It may not have been the barnburner they had hoped for, but for the hometown Denver crowd,
Rose Namajunas could do no wrong.
In the flyweight main event of UFC on ESPN 59 at Ball Arena, former strawweight champ Namajunas (13-6, 11-5 UFC) looked to make her case for a title shot in her new division against rising contender
Tracy Cortez (11-2, 5-1 UFC). The first round went solidly in favor of “Thug Rose,” who sidestepped Cortez’s advances, denied her the clinch and shot takedown opportunities she sought, and caught her repeatedly with clean punches. One of those, a clean left hook, sat Cortez down in the middle of the round, but she recovered quickly. Cortez had a slightly better Round 2, taking Namajunas’ back in a scramble and briefly threatening before Namajunas shook her over the top. Nonetheless, the story of the first half of the fight was Cortez struggling to find Namajunas on any consistent basis, while Namajunas used her superior footwork and speed to potshot Cortez almost at will.
As the fourth round opened, Cortez was in an obvious three-rounds-to-zero hole, and to her credit, she fought like it, wading forward with big power punches, willing herself into the clinch and working to bring Namajunas to the ground. It ended, as before, with Namajunas denying the takedown and sliding out of danger, but at least her foe could not leave things entirely on cruise control. Cortez’s fire was nowhere near enough to outweigh the talent and technique of Namajunas, who followed her corner’s instructions to a tee across the final 10 minutes, touching Cortez with her jab, avoiding any danger, and disrupting her opponent's rhythm with perfectly timed takedowns. Cortez nonetheless may have carried the final round on sheer aggression, given the deliberately low-power approach Namajunas took on the feet.
After five rounds, the cageside judges returned an unsurprising and well-deserved unanimous decision for Namajunas (49-46, 49-46, 48-47). The win put “Thug Rose” at two straight in her new division and leaves her an interested observer of flyweight champ
Alexa Grasso ’s next defense, presumably against
Valentina Shevchenko ; Cortez saaw an 11-fight win streak snapped in defeat.
Salikhov Outlasts Ponzinibbio in Battle of Welterweight Veterans
With Father Time looming over the cage like an unofficial third competitor, 37-year-old
Santiago Ponzinibbio and 40-year-old
Muslim Salikhov looked surprisingly spry in the welterweight co-main event of “UFC Denver.” A clash between two longtime knockout artists seemed to offer the possibility of fireworks, but while the fight was entertaining for the most part, it was also a tactical, measured battle between two aging veterans who both came to the cage having gone 1-3 in their last four fights. With age, altitude and the specter of the pink slip, Ponzinibbio’s trademark hyper-aggressive punch flurries and Salikhov’s accustomed storm of spinning kicks were largely replaced by a bread-and-butter kickboxing match, punctuated by the Argentinian’s surprisingly persistent wrestling. That is not to say that they completely abandoned what brought them to the dance, as they traded head kicks in a razor-close Round 1 that probably only swung the way of Ponzinibbio thanks to a late knockdown. The second round appeared to belong to the Russian, who hurt Ponzinibbio with a left hand, grounded him with a takedown of his own and was generally the sharper, more accurate striker.
With the outcome very much in question, the welterweight veterans turned in another close round in the final frame, though the Denver crowd was not pleased by the moderate pace of the striking, nor by Ponzinibbio’s takedown attempts. The judges rendered their verdict in favor of Salikhov by split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29), who snapped a two-fight skid and elevated his record to 20-5 (7-4 UFC); Ponzinibbio (29-8, 11-7 UFC) has now lost two straight and is 2-5 since returning in 2021 from a long injury layoff.
Silva Picks Up Cut TKO of Dober in Sensational Scrap
In just two weeks,
Jean Silva has elevated his UFC profile in a way perhaps not seen since
Khamzat Chimaev hit the Octagon like a bolt of lightning four years ago. Silva (14-2, 3-0 UFC) fresh from his highlight-reel knockout of
Charles Jourdain at UFC 303, stepped up a weight class to meet
Drew Dober (27-14, 1 NC; 13-10, 1 NC UFC) in a lightweight clash. Silva, fighting a longtime Denver resident and fan favorite in Dober, showed no particular fear of his foe’s renowned knockout power. He caught Dober with quick, accurate counters repeatedly in the first round, frustrating the local favorite and opening a cut near his right eye. Dober made adjustments between rounds, and came out for the second frame setting up his kicks with punches and doing a better job of cutting off the cage. The results were positive, as Dober landed some heavy leg kicks and a right hand that wobbled Silva momentarily, as well as a sequence against the fence where Dober teed off with uppercuts as “Lord” covered up. Things got a bit wild late in the round as Dober hurt Silva with a superman punch, then slipped on the follow-up and came close to eating a murderous uppercut as he got back to his feet, but Silva may have stolen the round with a crushing spinning back elbow in the closing seconds. The strike left Dober wobbling on his feet and would likely have led to a finish if there had been more time left on the clock.
Referee Herb Dean called out the cageside physician to have a look at Dober’s right eye between rounds, but the fight was allowed to go on, to the delight of the Denver crowd. Likely down two rounds to none, Dober changed things up, shooting a takedown in the opening seconds of Round 3, but Silva defended with a guillotine.
When they separated, Dober’s cut was significantly worse, and Dean once again called on the doctor . This time, he opined that the fight should not go on in the interest of Dober’s safety. The win, Silva’s second in 14 days, put him alongside the likes of Chimaev and former middleweight champ
Sean Strickland on the list of shortest turnarounds between UFC wins in the post-tournament era, and confirmed him as must-see viewing, whether his next outing is at 155 or 145 pounds.
Bonfim Sprawls, Brawls to Victory over Loosa
In a welterweight scrap that smoldered and smoked but never quite burst into a full-blown blaze,
Gabriel Bonfim (16-1, 3-1 UFC) stayed a step ahead of
Ange Loosa (10-4, 1 NC; 2-2, 1 NC UFC) for three grueling rounds. “Marrethinha” entered the fight on the back of his first professional loss and followed a simple but effective plan to get back in the win column against Loosa: Land your strikes, avoid the haymakers coming back your way, and stop the takedown. Loosa did not make things easy for him, as he shot a beautiful blast double in the first round, hoisted Bonfim and deposited him on the canvas, but Bonfim popped right back to his feet and went back to work. It set the pattern for the fight, as both men had moments of effective offense, especially when they traded knees and punches in the clinch, but Bonfim was just a bit more effective in all three rounds. That dynamic grew more pronounced as the fight wore on and both men grew tired, but Loosa more so, and the takedowns seemed to be easier and easier for the Brazilian to avoid. After the final horn sounded, Bonfim was confirmed the winner by 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 scores, putting him back on track after his loss to
Nicolas Dalby last November; Loosa now has a loss and a foul-induced no contest since his last Octagon win 10 months ago.
Erosa Guillotines Rodriguez
Julian Erosa reaffirmed his place among the UFC’s most reliable action merchants and picked up a key win, throttling
Christian Rodriguez (11-2, 4-2 UFC) late in the first round of their featherweight clash. Erosa (30-11, 8-7 UFC) has become popular as an equal opportunity distributor of highlights to his own as well as his opponents’ reels, and the fight got off to a characteristically wild start as both men swung freely. “CeeRod” was likely ahead late in the round, thanks to an unblocked head kick and enough punches to bloody Erosa’s nose, when “Juicy J” caught a kick and hustled Rodriguez to the canvas. Rodriguez swept to top position, at which point Erosa snatched up a lightning-quick guillotine choke, cinching a body triangle from the bottom as he did so. Erosa cranked on the hold, his long arms bending Rodriguez’s neck at an alarming angle, and Rodriguez was left no choice but to ask out of the fight at 4:49 of Round 1. The nifty finish snapped a four-fight win streak for Rodriguez, who is now 1-1 at featherweight after beginning his UFC run at 135 pounds; Erosa now has two wins in a row since his back-to-back losses to
Alex Caceres and
Fernando Padilla .
Alhassan, Brundage End in Quick No Contest
The UFC on ESPN 59 main card got off to a bizarre start, as
Abdul Razak Alhassan and
Cody Brundage ’s all-Denver middleweight scrap ended in a no contest in just 38 seconds. Things did not take long to go sideways, as Alhassan (12-6, 1 NC; 6-6, 1 NC UFC) stuffed a takedown attempt and punished Brundage (10-6, 1 NC; 4-5, 1 NC UFC) with elbows to the head as he worked to his knees and sought to re-shoot. The elbows began to stray to the back of Brundage’s head, drawing a caution from referee Dan Miragliotta without an interruption in the action. A few moments later, several more elbows collided with the back of Brundage’s head, prompting Miragliotta to stop the fight. Brundage was dazed from the blows to the point that he appeared at first to believe the stoppage had been a TKO. The cageside doctor was summoned, and after a lengthy question-and-answer session with Brundage, Miragliotta declared the fight a no contest due to inadvertent but illegal strikes to the back of the head.
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