Madison Square Garden is one of combat sports’ biggest stages. Show off here and the world will take notice. Islam Makhachev, the UFC’s newest two-division champion, and Valentina Shevchenko, the undisputed flyweight queen, did just that.
They weren’t the only ones, either. Fan favorite Carlos Prates is back in the championship picture, as is Michael Morales, who was not intimidated by veteran Sean Brady, getting a first-round knockout and the respect of New York.
Makhachev is better at welterweight
Makhachev said he was going to be better at 170 pounds, but of course, I wanted to see it before believing it. What is a fighter going to say? That he’s going to be worse in a new weight class? Makhachev told me a few weeks ago he felt he was about 60 to 70% of himself at lightweight because of the drastic weight cut. That sounded feasible, but really? Would he really be 40% better against bigger competition? I’d say the answer, after one fight, looks like a “yes.”
Makhachev destroyed Jack Della Maddalena’s front leg with kicks inside two rounds. He took JDM down with an efficiency just as high as he did at lightweight. He looked strong, well-conditioned, healthy all week. It wasn’t the most inspiring performance by Della Maddalena — I expect even he will say that at one point — but that doesn’t take away from how good Makhachev looked. He’s going to be hard to beat at welterweight, which we kind of anticipated.
What we weren’t sure of is whether he’d actually be better than he was at lightweight, and now I feel good saying he is. The No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world just got better. We really had only been seeing Makhachev at a fraction of himself. For that reason, I’m very glad he’s here at welterweight and will not be heading back any time soon (probably ever). This is Makhachev’s best weight class. — Brett Okamoto
Shevchenko kept her distance at the top
Go ahead and file this one away in the They Have Weight Classes for a Reason Dept. But that does not tell the whole story of Shevchenko’s dominant women’s flyweight title defense against Zhang Weili. Size made a huge difference, for sure, but it was not the only reason that Zhang, who vacated the strawweight title to take on this challenge, had no success.
The most significant difference-maker truly was the smarts of Shevchenko. She fought a fight that gave Zhang no chance. Sure, she bullied her challenger on many of her five takedowns, which put her on top of Zhang for long stretches (13 minutes, 24 seconds of control time). But when Shevchenko was not on top of Zhang, she remained strategically at a distance where the smaller fighter couldn’t touch her. Zhang reached double figures in significant strikes in only one round.
While Zhang was doing no damage, Shevchenko was doing plenty. She beat up her challenger’s body with kicks and knees, weakening Zhang’s resolve to close the distance. And in so doing, Shevchenko also wrecked any fan expectations that this meeting between the No. 1 and No. 2 pound-for-pound women would be a classic clash.
Going into the fight, there was a good case for anointing this as the highest-level matchup among UFC women since then-bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes challenged Cris Cyborg for the featherweight title. In that 2018 superfight, Cyborg made the mistake of going toe-to-toe with the faster Nunes, and she paid the price, getting knocked out in 51 seconds. Shevchenko made no mistakes in her approach to this fight, and she executed her game plan with perfection.
The wise next step for Zhang would be to go back down in weight and reclaim her 115-pound gold. Shevchenko is 37 years old and won’t be fighting for too long, but Zhang is 36 and in no position to wait out her flyweight conqueror. After the fight, Zhang did not commit to either remaining at flyweight or moving back to strawweight. But she did show the mettle that has made her one of the greats, saying, “Zhang Weili is someone who falls and gets back up.”
Here’s hoping we get to see her do that at a weight where she’s at her best. Zhang didn’t get it done on Saturday but remains a pound-for-pound elite … and the best strawweight on the planet. — Jeff Wagenheim
Morales is the biggest threat in the welterweight division
When Morales earned a UFC contract on “Dana White’s Contender Series” in 2021, he did so without the hype that other graduates have received. And over the next four years, Morales defeated everyone put in front of him. Still, the hype surrounding the Ecuadorian fighter who resides in Mexico felt subdued. But after what Morales did to Sean Brady at UFC 322, he cannot be ignored any longer.
For the third consecutive fight, Morales refused to allow an opponent to reach the second round. Morales steamrolled both Neil Magny and Gilbert Burns in Round 1 with relative ease. But Brady was supposed to be the true litmus test to figure out whether Morales was a contender or a pretender.
He passed that test with flying colors.
Morales didn’t allow Brady to do anything of note, needing just over three minutes to punch him out for a TKO stoppage. Doing that on such a grand stage in Madison Square Garden made it impossible to overlook, especially when the welterweight title was on the line two fights later. Standing at 6-feet tall with a 79-inch reach is frightening for the division. Knowing what to do with those physical attributes is another story entirely. Morales, 26, is a buzzsaw who is equally devastating on the ground and in the standup. Against Brady, he refused to allow the grappler to get inside and picked him off at ease with his reach and power. He’s young, smart and an absolute nightmare for the rest of the division. He wants a title shot, and it’s difficult to say that he doesn’t deserve one. If you look at the crowded welterweight picture, it’s hard to see a fighter whom you can feel confident saying should be the favorite, outside of Makhachev. And even Makhachev would likely suggest a different kind of preparation to deal with someone like Morales.
He may not get a title fight next, but after Saturday’s performance, there aren’t many fighters who will line up to face the undefeated fighter from Ecuador. — Andreas Hale
One punch revives Prates’ hype
With one straight left hand, Prates restored himself to welterweight contender status and reinvigorated the momentum of his team, The Fighting Nerds. That’s what knocking out a former UFC champion can do.
Prates had seen an 11-fight winning streak come to an end in an April loss to Ian Machado Garry. He got back in the win column four months later with a knockout of Geoff Neal, but to truly get on track, he needed something bigger. He achieved that with a one-punch, second-round knockout of Leon Edwards, who had never before been knocked out in a 29-fight career.
The finish instantly elevated Prates in the 170-pound division — but just for a few minutes. In the very next fight, Morales remained undefeated with a quick finish of Brady, who is ranked one spot ahead of Edwards in the ESPN divisional rankings. Truth is, both Prates and Morales elevated themselves, and the whole night made the welterweight division a star. — Wagenheim
