Sooo … About Last Night

Last night (Sat., Feb. 22, 2025), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ventured forth to Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington for UFC Seattle. Though it’s still likely to stand out as one of the better free “Fight Night” events of the year, UFC Seattle suffered quite a few late cancellations and some significant bout reshuffling. The end result was a good list of fights rather than a great one. Fortunately, the top two bouts of the evening remained unaffected, meaning the Bantamweight and Middleweight title pictures would be affected by their respective dark horse contenders taking another step towards the top.

Let’s take a look back over at UFC Seattle’s best performances and techniques:

A Great Night Ends With A Whimper

UFC Seattle was a ton of fun, but it’s hard not to be disappointed by the final fight.

More specifically, the final minute of the final fight. For 14 minutes, Song Yadong vs. Henry Cejudo was great fun. Yadong was undoubtedly the more effective fighter, taking apart Cejudo’s lead leg and then sneaking power punches around the guard. Cejudo is the ultimate competitor though, and he forced his way back into the contest through sheer force of will. Even though his wrestling wasn’t working, Cejudo found success by stepping deep into the pocket and swinging hard, particularly when Yadong began to plant his feet and was willing to exchange.

The eye poke that ended the contest was really unfortunate, and the officiating afterward felt like a circus. The end result is a Yadong decision, which feels reasonable enough given that he won most exchanges, but it’s not exactly a satisfying end to an otherwise fun event.

Middleweight’s King of the Grind

Fighting Anthony Hernandez is a miserable experience.

“Fluffy” can put together combinations nicely, but his focus in the cage is pretty singular: dominate the wrestling. Once he convinces or forces a foe to begin engaging him in the cage wrestling or scrambling, there’s no escaping the cycle. Hernandez chips away at opposition and breaks them down, building and building on his lead as they begin to fatigue.

That’s what happened to Brendan Allen seven years ago in their first fight, but “All In” came better prepared here. He hurt Hernandez on a couple occasions standing, and he managed to do major damage when he reversed his way into top position. The cards were tied with five minutes remaining, and it was really anyone’s fight.

Once more, wrestling won the day. Hernandez was a bit more conservative with his top control transitions, but he sealed the deal and locked down the best win of his career.

Welcome to the Top 10, “Fluffy.”

Lord Silva Wins Effortlessly

Jean Silva is a f—king problem.

Melsik Baghdasaryan is a legitimately slick kickboxer with good power, and it never felt like “Lord” was remotely bothered by any of the offense coming his way. Baghdasaryan is known for his powerful kicks, so Silva out-kicked him at distance. Baghdasaryan started to engage more in the pocket — he had too because of the kicks! — and Silva had the absolute time of his life trading power shots.

To be clear, Baghdasaryan snuck through some solid connections. The problem was that none of them seemed to affect Silva in anyway, who proceeded to obliterate Baghdasaryan with a right hand down the middle.

Book him against a ranked contender already!

Cutelaba Chaos!

Ion Cutelaba vs. Ibo Aslan was absolute chaos for the 2.5 minutes it lasted.

Cutelaba has all this experience against elite Light Heavyweights, but your really wouldn’t know it the way he fights. His response to Aslan’s pressure was to close his eyes and throw the biggest overhand possible. Fortunately, Aslan was busy trying to land the dumbest uppercut imaginable, so it sort of worked?

Both men were taking lumps out of each other, but Aslan was generally landing the harder blows more consistently. Cutelaba was mixing takedowns into his attack, which proved the difference maker. He started getting closer and closer to controlling Aslan, and his grappling edge was actually significant. As soon as Aslan wasn’t able to instantly instantly explode to his feet, Cutelaba was advancing position and attacking the neck.

Maybe he’s learned something from his up-and-down UFC career after all?

Ricky Simon Bounces Back

For a minute, Ricky Simon was rocketing up the division. He rode an excellent five-fight win streak into his main event slot versus Song Yadong, which is of course where everything went wrong. Yadong knocked him out, then he came up short in consecutive decision defeats to Mario Bautista and Vinicius Oliveira.

Here’s the thing: Yadong, Bautista, and Oliveira are all very legit Bantamweights. Just because Simon lost three in a row doesn’t mean he’s washed; it’s just that there are no easy fights in the upper echelon of the Bantamweight ranks. Javid Basharat, his opponent last night, is certainly a talented fighter with great skills as well.

In fact, Basharat won most of this fight. He was stopping Simon’s wrestling well and stranding him at long range, showing off his fluidity on the feet. Really, “The Snow Leopard” was getting his ideal fight right up until the moment Simon dropped a perfect right hand on his jawline and sent him into a deep sleep.

That’s a stellar way to return to the win column.

Additional Thoughts

Melquizael Costa defeats Andre Fili via first-round guillotine choke: Despite the submission finish, this was mostly an interesting kickboxing match. Costa moved well and worked to strand Fili at range with a high output of kicks, leaving the veteran to answer with tricky kick counters. Fili tended to get the better of the pocket exchanges, but Costa was managing range well to avoid that distance. Fili switched it up late with a well-timed takedown, but the Brazilian countered by sitting up into an arm-in guillotine, catching the veteran off-guard and forcing the finish.
Mansur Abdul-Malik defeats Nick Klein via second-round knockout (highlights): This was a strangely boring yet violent fight. Long portions of the bout were spent staring at one another or in unchanging wrestling exchanges. At the same time, Klein landed a wild spinning backfist that badly rocked the blue chip prospect in round one. He failed to build on that moment, however, allowing Abdul-Malik to regain control once his senses were back. Abdul-Malik had a difficult time building his own offense due to Klein’s takedown attempts and general awkwardness, but he turned it on in an instant after taking top position late in the second via a caught kick. All of a sudden, he was unleashing nasty power punches, demonstrating why so many are high on the undefeated knockout artist.
Austin Vanderford defeats Nikolay Veretennikov via second-round knockout (highlights): Vanderford took this bout on just a few day’s notice, but he’s more accomplished fighter than most random debutants. He dominated this fight, wrestling Veretennikov to the canvas easily and going to work with elbows. Early in the first, he was able to split open his opponent, and his success just snowballed. It was a solid, workmanlike UFC debut right up to the stoppage, and Vanderford should be a welcome name at 170 pounds moving forward. Meanwhile, Veretennikov made a scene and shoved Vanderford after the bell, which feels like a surefire way to get cut after an already lackluster performance.
Nursulton Ruziboev defeats Eric McConico via second-round knockout: Ruziboev is known for his fast finishes, but it took him a few minutes to really get rolling in this bout. As soon as he did, the knockout materialized quickly! McConico was trying to establish his kicks on the taller, longer man, but Ruziboev has always had a gift for timing straight punches down the middle. After catching McConico on one leg with a right, he was able to swarm and force the finish to rebound after the Joaquin Buckley loss.
Modestas Bukauskas defeats Raffael Cerqueira via first-round knockout: “The Baltic Gladiator” continues to impress in his second UFC stint. Cerqueira built up an undefeated record on the regional scene, but he seemed wildly unprepared for the offensive potency of Bukauskas, who quickly worked him towards the fence and unloaded with power punches. For the second time in two UFC appearances, Cerqueira crumbled early, whereas Bukauskas improved to 4-1 in his last five!