5 biggest winners from UFC Vegas 33: Uriah Hall vs. Sean Strickland
UFC Vegas 33 didn’t look like the best card on paper when it was initially put together, and that was before all of the cancelations and injuries reduced it to just ten fights.
Fans might not have been looking forward to UFC Vegas 33, but in the end, the show produced some entertaining fights, and some fighters picked up valuable victories.
Will any of these fighters end up in title contention in the near future? With the exception of Sean Strickland, who won the main event, it’s doubtful. However, in the current climate, with fighters being cut every week, any UFC win is priceless right now.
So with that in mind, here are the five biggest winners from UFC Vegas 33: Uriah Hall vs. Sean Strickland.
#5. Melsik Baghdasaryan – UFC featherweight
It’s always hard to fully gage the level of a fighter debuting in the UFC if they do it alongside a fellow debutant, but judging by what we saw last night, Melsik Baghdasaryan is definitely a prospect to watch.
The Armenian, a former professional kickboxer with an MMA record of 6-1, absolutely blitzed fellow UFC newcomer Collin Anglin last night, eventually finishing him off in highlight reel fashion with a second-round head kick.
The kick was phenomenal to watch as Baghdasaryan threw it with no warning and gave Anglin absolutely no time to respond. In many respects, it was reminiscent of the deadly left head kick that Mirko Cro Cop used to surge to fame in PRIDE nearly two decades ago.
It’s obviously early days for Baghdasaryan in the UFC, and given that he’s competing at 145 pounds, one of the promotion’s most loaded weight classes, it’s safe to say that he won’t shoot up the rankings just yet. There are too many question marks around him.
But what we saw last night gave a lot of indications that he’s got the potential to make it to the top at some point. And that alone makes him a big winner.