#ufc302

Great fight. Only fight on the card worth revisiting at all imo.

Makhachev has evolved into an all around elite fighter. His wrestling plays well into giving his striking room to breath. Came in with answers for everything Poirier wanted to do. On the feet, he never put Poirier to the fence in a way that Poirier was able to counter in the pocket. He'd tie up Poirier with a double collar tie, shoot for the waist, or let him off. He never overstayed his welcome in the pocket when it did go there. He got Poirier to shell up with the jab/double jab and then fired a lead hook or the cross through the guard. But he mostly just kept the fight at the edge of range.

Poirier did a great job fighting off takedowns and fighting to get back up when he did get taken down. He was making Islam work for everything he got. He was able to claw his way out of some pretty deep attempts a couple of times by just going limp and pulling out or dropping his hole weight down and bear crawling away. Did his best work later in the fight when Makhachev stopped changing levels to get to the clinch. As Makhachev went to establish head control, Poirier would rip him to the body with punches. Even caught Makhachev with an elbow to cut him open on the right side of his face.

I had Makhachev up pretty much 3-1 or 4-0 heading into the final round. And while Poirier had some good moments in the forth (including that nice switch), it didn't feel like the fight was slipping away. Islam got to Poirier's legs rather quick. Tried for a single on one leg, but Poirier managed to limp leg out. Makhachev then grabbed his other leg and held Poirier's ankle between his legs. From there he hit the nastiest ankle drag? Leg drag? It looked a lot like this:

But Islam did it to Poirier's ankle. From there, Poirier fell to his knees and Makhachev got head control. Got deep on a guillotine that he turned into the D'Arce choke that finished the fight! Terrific performance from Makhachev and a valiant effort from Poirier in a loss.

Poirier says that this may be it after the fight and can't blame him if he calls it a career. Terrific career. One of the best lightweights of all time.

God that was boring. Shouts to my former sensei for scoring the fight 49-46 Costa. Terrible card but funny.

So for some reason, I think I thought Romanov was Spivac and thought "oh this could be interesting". Then I remembered it was actually Romanov, the dude who lost once and basically gave up trying to be good. Jailton got him down quick, got the back, and locked up the rear naked for the quick win. Blaydes might have been a hurdle to high for him at heavyweight but the rest of these dudes are just bodies.