#UFCLondon is now in the books and the UFC’s return to the capital of England proved a huge night for British MMA. The Brits on the card went six and two, with outstanding performances from Michael Bisping, Davey Grant & Scott Askham to name a few. And with the huge card in the books we now reflect on a fantastic night of action and look at what we learned from #UFCLondon;
Bisping puts in performance of a lifetime
It was a make or break fight for one of Britain’s most well-known mixed martial artists and in front of his home crowd, Bisping rose to the challenge like a true warrior. His main event fight against Anderson Silva had absolutely everything, from epic walkouts, to controversy after Silva thought he had won the fight at the end of the third round, to lots of blood shed (largely on Bisping’s part) and everything in between. Bisping knocked down the former Champion and rocked him on a few occasions which seemed to flick a switch with Silva who for the back stretch of the fight seemed to turn it up, but a defiant Bisping was able to weather the storm on the way to a career defining decision win.
Arnold Allen is the future of British MMA
In just his second outing in the Octagon, Allen proved that he is here to stay, sweeping the cards on the way to a unanimous decision win over experienced Yaotzin Meza. Allen was able to control the fight from the start taking down Meza and landing some crisp strikes earning him a 30-26 win across the board. The Featherweight backed up claims that he is one of the hottest prospects from the UK and it showed that a move to Tristar for this fight camp was worth every penny as he completely outperformed Meza. Allen at only 22 years of age has a huge potential to be a star that Britain is in need of and his win inside the o2 will certainly go down as one of his finest performances of his young career to date.
Davey Grant will just keep coming
Davey Grant did not look like a man who had been out of action for over two years as he put on a dominant performance against Marlon Vera. Vera was deducted a point during the fight for not listening to the referee but irrespective of that point deduction, the fight was Grants from the get go. The decision to move camps to SBG really shone through in this one and under the tutelage of Karl Tanswell, Grant looked phenomenal. He may have been the more visibly bloodied of the pair at the end but rest assured Grant will be on cloud nine after that performance and undoubtedly keen to get back into the Octagon as soon as possible.
Amirkhani is the whole package
It was a huge grudge match that promised so much, but inevitably the Amirkhani Vs Wilkinson fight just showed us just how good Amirkhani is on the ground. Wilkinson was frustrated by the Finn who was able to score takedowns at will and keep Wilkinson pinned to the ground for much of the fifteen minutes. Wilkinson did throw up a few submission attempts, however, Amirkhani was able to show that he has a clear head inside the cage and rode out any potential threatening positions. Prior to this bout we hadn’t seen much from Amirkhani as he had stopped his opponents in dominant fashion and tonight we got to see just how well rounded he is, great performance.
Pickett will live and die by his sword
When Pickett Vs Rivera was announced everyone thought that we would have a barnburner on our hands and boy did these two deliver. From the opening seconds they were both intent on standing and trading and not just trading normal shots, but putting 100% into pretty much everything they threw. As the rounds went on, Pickett was the smarter fighter, landing some takedowns and controlling the Octagon more and what a perfect moment when he was announced as the winner, dropping to the mat full of emotion. Pickett always leaves everything inside the Octagon and he did exactly that, although the stakes were a lot higher last night but irrespective he showed the heart of a warrior.