Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight knockout artists Oluwale Bamgbose and Paulo Borrachinha battled last night (June 3, 2017) at UFC 212 inside Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The immediate thing that stands out about this fight is that is has no real place on the main card of a pay-per-view. Borrachinha entered with a single UFC victory that came on the Fightpass prelims, whereas Bamgbose had lost two of his three contests inside the Octagon. Yet, if you take a closer look at their records, it all makes sense. Every single one of their combined wins came in the first round, and a majority of those fights ended via knockout.
It lasted longer than most expected, but still lived up to the hype.
Bamgbose opened the bout with his wild movement and scored with a quick right hand. After moving his foe into the fence, Bamgbose scored with a big combination and pair of takedowns, but his opponent returned to his feet.
For the first half of the round, Bamgbose landed a majority of the shots, running in-and-out with heavy kicks, punches, and takedown attempts. He landed some decent blows, but Borrachinha simply kept up steady pressure until his opponent was terribly tired. Once that happened, the Brazilian ripped into his opponent with a nasty body kick and flurried on him along the fence.
Bamgbose used a takedown attempt to survive, but it was really a tale of two rounds, as both men dominated different portions of the fight.
Bamgbose opened with some hilarious wildness. His random attacks are always a little funny, but it’s especially silly when he’s so gassed that all of his attacks are half-speed. Borrachinha landed one powerful right kick, and then Bamgbose slipped while throwing his own body kick.
Just like that, it was all over.
The Brazilian pounced, weighing heavily on his foe and dropping huge punches. Bamgbose was far too tired to do any actual grappling, which allowed Borrachinha to quickly overwhelm him for a technical knockout stoppage.
It was a truly ridiculous fight — everything I had hoped for in the lead up to this bout.
Borrachinha best attribute is undoubtedly his physical strength and athleticism, but he doesn’t fight like a man relying on the knockout. He’s not Bamgbose, lunging in with wild strikes and hoping his speed is enough to catch his opponent off-guard. Instead, Borrachinha takes a much more measured approach, walking his foe down and maintaining range while still firing massive strikes.
It’s fairly absurd to call a man with first round finishes measured, but in this case, it’s deserved.
Borrachinha called out a Top 10 opponent next, but that seems like a bit too much so early in his UFC career. Instead, it would be great to see him face a veteran with good conditioning who can either kickbox or wrestle well. Either way, it would be a solid test for the more technical parts of his game.
Bamgbose is unique if nothing else. His wild movement and combinations are undoubtedly effective, if completely impossible to maintain. Seriously, Demetrious Johnson would gas out trying to fight like Bamgbose, which makes “The Holy War Angel’s” ability to maintain that speed for three full minutes fairly impressive.
Not viable, necessarily, but admirable.
It’s impossible to point out technical corrections to Bamgbose’s game without completely changing the core components, so that’s pointless. Bamgbose is going to live by the sword or die by it, and his next fight will be no different.
Last night, Paulo Borrachinha weathered the storm and mauled his opponent. Is the Brazilian a future contender?
For complete UFC 212: “Aldo vs Holloway” results and play-by-play, click HERE!