This week in MMA: UFC Vegas 3 results and Fight Island cards are confirmed

UFC Vegas took place on Saturday and hoped to follow up on last week’s action-packed card with its own brand of exciting fights.

In the main event, Curtis Blaydes dominated Aleksander Volkov to take a decision win, utilising his wrestling to ragdoll the Russian kickboxer around for the whole fight - just like he predicted he would do.

Blaydes’ dominant performance keeps him in the top five of the heavyweight division, but he is still a couple fights away from a title shot, with Daniel Cormier vs Stipe Miocic 3 yet to happen, and then a fight with Francis Ngannou for the victor of that fight awaiting them.

With his stock sky-high from the victory, “Razor” is in pole position for a future shot at the heavyweight title.

Emmett wins Fight of the Night

In the co-main, Josh Emmett and Shane Burgos put on an absolute barnburner of a fight.

Emmett appeared to have damaged his knee in the opening 30 seconds of round one after a misstep, but showed enough grit and determination to still go toe-to-toe with Burgos.

The volume striking of Burgos was ultimately no match for Emmett though, who countered with big shots, especially in the third round where he dropped Burgos twice.

Had it not been for a break due to a low blow from Burgos that caused a break in the action, Emmett could have potentially finished the fight in the last round, instead of taking a decision win.

The fight lived up to the hype according to Julian Marquez while Amanda Nunes congratulated both men on social media. 

Trainer receives huge criticism as Rohskopf quits on stool

The other big story from the card was the Max Rohskopf vs Austin Hubbard fight that kicked the event off.

After a hellacious second round, a dejected Rohskopf told his corner to “call it” and end the fight several times, but his coach, Robert Drysdale, refused to let his fighter quit on the stool.

“You can beat this guy, Max,” Drysdale said. “We got this.”

After one minute of trying to persuade the fighter to continue, referee Mark Smith halted the fight and awarded Hubbard a TKO win.

The incident has sparked debate online about when a coach should call the fight to protect his fighter, with some defending Drysdale’s actions by saying he was trying to motivate his fighter.  Meanwhile, others argued that a coach should call the fight as soon as his fighter says he does not want to continue to fight.

Rohskopf’s manager, Brian Butler, tried to explain his fighter was fatigued due to a short notice weight cut. The NSAC announced they will investigate the incident. 
UFC president Dana White stood up for the young fighter, saying: “Anyone who would try to ridicule a kid like that? F**k you!” in the wake of Rohskopf being targeted on Twitter by trolls.

Questions will also be asked about why Rohskopf was even on the card, as he only had five pro wins coming into the bout, with those five opponents not being at a level good enough to warrant a UFC contract off the back of beating them, with all five only having a record of 26-14 combined.

Fight Island fights ramp up

Outside of the cage all the talk centred around Fight Island as the UFC announced the official cards for each event.

Last week it was announced Yas Island in Abu Dhabi would be the location of Fight Island, and would hold four events in 14 days, starting with UFC 251 followed by three Fight Night cards.

The UFC 251 card, which takes place on July 11, was made official on Wednesday, and the card will feature three title bouts: Kamaru Usman vs Gilbert Burns for the welterweight title; Alexander Volkanovski vs Max Holloway 2 for the featherweight title, and Petr Yan and MMA legend Jose Aldo will fight to win the vacant bantamweight title, as previously reported last week.

Jessica Andrade vs Rose Namajunas 2 will also feature on the card, while the main card will be kicked off by Amanda Rivas and Paige Van Zant in a flyweight contest.

Four days later, Calvin Kattar and Dan Ige will headline UFC Fight Island 1, with Frankie Edgar taking on Pedro Munhoz in the co-main.

Further down the card former Cage Warriors light heavyweight champion Modestas Bukauskas will make his UFC debut against Vinicius Moreira Castro, and former Cage Warriors featherweight champion Chris Fishgold returns after a year out to take on Jared Gordon.

Molly McCann will be the third former Cage Warriors champion on the card, as she takes on Talia Santos in a flyweight bout, whilst British fans should also look out for John Philips and Lerone Murphy who also have fights on the card.

On July 18, UFC Fight Island 2 is headlined by Deiveson Figueiredo vs Joseph Benavidez 2 in a flyweight contest that will decide who will fight later this year for the vacant flyweight title, while other stand out fights include Marc Diakiese vs Rafael Fiziev and Brett Johns vs Montel Jackson.

The third and final Fight Island Fight Night card will take place on July 25, as Darren Till faces former middleweight titlist Robert Whittaker in the main event.

A stacked undercard includes the heavyweight debut of Alexander Gustafsson as he takes on former heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum and Danny Roberts, who meets former Cage Warriors middleweight champion Nicolas Dalby.

Nathaniel Wood will also be in action as he squares up with Umar Nurmagomedov, whilst Till’s teammates Tom Aspinall (who makes his UFC debut) and Mike Grundy will also be in action.

These announcements have fight fans very excited for a summer of unforgettable fights. 

By Kieran Cobley,  follow Kieran here @Cobleyreporting