungiambula. There was no such hype around Hernandez, though he
found himself a significant favorite for the affair. Hernandez had
won three fights in a row in the UFC, including one as a giant +400
underdog against then undefeated
Rodolfo
Vieira. After submitting Vieira, one of the best grapplers in
the world, Hernandez decisioned
Josh Fremd
and then tapped
Marc-Andre
Barriault.
Unfortunately, old demons returned to haunt Shahbazyan. After
looking terrific in the first half a round, landing at will and
hurting Hernandez, he couldn't handle the insane pace that his foe
was fighting at. Hernandez took over at the end of the first round,
tortured Shahbazyan throughout Round 2 with submission attempts
that turned his face red and vicious ground-and-pound, and then
finished him early in Round 3. Another highly impressive
performance from the 29 year-old Hernandez, who is still
improving.
Here are the few interesting fights that can be made after this
card: