#ufc273

What a fight! Chimaev and Burns throw down for a hard 15 minutes.

Burns pushed Chimaev to the absolute limit. Burns got dropped in the first round on a hard jab from Chimaev in southpaw and I honestly thought it was over. But Burns recovered in round 2. Hurt Chimaev bad multiple times. Put him down once or twice. Chimaev ralled in the third to pull it out but it was chaos all the way through with Burns landing a series of overhand rights (like 3-4) in a row and appearing to hurt Chimaev with like a minute left in the fight.

LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I said Sterling had a path to winning this fight and I was right! Mostly! Sterling didn’t come out the gate like a madman and instead got a beat on Yan early. Don’t even think he shot for a takedown in the first round. Just slow paced outside kickboxing like we’ve seen from him in the past. Then in the second, he manages to get Yan down and ride out his the round on his back. I was worried for him in the third cause you could see he was desperate for that takedown but Yan didn’t listen to his coach. He turned his back to Sterling and Sterling managed to get to Yan’s back and rode out the round again for like 3 and a half minutes. Yan recovered in rounds 4 and 5 but didn’t really press the striking. Sterling was just shooting repeatedly for takedowns and Yan was obliging him with grappling exchanges after he’d stuff them.

Thank god for Herb Dean tonight, cause he just saved a lot of years on KZ’s life with that stoppage. People have really been underestimating Volk’s power. Holloway and Ortega not exactly easy guys to put out.

That was one way traffic from start to end. KZ just wasn’t ready for the speed, the range and the power of Volk. Volk basically landed whatever he wanted. Had a really nice retreating jab. That lead right hand was money all night. The leg kicks. Everything was just on point and KZ just didn’t see the majority of it coming. His corner asking him if he wanted to continue after the third was weak. Protect your guy. Good on Herb for not waiting til KZ was literally on the ground getting his brain flattened to step in and save him from himself.