5 biggest winners from UFC Fight Night: Johnny Walker vs. Jamahal Hill
While it wasn’t heavy on name value at all, last night’s UFC Fight Night turned out to be an entertaining event, with many explosive performances on offer.
With many fighters looking to climb the rankings across divisions, the UFC Fight Night definitely saw a few big winners emerge from the smoke.
Whether any of these fighters move into title contention or their wins simply keep them ticking along is a question mark. Nevertheless, they’ll be savoring last night’s wins for a while.
On that note, here are the five biggest winners from UFC Fight Night: Johnny Walker vs. Jamahal Hill.
#5. Joaquin Buckley – defeated Abdul Razak Alhassan in a UFC middleweight bout
Coming into last night’s event, everyone expected Joaquin Buckley’s middleweight bout with Abdul Razak Alhassan to end in a bang. After all, the two men had earned reputations as violent finishers. Both had also suffered knockout defeats in the past.
In the end, though, the fight went to the judges. In a razor-close decision, it was ‘New Mansa’ who picked up the win.
While the two 185 lbers didn’t produce the knockout fans expected, it wasn’t a dull fight by any means. Both men threw everything they had at the other, with Buckley largely landing the cleaner shots in the first two rounds.
The third round, though, saw Alhassan take over the fight with his takedowns and ground-and-pound. On another night, ‘Judo Thunder’ may well have found enough in the tank to finish Buckley off, particularly if he’d been able to get to full mount quicker.
However, ‘New Mansa’ survived a bad round to eke out a victory. With the win moving him to 4-2 in the octagon, he’s on track to further his career with the promotion.
Will he ever move into title contention at 185 lbs? Right now, it seems unlikely, but this win showed that he’s much more than just his viral knockout over Impa Kasanganay. That alone makes him one of last night’s biggest winners.