Earlier this year at UFC 212 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Max Holloway, then the interim featherweight champion, defeated Jose Aldo to become the undisputed champion.

Riding an 11-fight win streak, Holloway looked to erase any doubts that may have been planted by Aldo winning the first two rounds of their first fight on June 3.

Holloway did just that at UFC 218 in Detroit on Saturday night with an even more dominating performance over Aldo, who had held the title for more than 2,000 days and once held an 18-fight win streak dating from before his time in the UFC.

Holloway was originally slated to face Frankie Edgar, but Edgar was forced to pull out weeks before the card after suffering an orbital injury during training. Aldo was scheduled to face Ricardo Lamas in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night in Winnipeg on Dec. 16 and was already in camp for the event, so the choice to accept a rematch for the title was likely an easy one.

UFC president Dana White told TSN that he feels that Aldo does not have much left to accomplish in MMA and in Holloway’s post-fight interview, he said that they should build a statue of Aldo in Brazil given his incredible career.

 

Ngannou earns heavyweight title shot after vicious knockout

Francis Ngannou, who White told TSN in October could be the UFC’s next transcendent, proved that he very well could be after he viciously knocked out top contender Alistair Overeem in less than two minutes.

Overeem, who had 49 professional fights when Ngannou started training in MMA, had won two in a row and was on the verge of earning a rematch against heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic.

With the win, Ngannou established himself as the top contender and has earned the next title shot according to the UFC.

White told TSN that the fight could happen as soon as next month at UFC 220 on January 20 in Boston.

The 31-year-old Ngannou is now 6-0 in the UFC with four first-round finishes and two second-round finishes. His entire cage time in the UFC amounts to less time than a five-round championship fight.

 

Bonuses and Attendance

UFC 218 in Detroit drew an attendance of 17,587 for a reported gate of $2 million. It was the UFC’s first event in Detroit since 2010.

The UFC handed out two Fight of the Night and two Performance of the Night bonuses.

The two Fight of the Night bonuses went to Yancy Medeiros and Alex Oliveira for their back-and-forth fight and Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gaethje for their incredible melee.

 

White still insistent on St-Pierre defending the middleweight title

Despite middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre informing the UFC that he has been sidelined with colitis, White told several media outlets that St-Pierre signed a contract to defend the middleweight title and that he plans to hold him to that agreement.

A source told TSN that St-Pierre was informed that the colitis could stem from a combination of gaining body mass to fight at middleweight combined with stress.

The source also indicated that St-Pierre is focused solely on his health and does not expect to fight any time soon.

White told TSN that he expects the middleweight division to move on without St-Pierre while he recovers and that it would make sense for interim champion Robert Whittaker to headline UFC 221 in Perth, Australia this February.

St-Pierre told TSN on Wednesday that if he competes again, he does not think that he will do so at middleweight, citing health concerns. 

 

Montano wins inaugural women’s flyweight title

The Ultimate Fighter: A New World Champion finale took place last Friday at the Park Theater in Las Vegas and only featured one of the finalists from the series.

Team Alvarez finalist Sijara Eubanks was hospitalized due to kidney failure stemming from her weight cut for the event late Wednesday evening and was sidelined from the event.

The show’s top seed, Roxanne Modafferi, replaced Eubanks and fought finalist and teammate Nicco Montano for the inaugural women’s flyweight title.

After a back-and-forth affair that earned Fight of the Night honours, Montano scored a unanimous decision victory over Modafferi to become the first-even women’s flyweight champion.

Both fighters earned $100,000 for the fight.

Eubanks appeared in-studio on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani and said that she planned to continue fighting at flyweight despite her struggles with making weight at the division’s 125 pound threshold.