Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
UFC 244 was touted as arguably the biggest fight card of 2019, and the stacked event paid off in nearly every way imaginable outside of an anticlimactic end to the main event.
For the better part of three rounds, Jorge Masvidal battered Nate Diaz with strikes, getting the upper hand in nearly every exchange and ultimately slicing and dicing the Stockton, Calif., bad boy before earning a TKO victory due to a doctor’s stoppage.
The ringside physician opting to stop the fight due to cuts earned a chorus of boos from the crowd inside Madison Square Garden. While Diaz definitely had a nasty gash over his eye, he seemed more than willing to continue. But the fight was still waved off, with Masvidal being crowned the first ever “BMF” champion.
In the co-main event, Darren Till kicked off his middleweight career with a hard-fought split decision over former interim title challenger Kelvin Gastelum.
While this was probably the only fight on the main card that didn’t have fans on the edge of their seats the entire time, Till did enough over 15 minutes to edge out Gastelum in what had to be considered a must-win situation following two straight losses at welterweight.
There is plenty to dissect from the action-packed event on Saturday night so let’s take a look back at the card to see what passed and what failed at UFC 244.
PASSES
The World is Yours
There is no secret sauce when it comes to creating superstars.
If it were that easy, the UFC would be brimming with fighters who could easily sell pay-per-views and drive traffic to their events whenever they fight. But it’s just not that easy. There are lightning-in-a-bottle stars like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey, who not only come along at the perfect time, but they also create a buzz for themselves by making headlines both inside and outside the Octagon.
The tougher sell is finding a superstar who’s been around the sport for years with a recognizable resume, yet never seemed to fully capture the audience’s attention. It’s been done a few times — Chael Sonnen is a prime example — but the list is rather short.
When 2019 started, Jorge Masvidal probably seemed like one of the least likely fighters on the roster to suddenly become a household name. With 16 years of fighting and 15 UFC fights on his record, Masvidal was a solid mid-carder, but he had never really grabbed the kinds of headlines that would make him look like a legitimate draw.
The momentum for Masvidal started to shift after he took on the challenge of traveling to England to face Darren Till on home soil in what appeared to be a showcase fight for the Brit as he looked to bounce back from a loss in his first UFC title fight. Masvidal silenced a raucous London crowd that night with a devastating second-round knockout, and then he further cemented his newfound star power after engaging in a backstage brawl with Leon Edwards that coined the term “three piece and a soda.”
Masvidal followed that up with the fastest knockout in UFC history when he blitzed previously undefeated Olympic wrestler Ben Askren with a flying knee in a fight that lasted five seconds. While the fight ended with the knee, Masvidal unloaded a couple of extra punches until the referee pulled him off and he later justified his actions by saying those shots were “super necessary,” which suddenly became a new phrase in the MMA lexicon.
On Saturday night at UFC 244, Masvidal solidified his position as a superstar after dishing out a vicious beatdown to Nate Diaz for nearly every minute over three rounds before earning the TKO victory. As Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wrapped the “baddest motherf*cker” title around his waist, Masvidal’s star power was fully realized.
In an age where it’s a constant battle to get viewers to tune into anything consistently, Masvidal has become appointment television every time he’s competing. But perhaps just as important, people really seem to care about what he says as well. Masvidal wasn’t an overnight superstar, but he’s definitely earned every bit of attention he’s received this year.
It’s not clear just yet what Masvidal will do next, but it’s safe to say the whole world will be watching.
The Rebirth of Kevin Lee
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting It wasn’t all that long ago that Kevin Lee was considered one of the best prospects in the lightweight division after he rattled off five straight wins and found himself in the unlikely position to battle for the interim lightweight title back in 2017. Even after coming up short that night, Lee still looked like a future champion and he backed up those claims with a highlight reel performance against Edson Barboza seven months later.
Unfortunately, Lee fell on harder times after that win.
He lost a lopsided decision to Al Iaquinta and then fell in his welterweight debut with a submission to Rafael dos Anjos. Despite being 27 years old, it appeared Lee was being touted as more hype than reality.
Then came UFC 244, when Lee accepted a fight against fast rising prospect Gregor Gillespie, who was undefeated with a string of dominant finishes inside the Octagon and one of the most impressive wrestling pedigrees in the entire promotion. Rather than demanding a higher ranked opponent or complaining that he was being paired with a prospect, Lee accepted the mission and then passed the test with flying colors.
Lee ended Gillespie’s undefeated run with a violent head kick knockout that kicked off the UFC 244 main card. He immediately reminded the world why everybody was so high on “The Motown Phenom” as prior to his fight against Tony Ferguson just two years earlier.
MMA is often a sport where athletes are solely judged on their most recent performance, which meant Lee had a trail of doubters lining up behind him after suffering two straight losses in his career.
This knockout will help silence any doubt that Lee is still a fighter worth watching in arguably the UFC’s deepest division. In fact, he’s already looking to build on this win after asking to fight Islam Makhachev in his next outing, which seems like the perfect matchup to make.
Best Kept Secret
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting Corey Anderson had a lot to prove in his fight against Johnny Walker at UFC 244.
Despite three wins in a row, Anderson was largely overlooked when it came to the title talk conversation at light heavyweight. His frustration finally boiled over ahead of the fight when he revealed a conversation he had with the UFC brass where he was essentially told he wasn’t popular enough to justify a title shot.
So Anderson accepted a fight against Walker, who was already being hailed as the next big thing in the division, with rumors swirling that a win could have potentially earned him the fight with Jones in 2020.
That talk ended after Anderson bombarded Walker with strikes in the opening round in their fight on the preliminary card, which led to a TKO stoppage when the referee could no longer watch the Brazilian take further damage.
The knockout has helped Anderson finally gain nationwide recognition as the light heavyweight division’s best kept secret. It’s impossible to say right now if this win will secure the shot at Jones and the title, but at worst, Anderson can’t be more than one more fight away from that opportunity given the way he dispatched Walker on Saturday night.
FAILS
Making the Cut
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting Honestly, there wasn’t much to complain about when it came to UFC 244.
The event had that big fight feel all week leading up to Saturday night and the action that took place inside the Octagon was nothing short of incredible. From Jairzinho Rozenstruik face planting Andrei Arlovski on the prelims to Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson’s return to the win column, UFC 244 had a little bit of something for everybody.
Still the night ended with a somewhat dull thud after the doctor deemed Nate Diaz unable to continue due to cuts he suffered in his fight with Jorge Masvidal.
Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: Masvidal was dominating the fight, and he was up huge on the scorecards — 30-26, 30-26 and 30-27 — after three rounds. A doctor’s stoppage shouldn’t diminish his performance, or somehow taint the win on his record.
Let’s also add that the doctor was only doing his job, no matter how much we agree or disagree with his decision. We can definitely argue all day about whether or not Diaz should have been allowed to continue.
Some will point to Tyson Fury’s recent win, where he suffered a gruesome cut early in the fight and was still allowed to finish all 12 rounds. On the flipside, others would say that Diaz was absorbing too much punishment already, and the cut above his eye was only going to get worse in those final 10 minutes.
The reality is there is no perfect answer for an unfortunate situation like this one, and it’s tough to put the blame on anyone in particular for how this all unfolded.
Perhaps that’s what makes this entire situation such a tough pill to swallow. There are no easy answers when it comes to this particular stoppage. UFC 244 was akin to an epic television show that kept you engaged during every minute of every episode, but the ending just left you unsatisfied — you know, like Game of Thrones.
