The weekend marked a big day for the UFC and combat sports in general – for the first time an event was held at an international purpose built venue. There had been some early hiccups, one of the main event fighters had to pull out after testing positive for the coronavirus alongside a coach or two and one of the commentators, but despite these early challenges to overcome the event was able to go ahead and was a great success.

The first big fights of the night saw a rematch between Rose Namajunas and Jessica Andrade – Andrade had captured UFC gold from Rose in their previous fight with a big slam, but not to be outdone and showing an extremely strong standup game, Thug Rose was able to show just how tough she isby bringing a decision around a three round slog and some damage taken, putting her back on track toward recapturing the title.

(Image from mmajunkie.usatoday.com)

The next fight came in the title bout between former champ Jose Aldo and contender Petr Yan in what would be a very exciting fight – it started with a close three round fight but had quickly changed in the fourth as Yan upped his pace, this changing pace started to bring around the end of the fight as heading into the fifth Aldo started to fade and was quickly dropped, some ground and pound saw Yan looking to end the fight, with some questionable judging as many thought the fight should’ve been ended much earlier but eventually saw Yan capturing the belt.

Followed again by the rematch between Volkanovski and Holloway in a rematch that went the distance again – as expected the two brought a very exciting and action filled fight that saw the Australian coming out on top and keeping hold of the belt after winning it from Holloway in their previous bout – there had been a little controversy at the end, as the split decision victory left many feeling that Holloway should have won but it does open the door for a potential rubber match between the two.

The last fight of the evening between Usman and last minute stand in Masvidal didn’t really live up to fans expectations however, or it did if you know how Usman fights – it turned in to a five round clinch game against the fence with Usman doing just enough to stay active with some knees and foot stomps, many fans are suggesting that we may see a rematch with a full training camp from Masvidal but with other contenders such as Leon Edwards waiting in the wings, there’s the possibility that other fights will take precedence over the rematch.

All in all it turned out to be a great night for punters – with some big fights on the card, the excitement certainly came and despite recent regulation changes such as some adjustments to the Gamstop initiative for example which had made betting a little more difficult for some, these betting sitesweren’t registered with the scheme and proved to be a great resource for the first big international UFC event since the pandemic started.