MMA Recap April-June #5 (UFC 288)

This two-to-three-week period leading up to UFC 288 was a genuine mess. The entire main card was legitimately unrecognizable by time fight day arrived. What was originally supposed to be Charles Oliveira vs Beneil Dariush in the co main event became Gilbert Burns vs Belal Muhammed. Bryce Mitchell vs Jonathan Pearce became Bryce Mitchell vs Movsar Evloev and eventually was Movsar Evloev vs Diego Lopes who was making his UFC debut. Poor New Jersey had to roll with the punches on this card. Doesn't change the fact that this was a pretty decent night of fights.

May 6, 2023

Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey

FOTN- Movsar Evloev vs Diego Lopes

POTN- Yan Xiaonan, Matt Frevola

There was a plethora of statement making performances. First one coming from Ikram Aliskerov whose only loss in his career is to Khamzat Chimaev. Aliskerov was up against the Jersey native Phil Hawes whose rough patch continued as he was met with a perfect counter that knocked him out. Aliskerov set himself up for a massive fight in the future. Rolando Bedoya made his debut against the always dangerous Khaos Williams and looked very impressive despite a losing effort. Kennedy Nzechukwu notched his third finish in a row and in all honesty deserves a ranked opponent next but a logical match up for him would be against Dustin Jacoby. Matt Frevola cracked the seemingly unbreakable chin of Drew Dober in the first round and entered the lightweight rankings. Frevola is SUPER underrated and has a resume of very stiff competition. The main card opened with a very motivated Charles Jourdain bouncing back against an underwhelming effort from Kron Gracie against. With Kron's father Rickson recently informing the public of his battle with Parkinson's disease, it is highly likely this impacted Kron. Another statement making performance came from Yan Xiaonan who knocked out former champion Jessica Andrade. Xiaonan has been gradually improving every fight since her loss to Carla Esparza and got her first UFC finish on the biggest stage entrenching herself firmly into the strawweight title picture. The Evloev vs Lopes fight only received fight of the night because it was debuting fighter against a well-established undefeated fighter who is also ranked with neither guy wanting to give in to the other. The co-main event was incredibly underwhelming. The last-minute match up between Burns and Muhammed was intriguing but when the fight started it felt like it never got going. This is partially due to Muhammed ability to neutralize Burns and maintain his own offense, but Burns was severely injured as this fight progressed and couldn't even throw a strike. This loss was rough for Gilbert because of how much momentum he built for himself early on in 2023. Had he beat Belal he would certainly be in talks of a title fight. All credit to Belal but he had a compromised opposition in front of him and still didn't find a finish. The main event was just so bleh. Cejudo coming back after threes and being automatically granted a title fight just for him to come up short in an underwhelming fight. Aljamain Sterling showed why he is champion by dictating where the fight went. This win for Sterling thankfully set up the fight between O' Malley and Sterling.