Justin Gaethje wins interim UFC lightweight belt
Yahoo Sports MMA expert Kevin Iole discusses UFC 249
Video Transcript
KEVIN IOLE: Well, UFC 249 is in the books and what a show it was. The preliminary card was amazing. And it was trumped by the main card, which was absolutely spectacular. The last three fights, as we predicted, delivered. Francis Ngannou with a 20-second knockout of Jairzinho Rozenstruik in just an amazing performance. Henry Cejudo stops Dominick Cruz, becoming the first fighter in the history of the long career of Dominick Cruz to stop the ex-champion. And then-- that's not enough-- he announces his retirement from MMA.
And then, in the main event, Justin Gaethje with a brilliant, astonishing, amazing performance to win the interim lightweight championship, stopping Tony Ferguson in the fifth round-- just a brilliant performance by Tony-- excuse me, by Justin Gaethje. Tony Ferguson showed an amazing chin, just took so many shots. But Gaethje was strong, and powerful, and he was very well-composed. He didn't go crazy. He didn't lose his composure. A lot of times in the past, Gaethje has gone rushing in and it's cost him. He's got-- he's taken punishment he hasn't needed to take and he's gotten beaten in a couple of fight because he got overanxious. Tonight, he did not do that. And he allowed referee Herb Dean to stop the fight late as Ferguson was wobbling around.
It was quite a night for the UFC, which originally had this show scheduled on April 18 in Brooklyn. It was moved then on April 18 to Tachi Palace in California. Governor Gavin Newsom did not want it there. Senator Dianne Feinstein didn't want it there. Disney asked Dana White not to put it on. It moved to Florida. They had testing procedures in place. A fighter, though, tested positive last night. Jacaré Souza tested positive, was taken off the card. The card still went forward, and it was a sensational card.
And it was topped by an unbelievable performance by Justin Gaethje, the new interim lightweight champion. And he will fight Khabib Nurmagomedov, the undefeated lightweight champion, sometime later this year. Nurmagomedov said, "no comment" after the fight was over. So we will see a big fight coming up later in the year. A tough one for Tony Ferguson, but this was an amazing night of fights. For Yahoo Sports, I am Kevin Iole.