UFC 306: Las Vegas Sphere
Ryan D’Amico
Staff Writer
Nothing will ever top the experience of a lifetime UFC 306 in the Las Vegas Sphere.
Some of the early fights and prelims were Raul Rosas Jr., an up-and-coming fighter who is 10-1 in the Bantamweight division with two wins by knockout and six first-round finishes. He fought against Aoriqileng who is 25-11 and has eight wins by knockout and first-round finishes. This match went all three rounds with Rosas Jr. coming out on top in a unanimous decision with significantly more strikes, 3-0 on takedowns, and more significant strikes in a hard-fought match.
With some of the prelims now the women’s strawweight performance of the night was Yazmin Jauregui vs Ketlen Souza in round one by submission with the underdog Souza winning. Yazmin was favored and had more total strikes but was put in a rear-naked choke after being hit to the ground. For the men’s performance of the night, we saw Manuel Torres vs Ignacio Bahamondes with Bahamondes winning by KO/TKO in the first round in a lightweight bout. Bahamondes caught Torres coming in for a jab which he threw a hook at, and Torres dropped, and the ref stopped the fight.
For the main card events, each fight of the three ended in a Unanimous decision. The first fight in the featherweight division was Brian Ortega vs Diego Lopez. Both fighters came in ranked in the top 5 in the division. Lopes is 26-6 with 15 first-round finishes and 10 by knockout. Brian Ortega is 16-4 with eight wins by submission and four first-round finishes. From the start, Lopes was favored and fought like it both fighters going back and forth at each other and by the later rounds Lopes just looked like a better fighter. He had some good strikes later on and looked like he could fight another five rounds.
The women’s flyweight title bout was next between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko. Grasso is 16-4 and ranked number 1 in the division with five first-round finishes and four wins by knockout. Shevchenko is 24-4-1 with eight wins by knockout and seven wins by submissions and is now the Division Title Holder. Taking away the title from Grasso, going all five rounds dominating. Shevchenko had eight takedowns to Grasso’s one and threw 45 significant strikes to Grasso’s 18. From the audience’s point of view, either in the sphere or at home Grasso was struggling with Shevchenko grappling on the mat the entire match. This is their third match-up against each other and the last was Grasso taking the belt from Shevchenko and now it is right back to the other way around. The match came to the judge’s decision, but Shevchenko came for revenge, having more strikes, more significant strikes, more takedowns, and more time on the ground.
The final fight of the night in the sphere was what everyone was waiting for between Suga Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili. Fight of the month and everyone was waiting for O’Malley to come and show us who he is, which didn’t go to plan. Merab overall in every position in MMA defeated O’Malley. Total strikes had Merab’s 214 to Suga’s 49, and Merab also had six takedowns to Suga’s zero. But when Suga was swinging 47 of his total strikes were significant to Merab’s 82. The fight wasn’t the most interesting and gave O’Malley his first loss but now Merab has the belt and is top of the division and showed how wrestling and grappling are something Suga and others must work on and watch out for.
From an outside perspective on UFC 306 in the Las Vegas Sphere, Dana White said no other UFC event will match being one of the first events in the Sphere with the fights, arena, and graphics of potential. From a television view, the insane graphics present from each fighter and aspect of the sphere were incredible. From the intros to the walk-ins and fights you could feel the energy through the screen like no other event before.
Contact Ryan at ryan.damico@student.shu.edu