Despite the standard of the UFC Vegas 110 card, there are several things to remove from the evening.
On Saturday, the premier promotion returned to the Apex for UFC Vegas 110, headlined by featherweight hopefuls Steve Garcia and David Onama.
Nonetheless, after the nights motion, it’s once more the continual controversy that has stolen the headlines, after the event was once more filled with issues.
Garcia went on to attain a primary round finish over Onama, putting his name firmly on the map at 145lbs, a division which is crying out for brand spanking new contenders.
The attention poke epidemic goes nowhere Dana White
Last week’s UFC 321 event was suffering from a watch poke after the fundamental event was cut short in the primary round after Ciryl Gane ‘unintentionally’ poked Tom Aspinall in the attention leading to a no contest.
And following that event, UFC boss Dana White provided an especially worrying response to the events, asking ‘who cares?’ when he was questioned in regards to the severity of eye pokes.
Through the years, White has at all times had the identical energy about eye pokes, claiming ‘they’re an element of the game’, making no try and actually improve the problem.
That was until he was left with no alternative and decided to check a brand new glove design within the UFC. Despite that, he quickly reverted back to the old (current) design after Jon Jones complained in regards to the size and design of the brand new glove.
If UFC Vegas 110 taught us and White anything, it’s that the epidemic of eye pokes goes absolutely nowhere, and if anything, it’s getting worse due to lack of punishment around it.
The officiating within the UFC could also be getting worse
Not only was the event suffering from eye pokes again, but apart from that, it was also filled with its controversial officiating moments, as per usual.
Within the featured prelim bout of the night, Billy Elekana took on Kevin Christian, who was debuting within the premier promotion.
After being dropped by Elekana early on within the fight, the Brazilian someway managed to remain within the fight, but not for too long.
Elekana subsequently took the back of Christian and sunk in a rear-naked choke. Christian went on to tap from the submission, but Chris Tognoni didn’t see it and let the fight proceed.
After several more seconds of Elekana putting on the squeeze, Christian went to sleep and Tognoni finally opened his eyes and stopped the fight.
The ladies’s bantamweight division is in dire need of something
Buried near the underside of the prelims was a women’s bantamweight fight between Ketlen Vieira and Norma Dumont, two of only six ranked fighters on all the card.
Essentially the most concerning a part of this fight, was that the winner would likely put themselves in position for a possible title shot against current champion, Kayla Harrison.
Talks are ongoing whether Harrison will defend her belt against Amanda Nunes in an enormous comeback fight, with each fighters targeting the White House event next yr.
And if last night showed us anything in regards to the women’s 135lb division, it’s that its in desperate need of something to spice it up a bit bit.
Earlier this week, former PFL women’s lightweight champion Larissa Pacheco called for the UFC to re-sign her, and that would definitely add something to a division that’s crying out for contenders.
Pacheco and Harrison have fought one another 3 times before, with the Brazilian getting the bragging rights of their most up-to-date meeting in 2022, handing Harrison her first profession loss.