Jake Yono
7/10/23
JY Journalism
My Thoughts And Reactions After UFC 290
UFC 289 has been the 2nd best Pay-Per-View card that I have seen this year, starting from Bo Nickal, then moving on to Jalin Turner and Dan Hooker, then Robert Whitaker and Darcus-Du-Pleases, then the upset of Alexandre Pantoja over Brandon Moreno, and to close the card out Alexander Volkanoskis KO over Yair Rodriguez, and on top of all that it was international fight week. For today's article entry, I am going to be talking about each of the main card fights and Robbie Lawler’s storybook ending on the stacked UFC 290 PPV card.
First, we go to the featured preliminary bout between the storied Veteran Robbie Lawler who has the 2nd longest career in UFC history (2002), and UFC Prospect Niko Price. Robbie Lawler finished Niko in 38 seconds of the very first round. Before the fight, Robbie announced it was going to be his last fight and he surely went out with a bang. Congratulations to the one and only Robbie Lawler who made his UFC debut on UFC 37 in 2002.
Let us swing over to the main card of UFC 290 with the first fight being the kid Bo Nickal knocking out Val Woodburn in exactly 38 seconds just like Robbie Lawler in the fight right before his. This means his last 4 fights have had a total fight time of five minutes and thirty-eight seconds including 2 DWCS fights lasting in a total time of under 2 minutes. I believe this kid deserves a title shot right now after what he has been doing in his last fights. His MMA record is now 5-0. This national champion wrestler at Penn State is something special because we have not seen somebody like him in a long time.
Now let us get into the second of 5 fights on the main card between the Aussie Dan “the hangman” Hooker and Jalin “the tarantula” Turner. Both of these fighters are extremely talented in their crafts. Dan Hooker earned the split decision win in this bout because I think since Turner got tired in the 3rd round he could not keep his foot on the gas and Dan Hooker took advantage of this and earned the 23rd victory of his carrer, but this is up for debate as the fight could have gone either way.
This 3rd fight was the most intriguing, electric, and entertaining to me as the South Affrican Dricus-Du-Plessis took on the Aussie once again Robert Whitaker. Coming into the fight Du Plessis was the streaking fighter being 5-0 in the UFC and Whitaker was the veteran coming off a championship loss against Israel Adesanda and then beating contender Marvin Vettori. Dricus had an edge going into the second round and knocked out Robert Whitaker midway through it. What happened after this fight made it so much better, this was the middleweight semifinal matchup for the champion Israel Adesanya, he was attending the fight and came into the octagon at the end of the fight and trash-talked Du Plessis and starred him down, this built up the tension for the upcoming middleweight championship between the 2 fighters. Concluding this section I do think Bo Nickal should be fighting Israel for the championship because of this unheard streak he is on.
Let us head into our Co-Main event of the evening and the 2 championship fights on this card, the flyweight championship between the Mexican champion Brandon Moreno and the streaking challenger Alexandre Pantoja. This was a 5 round battle between the 2 athletes. It was a 48-47 split decision going to the Brazilian Pantoja, this fight honestly could have gone either way but Alexandre Pantoja got the luck of the judges after 25 minutes of fighting and now he gets to bring another UFC championship back to Brazil.
It's Time for the main event of the evening between the featherweight champion the Australian Alexander Volkanowski and the up-and-coming Mexican Interm champion Yair Rodriguez. Volk's last fight was when he challenged the lightweight division against Islam Mackhachev but came short in a Unanimous decision after 25 minutes. Yair rose to the top and it was his time to become the only champion once and for all. Sometimes in MMA and all sports your opponent is just too good and there is nothing you can do about it that is what exactly Alexander Volkanowsi is and he displayed his skills by knocking out Yair in the third round of a possible 5 and he defended his belt and remains the UFC featherweight champion of the world.
Recapping this article entry I believe UFC 290 was the 2nd Pay-Per-View card of the year to UFC 285 Jones Vs. Gane, I think this was the best card of the year there was a women's fight on the main card and in that championship fight Alexa Grasso did the unthinkable by beating Valentina Shevchenko, and the GOAT Jon Jones continued his legacy by submitting Ciryl Gane in the very first round. There are more PPV cards in the UFC this year coming up but I think that so far these 2 have been the first and second best and it is not up for debate anymore. Also to close this out I had a really fun time watching this Pay-Per-View card live in Emagine Theatre with my dad and little brother.