UFC 265 has come and gone, but it did not disappoint us fans with some great fights, besides maybe the one-sided main event Saturday evening. The first weekend of August gave us the pay-per-view for the month. Sadly, we did not get to see the greatest female fighter of all time, Amanda Nunes, but the performances from some of the top fighters proved that the card was worthy to move on. Let’s dive right into the key highlights of the night.
Starting off with the early prelims, the fights started the card with a bang. All four of the early prelim fights ended with stoppages, starting with Johnny Munoz defeated Jamey Simmons with a rear naked choke in round 2, Melissa Gatto got the TKO stoppage over Victoria Leonardo, Miles Johns got a vicious knockout on Anderson Dos Santos, and finally Manel Kape topped them off with a wild flying knee TKO on Ode Osbourne. Everyone loves a good stoppage in the UFC and the early prelims did not miss. Johns ended up winning one of four performances of the nights due to his brutal knockout. Kape would have won knockout of the night with his flying knee, but he was 3 pounds away from the weight limit.
The Prelims continues with the great action as it was capped off with the fight of the night between Bobby Green vs. Rafael Fiziev. This was a fight everyone had on their radar as Green is a great veteran and Fiziev came in as a top prospect. Fiziev had a strong showing early, but Green came back with a fury. The fight could have gone either way, but Fiziev walked away with the win. A lot of people believed that Green should have won due to him landing 40+ more strikes, but the judges did not agree. The other standout fight came on the prelims was between Jessica Penne and Karolina Kowalkiewicz, where Penne submitted her with an armbar. She ended up with a performance of the night bonus due to her outstanding work on the ground.
UFC 265’s main card packed a punch as well. Vicente Luque continued his rise after a crazy 1 round scrap with the talented Michael Chiesa. Chiesa struck early, taking Luque to the ground. He dominated for a bit and got close to getting in a submission, until Luque turned the tables quickly and made Chiesa tap out in a D’Arce choke. The reversal was beautiful and gave him a performance of the night bonus. Luque is now in line to get a top contender for his rise to the belt. Next, Jose Aldo returned to his old form with an impressive unanimous decision win over the tough Pedro Munhoz. Aldo was starting to look a little rusty in the octagon in recent fights, but his speed and defense was amazing in the fight. Munhoz is a tough opponent and Aldo easily took care of him. Finally, the main event was supposed to be Houston’s big break with Derrick Lewis taking on Cyril Gane for the interim heavyweight championship. Gane easily took out Lewis with a 3rd round TKO. Gane dominated as he out struck Lewis 112 strikes to only 16 for Lewis. Gane has the potential to be one of the greatest heavyweights ever with only 10 fights under his belt. His next fight will be against Francis Ngannou for the true heavyweight championship. The fight will be against two former sparring partners and two of the biggest specimens of our generation. Gane has the best chance of anyone to take out Ngannou, but it will be a tough task.
UFC 265 was great, and fans will be eager to get to the next big championship fights in September. Next weekend, fans will get a fight night card headlined by two middleweight top contenders, Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum. The card itself is not super deep, but the main event is one to keep an eye out for.