Best and Worst from UFC: Ultimate Fighter 28 Finale
The 28th season of The Ultimate Fighter is in the bag, and last night we got a very mixed bag of fights for the Finale show in Las Vegas. While the show was low on name value, we were treated to a handful of cool finishes and a pretty solid main event, but elsewhere we also got some dull fights and some massively weird moments.
The TUF finals themselves were a mixed bag again – more on that later – but it looks like we might’ve seen a new top contender crowned at 170lbs and where the division heads from there are now apparently up in the air.
Here are the best and worst moments from the TUF 28 Finale.
#1 Best: Usman stakes his claim
Going into last night’s main event against Rafael Dos Anjos, the big question surrounding Kamaru Usman wasn’t so much about his fighting skill – he’s proven long ago that he’s an elite-level Welterweight – it was more about whether he could put on an entertaining fight and win in the process. Well, last night he again proved his skill level – he dismantled RDA over five rounds – and while he didn’t pick up a much-needed finish, he certainly did enough to entertain the fans.
RDA had some good moments of his own – most notably a hard upkick that snapped Usman’s head back late in the first round, and then a close kimura attempt in the second – but for the most part ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ simply put too much pressure on him. He mixed in his powerful takedowns with a much-improved striking game, beating RDA to the punch and busting him up, and in the end there was no doubt who the winner was. Realistically, Dos Anjos did well to survive the onslaught.
The expectation was that with a win, Usman would be next in line to face the winner of Tyron Woodley vs. Colby Covington, but surprisingly, Dana White was apparently so impressed with this showing that Usman might well jump the queue – assuming he wasn’t hurt against RDA – and be next in line for Woodley. It’d be a bit of a shocker but to be fair, Usman beat RDA more convincingly than Covington did in my eyes anyway. At any rate, this was a career-best performance from the Nigerian and it was an entertaining one too.