UFC 268 was every bit as good as the hype. In the main event, Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman retained his title and continued his winning streak of 15 fight wins and Rose Namajunas did well against Weili Zhang to take the score to judges and mark her first successful title defense since winning it earlier this year. Let’s have a look at some of the highlights of UFC 268.
▶ Calf-kicks are a secret weapon
Over the years, we have seen calf kicks play an important role in a fighter’s strategy and that was the case at UFC 268. In the opening fight of the night, we saw Justin Gaethje throw a huge number of calf-kicks and low-kicks which caused Chandler problems. In the following fight, Shane Burgos did the same thing to Billy Quarantillo who was limping throughout the fight as Shane went on to claim an easy decision win.
▶ Marlon Vera puts Frankie Edgar to sleep
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Marlon Vela made his country Venezuela proud as he put Frankie Edgar to sleep by channeling his inner Anderson Silva. The 40-year-old former UFC Lightweight champion Frankie Edgar was off to a strong start as he went for the takedown in the very first round but Vera didn’t give up, despite being under Edgar, Vera landed some nasty elbows which opened a cut under Frankie’s eye. The same thing happened in the second round as well but in the later stages of the round, Vera’s striking advantage came into play as he landed some heavy blows before knocking Edgar out in round three with a deadly front kick to win the fight
▶ Gaethje VS Chandler – A fight of the year contender
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The fight between Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler was shifted up the card to open the PPV and now we know the reason why UFC did that. The two fighters started off the fight with a monster round in which both landed strikes that could’ve knocked the other one out but Gaethje’s leg kicks came into play. In round 2, Gaethje nearly ended the fight with an uppercut which put Chandler to the canvas but the former Bellator champion is not a stranger to these things as he somehow managed to stay in the fight and came back to make the third round competitive where he had a couple of moments but in the end, Gaethje was awarded a unanimous decision victory as he stays in the title picture and will face either Dustin Poirier or Charles Oliviera for the Lightweight title.
▶ A new Weili Zhang, but the same result
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Weili Zhang lost her Women’s Strawweight Title to Rose Namajunas back at UFC 261 in which Thug Rose landed a devastating head-kick that ended the fight. This time out, we saw a different Weili Zhang, a fighter who had nothing to lose and wanted to get something that belonged to her. Right from the start of the fight, we saw her close the gap between herself and Rose so that there is no space for the American to land her leg kicks. Soon came the takedowns which put the fight in Zhang’s favor in the opening two rounds. From the third round, Namajunas picked up her pace and landed some sweet combos to take some points off her opponents. It was all down to the final round and Zhang had completed a takedown, but Rose somehow managed to scrabble her way onto the top and hold it till the fight got over to take a unanimous decision win and retain her title.
▶ Is Kamaru Usman the UFC G.O.A.T.?
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The #1 Pound-For-Pound Fighter in UFC, Kamaru Usman picked up an incredible unanimous decision victory over Colby Covington in their rematch as he defended his title for the fifth time and took his win streak to 15 fight victories. The closest any fighter has come to finishing the Nigerian Nightmare is Colby Covington which was in his first fight against the Champ and as things stand, it looks like no one in the Welterweight division comes close to him or a title fight. In the post-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White said that “Usman is just the best ever. He’s the best Welterweight of all time. He’s on his way to possible GOAT status.”
[Featured Image Credit: UFC]
Shashank Iyer