Anthony Smith teaches us to not doubt him – again

The hyperbole was off the charts for Mauricio Ruffy after strong showing his octagon debut with a first-round knockout of the always-tough Jamie Mullarkey. And for essentially the most part, it was warranted.

UFC commentator and coach Din Thomas said Ruffy (10-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) reminded him “of a young Conor McGregor” while he picked Mullarkey apart with strikes then finished the job in Round 1. Daniel Cormier then proceeded to say Ruffy’s performance was “considered one of the best UFC debuts we’ve seen in an extended time.”

It was strong words across the board for Ruffy, who proceeded to send a message to lightweight champ Islam Makhachev that his reign will soon be under threat. That’s putting the cart way ahead of the horse in arguably essentially the most stacked division in the game, but you possibly can respect the boldness.

Let’s see what Ruffy can do moving forward. He beat an opponent who’s sub-.500 within the UFC in Mullarkey, and he’ll must do way more work before his comments toward Makhachev are taken with any seriousness.

Caio Borralho continued to construct momentum within the middleweight division with a near-flawless performance against Paul Craig, marking his thirteenth consecutive victory overall.

Borralho (16-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC) has been steadily climbing up the rankings, and against his most experience and established foe up to now in Craig, he shined en path to a second-round knockout finish.

He called out Jared Cannonier within the aftermath of the fight, and while he won’t get that next with Cannonier rumored to tackle Nassourdine Imavov in an upcoming predominant event, he’s shooting a greater shot than he has up to now – which I’ve criticized him for.

It’s time for Borralho to get a tougher test little question, though. He’s off to a start in his octagon tenure that few other 185-pound names have matched up to now, and that’s deserving of something meaningful.

There was lots of excitement around Michel Pereira when he was signed to the UFC due to his flashy style and epic highlight reel. But even essentially the most optimistic of his supporters couldn’t have seen this kind of success.

Pereira (30-11 MMA, 9-2 UFC) has now won eight consecutive fights contained in the octagon after a 54-second submission of Ihor Potieria, with the past three of those victories coming in a combined 3:01. It’s no coincidence those performances have coincided along with his full-time move to middleweight, and it’s clear that is the suitable weight class for the Brazilian.

Although you possibly can poke some holes in the standard of competition during this winning streak from Pereira, what can’t be called into query is the issue of putting together an eight-fight streak within the UFC, period. Only a small collection of fighters have pulled that off.

Just like the statement on Borralho above, though, Pereira needs an actual step up in competition. If he can do what he’s done to recent foes against a top-15 name at 185 kilos, then things get real.

Just when everyone thought Anthony Smith had a fork in him and was cooked – again – he comes out and takes no damage in submitting the previously undefeated Vitor Petrino in two minutes flat.

We shouldn’t be surprised, I assume. That is the style of stuff Smith (38-19 MMA, 13-9 UFC) has built his profession and status on, but this felt like a really difficult hurdle to recover from. Nevertheless, he gets the job done and injects life into his profession once more.

What’s Smith able to at this point in his profession? Who’s anyone to say.

He has the name, credentials and favor of the UFC brass to get one other big opportunity coming off this win. He must benefit from it, though, because you would need to think this might be his last probability to make a run. Nonetheless, we’ve said that before, so proceed with caution in relation to making a judgement on his capabilities.

Jose Aldo admitted during his post-fight interview that he couldn’t have imagined such an ideal night in Rio de Janeiro in his wildest dreams. You will have to consider that after he outclassed the surging Jonathan Martinez for a unanimous decision.

Aldo (32-8 MMA, 14-7 UFC) returned from a 20-month retirement to finish his UFC contract against Martinez. If that was his final UFC fight, it was among the finest ways to shut the door for a legend in history. Right up there with Robbie Lawler’s win over Niko Price, but respectfully, Martinez is a far, way more impressive opponent to do it against.

Now the world is Aldo’s oyster. The UFC allowed the legend to take some boxing fights during his MMA retirement with its blessing, but once he gets through an exclusive matching period he’ll be completely free, and that would mean all forms of options.

The MMA fan in me desires to see Aldo keep getting into the loaded UFC bantamweight division and see if he could make one other run. But unselfishly, he definitely must explore his options and see what form of paydays he can fetch on the open market. Aldo is a hot commodity after this win, and only good things are coming his way.

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