UFC London Power Rankings: Rating The Night’s Big Winners at The O2 Arena
Undefeated featherweights took center stage in London as UFC Fight Night: Evloev vs Murphy saw one man keep his 0 and make his claim for a shot at the UFC featherweight title.
Here are our power rankings for the main card winners from UFC London in England.
UFC London Power Rankings
1. Iwo Baraniewski
Looking back at the main card at UFC London, one performance stands head and shoulders above the rest – and if you weren’t paying attention at the time, you could easily have missed it.
Polish light heavyweight Iwo Baraniewski already has “Round of the Year” wrapped up after his CRAZY scrap with Ibo Aslan ended in a knockout victory. And on Saturday night in London, Baraniewski repeated the feat with an even quicker finish.
His first two punches of the fight landed flush on the chin of former heavyweight Austen Lane, as the former NFL defensive lineman was sent crashing to the canvas. A blitz of punches later, and Baraniewski was celebrating his second straight UFC win.
His punch power is something special, and his willingnes to dispense with any sort of feeling-out process means the Pole is must-see TV whenever he steps into the Octagon.
2. Christian Leroy Duncan
England’s Christian Leroy Duncan was handed a major step up in class when he faced off against well-rounded longtime contender Roman Dolidze in London. And the former Cage Warriors middleweight champ shone on home soil with a performance full of striking quality and defensive maturity to claim a unanimous decision win.
Duncan lit up Dolidze on the feet, leaving the Georgian with no other route than his wrestling and grappling. And even when Dolidze managed to get the fight to the mat, he couldn’t do anything with Duncan, who deployed some solid defense on the mat to nullify Dolidze’s submission threat.
Duncan’s unanimous decision win showed that he belongs in the top tier of the UFC’s 185-pound division, and with Dolidze ranked 11th heading into the weekend, expect to see “CLD” with a number next to his name when the official middleweight rankings are updated this week.
3. Danny Silva
People were sleeping on Danny Silva heading into UFC London, and he gave everyone a reminder to put some respect on his name.
Silva had gone the distance with hard-hitting contender Kevin Vallejos last time out, but his decision defeat meant some overlooked what was an encouraging, positive performance.
Matched with the debuting grappler Kurtis Campbell, Silva had to be on his game to fend off the Liverpudlian in the opening round. But, when the second round got underway, Silva let his hands fly, and hit the jackpot.
Once he connected, his power immediately hurt Campbell, and a violent flurry of fists soon earned Silva an attention-grabbing stoppage to earn his 11th career win, his third victory in the UFC, and his first finish in the Octagon.
4. Movsar Evloev
Russia’s Movsar Evloev battled all the way to the scorecards with Lerone Murphy and, despite sustaining a point deduction in the fourth round, managed to claim a majority decision, with scores of 48-46, 48-46, 47-47.
Sitting at Octagonside, I scored the bout 47-47 after giving Murphy both of the opening rounds. But I wasn’t sat as close as the judges, who were better placed to assess the impact of the strikes that each fighter landed and, in a pair of close rounds, they could easily have been scored the other way.
Despite the closeness of the fight, there have been calls of “robbery”, which feel harsh on Evloev, who looked to be fighting on his feet in a bid to appeal more to the UFC brass as he looked to stake his claim for a title shot.
And, after striking with Murphy on equal terms, and dominating the wrestling exchanges, Evloev looks well placed to move on and challenge Alexander Volkanovski for the title. He might not be the most exciting title challenger, but he might well be the one best equipped to take on the Aussie legend.
A title matchup at UFC International Fight Week might not be out of the question.
5. Luke Riley
He wasn’t happy with his performance, but Luke Riley picked up some valuable Octagon time in his victory over Michael Aswell Jr.
The Next Generation MMA talent, who was a star in Cage Warriors, was hoping to mark his co-main event showcase with a stoppage win, but found Aswell’s chin to be as solid as a rock as he was taken all the way to the judges’ scorecards by “The Texas Kid”.
Riley’s unanimous decision victory will set him up for bigger fights ahead, while giving him and his team plenty of tape to work with as he continually refines his game on his way up the featherweight division.
6. Michael Page
Michael Page’s fight with Sam Patterson was one that left some fans a little confused and bemused before the action even got underway. And unfortunately, the fight itself failed to catch fire as Patterson seemed unable to open up, while Page also kept his range in a fight that was ultimately determined by only a handful of impactful strikes in each round.
Those strikes were thrown by Page, whose striking superiority proved enough to claim the decision. But for “MVP” it wasn’t the performance he had been hoping for, and he has been honest in his assessment of how the fight played out.
Page wants to put on highlight-reel performances, and his body of work proves that there are few strikers at his weight class that are faster in a set of MMA gloves than MVP. But those highlight-reel performances will only come against willing dance partners, who have similar destructive aims of their own.
