UFC 220 & Bellator 192 Doubleheader Hangover

Quick thoughts:

Stipe showed why he's the best UFC heavyweight of all time. Defended the belt 3x. Even when he doesn't stop the guy he completely dominates him minus a few punches from Ngannou. 

The blueprint to beat Ngannou is exposed. All Stipe has to do left if anything is fight Cain, but Cain only fights every two years anyway, so who knows?

DC showed it was gonna be curtains when he got the late first round takedown and got Volkan to expose his back in an effort to get up. DC really does this well. See his two fights with Anthony Johnson for evidence as well. DC made Volkan look average after several terrifying KO victories. DC's grappling and crucifix and standing clinch work were also impressive. He slipped the dangerous punches, made Volkan respect his punches, and sucked him into his world. Curtains.

I didn't watch the UFC main card nor the prelims, preferring the Bellator main card with Lima vs Rory and Chandler vs Yamauchi. Rory won 4 of the 5 rounds, despite what looked like an alien growing out of his leg, or a broken leg. He managed to score the takedown in rounds 4 and 5 despite basically using one leg. 

Not a barnburner of a fight as Rory's plan was clearly to take Lima where he wanted and methodically break him down, but despite the leg kick punishment injury, Rory took the title in convincing fashion minus that terrible flop to half-guard/full mount incident after the leg injury. Chandler showed how hard it is to throw up submissions off your back against a top tier guy, especially when you keep the opponent's head in the cage for the better part of each round. If Yamauchi had a more chained together attack instead of semi pulling guard at times it would have been a closer fight. Chandler did the right prep work in camp with head and spine in vertical alignment and heavy hips and judicious punches down. He opted to save it for the third round to emphatically rain down blows but it was a convincing return for the guy who wants to roll it back against Primus.

MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL:

Shoutout to Bellator for that cringeworthy tv show placement interview: