Controversy Report: UFC Des Moines

UFC Des Moines: Controversy Report

The UFC Octagon returned to Iowa and surprisingly managed to get rid of the controversy early into the card, which in all honesty makes this job much more enjoyable and easy! Today, we will discuss not only the controversy surrounding the early prelim bout between Juliana Miller and Ivana Petrovic, but also the fan reception of Bo Nickal’s defeat. 

Buckle in for one controversial ride!

Juliana Miller defeats Ivana Petrovic

• Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

When it comes to these fights, frustration can take over, and understandably so. Some of these bouts are insanely close and we see a two-way struggle in advancing position, finding offensive openings for damage and overall the ability to make a clear and dominant statement. 

The first round of this fight saw initial clinch control from both ladies, ultimately leading to a successful takedown from Petrovic, where she had almost two minutes of control time. While Miller had 16 seconds more of control time, she failed to land two of the takedowns attempted, leading to her unanimously losing this round. 

The second round was unanimously scored for the American, who wasted no time engaging the clinch and managed to land the early takedown. While Petrovic managed to get her way back up, Miller landed another takedown and advanced to dominant positions, including a back take. That back take lasted nearly two total minutes with 3 minutes of total control time in the round. This was a no debate round for Miller and we would now head to a deciding last and final round. 

With the third round being the deciding round, it was evident it would be the most controversial round to score. This was the round where we saw the most striking with Miller landing 14 and Petrovic landing 12 strikes. The age old debate is that damage trumps control, which is evident and true. While Petrovic did land some good shots in the beginning of the round, Miller did as well, and spent the rest of the fight looking to advance position. To her credit, she was successful taking Petrovic’s back and was even successful landing some ground shots. I believe the unanimous scoring for Miller here was correct, specifically because her grappling was efficient. 

This fight wasn’t nearly as bad as the Torrez Finney fight, where damage was non existent and there was virtually no intention of moving to advance position. Regardless, while not the most thrilling fight, I do believe the judging was correct.

What’s for Bo Nickal?

Bo Nickal’s defeat extended what was already a tough year for undefeated fighters, though this defeat was probably the most talked about. Nickal, a former collegiate champion for Penn State Wrestling, came into the UFC with a 4-0 record and quite the raw skilset. 

As fans, we knew he had the wrestling accolades and we had seen some success on the feet, though against lower ranked opposition outside the UFC. Once Nickal arrived in the organization, we saw two rapid finishes, but again, against names that truthfully do not belong in the UFC, so much so, they aren’t even signed with the organization at this point. 

Further controversy struck when we saw Nickal get awarded a main-event slot at UFC 300 over former champions like Deiveson Figueiredo, Jiri Prochazka and even Aljamain Sterling. Not to mention the performance over Cody Brundage took a tad longer than what fans expected. Perhaps his positioning in these huge PPV’s wasn’t the best for a rising prospect. That includes his lukewarm win over Paul Craig in what was Jon Jones’ return against Stipe Miocic. 

Ultimately, Nickal’s confidence led him to diminishing fellow middleweights. We saw consistent criticism of Khamzat Chimaev, Israel Adesanya and even Robert Whittaker. Perhaps what was worse than all that was criticizing the fanbase of MMA as a whole, stating that they believed they knew more than they actually did. 

Nickal’s defeat against a solidified Reinier de Ridder, who’s only loss has been against a sizably larger opponent shouldn’t be scrutinized based on who RDR is. After all, he is a tremendous talent in the UFC. Personally, I’d like to see Bo Nickal fight more times, get more experience inside that octagon, dealing with adversity and developing his skils. 

His defeat to RDR had a turbulent fan reaction, but one thing that was evident was how raw Bo looked in there. His receptions to the knees and punches seemed new to him, which is completely understandable, and something that I see being fixed with octagon time in further fights. Sometimes, being undefeated and dominant comes with it’s cons, and perhaps this was a clear example of how being dominant before fighting tougher opposition can both be a blessing and evidently, a curse. 

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