Usman earns his best win to date

Kamaru Usman, the man that seemingly nobody wants to fight, proved why on Saturday at UFC Fight Night in Santiago, Chile when he defeated two-time title challenger Demian Maia in mostly dominant fashion.

Maia had an opening in the first round that he failed to capitalize upon, which enabled Usman to cruise to a decision victory.

Usman has won all eight of his UFC fights and this was his sixth unanimous decision victory.

Following the win, Usman said that he thought he broke both of his hands during the fight.

His next challenger could be the winner of next Sunday’s welterweight main event in Liverpool, England between top-ranked Stephen Thompson and hometown favourite Darren Till.

Suarez dominates

Tatiana Suarez continues to make herself known to the other competitors in the strawweight division.

Suarez, who was once considered a top-ranked American freestyle wrestler before her Olympic hopes were derailed by a cancer diagnosis, has honed her craft in the UFC after winning the 23rd season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Twelfth-ranked Suarez faced 9th-ranked Alexa Grasso and made easy work of her with a rear naked choke finish at 2:44 of the first round, in the co-main event at UFC Fight Night in Chile.

The win improved her record to 3-0 and will no doubt vault her in the rankings.

Her freestyle wrestling prowess makes her a threat to her opposition in the division due to its lack of elite grapplers.

Attendance and Bonuses

The UFC’s first South American event that took place outside of Brazil drew a sold out crowd of 11,082 with an undisclosed gate.

Performance bonuses were awarded to Andrea Lee and Veronica Macedo for their very entertaining fight, Gabriel Benitez for his highlight reel slam knockout against Humberto Bandenay and Claudio Puelles for his incredibly gutsy comeback win over Felipe Silva. 

Those four fighters each earned an additional $50,000, which is more than all four fighters earned for their fights. 

Aubin-Mercier to fight Hernandez in Calgary

On Friday, the UFC announced that the newly coined “Canadian Gangster” Olivier Aubin-Mercier, ranked 15th at lightweight, perhaps the most stacked division in the UFC, would be returning to the Octagon on July 28th to face the 13th ranked Alexander Hernandez at UFC Fight Night in Calgary.

Hernandez recently made a huge splash when he accepted a short notice fight against then-ranked Beneil Dariush and knocked him out inside of a minute in the first round.

Aubin-Mercier recently made a splash of his own at UFC 223 when he scored his first career knockout against Evan Dunham and similar to Hernandez, he also did it inside of a minute of the first round.

The similar outcomes make this fight a perfect matchup as the two square off on Aubin-Mercier’s home soil.

Liddell comes out of retirement

Despite being 48-years-old and ending his career losing five of six fights nearly eight years ago, “The Iceman” Chuck Liddell announced on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani that he plans to return to active competition.

Liddell believes that he will fight Tito Ortiz before the end of 2018 in a promotion fronted by boxing legend Oscar de la Hoya.

Liddell lost his last three fights as a result of vicious knockouts and upon retirement, was given a position with the UFC that came to a halt when the company was sold in 2016.

During his UFC tenure, Liddell had an ongoing feud with Ortiz and won both of their fights by knockout