5 points to note from UFC 197
It may have been a week predominated by the Conor McGregor ‘retirement’ fiasco, but the UFC 197 card that featured two of the world’s top pound for pound table toppers managed to engender sufficient interest amidst fight fans to hold its own. And by the time the week was done, the debate pervading the MMA world had entirely morphed.
From all the buzz surrounding the fate of the UFC 200 card, headless though it may be as of now, the question plaguing everybody’s mind had assumed a different hue altogether once UFC 197 had played out; “was Jon Jones still the pound for pound #1 fighter in the world, or had Demetrious Johnson finally overtaken him in that discussion?”
Ranging from the arrival of fresh contenders to the much heralded, albeit anti-climatic, return of the prodigal son, UFC 197 was replete with talking points that emerged throughout the entirety of the card.
On that note, here are the 5 most salient talking points that were unearthed as UFC 197 adds itself to the burgeoning list of solid cards that have been put out by the company in the last year.
#1 The Next Mexican Superstar?
Bilingual, talented and representing a rags to riches success story that would tug at anyone’s heart, Yair Rodriguez’s outrageous jumping roundhouse head kick knockout of fellow Featherweight prospect Andre Fili could well end up charting his course to stardom in the UFC.
Although Cain Velasquex has previously been used to target the Mexican fan demographic, the fact that he is half American, his frequent injuries and the irony that sprang forth from Fabricio Werdum acclimatizing better to Mexican conditions than him at UFC 188, has somewhat derailed the Velasquez train for now.
With his all action, and rather wild style and entertaining style of fighting, Yair Rodriguez could yet be the perfect plan B for the UFC.
Indeed, a fit and firing Cain Velasquez would indeed be a gold mine for the company in terms of appealing to a Mexican population taken predominantly with boxing due to Canelo Alvarez, but having Yair Rodriguex to fall back on would certainly not hurt the UFC’s cause.
Coupled with his thus far unblemished 4-0 record in the company, Yair Rodriguez is also well and truly on his way to establishing himself as a top prospect in one of the most talked about divisions in the UFC today, the Featherweights.