UFC 311: And Still…

After selling out the Intuit Dome at 18,370 and receiving the highest grossing event in venue history 311 definitely lived up to the hype, even with the last minute main event shake-up. These are the top three takeaways from the UFC 311 PPV event on Saturday night.

Payton Talbott is human. Going into the fight, Payton opened as a -1300 favorite against Raoni Barcelos. About halfway up the card was where this fight was placed, and many chalked it up to just being another fighter in the way of Payton’s quick UFC emergence. However, Raoni had other plans. The fight showed the one hole in Payton Talbott’s game, his wrestling. Barcelos attempted 15 takedowns and successfully landed 8 of them. On top of that, he was able to control almost 10 minutes on the ground with those 8 takedowns. Around round 3, Payton started to bounce back in the fight, especially with his flying knees. Unfortunately for him, it was enough to change the judges mind. We will see him bounce back, and I’d hate to have to face a motivated Payton Talbott next.

Merab proved he should never be an underdog. Yes, even against Umar. Merab opened up at a +240 underdog against Umar Nurmagomedov. This was Merab’s first title defense and we weren’t really sure how he was going to react to that. He was able to outstrike Umar 133-81. On top of that, he also dominated in the wrestling (not shocked) and with his 7 takedowns, surpassed GSP with the most career takedowns in UFC history. The fight ended up in a fight of the fight and early contender for fight of the year. 

Islam is the number one pound for pound fighter in the world. Although we got robbed of a great main event, we still got to see how brutally dominant Islam Makhachev is inside of the octagon. Coming in at a -1300 favorite (same as Payton Talbott), it would have been one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, especially for the fact that Renato stepped in for Arman on a days notice. Not much to take from the fight here…. It only lasted 4:06 minutes and resulted in a submission byway of a D’arce Choke. This is more about where he is cementing himself in UFC history. After the card, Dana admitted that Islam is the pound for pound best fighter in the world, which must have been hard for him to choose Islam over Jon Jones. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see who would be dumb enough to challenge Islam for the lightweight belt… maybe Charles Oliveria?

Liam Crowley

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