Eddie Alvarez Upsets Rafael Dos Anjos for UFC Lightweight Title

A victory would be redemption for Jones (22-1), widely considered the world’s top pound-for-pound MMA fighter. The oddsmakers now see dos Anjos as more than a 3-to-1 favorite to retain his title (although Alvarez was more than a 2-to-1 underdog when he beat Pettis in January).

Afterward, a dejected Alvarez, realizing there was no end in sight to his professional purgatory, could hardly bring himself to say more than a few words.

“I’ve been going through a big transition”, Makdessi said.

Makdessi very almost didn’t get his hand raised post-fight, as the judges were divided on who won a close fight. His big right hand appeared to roll Dos Anjos’ eyes back in his head, but Dos Anjos somehow kept his feet against several flurries of big punches. Alvarez morphs into a virtual propeller of flying leather, swarming dos Anjos with endless salvos of tightly sprung power punches.

The result is a major shock, with dos Anjos going into the fight as the clear favourite.

Dos Anjos came out quickly, but there was little exchanging in the early seconds as the two feinted and tried to establish distance.

“He’s a tough guy, he’s been in many wars and he’s beat two former champions”, dos Anjos said of Alvarez.

Now that he’s the UFC’s lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez thinks it’s about time he got a shot against an easier opponent.

While the strategy mostly worked and Nelson appeared to be on his way to a decision victory, Lewis landed two huge right hands in the final 10 seconds of the final round to steal the fight on two scorecards and win a split decision.

“This has always been like a marathon for me, not a sprint”, he said. “I just think, if you work hard enough and love something, these belts are a byproduct of it”, Alvarez said.

Nurmagomdeov is a ideal 23-0 and is coming off a second-round finish of Darrell Horcher at UFC Tampa, where he was originally supposed to fight Tony Ferguson. My ground game is better. “UFC 202. I’m happy to put it behind me and get back to competing and training for a contest”. I can’t say for sure, but I know this: someone or something is definitely on steroids.

When hard-hitting heavyweight Derrick Lewis lands clean strikes, things happen.

TITLE FIGHTS EVERY NIGHT: A belt will be won on each of the three shows, culminating in three title fights Saturday. After injuring his hand in the second round, Jouban was limited in the third round and Muhammad often cracked Jouban, who still earned scores of 28-27, 29-28, 29-27.

With the 32-year old odd’s against dos Anjos shortening to 3.90* at the time of writing, after opening at 4.50, it looks like the more we approach the fight, the more bettors are showing faith in him. Also, Derrick Lewis faces Roy Nelson, plus Alan Jouban and Joseph Duffy are in action.

The problem for Nelson, who fell to 2-6 over his past eight fights, was that his offense was ineffective and left the door open for Lewis to sway the judges.