UFC Liverpool: Thompson vs. Till – Winners and Losers

Despite a slow start for the event, UFC Liverpool closed very strong… even if it was a controversial manner. The main event saw the judges score in favor of the hometown boy Darren Till over Stephen Thompson, even if the youngster didn’t deserve the win. According to MMA Decisions, 22 out of 24 media members scored the fight in favor of Thompson. I suppose the MMA world was overdue for a controversial BS decision.

Aside from the controversial main event, the post-fight speeches were probably the most memorable moment… and that wasn’t in a good way. Claudio Silva got lost in a tangent for far too long. Arnold Allen admitted his dad was on steroids. And most of Till’s speech was censored, so unless one looks up the speech, no one knows what the hell he said. However, do you label the post-fight speeches losers? That didn’t make sense, so I figured mention that here. As for everything else….

Winners

Arnold Allen: Allen came this close to ending up in the loser’s column. Fortunately for him, his caveman strength served him well when he caught Mads Burnell in a front choke the Dane couldn’t escape from. Allen didn’t look great up to that point, but stealing away a win in the manner he did was enough for me to put him in the winner’s column.

Makwan Amirkhani: I could find plenty of things to point out that Amirkhani shouldn’t have done, but he did enough to pick up a very close win over a game Jason Knight. He got his wrestling in gear over the final two rounds, allowing him to pick up the biggest win of his career. Now if he can fight more than once in a year, he might begin fulfilling the potential his athletic gifts would indicate he has.

Claudio Silva: Terrible post-fight speech aside, Silva looked nothing like a guy who had been away from the cage since 2014. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any luck involved in his win, but credit to the Brazilian for putting a hell of a squeeze on Nordine Taleb to maintain his undefeated record. If Silva really wants to impress, he should consider picking up a win after FIVE years away from the cage….

Darren Stewart: It only took five tries, but Stewart FINALLY has a UFC win under his belt. It was hardly a sure thing as Eric Spicely looked better than ever, hurting Stewart with a few punches. Stewart persevered and eventually got the job done. Now he’ll have to find a way to build on this success. Given there aren’t many athletes worse than Spicely, that will probably prove more difficult.

Tom Breese: I guess that move up to middleweight is going to pay off fairly well. Breese returned after a long absence from the cage to put together his best UFC performance by far. He even did it on the feet, an area that’s though to still be a developing area for the youngster. The rest of the UFC’s 185ers have been put on notice.

Carlo Pedersoli: Regardless of whether he lived up to his reputation as an explosive fighter, he secured a win while making his UFC debut on very short notice. It isn’t like Pedersoli wasn’t trying to make things interesting either as he threw an insane amount of kicks. The kid has promise, something he made clear.

Gillian Robertson: Given how few people care about TUF any more, there’s quite a few hardcore fans who don’t know who Robertson is. Now she has not only two wins in the Octagon in two tries, both of them have come by way of submission. Robertson turned 23 earlier this month. The future looks bright for the young Canadian.

Elias Theodorou: It wasn’t an ideal performance for Theodorou, but even though most of the fight took place in the world of Trevor Smith, Theodorou did enough to take a hard-fought win. The win puts Theodorou at 7-2 in the UFC. Regardless of what you think of his level of competition, that’s an impressive record.

Liverpool fans: It isn’t everyday fans play as big of a role as the Liverpool fans did in the main event. Their reactions to every single thing Till did while no-selling the offense of Thompson swayed the judges in the favor of their hometown boy. It’s also an indication of how rabid the fans are. Don’t be surprised to see the UFC return to Liverpool sometime soon.

Losers

Stephen Thompson: Thompson isn’t here based on his performance. He kept his cool and appeared to have the fight well in hand… at least according to most media members and fighters. Thompson was a victim of the reactions from the fans of Liverpool overemphasizing everything Till did. Based simply on that, Thompson still isn’t in this category. What ensures Thompson is in the loser’s category is the strong likelihood Thompson has permanently been eliminated from the welterweight title picture. Yes, he had to wait for welterweight champion Tyron Woodley to be dethroned, but that was still a possibility. Now, with a single win in his last four contests, Thompson has a hell of a hole to climb out of.

Nordine Taleb: Taleb gave that win to Silva. Why in the hell did the noted striker attempt a leg lock against a well-regarded grappler? Taleb was doing great up to that point, bullying Silva in the striking department. Perhaps he felt Silva needed the win bonus money more. After all, Silva hadn’t fought in four years and he was begging for a bonus in his post-fight speech.

Dan Kelly: With three losses in a row, it looks like it’s time to pull the plug on the Kelly bandwagon. He looked slow. Well, slower than usual. That’s saying something. Even though Breese was the one who spent two years away from the cage, Kelly was the one who looked like he had ring rust. Maybe the first clue should have been the grey hair….

Brad Scott: He had his fight in March cancelled when Jack Marshman was unable to make the welterweight limit. Then he is forced to make a stylistic change from Salim Touahri to Pedersoli. After a strong start, he drops the fight to Pedersoli. It hasn’t been a good couple of months for Scott.

Molly McCann: Adding insult to the injury of losing in front of her hometown, the referee was WAY late in stepping in to separate Robertson from McCann. McCann was out for several seconds before the chokehold was released. Fortunately, McCann appeared to be alright when she came to, but you never want to see those type of situations. Did I mention McCann was also the first fighter to lose their fight after missing weight in 2018? Hard to find anything that went right for McCann.

Judges: The judges have largely been able to avoid controversy as of late. Think of the last BS decision you can think of. I’m not referring to decisions that can go either way. Takes a little while, doesn’t it. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that all is normal in the MMA world.

Neil Hall: It’s rarely a good thing for a referee to receive attention and this is no exception. Hall should be able to recognize when a fighter has been choked unconscious. Apparently he can’t as he was the referee for the Robertson-McCann contest. Will the UFC pressure athletic commissions to keep him out of their events? They’ve done it with other referees.

Neither

Darren Till: While no one will deny the contest was close, Till didn’t win that fight. It wasn’t the breakout performance it was expected to be if he walked out of Liverpool with a win. It was nothing that we were hoping it would be. And yet, Till reacted as if he was the biggest badass on the face of the earth in his post-fight speech. Say whatever you want if you finish off your opponent or dominate them over the course of the fight. Otherwise, keep the trash talk to the bare minimum… or none at all. To make things worse, Till didn’t make weight, putting an asterisk next to this win. Nonetheless, Till did walk out of the cage with the biggest win of his career, deserved or not.

Neil Magny: Magny’s donation of $15K towards a little girl’s health issues: awesome. Can’t compliment the guy enough. His win over White needed to be spectacular if he wanted to move his stock upwards in the slightest. Sure, he got the finish in the opening round. But Magny also had a few issues getting White where he wanted him. It sucks when the expectations are so high that a first round finish isn’t good enough….

Craig White: You really don’t get a feel for how big White is until you see him next to Magny, one of the longer welterweights on the roster. He should some fire in his belly too as he hung tight with Magny for most of the opening round before faltering. White isn’t going to be anything special in the UFC. Hell, it won’t be a surprise if he washes out. However, he does have the look of someone who could be a fun action fighter.

Mads Burnell: Let’s be clear: Burnell was winning the fight. He was far more active, taking Allen down whenever he wanted and styling on the young Brit. Then he got caught up attempting to finish a takedown and Allen took advantage. Burnell is still young enough in his career that this should serve as a learning experience. He did more to raise his stock in this contest, even with the loss.

Jason Knight: Knight had a strong case for earning a decision – though definitely not a 30-27 score. He looked more like the fighter we all couldn’t help but cheer for prior to his KO loss againstRicardo Lamas… in spurts. It is progress from where he was when he lost to Gabriel Benitez, but it did result in his third loss in a row. I don’t see the UFC releasing him, which combined with his slight return to form keeps him out of the loser’s column.

Eric Spicely: There is a lot that is going wrong for Spicely following his loss to Stewart. With three straight losses, there is a good chance he’s out of the UFC. He ended up being finished in violent fashion. But Spicely actually showed a functional striking game. Who would have thought? Spicely’s improvement is enough for me to keep him out of the loser’s column.

Lina Lansberg: Sure, her fight with Gina Mazany was difficult to watch. But what did anyone expect? It was women’s bantamweight. We complained about the quality of fights in that division even before flyweight suctioned a huge chunk of the division. Nonetheless, Lansberg deservedly walked out of the arena with a victory.

Welterweight division: Many people were hoping to see Till win simply because it would be good for the future of the division. The problem is the UFC doesn’t want to reward fighters for missing weight, neither do they want to reward a controversial decision. Do they match him up withKamaru Usman in a #1 contender’s fight or force him to fight – and make weight – prior to moving him up the ladder? It’s hard to know exactly how the division shakes out.