Holloway, Edgar battle for epic five rounds
Max Holloway called it a “legacy fight,” a chance for either he or Frankie Edgar to further cement a reputation as an all-time great in their sport.
When their featherweight title fight at UFC 240 was over, they had both succeeded.
The veterans, who’ve made great careers out of putting on explosive and relentless performances, treated fans at Rogers Place to an epic five-round battle that did nothing but strengthen both of their resumes.
People were expecting a war and that’s what they got.
In the end, Holloway’s crisp and accurate punches were the difference as he turned Edgar’s face into a swollen, bloody mess en route to an unanimous decision that extended his unbeaten streak at 145 pounds to 14.
The judges had it 50-45, 49-46 and 48-47, but all of the rounds had razor-thin margins
“Everybody said I wasn’t going to be able to stay with his pace,” Holloway said. “I wanted to prove a point and go five rounds with him, so I could let the world know I’m here to stay. The Blessed express is still on the move.”
The fighters showed great respect for each other all week and that didn’t change when it was over.
“Frankie is a true warrior,” Holloway said. “He’s the guy who inspired me to be here. You’re the man, Frank.”
Edgar’s face was a mess in the post-fight media conference, but his heart hurt worse.
“I thought I did well, I did the best I could, but it wasn’t enough,” he said. “I’m heartbroken. It’s tough when you want something that bad and can’t get it. I’ve been close so many times before. But I’m not going anywhere.”
ALL HEART
If Rocky was a woman, she would be Felicia Spencer.
The Montreal underdog lost a three-round decision to MMA legend Cris Cyborg, but won a new legion of fans with Balboa levels of toughness and determination Saturday at UFC 240.
Against someone who is used to steamrolling her opponents and crumpling everything she hits, Spencer took everything Cyborg had and kept coming. Like a Terminator in a ponytail.
Cyborg was the decided favourite, but any notion she would make quick work of the 28-yearold algebra teacher was put to rest in the first round. Spencer opened a nasty cut on the former champion’s forehead with a stepin elbow and showed she was in this for the long haul.
Spencer spent a lot of her night trying to get Cyborg to the ground, where she could employ her submission skills, but Cyborg fended off every attempt.
With the fight staying on its feet the whole night, it was advantage Cyborg. But she definitely knew she’d been in a battle.
Spencer managed to batter her opponent’s face with some wellplaced shots of her own. But the veteran’s edge in striking was too much to overcome and all three judges had it 30-27.
Cyborg, looking to re-establish herself after a humbling firstround loss to Amanda Nunes, admitted she had to work as hard for this win as any in her career.
“I trained really hard,” she said. “Thanks to Felicia for giving me my first cut.”
As for a rematch with Nunes, Cyborg said it’s definitely in the cards.
“I’m going to let UFC talk to my manager, but I just wanted to get this victory. For sure, I want Amanda. I want a rematch.”
HAPPY RETURNS
Gavin Tucker waited a long time to erase the ugly memories of his last trip to Edmonton.
But he did it in convincing fashion Saturday at UFC 240.
It was his first fight since that hard-to-watch night in 2017, when he was beaten so badly in UFC 215 he ended up in the hospital with four broken bones in his face, and Tucker choked out Seungwoo Choi of South Korea in the third round of their featherweight fight.
“It felt great that it was here in Edmonton because last time I fought here I didn’t show up,” said the Halifax product, who was plagued by injuries in his attempt to come back sooner. “This was a huge rectification for me to get a finish here.”
He looked great in his return, delivering a complete game, both standing and on the ground. You’d never would have guessed he’d been out for 22 months.
“These last two years have been a trench,” the 33-year-old said. “I’m not going to get into it, but God doesn’t build them tougher than me. I’m really happy I got my mettle tested and got the win.”
He definitely had to earn this one. The Korean was no easy out.
“I have nothing but respect for Choi. He is a tough dude. I hit him with what I’m certain were big shots and he just grinned it off. I would have loved to get a good knockout finish, but it was a good night.”
Being able to finally put his UFC 215 storyline to bed once and for all is a major relief. So was proving the hurdles of the last two years weren’t enough to break him.
“Everyone has been asking me about this, the fact that it was back in Edmonton. But if I went to hell and fought the devil 10 times and he beat me 10 times, I’m coming back an 11th time for the win. I’ll be there. You’re not going to get rid of me,” Tucker said.
“Obviously there’s some mental hesitation, there’s an inner voice and some self-doubt, but that’s there no matter what. It’s the fist-fight game. There are no guarantees.”
CALGARY BEAT-DOWN
Hakeen Dawodu stole the show on the undercard with a spectacular head kick that spelled the end of Japan’s Yoshinori Horie.
It took a while to track him down, as Horie spent a lot of the fight back-peddling, but the Calgary product got to his opponent and turned out the lights in the third round.
“He was just running, running, running,” said Dawodu, who improved to 10-1-0. “That kind of threw me off. I said, ‘Let’s fight, that’s why we’re here.’ It was frustrating; I wanted to just throw my arms up and say, ‘Come on!’”
After three decision wins and one loss in his previous four fights, Dawodu wanted to make sure he gave everyone another glimpse of his shutdown power.
“There was a lot of pressure,” he said. “Not just to win, but to get a knockout. It feels great to represent Canada and give Edmonton another knockout.”
ELBOW ROOM
You’d never know it from the way she giggles through her interviews, but Gillian Robertson is a scary woman.
The 24-year-old from Niagara Falls, Ont., improved to 7-3 and 4-1 in her last five with a bloody second-round TKO over Brazilian flyweight Sarah Frota (9-2).
“It’s absolutely huge, my first TKO in Canada,” the 24-year-old said. “The crowd and the vibes out there were just incredible. I wanted to display my groundand-pound a little more in this fight, which I was able to do.”
Robertson withstood a couple of determined submission attempts in each round before getting herself into a dominant position and busting Frota open with heavy elbows. Eventually, Frota had enough and just covered up and waited for the stoppage.
“I was using the strikes to open a submission and then I heard the ref say, ‘You have to be more active, Frota,’ so then I just started throwing as much as I could. I noticed the big cut in the first round and in the second I cut her again. It definitely gives you confidence when you literally smell the blood.”
SLOW START, LATE HITS
After a couple of lukewarm fights to start the pay-per-view portion of the night, Americans Geoff Neal and Niko Price turned up the heat at Rogers Place with their vicious welterweight slugfest.
Neal got floored in the first round and staggered again in the second, but came back hard and ended it with some wicked ground-and-pound in the second round.
“I knew he was a couple more shots away from being knocked all the way out,” said Neal. “It’s good that the referee stopped it before it got to that point.”
In a bout between the thirdand fourth-ranked flyweights in the UFC, Deiveson Figueiredo scored an unanimous decision over fellow Brazilian Alexandre (The Cannibal) Pantoja.
Kyle Cardinal, the referee for Tucker’s controversial 2017 bout, was put in charge of two fights on the UFC 240 card: Robertson versus Frota and Dawodu versus Horie. He did a good job in both, calling a stop in each fight at just the right time.
Viviane Araujo scored a decision victory over Alexis Davis, handing the Port Colborne, Ont., product her third straight loss. Araujo extended her winning streak to five in a row.
Poland’s Krzysztof Jotko opened the pay-per-view card with a split decision victory over Marc-andre Barriault of Gatineau, Que.
Olivier Aubin-mercier, who had been training with Canadian MMA great George St-pierre, had a tough time with Armenian Arman Tsarukyan, who improved to 14-2-0 with an unanimous decision win. It was Aubin-mercier’s third straight loss.