UFC 205: Alvarez vs. McGregor results and post-fight analysis

Conor McGregor backs up his words, you have to give him that. The featherweight champion completely dominated the lightweight champion in the main event of UFC 205, dropping Eddie Alvarez half a dozen times in under two rounds. Alvarez had absolutely no response to the straight left. None at all. It was crazy to see. McGregor just did whatever he wanted.

The man now holds two belts in the UFC. He’s delivered everything the UFC has wanted from him. I normally have a lot to say about main events, but this was so one-sided that it’s hard to generate words. It will be very interesting to see where McGregor goes from here – will he defend the featherweight title? Will the UFC make him drop it? How much money is he making the company right now? How much more hype can one guy generate?

• Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson put on a strange fight, and the ending was even stranger. Woodley chose to fight off the fence, which seemed like a bad idea until the fourth round when he dropped Wonderboy multiple times and nearly had him finished with his hands and with a submission. Thompson showed a ton of resilience, surviving and even winning the fifth round. Two judges had it 47-47, which is a clear majority draw, but Bruce Buffer announced Woodley as the winner anyway. That was very weird. They eventually corrected their mistake, but it was quite embarrassing. I guess they’ll just do a rematch now.
• Joanna Jedrzejczyk landed an amazing amount of strikes in her win over Karolina Kowalkiewicz. Especially leg kicks – I believe it was over 80. It’s clear as day that Joanna won four rounds, and it was a great fight. I did have one major issue with it though, and it had nothing to do with the effort of either lady. It was Joe Rogan’s commentary. He sometimes goes off on narratives, and tonight it was all about Joanna. Karolina only got mentioned over the first three rounds when he felt she was doing something wrong. It was nowhere near a blowout, but you’d never know that if you just listened to Joe. Even in round four, when Karolina dropped Joanna, I don’t feel she was given the credit she deserved. Rogan actually said early in the fifth that Joanna’s volume won her the fourth. What? No. No no no no. That’s a terrible assessment, and Karolina deserves more praise than just her ability to take shots. It really soured the fight for me.
• Holy hell, Yoel Romero. That was legitimately one of the scariest knockouts I’ve ever seen. The flying knee cracked Chris Weidman right as he was leaning over, and he was bleeding like crazy before Romero even landed. Then he blasted him with a huge shot right in the grill, and it was over. I think it was already over even without it. Weidman was completely wrecked. I still can’t believe what I saw. The post-fight stuff with Michael Bisping was amazing too – Romero started in Spanish, but as soon as the middle fingers came out from Bisping, Romero remembered he spoke English and talked some trash. It was funny, and captivating.
• With that being said, Bisping should be pretty worried. Romero is a tank.
• The PPV kicked off with Miesha Tate being thoroughly outworked by a very game Raquel Pennington. Tate just had nothing for her on the feet, and even got beat up in the clinch. It was a puzzling performance, and it actually led to her announcing her retirement after the fight. I firmly believe that she was just speaking in the emotion of the moment and she will fight again. But if not, props to her on a great career. She really did some amazing things for herself and women’s MMA, and I hope she’s not forgotten easily just because she lost to Ronda Rousey twice.
• It wouldn’t be a real Frankie Edgar fight if he didn’t get dropped, and Jeremy Stephensdelivered that in the third round. Other than that though, Edgar was in complete control with beautiful wrestling and his usual speed, and took a nice unanimous decision win.
• Khabib Nurmagomedov is your number one contender at lightweight. Not Tony Ferguson. Khabib put a scary, scary beating on Michael Johnson, where the fight could have been stopped in any round. He tied him up like a pretzel and beat the tar out of him on the ground. Johnson actually got off to a good start, but it quickly went downhill. The kimura finish was almost merciful. Khabib is an absolute monster, and he deserves his shot. Ferguson is great, but Khabib is ahead of him in line. He has to be.
• And Khabib’s post-fight interview – wow, that might have been the best interview I’ve seen in ages. Saying that Conor tapped like a chicken at the start of the year and still got a title shot. Calling out the Irish fans and saying he wants a fight with their chicken. Asking Joe Rogan if he deserves a title shot. Then finishing with the epic “Let’s go! Let’s go with your chicken!” I loved every second of it.
• Well, Tim Boetsch is still a Barbarian. He put Rafael Natal down with a thunderous right, and clubbed him on the ground until the lights were out. Hard to complain about that.
• Vicente Luque has some beautiful striking. The counter left he caught Belal Muhammad with was nasty, and swifly brought an end to Muhammad’s night. That’s four wins in a row for Luque, and he finished all of them.
• Both Fight Pass bouts went to decision, but offered up some decent action. Liz Carmoucheworked a strong grappling game for two rounds, but got clubbed with a head kick in the third and nearly went out. She managed to survive though, taking a decision. In the other bout, Thiago Alves couldn’t get his striking going at all against a game Jim Miller, who worked a strong takedown and top game to take out the guy who didn’t come close to making weight in his “lightweight” debut.