What really mattered at UFC Fight Night 233 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas? Here are a few post-fight musings …
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Tatsuro Taira continues to show off his potential
23-year-old Tatsuro Taira continues to impress as he adds to his resume and experience level inside the octagon.
Taira (15-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) is arguably the most compelling prospect in the UFC flyweight division right now, and his undefeated record only adds to the intrigue. Over his first four octagon appearances, Taira relied heavily on his grappling. That was the case again in Round 1 of his fight with Carlos Hernandez, but then he showed another layer to his game in Round 2 when he smashed his opponent with a huge shot on the feet to set up the TKO.
There’s no doubt Taira is currently MMA’s top hope for a Japanese UFC champion, and the door seems wide open at 125 pounds to make a run. There’s some highly skilled fighters ranked above him, however, and we need to start seeing him fight some of those names before we make a full declaration on his ceiling.
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Tim Elliott’s realistic post-fight assessment
After Tim Elliott scored what was, quite frankly, one of the more impressive wins of his UFC career by submitting Su Mudaerji on just five days’ notice, he delivered one of the most honest post-fight interviews you’ll ever hear.
Anyone who has followed Elliott’s (20-14-1 MMA, 9-11 UFC) career knows he has always been an open book. Anyone who has really followed him in-depth knows that’s especially true. So the fact he said he’s no longer a realistic title contender and just wants to be a reliable entertainer for the promotion, is respectable.
Paul Felder tried to pump Elliot’s tires a bit by saying he could still be a title run, but Elliott stayed grounded in what he knows to be his reality. Could he have a special night and beat the best flyweight out there? Sure. But navigating through the tough fights at 125 pounds on the rise up is the biggest problem, as we saw against Muhammad Mokaev at UFC 294 in October.
Nevertheless, Elliott is a name you enjoy seeing pop up on a card no matter who it’s against or the circumstances. And as he said, he can do that for years to come, so long as he doesn’t start taking an aggressive degree of damage.
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Khalil Rountree continues to stand out
Khalil Rountree continues to shine in the light heavyweight division with a dominant performance against Anthony Smith that ended in a third-round TKO win.
This was a very important fight for Rountree (13-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) in the overall scope of his career. He had never won more than four consecutive fights in the entirety of his MMA run,
