R. Carcacinha celebrates victory by knockout (Photo: Reproduction Instagram ufc_brasil)
Like practically all editions of Ultimate in New York, UFC 217 also had controversies with the refereeing. And they came right away in the preliminary portion, especially in the heavyweight fights: both Curtis blaydes x Alexei Oliynik how much Walt Harris x Mark Godbeer had the finger of the central referees. Despite this, the preliminaries were very competitive, with emphasis on the knockouts of Ricardo Carcacinha about Aiemann Zahabi quality Ovince St Preux before Corey anderson.
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Having the first fight of the night, Brazilian Carcacinha started well in the first round, knowing how to use his jabs to score and using distance to stay away from Zahabi's muay thai. Ricardo managed to get a takedown, which guaranteed him the initial round, but he ended up dominated in the second round.
Canadian Zahabi knew how to find the distance and started to score, and dominate the Brazilian in the clinch. Aiemann unleashed some good straight shots, which didn't stun Carcacinha, but left him at a disadvantage. Coach Firas Zahabi's brother maintained dominance in the final round, using the clinch to score, when Carcacinha threw a spinning elbow out of the hat, and immediately erased the Canadian. After the fight, the Brazilian asked for a top-10 opponent.
“I didn’t come here to be just anyone. I want and will be UFC champion. I want to prove this to you and I need a top-10 opponent in my next fight to do that”, said the Brazilian.
After two other fights, it was time for Ovince St Preux shine too. Coming off a submission victory over Yushin Okami in September, OSP agreed to face Corey anderson and he fought an even fight, narrowly winning the first round and losing the second round, when he also unleashed a spectacular blow: a high kick that knocked out Anderson instantly. Big knockout for the Haitian, who puts himself back on track for the light heavyweight belt – he already challenged for the interim title, at UFC 197, against Jon Jones and lost.
In the last fight of the preliminary portion, another knockout, this time due to referee interruption. James Vick took advantage of his superior wingspan and took down Joe Duffy at the end of the second round and managed an impressive sequence of punches until the referee stopped with one second remaining in the round.
Controversies
Despite the two big knockouts, UFC 217 had many controversies in its preliminaries. First, in the duel between Curtis blaydes and Alexei Oleiynik. The Russian was suffering in the first round, almost being knocked out, when Blaydes threw an illegal kick, which didn't catch him and he collapsed, apparently in no condition to fight. The central referee had to look at the replay to check that the blow had not been connected and gave victory to Curtis blaydes.
Then it was time to Walt Harris x Mark Godbeer. Even though he dominated the fight, Harris kneed Godbeer in the lower parts. Even with the central referee asking for a break, “Big Ticket” kicked the Englishman in the face, who fell almost knocked out and unable to continue. This time, the refereeing was harsh and disqualified Harris, giving Godbeer the victory.
UFC 217
PRELIMINARY CARD
Lightweight: James Vick won Joe Duffy by technical knockout at 4:59 of R2
Heavyweight: Mark Godbeer won Walt Harris by disqualification in R1
Light Heavyweight: Ovince St Preux won Corey anderson by knockout at 1m25s of R3
Welterweight Weight: Randy Brown won Mickey gall by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-27)
Heavyweight: Curtis blaydes beat Alexey Oliynyk by technical knockout at 1m56s of R2
Bantamweight: Ricardo Carcacinha won Aiemann Zahabi by knockout at 1m15s of R3
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