It was punching and kicking time in New Jersey.
But it wasn’t just another Saturday night in the swamps and on the shore. Instead, it was a sanctioned form of competitive violence that went down in downtown Newark.
The UFC pulled its production truck into the Garden State, where its early June pay-per-view extravaganza-billed for the masses as UFC 302 -headlined a 12-bout card from the Prudential Center.
Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev was the belt-holding incumbent in the show’s main-event fight, where he defended his laurels for the third time since wresting it from Charles Oliveira by second-round submission 20 months ago in Abu Dhabi.
Chasing a championship for the third time was undisputed MMA O.G. Dustin Poirier, who stepped into the title-shot picture with a second-round finish of Benoit Saint Denis three months ago at UFC 299 in Miami.
Ex-middleweight champ Sean Strickland faced former failed title challenger Paulo Costa in a five-round co-main event, and the other three Alex Morona and Randy Brown as pre-fight favorites.
The B/R combat team was in place to take in all the action and compile a definitive list of the show’s real winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.
Winner: Victorious villain
Say what you like about Islam Makhachev.
He’s a convenient villain for U.S. -based fans because of his homeland and he seems to revel in his black-hat status, particularly when he faces popular UFC heroes.
But he’s also a deserving world champion and he found another level in Saturday night’s main event, grinding through adversity and blood and a particularly dogged opponent in Dustin Poirier on the way to a fifth-round stoppage win by D’acre choke.
It was his third defense of the lightweight title he won from Charles Oliveira and subsequently defended twice against then-featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski.
He chased takedowns and secured them almost at will in the early going against Poirier before the American veteran rallied, cut him with an elbow. And began landing particularly good shots to the body and head.
Makhachev, though, never yielded.
He was still chasing finishes in the fifth round of an exhausting fight and secured it after getting a flashy takedown with a single-leg attack and a spin that cleared a path to Poirier’s neck. Makhachev worked toward a consciousness as he tapped in surrender at 2:42.
“(Poirier is) a champion, a legend of this sport,” Makhachev said. “But it’s my favorite choke. I can choke all night.”
It was the champ’s 15th win in 16 UFC fights and 14th in a row since 2016.
As for Poirier, it was his third fail on the title level and the starting point for questions about his future now that he’s 35years old, comfortably wealthy and eager to have family time.
“I know I can compete with the best of these guys,” he said. “But if I do fight again, what an I fighting for? I think this could be it.”
Loser: Crunching Numbers
There were big winners and big losers on a Saturday night in Nawark.
But no one had a worse night than Dave Tirelli.
The veteran cage-side judge is already on stranger to post-fight controversy thanks to previous scorecards but it’s hard to imagine going a lot further off the rails than he went while turning two of the night’s clearest results into split decisions.
It started in the very first fight of the show between Andre Lima and mitch Raposo in which Lima landed more strikes in each round of a matchup that featured exactly one takedown and a combined 18 seconds of position control time between the two combatants.
Two judges scored each round for Lima. Tirelli gave two of three to Raposo.
Still, just when that seemed destined to leave the worst taste, Tirelli raised his level.
Though Sean Strickland landed more strikes in three of five co-main event rounds, landed the majority of what impactful shots there were across 25 minutes, and was clearly the fresher fighter when the horn sounded to end the final round, Tirelli still called four of five rounds in Costa’s favor while his colleagues went 5-0 and 4-1 for Strickland.
It was a frequent, and warranted, drum for the broadcast crew to band all night.
“you can’t make these mistakes in judging,” analyst Daniel Cormier said. “This is someone’s future.”
The former champ-champ’s colleague, joe Rogan, agreed.
“Check that guy for drugs,” he said.
Loser: Brazilian Strongman
Every five minutes, Paulo Costa looked slightly worse.
He was ripped and ready upon being introduced for his co-main event with Sean Sean Strickland, then looked slightly sweaty and a bit less confident by the end of a first round in which the former middleweight champ never took a backward step.
It continued in a dubious direction through rounds two and three, too, as the American consistently came forward with grinding violence and the Brazilian perpetually moved backward, threw fewer and fewer shots, and looked less and less confident.
So, by the time rounds four and five were done and the statuesque former title challenger slumped down on his stool, no his stool, no one needed Bruce Buffer to know where Costa stood.
No comprehensive domination. No violent finish. None of the things that the 33-year-old had all but guaranteed he’d deliver by the time 25 minutes had been completed.
Instead, two scorecards in Strickland’s favor-by 50-45 and 49-46 counts-overran a ridiculous 49-46 count in Costa’s favor from a dissenting judge.
“It was a boring fight,” Strickland said. “That Brazilian goes backward fast. He was hard to catch. I thought we were going to have a war.”
Winner: Technical Brutality
Michal Oleksiejczuk was doing everything right.
He was putting heavy pressure on kevin Holland, putting his dynamic middleweight foe in retreat mode, and dumping him to the floor with a particularly hard left hand.
But as he continued to pursue damage on a stricken opponent, the momentum quickly turned in Holland’s direction.
The Texas-based veteran seized Oleksiejczuk’s right arm during the melee, locked the limb into an armbar, and ultimately prompted referee Herb Dean to intervene after a particularly brutal sequence that looked like the arm broke or the elbow dislocated.
The official time was 1:34 of the first round.
Oleksiejczuk, for the record didn’t tap, but the arm hung limply at his side after regaining his feet and punched the cage wall his left hand in frustration.
“Dude cracked me with a good shot, but he left his arm out a little too far,” Holland said. “I realized he wasn’t gonna tap so I squeezed it a little harder.”
It was Holland’s 13th win in 21 UFC appearances, ended a two-fight skid, and prompted him to label himself the sport’s best gatekeeper.
“The chihuahua,” he said, “beat the pit bull again.”
Winner: Ignoring Blueprints
Niko Price is no one’s prototype UFC fighter.
He lurches as much as he moves, throws wide strikes from unorthodox angles, and hasn’t won two straight fights since 2018.
But he’s clearly got Alex Morono’s number.
He beat Morono in two rounds when they first met in 2017-though the result was overturned by a drug test-and made it two straight on Saturday night with a unanimous decision over his second-time rival in a welterweight scrap.
All three judges scored it 29-28. But no, it wasn’t very pretty.
Morono was the more effective fighter in the first found and had Price in some trouble while chasing a finish, but the gas tank seemed compromised from that point forward and Price gradually walked him down and beat him up over the subsequent 10 minutes.
It was just his fourth official win in his last 11 fights and followed up on an ugly 38-second loss to 41-year-old Robbie Lawler last summer at UFC 290.
He’s now 8-7 in the promotion while Morono slipped to 13-7.
Winner: Weathering the Storm
The cage-side team was pretty sure it was over.
Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos had his left arm under Randy Brown’s chin and was squeezing hard enough for long enough to make nearby analysts think a finish was imminent.
But Brown wasn’t quite ready to surrender.
Instead, the Jamaican welterweight didn’t panic, bided his time and ultimately reversed the position and did some damage of his own to finish the second round and control the third, on the way to a close but unanimous decision in the main-card opener.
He’d won the first round largely thanks to a hard knee to Zaleski dos Santos’ chin and left his foe a bloody mess with another knee in the third, improving his UFC record to 13-5 with a third consecutive win.
“I won, but I’m still not happy,” Brown said. “We got work to do.”
He made a case for a climb into the welterweight rankings with a callout of veteran Geoff Neal, who’s ranked 10th at 170 pounds.
Main Card
Islam Makhachev def. Dustin Poirier by submission (D’arce choke), 2:42, Round 5
Sean Strickland def. Paulo Costa by split decision(46-49, 50-45, 49-46)
Kevin Holland def. Michal Oleksiejczuk by technical submission (armbar), 1:34, Round 1
Niko Price def. Alex Morono by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Randy Brown def. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Preliminary Card
Roman Kopylov def. Cesar Almeida by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
Jaiton Almeida def. Alexandr Romanov by submission (rear-naked choke), 2:27, Round 1
Grant Dawson def. Joe solecki by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Jake Matthews def. Phil Rowe by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Early Preliminary Card
Bassil Hafez def. Mickey Gall by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Ailin Perez def. Joselyne Edwards by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Andre Lima def. Raposo by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)
Every five minutes, Paulo Costa looked slightly worse.
