The UFC Is Finally Back, And So Are The Knockouts
Chris Unger. Getty Images.After a loooooong month break, the UFC finally returned to our television screens tonight - and as of this writing, five of the nine fights on the card have ended via KO/TKO! We were due for knockouts and we've been getting them!
On the prelims, Josh Van scored the very first knockout of the year over Felipe Bunes with some clubbing ground-and-pound shots….
Nikolas Motta then knocked Tom Nolan out in about a minute in the next fight, almost like we was trying to outdo that last TKO….
Jean Silva beat the fuck out of Westin Wilson in his UFC debut, and then threw on some Dudley Boyz glasses and barked like a dog afterwards….
Electric.
Marcus McGhee landed his third straight finish in three fights, and put a sick spinning wheel kick on display….
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….and then in the second fight of the main card, Bruno Ferreira knocked Phil Hawes out at the tail end of the first round after having him rocked for a minute or two….
I've said it a bunch on here, but Phil Hawes grew up in my tiny hometown of Little Ferry, NJ and is around the same age as my older sister and her now husband, and they were friendly….so watching him get knocked out SUCKS.
This one especially sucked, because not only was it his third straight time getting KO'd in the first round, but because he had to eat a few unnecessary ground-and-pound at the end there and was unconscious for a while afterwards. It was pretty scary, and this could be the end of the road for him in the UFC. Super unfortunate - but hey, objectively, Bruno Ferreira put on a pretty great performance here, so kudos to him.
Some other random notes from the card:
-Mario Bautista vs Ricky Simon was fuckin awesome.
-Brendan Fitzgerald/Paul Felder/Michael Bisping are a great commentary team.
-Waldo Cortes-Acosta was being a real dick to Andrei Arlovski - a true legend of the sport - by dancing all over the cage and mocking him while putting on a very meh performance to earn himself a decision victory. There's a time and a place for showboating, being over the top, and even being disrespectful in this sport - but this didn't feel like that time or place.
I loved Jared Gordon's inner New Yorker coming out on Twitter watching that….
"Jerkoff" - what a great insult.
There's still a couple fun fights left on this card, including one featuring New Jersey legend Jim Miller up next - so toss ESPN+ on a second screen if you're interested. I know there's football on tonight, but get it on your iPad or something. I don't think you'll regret it.