By hook or by crook, Movsar
Evloev is now the last man standing.
Posting a clean 20 wins opposite zero defeats, with 10 of those
coming inside the Octagon—all 10 by decision—Evloev (20-0, 10-0
UFC) kept his unblemished record intact by spoiling Lerone
Murphy’s (17-1-1, 9-1-1 UFC). The two engaged in a competitive
bout where judges and scoring media members largely diverged in
their assessments. The Russian likely cemented his place for a
crack at Alexander
Volkanovski’s throne in their Ultimate Fighting Championship’s de facto
featherweight title eliminator.
The
UFC Fight Night 270 fight card, one where the betting line for
the headliner to go to decision closed at -250 on some books, ended
up needing its entirety to play out. As if he wished to prove a
point—or perhaps out of fear of the UFC’s recent stance of cutting
successful smothering grapplers—Evloev came out in the first round
without completing a single takedown. It has been a long time since
that happened, and may have ended up working to his advantage.
Murphy welcomed this all-striking approach, as the more fluid of
the two he appeared to excel early. The Brit comfortably mixed his
strikes together to keep Evloev guessing, frequently beating his
man to the punch.
After two closer-than-expected rounds, the Russian finally managed
to complete a takedown, but he could not keep “The Miracle” down
for long after his extended effort. Both top 145ers began
committing to their strikes as the third round raged on, with
Evloev slashing open Murphy’s left eyebrow with an overhand right.
Just when Evloev began gaining momentum, the second groin kick he
landed resulted in a point deduction from referee Marc Goddard.
Although Murphy struck back with a vengeance, it was Evloev who was
empowered to seek the finish and push himself to the limit.
Evloev ended up winning four of five rounds on the judges’ official
scorecards—to
the surprise of many including the entirety of Sherdog’s virtual
scoring team and all other media members who issued their 10’s and
9’s—to lay claim to a contentious decision. The 47-47 draw card
from judge Clemens Werner was overruled by Ben Cartlidge and Derek
Cleary’s matched offerings of 48-46, awarding the majority call to
the Ingushetia, Russia, native. Evloev declared that it was his
time to fight for a title, and that nothing more needed to be said.
Gracious in defeat, Murphy agreed with him.
Iron-chinned featherweights Luke Riley
(13-0, 2-0 UFC) and Michael
Aswell (11-4, 1-2 UFC) entered into the UFC London co-main
attraction without having suffered a knockout loss, and they ended
their night the same. It was not for a lack of trying, however, as
the youngsters duked it out for three tense rounds. The undefeated
Liverpool native seemed a step ahead during their boxing-heavy
tilt, outslugging Aswell each round with superior impact to secure
his second win inside the Octagon.
The exchanges between the two resulted in repeated violent
collisions like fireworks in the night sky, both fighters
connecting flush on the other and not backing down. Just when one
would land cleanly, the other would lash back and even the score.
Riley maintained a slightly higher work rate, proved the more
accurate of the two and had a deeper gas tank to go hard for three
rounds. The three judges handed down matching 30-27 scores for the
26-year-old from county of Merseyside in England.
Riley advanced his spotless record to 13 up with zero down, with
his finish rate falling beneath 75% for the slick decision win.
The featured welterweight match between former training partners
Michael
Page (25-3, 4-1 UFC) and Sam
Patterson (14-3-1, 4-2 UFC) was frequently summed up by the
crowd in three letters: “B-O-O.” The strikers, fully aware of one
another’s game, rarely clashed across their dreadful 15-minute
engagement and left what little they did to be deciphered by the
judges. Those three officials handed in 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28
scores all in favor of the ever-elusive Page, who never was any
danger throughout the bout.
Having gone the distance in all five of his UFC outings to date,
Page cruised to a comfortable victory where he absorbed little
damage and connected with enough to maintain the upper hand across
the board. “MVP” forced Patterson to fight off the back foot for
the majority of their de facto sparring match, keeping Patterson
from committing to anything of merit.
“Venom” prevailed for the third time in a row, amassing his first
win streak this length since notching six consecutive triumphs from
2019 to 2021.
To say Iwo
Baraniewski (8-0, 2-0 UFC) vs. Austen Lane
(13-8, 1 NC; 1-5; 1 NC UFC) was a mismatch would not do the term
justice. The undefeated light heavyweight, welcoming the
ex-heavyweight down to his division, handled the ex-footballer with
style points. While he did not break his own personal record of a
20-second knockout, “Rudy”
obliterated the hapless Lane in a whopping 28
seconds.
Unafraid of anything that came his way from the 6-foot-6 striker,
Baraniewski meandered into range and unleashed a bomb of a right
hand that detonated on the side of Lane’s dome. The Polish slugger
put Lane down for the count with a hellacious left hook that landed
about as cleanly as one can, and referee Lukasz Bosacki raced
towards the athletes to intervene. Bosacki peeled back to allow
Baraniewski to pummel his doomed opponent with a few more
punctuating right hands while the light flickered out of Lane’s
eyes, briefly coming into contact with the fighters before
ultimately calling it on account of rain less than 30 seconds
in.
Baraniewski clubbed his way into greater heights by securing his
eighth first-round finish in his eight pro victories.
Christian
Leroy Duncan (14-2, 7-2 UFC) needed all 900 agonizing seconds
to surpass an aging, sluggish Roman
Dolidze (15-5, 9-5 UFC) in a non-memorable middleweight affair.
The local athlete served as a hefty betting favorite north of -350
odds, and he hung on to win courtesy of three matching 29-28 scores
on his side.
The Georgian came out with an unorthodox approach, as he attacked
with extremely low single-leg entries to latch hold of Duncan’s
ankle and trip him up. Dolidze controlled for several minutes
without getting much offense going, until Duncan had enough of
being on his back and exploded up to his feet. Dolidze authored
awkward spinning strikes, and Duncan managed to stave off the
subsequent half-hearted leglock attempts.
Dolidze’s body language betrayed him every time he absorbed a flush
strike, whether a chopping kick that would draw a wry grin or him
slumping to the mat to possibly sandbag the damage and go for a
leg. As Dolidze flopped to the mat after taking a heavy shot, he
finally managed to get hold of his opponent in the final round.
“The Caucasian” finagled a back take as he lightly pummeled Duncan
on the sides of his head, not inflicting nearly enough damage to
elicit a score that could force a draw. While “CLD” has now won
four straight, Dolidze has dropped two in a row to place himself on
his second career losing streak.
The UFC London main card commenced with a clash of featherweights
on the rise as Liverpool native Kurtis
Campbell (8-1, 0-1 UFC) made his highly anticipated debut so
special that the UFC approved him to wear pink shorts. That bit of
celebrity crashed and burned hard when Danny Silva
(11-2, 3-1 UFC), one of the lone Americans on the billing,
destroyed him in the second stanza with a seemingly unending stream
of ferocious fists.
Campbell started his time with the promotion by introducing fans to
his wrestling chops, where he scooped up and set down the
Californian a few times as he controlled for a couple minutes. That
success proved short-lived, as Silva turned on the jets and started
to reverse positions, placing the unbeaten fighter on his back.
Silva took no prisoners as the second round began, not about to
allow the judges to weigh in.
“Puma” ultimately needed only 31 seconds and a couple of knockdowns
to wilt and drum out the Liverpudlian as the second round rolled
on. Silva pounds his way back into the win column by recording his
first stoppage on the UFC roster, deflating the partisan crowd as
all-time great musician Peter Gabriel watched on in the front
row.
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