UFC Fight Night 98 – Recap

Tony Ferguson staked a huge claim to be the next UFC lightweight title contender

Ferguson dominated the majority of the striking exchanges, using his superior reach and unorthodox striking to keep Rafael dos Anjos on the back foot throughout the fight. Dos Anjos struggled to get going over the five rounds and only in round three did he look anywhere near the RDA of old. Ferguson couldn’t have put more of a statement on this performance without finishing dos Anjos, but a five round domination is perhaps even more emphatic.

Ferguson now has a NINE-fight win streak at lightweight without having had a shot at the title, and that has to be next in line for ‘El Cucuy’.

Diego Sanchez tried his hardest to make the first round appear competitive

…but Marcin Held rarely looked troubled by anything Sanchez offered and had his opponent in a super tight standing guillotine that Sanchez somehow managed to scramble out of.

The second round saw Held revert back to type and dive on submissions, constantly alternating from straight foot locks to heel hooks but Sanchez has been around for a long time and defended them with ease. Held them found himself underneath Sanchez, with the veteran looking to land some ground and pound from Held’s guard.

In the third round, Held looked like he had Sanchez hurt on the feet but decided to dive for a leg lock, this time his attempts were desperate and Sanchez brushed them away with ease and then dominated position on the ground until the final buzzer.

Sanchez was awarded the unanimous decision victory by the judges.

Ricardo Lamas’ decision to take the fight to the canvas against Charles Oliveira didn’t look too bright…

Now when the former title challenger he found himself defending and Anaconda Choke and a rear naked choke attempt in the first round, and was getting thoroughly dominated in the grappling. However, the second round saw Lamas again take the fight to the canvas, but this time round Lamas waited for Oliveira to scramble and locked in a guillotine choke that had the Brazilian tapping out, handing Lamas a solid win.

A contestant of the Ultimate Fighter: Latin America 3 won the Ultimate Fighter: Latin America 3, to nobody’s surprise.

Rashid Magomedov and Beneil Dariush had a closely contested lightweight fight

Though it didn’t provide any of the fireworks expected prior to the fight.

For two expert grapplers, both fighters seemed content to spend the fight engaged in a lacklustre kickboxing battle, or against the cage attempting to dominate the clinch. This fight isn’t one either fighter will be proud of but the judges decided that Dariush had done enough over the three rounds to take it.

Alexa Grasso didn’t have it all her own way in her UFC debut

After the first round, it looked like Grasso wouldn’t have too much trouble, after wailing on Heather Jo Clark against the cage and appearing to have Clark’s number in the striking department, and defending the takedown attempts. But Clark wasn’t giving in that easily. The next two rounds saw Clark come out and push the action, looking to tie Grasso up in the clinch and landing big knees to the body of when against the cage. Grasso managed to ride out the pressure from Clark and landed solid combinations whenever the two separated, constantly looking to reverse position when the two clinched.

Grasso’s performance was enough to earn her the unanimous decision victory and no doubt some new fans.