UFC Fight Island 7 is in the bag, the first of three UFC events this week and it couldn’t have gone better for Max Holloway.
The former featherweight king, seemingly without any hard sparring heading into the main event with #6 ranked Calvin Kattar, showed up and outclassed the Bostonian from the minute the cage door closed.
These shots are incredible 🤯 #UFCFightIsland7 pic.twitter.com/t3WXSIH0yV
— UFC (@ufc) January 16, 2021
What turned out to be the Fight of the Night (and bag bother fighters an additional $50,000) may well be a contender for Fight of the Year and we’re only getting through the first event of 2021.
While Kattar took an immense amount of punishment across 25 minutes in the biggest fight of his UFC career, he never went down and stayed with it to last all the way to the bell.
Credit too should go to referee Herb Dean who had the opportunity to call the fight on more than one occasion.
Max Holloway shouting "I'm the best boxer in the UFC" at the commentary desk while slipping punches is one of the baddest things to ever happen in the UFC.pic.twitter.com/2uTeaVkkzt
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) January 17, 2021
Such was the performance of Holloway, the final scorecard went incredibly lop-sided, the three judges scoring the bout 50-43, 50-43 and 50-42 in favour of the Hawaiian.
Post-fight, Holloway threw his name into the hat for consideration for next week in case anything should fall through between McGregor and Poirier at UFC 257, indicating he’s staying around all week and “Dana have my number, hit me up.”
Elsewhere, Italian middleweight Alessio Di Chirico got back to winning ways himself, knocking out viral sensation Joaquin Buckley at 2:12 of their opening round. In the co-main event, Carlos Condit and Matt Brown met at welterweight in a fight that should have been scheduled years ago. Condit (32-13) picked up the unanimous decision win over Brown (24-18).
UFC Fight Island 7 Results
- Austin Lingo def. Jacob Kilburn by unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-27)
- Vanessa Melo def. Sarah Moras by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
- Ramazan Emeev def. David Zawada by split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)
- Carlos Felipe def. Justin Tafa by split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)
- Joselyne Edwards def. Wu Yanan by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Punahele Soriano def. Dusko Todorovic by TKO (strikes) at 4:48 of Round 1
- Alessio Di Chirico def. Joaquin Buckley by KO at 2:12 of Round 1
- Li Jingliang def. Santiago Ponzinibbio by KO at 4:25 of Round 1
- Carlos Condit def. Matt Brown by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Max Holloway def. Calvin Kattar by unanimous decision (50-43, 50-43, 50-42)
Fight Island continues
With Fight Island 7 out of the way, there are two more events happening this week.
On Wednesday night we’ve got ourselves a tasty main event at welterweight with Michael Chiesa and Neil Magny going toe-to-toe and as good a bout as it may be, it’s just warming things up for Saturday night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztl8PLyqpYE
UFC 257 this Saturday sees Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier go head to head for the second time in their UFC careers, a bout which may hold more weight now with the revelation that UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov is keeping his gloves warm and an eye on the events of this weekend.
Promotion newcomer and former Bellator champion Michael Chandler will meet Dan Hooker in the co-main event, with Charles Oliveira waiting in the wings.
Our MMA podcast, All Things MMA, returns this Wednesday with a look ahead to UFC 257. Subscribe ahead today for the first episode of 2021 with listings on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
