Folks try to quibble about the strength of schedule Makhachev fought at lightweight, but he has finishes over Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier, holds a pair of wins over the greatest featherweight of all time in Volkanovski and beat Arman Tsarukyan early, before jumping up 15 pounds, winning a second title in dominant fashion, and defending it against a stud challenger. There are few with as impressive a resume as him.
I do want to take a second to give Machado Garry a shout out too as he battled hard, had some positive moments, and showed he is one of the best welterweights in the sport. He handled himself with grace and class throughout the build to this contest, navigated the passing of a teammate and friend in Allan Nascimento, and pushed Makhachev throughout, leaving no reason to be anything but proud of his efforts and confident that he can continue to thrive in the upper echelon of the 170-pound weight class for years to come.
Dern Retains Strawweight Title: Now What?
Mackenzie Dern successfully defended her UFC strawweight title on Saturday night in Philly, largely dominating the action over the first four rounds of her bout with Gillian Robertson and ultimately earning a clean sweep of the scorecards. The champion took Robertson down early in each of the first three rounds, occasionally threatening submissions and thoroughly controlling the action while also landing the better blows whenever they were on the feet. The Canadian challenger simply didn’t have the oomph on her punches to threaten Dern and struggled to get her to the canvas until the final round, where the champion slowed and spent the final five minutes on her back even though she was never in any real trouble.
