00:00UFC 322 had a couple of very intriguing fights at the top of the card. That was going into it.
00:07As soon as the fight started though, we kind of recognized what was happening.
00:10Let's break down an interesting, albeit at the end of the night, predictable UFC 322.
00:16UFC 322, one of the final UFC pay-per-views, I was going to say of the year, but maybe just ever,
00:32as the new TV deal in the States gets rid of that model down there anyway.
00:37Haven't heard a whole lot from Canada, but either way, that story for another day.
00:41UFC 322, this was a card I was interested in.
00:43We did this in the fight night first look, where you kind of had a similar storyline in both,
00:51where there is a champion from one weight class moving up into the next one, hoping for a next level of greatness.
01:00And we saw greatness on display, and it's kind of interesting because the two fights actually did kind of mirror each other,
01:05although it was the opposite end of that contender spectrum, right?
01:08Because in the one, Islam Makashev moves up from 155 pounds and spends exactly 25 minutes
01:14whooping the ass of Jack Della Maddalena, and now a two-division champion.
01:20Although, again, the 155-pound belt was dropped, but still, he is a champion now in a couple of weight classes.
01:27Meanwhile, in the other one, it was Zhang Weili moving up, daring to be great, and she got dominated for 25 minutes by Valentina Shevchenko.
01:37Literally, the only time that Shevchenko wasn't winning the fight was when the rounds started,
01:42and they had to be separated based on the unified rules of mixed martial arts.
01:46So, there wasn't a whole lot of drama in these fights, and you come out of it with just a great appreciation
01:53for the dominance of the two champions now, with Makashev and with Valentina Shevchenko.
01:59There wasn't a whole lot there, either for Jack Della Maddalena or for Zhang Weili.
02:07Just complete, complete control there for both champions, Makashev and Shevchenko.
02:15Just for those watching live, in the chat, Nick Turman, 9101, saying,
02:21I want your opinion on a trade I just made in Dynasty.
02:23I will get that to you in a second, absolutely.
02:25Whatever you want to talk about in the chat, I will do it.
02:27We just want to finish up talking about what we are talking about here first,
02:31and that is the absolute dominance of Makashev and Shevchenko.
02:35So, I think with both fighters, you can make a pretty compelling argument
02:40that they are one of the best fighters of their era.
02:44Obviously, with Shevchenko, it's her and Nunes, right?
02:46Like, for this, I guess, kind of post-Joanna run that she had,
02:53and even, like, the tail end of that, they kind of cross over,
02:55but in this kind of next era, it's those two fighters,
02:58and now that, I mean, Nunes is coming back against Kayla Harrison,
03:01but now that Nunes has been gone for a couple of years,
03:04this has been Valentina's show.
03:06Even with the loss to Grosso, this has been Valentina's show.
03:10And Zhang Weili, really good fighter, just not on that level.
03:15And we're getting to this point now with Shevchenko,
03:18where George St. Pierre was, kind of at the back part of his prime.
03:23Um, GSP lost to Matt Serra and came back.
03:29UFC 82? Montreal? 83. One of those two.
03:32Um, and completely dominated Matt Serra.
03:36And then a great win against BJ Penn.
03:38But as the wins started to pile up,
03:41GSP was very aware of his place in history
03:44and what the wins meant
03:46and what being champion meant to him
03:49and his legacy and just the sport in general.
03:52And he started to fight knowing that.
03:54And so you got a lot less risk-taking.
03:57You also just understand,
03:58well, that sucked. Don't want to do that again.
04:00But I'm better than everyone at this thing.
04:02And so, you wouldn't get George Rush, St. Pierre.
04:06It was a lot of the jabs.
04:07And takedowns and then...
04:10Excellent top control.
04:12And that was it.
04:13And now you're kind of seeing that with Shevchenko here,
04:16where she has the loss to Grosso.
04:18And it was an aspect of her game
04:21that Grosso had obviously drilled,
04:23had obviously learned,
04:24and saw one opening and took advantage.
04:27And Shevchenko, the lightbulb kind of goes on.
04:29It's like, well, that sucks.
04:32Don't want to do that again.
04:33And so she has now recognized
04:35where she's better at than everyone else.
04:38And she's just going to go with that.
04:40So you don't get a lot of the drama.
04:41You don't get a lot of varied attacks from Shevchenko.
04:47She recognizes she can, for the most part,
04:50in this division, because of her strength
04:52and technique and everything,
04:54she can go in, get a takedown, hold him there,
04:56and that's the win.
04:58She is also very good on the feet as well.
05:00And I think she is at a point where she recognizes
05:03she is good enough that she can do a couple of things,
05:06and that's going to keep her safe,
05:08and that's going to keep her victorious.
05:09And for her, that is going to keep her champion,
05:11which is the name of the game, right?
05:12Like, we get frustrated with some of these men and women sometimes.
05:16For them, winning is what you need to do.
05:19Because in this sport, when you don't, it hurts a lot.
05:22So I don't necessarily blame them for it,
05:26but it doesn't necessarily lead to the most dynamic fights
05:30because Shevchenko is just well aware
05:31she's better than everyone right now,
05:33and specifically in the things that she does in that cage.
05:37Makachev, I think there's a little bit more resistance coming
05:39now that he's up at 170 pounds.
05:40But for Shevchenko, I don't know if there's a whole lot
05:44that is really lighting that fire at this time
05:47for the women's champion there.
05:51In terms of the people on the wrong side of these fights,
05:55this is a really tough spot now for Jack Della Madalena.
05:59Not a lot of people picked him to win the belt.
06:01As soon as he won it, everyone was assuming
06:03that Makachev was going to move up to 170 pounds
06:05because they felt like he was the easy target.
06:07Makachev moves up to 170 pounds
06:10and makes JDM look like the easy target.
06:14So excellent work from Makachev,
06:17but this sets Della Madalena back, I think, quite a bit.
06:21Honestly, it is like Drikas Duplassi from a few fights ago
06:26where he loses to Hamzat Shemaev,
06:29and he loses in such a way
06:31that no one thinks he is a valuable title contender right now,
06:35so he has to earn his way back.
06:37It's the same thing here now with Della Madalena.
06:40He has to earn his way back now
06:41into the championship, good graces.
06:44Zhang Wei Li has beat some of the best fighters in her era,
06:47but again, this wasn't close.
06:48Both of these fights,
06:49like the Makachev one, I was very confident in him.
06:52The Shevchenko one, I was pretty confident.
06:55But I, there was a little bit of a,
06:58oh, I don't know.
06:59The second those fights started,
07:01it was, oh, okay, yeah, no, we know how this is going.
07:03And that's tough
07:04because Wei Li is a really, really good fighter.
07:06I love that she dared to be great,
07:08but she obviously just was not on the level of Shevchenko.
07:11So I think you have to head back down now.
07:13And it's unfortunate that someone goes for greatness
07:16and it could negatively affect their legacy,
07:19but I think it kind of does.
07:20This is going to be one that I think sticks with Zhang Wei Li,
07:22and she's going to have to go back now
07:24and prove how good she is back at strawweight
07:27with a couple of new challengers
07:29coming out of the Mackenzie Dern championship victory.
07:32So those are my thoughts, UFC 322.
07:34Have I been unfair to either JDM or Zhang Wei Li?
07:38And what do you think is next for the two new champions?
07:40Let me know either in the chat
07:41or in the comment section below.
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