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Size mattered in Saturday night’s clash of women’s MMA greats.
Valentina Shevchenko thwarted Zhang Weili’s attempt at becoming the second female fighter to win UFC titles in two weight classes, defending the flyweight crown with a unanimous decision victory at Madison Square Garden in the UFC 322 co-main event.
Shevchenko bullied the smaller Zhang, who relinquished her strawweight title this year in order to move up 10 pounds and chase history.
Whenever inclined, the champion from Kyrgyzstan took down her opponent and worked to dominant positions to deliver ground strikes.
Zhang at times found a home for her punches, which did possess some zip.
But former Muay Thai competitor Shevchenko was never in trouble throughout the 25 minutes, on the feet or on the canvas, as she tallied her 11th victory in a flyweight title fight across two separate reigns since 2018.
Bo Nickal made few fans a year ago at Garden.
In moving to 2-0 here Saturday night, he sure didn’t mind letting them know how much he didn’t care.
The former three-time NCAA champion wrestler at Penn State secured a head kick knockout of Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Rodolfo Vieira in the third round of their middleweight bout, then promptly scaled the octagon fence and flipped the bird at those in attendance.
Nickal’s victory in the arena last November drew boos from the crowd over it playing out as a mundane kickboxing contest with submission ace Paul Craig.
The decorated amateur wrestler swore since then, and in the wake of his first MMA loss in April against Reinier de Ridder, that he had moved on from the thought of pleasing fans.
But if a certain type of fan isn’t swayed by his middle-finger salute in the face of critics, he may end up endearing himself to fight fans with more exciting finishes like the one he secured Saturday.
Even before the welterweight title was put up for grabs in the main event between champion Jack Della Maddalena and Islam Makhachev, the contender landscape at 170 pounds endured a violent face lift.
Michael Morales stopped Sean Brady with several punches for the KO in the first round.
His win came one bout after Carlos Prates put Leon Edwards to sleep via a straight left hand.
Morales, at just 26, moved to 19-0 as a pro with a win over the Philadelphia native, who had been on the cusp of a championship opportunity.
The Colombian might himself be just a fight away from challenging for gold, if he didn’t already punch his ticket at the Garden.
Prates put further distance between a loss to Ian Machado Garry in April by securing his second consecutive win by impressive knockout, this time sending former welterweight champ Edwards to his third consecutive loss.
UFC 322 featured more fighters from Pennsylvania than from New York and New Jersey combined, but the two locals each left victorious all the same.
Erin Blanchfield, of Elmwood Park, N.J., submitted Tracy Cortez via rear-naked choke in the second round of their rematch.
Cortez had won the first meeting before they were in the UFC — when Blanchfield was just 19 in February 2019.
That victory followed 25-year-old teammate Fatima Kline, a native of Hyde Park, picking up a dominant decision win against veteran Angela Hill.
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