UFC Freedom 250 gives us one of the best fights of all time
I had my reservations about this event because I knew it was going to be missing a lot of the electricity of a normal stadium event that UFC would normally have. I also thought that it could have easily become a political thing but despite all the whining that was going on and how some lunatics out there tried to stop the thing from happening with a last-minute BS lawsuit, the event was actually done very well even though the noise around the actual octagon wasn't as loud as it normally would be. I didn't really notice it at the time but apparently there was a gigantic "watch party" near the White House that I was told had 80,000 people in attendance. That's pretty wild.
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For me personally, even if it was free, I would never go to this but a lot of other people had fun and apparently there were no major incidents so that is a good thing.
The fight card was pretty good and I really feel as though the fighters were really "swinging for the fences" on this one because it was such a momentous event that won't be repeated again probably in my lifetime at least. All of the fights ended in finishes by KO and this is something that is truly special. I have always said that at a lot of these events the participants don't seem to be trying to win, they seem to be trying to NOT LOSE. This results in dancing and hugging competitions rather than the brawls that we all tune into these things for.
Out of all the competitors it looked like everyone came there to brawl except for Derrick Lewis who is always incredibly unreliable, has no "gas tank" to speak of, and honestly, should seriously consider retiring. Since this loss will likely take him out of the top 10 and UFC is really trying to make the heavyweight division a big thing again, it might not be left up to him. I wouldn't count on seeing him in major events anytime soon, maybe a Fight Night here and there.
The biggest fight of the night was one that a lot of people kind of thought was going to be a farce because many were saying that Justin Gaetje didn't deserve to be in there at all vs Topuria but got the job because he is American and pretty well-liked by everyone. He also puts on amazing performances whether he wins or loses. He never has a boring fight.
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At the beginning of the fight Justin was all over the place and clearly looking to be the aggressor but any time that Topuria would strike back it looked really scary for Gaetje because the Spaniard champion was taking a lot of hits but didn't seem all that phased by them. When Topuria got Gaethje rattled in round 2 and then took him to the ground, I was just stunned that Justin made it to the round break. There's no way for me to know this for sure, but I think maybe Topuria wasn't trying as hard as he could for the submission because he was trying to conserve energy or maybe he had a bit of arrogance because nobody has come even close to defeating him in his last 17 matches.
At one point he was a 6 to 1 favorite to win this fight and virtually nobody in the press was picking Justin for the win. One person did though and it was announced during the event that the day of the fight, somebody put a $150,000 bet on Gaethje to win and well, that guy is pretty happy because as the fight went on Gaetje was taking control as Topuria's face started to look like it was going to fall off of his skull.
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Gaethje tooks some shots as well, but nothign like the really hard ones that he doled out. It is amazing to me that Ilia remained conscious through some of those extremely hard shots.
Some crazy stuff happened as well and at the time this pissed me off. The ring doctor was brought in to determine whether or not Ilia was medically cleared to carry on fighting between rounds 3 and 4 and when this happens, it is supposed to happen in the normal allotted time between rounds. This took longer than usual, a full minute longer, and this looked really unfair because not Topuria, who had just been completely battered in round 3, was getting additional rest time.
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At this point the announcers were saying that Ilia was saying he couldn't see out of his right eye but when the ringside doctor tried to call the fight off the Spaniard pleaded with him to allow the fight to continue and carry on they did.
Round 4 did not get any better for the champ though and there were some crazy strikes that happened in that round as well including a knee to the ribs that at least from our TV perspective, looked like it went 25% of the way through his damn body.
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By the time the break for round 4 was upon us. Topuria's corner said they do not wish to continue. While many look at this as quitting, just look at that guy's face. His eyes are swollen shut, his nose is twice the size it was at the start, and he was partially in dreamland at least twice in the fight as he struggled to remain conscious. For a normal person they would have had all of their ribs on the right side of their body destroyed as well.
As far as the publicly released medical report is concerned, Topuria suffered an orbital fracture around his right eye and well, you need those if you want your brain to remain inside your head.
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Justin Gaethje, a guy that almost nobody picked to win this fight and most of us were just hoping he could last long enough to not destroy his career, is the new Lightweight Champion of the world.
this is no fluke either. He basically dominated that fight especially after the 2nd round. It was touch and go in the first and I was standing in my room because of nerves even when it was clear Justin had the advantage.
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his post fight interview with Joe went well, he kept it apolitical, and was very gracious to his opponent that he had just defeated. Honestly, this couldn't have happened to a better guy and he deserved the "fight of the night" bonuses that he got and now we have some real new excitement in the lightweight division.
Gaethje had been talking about retirement before this fight but that was the best performance of his career in my opinion. I would really like to see him carry on a bit longer.