Breaking down everything that took place inside Sphere at Noche UFC in Vegas.
A 10-fight card at UFC 306 in Las Vegas was headlined at Sphere — the dynamic venue that hosted its first live sporting contest Saturday. On the marquee were two title fights, as Merab Dvalishvili and Valentina Shevchenko emerged victorious as champions. Outside of the title fights, other stars such as Diego Lopes and Esteban Ribovics also had big performances. To make sense of it all, Andreas Hale, Brett Okamoto and Jeff Wagenheim offer their final thoughts on a historic night.
Wagenheim: Dvalishvili did what Dvalishvili does. And no less important, he did not allow Sean O’Malley to do what he does.
That’s how a classic striker vs. grappler is supposed to be decided, isn’t it?
In dominating the UFC 306 main event to seize the bantamweight title away from “Suga” Sean, Dvalishvili landed six takedowns, below average for him. He’s the UFC’s active leader with 86 takedowns in his 13 trips inside the Octagon, and he has had four fights in which he hit double figures. But make no mistake: His takedown prowess is what made him a champion.
O’Malley fended off nine takedown tries, and to do so, he had to focus on staying in position to slow Dvalishvili’s aggression. That made O’Malley defense-minded the whole way. He showed only brief glimpses of the dangerous striking that had got him where he was. So even when Dvalishvili was being foiled on his takedown attempts, he remained in control of how the fight flowed.
As a result, the wrestler even outstruck the striker. Dvalishvili threw 310 strikes, more than three times O’Malley’s offensive output (91), and outlanded him 214 to just 49. Even though many of the challenger’s punches and kicks merely touched O’Malley with little damage done, they kept the champ busy defending himself and trying in vain to find openings to land his offense.
Dvalishvili transformed himself from a one-dimensional fighter by being so relentless with the takedown part of his game that his opponent was unable to exploit any shortcomings in his standup. Will the new champ be able to do this as he begins his reign, especially when he faces a challenger who’s more well-rounded? We’ll find out.
Hale: Shevchenko figured out how to beat Alexa Grasso and it required her to keep her fight strategy simple. She played to her strengths by grounding Grasso in all five rounds — eight total takedowns — and kept over 16 minutes of control time.
