By Andrew Gutman
With nearly every mainstream sport furloughed, UFC 249 offered up some much need athletic entertainment. It was one of the organization’s best cards to date, featuring a lightweight title fight between Tony Ferguson (25-4) and Justin Gaethje (22-2) and a bantamweight championship bout that saw Henry Cejudo (16-2) and Dominick Cruz (22-3) square off. Other notable fights included Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis and Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik. Fans were not allowed inside the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, FL to watch the fights.
In the co-main event, Cejudo defeated Cruz via technical knockout (TKO) in the second round by landing a perfectly placed knee to his opponent’s head. This win solidifies Cejduo—who is an Olympic gold medalist, and a UFC champion in both the flyweight and bantamweight division—as one of the greatest mixed martial artists. At 33 years old, Cejudo feels that he’s accomplished all he can and, to much surprise, announced his retirement.
Going into the main event, Ferguson, who was riding a 12-fight win streak, was a -190 betting favorite. Up-and-comer Justin Gaethje had other plans, however. Before the fight, Gaethje was known as a tough-as-nails brawler. Against Ferguson, he was a thoughtful technician; he managed his range beautifully, countered plenty of shots, and used angles to land against the very dangerous El Cucuy. At 3:29 in the fifth round, referee Herb Dean stepped in to save Ferguson. Gaethje was up by four rounds at that point—there was no point in letting Ferguson keep taking damage. He was beaten—plain and simple.
Recent Comments