Best Matches Seen January 2020 |
UFC 246 1/18/20
Sabina Mazo vs. JJ Aldrich 3R. You knew this would be a hard nosed standup war, and it definitely delivered, though it was more consistent than spectacular. I like Aldrich a lot more at 115. Her best weapon is her jab, but that becomes much more difficult to dominate with or even use effectively when you are giving up all sorts of length. Mazo looks about as long as any 5'7" fighter, and Aldrich was really forced to counter here. However, early on the southpaw vs. orthodox split was working in her favor, as she was able to circle left into Mazo's power but get outside the right leg to land her powerful left straight counter. Aldrich was only circling in the same direction as always, but Mazo is a slow starter and just chased her lackadaisically in this round. Mazo did a good job landing low kicks, and according to the statistics outlanded Aldrich 29-15 though I never would have guessed this without looking despite a late push from Mazo, but Aldrich landed all the notable, damaging shots so I scored it for her. Mazo picked up the pace in the 2nd, and that really made a difference. It wasn't so much that she actually cut Aldrich off sometimes, it was more that she applied so much pressure that Aldrich didn't believe she could circle left fast enough & would instead plant & try to counter. Aldrich was definitely the quicker, more explosive fighter, but that was only coming into play when Mazo took breaks from her heavy forward pressure. Luckily for Aldrich, Mazo couldn't sustain it for a whole round, and in the 2nd half Aldrich really began to come on with her hands, opening up another cut with a nice left straight. Aldrich planting or coming at Mazo gave Mazo more opportunities to finally get her strong clinch game going, and she landed a big clinch knee late. Just before the bell, Mazo caught JJ with a right high kick when she was trying to get out of the pocket. This round was really close, but Mazo probably stole it with these big shots in the final seconds. Mazo looked to both initiate the clinch and to counter JJ's forward pushes by grabbing her & pulling her into it in the 3rd. Aldrich didn't have good answers for the clinch, and was noticably slowing down. Mazo really began to take over with the clinch in the middle of the 3rd, and was chewing JJ up with knees against the cage, with Jackson Pollock doing some work on JJ's white shirt. Aldrich mainly got back into the round because of a gift separation by Chris Tognoni, but the inside was all one-way traffic so a couple good distance punches couldn't make that up. Mazo won a split decision 28-29, 29-28, 29-28. Good match.
Sodiq Yusuff vs. Andre Fili 3R. Started really strong & fast, but petered off with each round as Sodiq, who cuts a lot of weight, tired & took his foot off the gas since he was winning. In round 1, Yusuff pursued relentlessly, and while Fili landed a number of solid jabs, Yusuff had a huge power advantage & Fili wasn't able to counter Yusuff's aggression with his strikes or circle quickly enough to avoid anything. Though it made for an exciting fight, Fili just did too much standing in the pocket exchanging with Yusuff for his own good. Fili could counter into a takedown, but Yusuff would get right back up. Yusuff was rocking Fili even with his jabs, but Fili managed to wobble Yusuff in a wild exchange & get yet another takedown. Yusuff reversed with a Kimura, but Fili had an armbar attempt late. I'd give this round to Yusuff because he landed the more damaging shots, and you could see the results on Fili's face almost from the outset, but due to Fili getting the takedown & coming closest to a knockdown, I wouldn't bank on all the judges to do the same if I were Yusuff. Yusuff won round 2 convincingly working ground & pound for 3/4 of the round, then didn't show up for the 3rd. Fili switched to southpaw in this round, and was very effective landing his jab, especially since Yusuff's output was less than half the previous rounds. Fili was taunting Yusuff by the end trying to provoke him to actually attack. I think if this were PRIDE scoring, Fili would have gotten the nod because Yusuff really didn't do anything late, but then if this were PRIDE scoring, he would have been forced to fight from bell to bell. In any case, Yusuff got the unanimous decision 29-28. Good match.
