Betting: UFC 277 Instant Reaction
Kevin Iole recaps the UFC 277 PPV Card.
Video Transcript
- Hey, everybody. I am Kevin Iole. Welcome to Yahoo Sports. It was a night for the favorites at UFC 277 Saturday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. All five favorites on the main card covered. But it was not easy. And what a fight we had in the main event.
Amanda Nunes regains the women's bantamweight championship, becomes a double champion again. She closed at minus 250 at BetMGM. She won a five-round decision over an unbelievably tough Julianna Peña. Peña closed at plus 200. It was a spectacular fight, dominated most of the way by Nunes.
She switched to southpaw for most of the fight, fought that way. Did very well. Dropped Peña four or five times, had a lot of takedowns especially in the second half of the fight. But Peña never gave up. She was cut badly. She was dropped. She was hurt. But she was throwing up submission attempts it was amazing.
Amanda was always at risk even though she won the fight wide. The judges had it scored 50 to 45, 50 to 44, and 50 to 43. I had it scored 50 to 44 for Nunes as well. Amazing fight. And she is, once again, the champion, and a double champ, because she also still holds the Featherweight Championship.
In the co-main event, Brandon Moreno regained a flyweight championship. He is now the interim flyweight champion. He stopped Kai Kara-France in the third round with a liver kick. And then he ground and pounded him. It was an amazing finish.
It was a close fight up until that point. But that liver kick just folded Kai Kara-France in half. And Moreno made short work of him at that point. Moreno went off as of minus 225 favorite. Kara-France closed at plus 175. It was a good fight. But that liver kick was just too much. And he couldn't overcome that.
We had a little bit of controversy in the heavyweight fight. Derrick Lewis was knocked out by Sergei Pavlovich. Pavlovich closed as a minus 165 favorite. Lewis was plus 135. Pavlovich was hitting him with some big shots. Lewis kind of did a nosedive to the canvas .
And Pavlovich followed him, landed a couple of shots. referee Big Dan Miragliotta step in and stop at less than a minute into the fight. As soon as he stopped that Derrick Lewis popped up and was complaining, it was a tough call, I thought. I err on the side of safety on these.
But it was a close call. But Pavlovich wins there as a minus 165 favorite. And one of the great performances on the card, Alexander Pantoja goes out there. And he submits Alex Perez with a neck crank. Just a dominant performance. He rushed from the beginning.
He won this in less than around. He closed at minus 200. Perez was at plus 160. And in the opener, Anthony Smith injured his leg at the end of the first round. He said on the television broadcast that he thought he broke his leg.
There was no word on what the extent of his injury was. But Ankalaev, Magomed Ankalaev, in the second round, who was minus 650, really a surprisingly big favorite. Ankalaev went in there, and just pummeled him once he was injured, and finished the fight. He wins that by knockout. We'll probably be fighting for the title before too much longer. A night for the favorites, but a night for a lot of action at UFC 277. For Yahoo Sports, I am Kevin Iole.
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