On the UFC’s 23rd birthday, history was made in more ways than one.
Not only did the UFC make its debut at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York City, but Conor McGregor made UFC history by becoming the first simultaneous two-weight champion in the organization’s history when he knocked out Eddie Alvarez to win the lightweight title.
McGregor dropped Alvarez three times in the first half of the opening round with his patented left hand.
Just like Nate Diaz did after being rocked multiple times early at UFC 202, Alvarez survived the opening five minutes. Yet when Alvarez came out for the second round he couldn’t do anything to avoid McGregor’s left hand — in fact, to make matters worse, he kept circling into it. The loquacious Irishman eventually connected on another brilliant combination that Alvarez simply couldn’t recover from and history was made.
McGregor, who knocked out Jose Aldo last year to win the featherweight title is the third two-weight champion in UFC history — Randy Couture and B.J. Penn did it before him — but McGregor is the first to hold two belts at the same time.
Here’s a look at the rest of the results, plus some reaction, analysis and stats…
Woodley and ‘Wonderboy’ fight to majority draw
Georges St-Pierre has said in the past that Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson is the best striker he has ever trained with but Thompson’s elite standup wasn’t quite enough to make hime a UFC champion on Saturday.
Current champ Tyron Woodley used his wrestling in the opening round, something we didn’t see when he knocked out Robbie Lawler earlier this year to win the title, but Thompson found his range and timing in the second and third stanzas. The fourth was wild. Wonderboy showed his resilience after nearly being finished when Woodley connected with a pair of thunderous right hands.
Woodley then had an arm-in guillotine locked in tight but Wonderboy somehow survived the round and finished on top throwing hammer fists.
Wonderboy was the more active fighter in the final round but Woodley’s dominant fourth resulted in some uncommon scorecards. One judge had the fight 48-47 for Woodley, the other two had it 47-47. UFC in-cage announcer Bruce Buffer initially announced Woodley as the winner but the official result was a split draw. Woodley retained his belt either way.
Jedrzejczyk survives scare to get by Kowalkiewicz
Karolina Kowalkiewicz put up a valiant effort but fell short in her goal to get take the 115-pound title from Joanna Jedrzejczyk. As she does in all of her fights, Jedrzejczyk outpaced her opponent and finished most of her combinations with kicks.
Kowalkiewicz idolized her Polish countrywoman when she began her fighting career, although she didn’t appear to be intimidated. In the early stages of the fight it didn’t look like Kowalkiewicz had the speed or skill to match Jedrzejczyk, who has now defended her strawweight title four consecutive times.
“I said a few years ago that I want to be a legend,” Jedrzejczyk told Sportsnet in Toronto earlier this week. “I want to be remembered as one of the best UFC fighters, as one of the best UFC champions and I want to retire as undefeated.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the champ, however, as two minutes into the fourth round the tide turned when Kowalkiewicz rocked Jedrzejczyk with a flush right hand to the nose.
Jedrzejczyk recovered quickly and ended up winning the fifth. All three judges scored the bout 49-46, four rounds to one for the champ. Jedrzejczyk landed 264 of her 440 strike attempts, while Kowalkiewicz connected 103 total strikes.
Romero earns title shot with flying knee KO of Weidman
There are not many athletes in the world as intimidating as Yoel Romero — let alone many 39-year-olds that can do what he does. The Olympic silver medallist wrestler remained unbeaten in the UFC with a spectacular flying knee knockout of former champion Chris Weidman.
Romero is now expected to fight current middleweight champion Michael Bisping, who was in the building to witness Romero’s destruction of Weidman.
Pennington impresses, Tate announces retirement
Raquel Pennington was coached by Miesha Tate three years ago on The Ultimate Fighter and it made for an interesting dynamic as the two bantamweights opened the main card.
Former champ Tate, who lost her belt to Amanda Nunes at UFC 200 in July, didn’t look like herself. Pennington came out strong, establishing her jab while being wary of Tate’s takedown attempts. Tate never took her head off the centre line, which is one reason why Pennington had such success with her punches. Pennington, who said prior to the fight that she embraces her role as a dark horse in the women’s 135-pound division, out-struck Tate 124-59.
In a surprise post-fight declaration, Tate announced her retirement.
Edgar and Stephens put on a show
It was a vintage performance from a future Hall of Famer as Frankie Edgar bounced back from a loss to Jose Aldo at UFC 200 with an impressive unanimous decision over knockout artist Jeremy Stephens. The second round was one of the best of 2016. Stephens rocked Edgar with a kick to the face midway thorough the frame that had him on wobbly legs. In classic Edgar fashion, the former lightweight champion composed himself and reverted to his wrestling. Edgar even came close to securing an arm-in guillotine choke as time expired. Edgar was half a step ahead of Stephens in the third as he handed Stephens his 12th career UFC loss, which happens to be a record — not one Stephens wants though.
Nurmagomedov dominates Johnson, chirps “chicken” McGregor
The UFC lightweight title was on the line in the UFC 205 main event, but the best lightweight mixed martial artist on the planet competed on the prelims. If you’re unfamiliar, his name is Khabib Nurmagomedov and he improved to 24-0 in MMA (8-0 in the UFC) as he mauled Michael Johnson. Johnson was confident early and even appeared to rock Nurmagomedov with a left hand early in the opening round, however as soon as the Dagestani fighter got a hold of Johnson his dominance shone through. Nurmagomedov is one of the truly elite grapplers in MMA and he toyed with Johnson on the mat. He landed 155 total strikes, most of which were of the vicious ground-and-pound variety, and eventually locked in a fight-finishing kimura in the third round.
During his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Nurmagomedov pleaded for a title shot and also chirped Conor McGregor, calling him “a chicken” who tapped out in his March fight with Nate Diaz. At this point there is no way the UFC can deny Nurmagomedov a title shot, regardless of who holds the belt after UFC 205.
Fighters are often critical of their performances inside the cage, but Nurmagomedov had few complaints after this one.
Boetsch brings out his inner barbarian
Tim Boetsch, whose nickname is “The Barbarian,” told Sportsnet MMA contributor James Lynch prior to UFC 205 that he planned on reverting back to the “barbarian” style of fighting that led to success earlier in his UFC career.
“Throwing people down and smashing them is what works for me,” Boetsch said.
He didn’t need to throw his opponent, Rafael Natal, down on Saturday but he certainly ended up smashing him. In fact, he knocked him out cold just three minutes in the opening round of their middleweight contest.
Natal was the No. 14-ranked contender at 185 pounds heading into this fight, so you can expect Boetsch to be an official ranked contender going forward.
Luque turns out Muhammad’s lights
Vicente Luque is a name to remember. the rising UFC welterweight extended his win streak to four straight after removing Belal Muhammad from his consciousness in just 79 seconds. Luque caught his opponent with a counter left hook as Muhammad threw a kick.
Luque took the fight on less than three weeks notice and said he had to cut 30 pounds to make the 171-pound non-title welterweight limit.
Miller spoils the party for Alves
Jim Miller has to be one of the most under-appreciated fighters in UFC history. He’s well-rounded, extremely skilled, respectful and always fights elite-level competition. He defeated former welterweight title challenger Thiago Alves via impressive unanimous decision at UFC 205. It was Miller’s 17th career UFC win, which is good for sixth place in UFC history and only three wins behind Michael Bisping’s record 20 wins. Miller happened to be competing at a size disadvantage as well.
Alves missed weight for what was supposed to be his lightweight debut against Miller. Alves stepped on the scale Friday weighing 162.6 pounds, 6.6 pounds over the allowable 156-pound limit for a non-title lightweight scrap. Unlike a scheduled bout between Kelvin Gastelum and Donald Cerrone that was cancelled after Gastelum missed weight, Miller-Alves remained on the card as a 163-pound catchweight bout. The New York State Athletic Commission allows no more than a five-pound differential for a catchweight bout so instead of cutting to 156 pounds, Miller instead weighed in at 157.6 pounds. Alves was fined 20 per cent of his purse and was not allowed to weigh more than 173 pounds on fight night.
Carmouche makes history once again
Liz Carmouche was the first women to ever step foot inside the Octagon when she fought Ronda Rousey back at UFC 157 and she became the first UFC fighter to earn a victory inside Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Carmouche edged out Katlyn Chookagian by split decision in the opening bout of the night. Carmouche’s nickname is Girlrilla and she displayed her gorilla strength in the first two rounds.
Chookagian out-struck Carmouche 64 to 49 and it looked as though she was about to pull off the come-from-behind victory after landing a vicious head kick early in the third round.
Carmouche held on and got the judges’ nod.
James Lynch was in New York providing some UFC 205 coverage for Sportsnet. Give him a follow him on Twitter @LynchOnSports.
Here are the complete results from UFC 205:
MAIN CARD
— Conor McGregor def. Eddie Alvarez by KO
— Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson ends in majority draw
— Joanna Jedrzejczyk def. Karolina Kowalkiewicz by unanimous decision
— Yoel Romero def. Chris Weidman by KO
— Raquel Pennington def. Miesha Tate by unanimous decision
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Frankie Edgar def. Jeremy Stephens by unanimous decision
— Khabib Nurmagomedov def. Michael Johnson by submission (kimura)
— Tim Boetsch def. Rafael Natal by KO
— Vicente Luque def. Belal Muhammad by KO
— Jim Miller def. Thiago Alves by unanimous decision
— Liz Carmouche def. Katlyn Chookagian by split decision
