What an entertaining card this was. There were knockouts galore, legendary performances, and the BMF title fight between Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje lived up to the hype. Without further ado, let’s dive right into it:
BMF TITLE FIGHT
To those who are unaware, the BMF, or Baddest Mother Fucker, is a championship title recently introduced to the UFC back in 2019. Although it’s not a legitimate weight class belt, it is considered a championship match which gives it a championship length of five, five minute rounds. Jorge Masvidal became the first and only person to hold the belt after defeating Nate Dias in 2019, but after his retirement, the BMF title became vacant. This was the case until Poirier and Gaethje stepped into the ring on Saturday night, crowning a new “Baddest Mother Fucker”.
This wasn’t the first time these two fought as well. Back in 2018, they had a scrap that was a finalist for fight of the year, and Poirier was the one that ended up on top.
This, however, was not how the fight went on Saturday. Less than a minute into round two, Gaethje did this:
Justin Gaethje is now up next to fight the winner of the lightweight title fight on October 21st between the champion, Islam Makhachev, and the previous champion, Charles Olivera. However, another fight option has opened up for Gaethje that he might consider taking. The Notorious Connor McGreggor was quick to take to Twitter (or X now I guess), calling out Gaethje and pushing for a chance at the BMF belt. Gaethje, who was one of the options for McGregor to fight back in 2020 when he fought Cowboy Cerrone, had this to say in the post fight presser:
Though it would be a great fight, I don’t think McGregor will be able to step into the ring anytime soon. He has dodged the United States Anti-Doping Agency for some time now, and many infer that this, coupled with his bulked up physique, is a sure fire sign that he is on steroids. October is a while away though, and Gaethje’s next fight will be even longer after that, so there is a chance that Connor can clean himself up and find a way back into the octagon. I know we all want to see him back in there.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM UFC 291
Let me start with my favorite knockout of the evening, from one of my favorite fighters, Derrick Lewis. I became a fan of his after he had a last second comeback to beat Alexander Volkov, followed by the greatest post game line in the history of sports back at UFC 229. On a night where the great Connor McGregor was taken down by Khabib Nurmagomedov, somehow this is the performance that I remember most from the event:
Before we get to the punchline, just look at those significant strike numbers one more time:
When I say he made a surge of a comeback, I mean he resurrected himself from the dead to beat this guy. Now, onto the interview:
Now that my reminiscing is done, let’s take a look at his fight from Saturday night. This fight couldn’t have gone any different than the UFC 229 fight. It was over in an instant, and that’s all thanks to a flying knee from the 265-pound Derrick Lewis:
This knockout set him as the all time leader for knockouts in the UFC, with 14. And of course, he’s also the all time leader in great post match interviews, so here’s the start of the one from this fight:
Alright, I have wasted too much of your time with Derrick Lewis highlights, and when I started this blog that is not what I intended. Am I glad the article took this turn though? Yes, yes I am.
To speed this up, I’ll just show you some other highlights from the night, which included a spinning back fist, a kick to the face, and a few submissions: