UFC Chile: Maia vs. Usman - Winners and Losers

Though he walked out with the biggest scalp of the evening, Kamaru Usman was hardly the biggest winner from UFC Chile. So who was?

Barring the main event, UFC Chile was full of some excellent action, including five first round finishes. Unfortunately for television viewers, those first round finishes led to a lot of filler as there is no way in hell FOX Sports is going to move on to the next fight before their scheduled to do so.

In the main event, Kamaru Usman cruised to an easy win over Demian Maia, though the contest may very well have hurt him more than it helps. There were other performances that may prove to be a breakout party for some of the youngsters on the card. So, who was the biggest winner? Keep reading to find out.

Winners

Tatiana Suarez: Nobody was surprised by Suarez’s win. Her physical talents have been brutally obvious – she’s probably the best wrestler in the division -- and she was a heavy favorite as a result. But to submit Alexa Grasso as easily as she did when Grasso had never been previously finished? Yeah, I think it’s safe to say Suarez is ready for some top opposition. This may not be much of a limb to go out on, but I’m guessing Suarez holds championship gold someday.

Dominick Reyes: Glover Teixeira and Jan Blachowicz may be in the top five of the UFC’s official rankings at light heavyweight, but Reyes did something neither of them could do: finish Jared Cannonier. Hell, he was even able to do it without taking Cannonier to the ground, the primary strategy executed by both Teixeira and Blachowicz. I’d say it’s safe to say Reyes is for real. Given the lack of depth at 205, I’m expecting the UFC to put him on the fast track at this point. I think I might be alright with that.

Andrea Lee: Lee’s performance wasn’t flashy, but it was consistently solid. She beat Veronica Macedo in every aspect of the fight, beating her in the clinch, outpointing her on the feet, and controlling her on the ground. Lee needed a dominant performance and a finish if she wanted to get launched into contention right away, but it isn’t as if this was a disappointing performance by any means.

Vicente Luque: Luque’s striking has made a continued progression since entering the UFC. This performance says all that needs to be said about his progress. The punch that put Chad Laprise on his ass wasn’t particularly hard looking, but it was technical and accurate, right on the chin of Laprise to put him down and out. Luque should continue to be getting better and better.

Michel Prazeres: I get it. Prazeres’ fight with Zak Cummings wasn’t fun to watch. In fact, it was ugly. But Prazeres wasn’t supposed to win. How the hell could he find success at welterweight when he stands only 5’6”? Clearly, it was by making things ugly. If that’s what he needs to do to win, I’ll give him all the credit in the world, even if I don’t want to end up watching his fights. Believe it or not, Prazeres now has seven wins in a row. Impressive no matter if he has yet to face a ranked opponent.

Alexandre Pantoja: The Nova Uniao representative wasn’t even originally scheduled to be on the card before Ray Borg was forced out of his contest with Brandon Moreno due to personal issues. Now Pantoja walks out as one of the biggest winners of the evening. He put on the most complete striking performance of his career, picking apart Moreno with his pinpoint counters with a mix of brutal kicks. I’d be shocked if this win doesn’t put Pantoja into the top ten of the rankings.

Poliana Botelho: Botelho’s performance against Kondo was much more impressive than her UFC debut. Much shorter too, getting Kondo out of the cage in a mere 33 seconds after a brutal shot to the liver. I don’t want to get too excited and declare Botelho an immediate contender, but there’s no denying she looked fantastic here.

Gabriel Benitez: Even before the opening bell sounded, Benitez looked like he was there to make a statement. I can’t blame him. He scores a win over former golden boy Jason Knight and the UFC gives him… Humberto Bandenay? Benitez knocked Bandenay to his ass seconds into the contest and though he got caught in an armbar, Benitez showed his vicious side by power-bombing Bandenay ala Rampage Jackson. You think the UFC got the message?

Enrique Barzola: It’s always interesting to see what happens when two pressure fighters collide. In this case, Barzola proved to be the more dogged individual, breaking down Brandon Davis with pure relentlessness. I don’t know if I like the idea of calling out Zabit Magomedsharipov from Barzola’s perspective, but I do like the confidence he’s displaying by doing so. It’s time the UFC starts showing the Peruvian some love.

Frankie Saenz: Saenz pulling out the win ensured that he ended up in the winner’s column, but his willingness to throw down guaranteed he ended up here as he was supposed to beat fellow geriatric Henry Briones. Who would have thought Saenz still had it in him to eat a lot of punishment and go hard for 15 solid minutes? I’m not saying his career isn’t past the halfway mark, but he may have more in the tank than we all thought.

Claudio Puelles: I promise you the youngster doesn’t feel like a winner. He took a hell of a beating at the hands of Felipe Silva to the point the fight should have been stopped several times. Fortunately for Puelles, Osiris Maia opted to channel the spirit of Mario Yamasaki and let him “be a warrior.” Puelles shot a desperation takedown, got entangled in Silva’s legs, and pulled out a Hail Mary kneebar if I’ve ever seen one. It was about as improbable as it gets.

Santiago: I know things are different when you’re watching from a television screen, but every impression I got was that Santiago provided an excellent audience. The level of noise they made during the Diego Rivas fight rivals the noise level of any contest I can recall in recent memory. Don’t be surprised if the UFC begins exploring other South American countries. Maybe Buenos Aires or Lima….

Losers

Alexa Grasso: After toppling Randa Markos to secure the biggest win of her career, Grasso comes to Santiago only to be embarrassed by Suazez in a non-competitive contest. Grasso appeared to be seething – probably at herself – as the decision was read. This should only be a bump in the road as Grasso is only 24. Hell, maybe this loss will serve as motivation for her.

Jared Cannonier: Cannonier didn’t look bad. He looked quick and landed some hard shots on Reyes. The youngster just looks like he’s well on his way to being a contender and Cannonier was simply the roadblock most recently in his way. Even worse, Cannonier has now dropped three of his last four. He’s certainly better than that. Here’s hoping the UFC gives him an opponent that will allow Cannonier to look good.

Veronica Macedo: Why can’t the UFC send Macedo down to Invicta? The 22-year old is so painfully inexperienced that her obvious talent hasn’t been able to shine through. She did rock Lee with a couple of head kicks late in the first round, but found very little success outside of that. I don’t want to see Macedo wash out, but it appears to be a very real possibility.

Chad Laprise: The Canadian was looking good before Luque caught him on the chin. He was dancing around the cage, forcing Luque to chase him as Laprise attempted to outland the Brazilian in the process. Then he got caught and that was it. This loss appears to put a cap on the ceiling of Laprise. Given Laprise is one of the ultimate nice guys in the sport, I hope not.

Zak Cummings: Way back in the day, Cummings fought at 205. The UFC gift wrapped an opportunity for a win when they matched him up with a dude who was recently fighting at 155. Cummings couldn’t find his range, allowing Prazeres to win the striking battle despite a 7” reach disadvantage. Maybe it was just an off night for Cummings, but his job is to ensure his off nights don’t come on fight night. His stock just took a huge hit.

Syuri Kondo: Let’s not pretend the liver isn’t a sensitive organ. There’s a reason Bas Rutten made a career out of targeting it. Kondo now knows why. The former kickboxer couldn’t take the intense pain and crumpled shortly after Botelho connected. I still like the potential of Kondo as she’s been a professional MMA fighter for just over two years, but this wasn’t a good night for her.

Humberto Bandenay: This isn’t necessarily Bandenay’s fault, but he had no business going from Martin Bravo to Gabriel Benitez. Bandenay showed a lot of spunk when he locked on the armbar, but he left the cage with a severe headache after being slammed to the mat violently. The youngster was in over his head.

Brandon Davis: Did Davis watch any film on Barzola? He didn’t appear to be ready for Barzola’s continued takedowns. Davis’ striking looked as it was expected to, but he didn’t remain vertical for enough of the fight. I can excuse his loss to Kyle Bochniak as no one expected Bochniak to fight the way he did. But here against Barzola? Barzola did exactly what was expected of him, meaning there are no excuses for Davis.

Felipe Silva: Silva should have walked out with his hands raised. He should have stood right up when he stopped Puelles momentum. Instead, Silva opted to try and finish the fight from the ground and paid with a loss when he got trapped in a kneebar of all things to get caught in. Silva is fun to watch, but his inexperience continues to shine above all else.

Television Audience: This isn’t a comment on the action in the cage, even with the hard to watch main event. No, this is about how the network presents the product. My dad isn’t the biggest MMA fan, but he’ll sit down and watch with me when he’s around. I guess you could say he’s a casual fan. He got up and left because he couldn’t deal with the excessive commercials and talking heads. The lack of variety in the commercials was also part of the problem. The UFC shouldn’t be a chore to watch, but too often it feels like it is. This card demonstrated that very well.

Neither

Kamaru Usman: There was no debate Usman won the fight. But it was also one of the most painful contests I’ve ever had to sit down and watch… and that includes Maia’s other five-round contests. I realize Usman isn’t completely to blame as he would have been stupid to engage Maia on the ground – and Maia would be stupid to stand with Usman – but this hurts Usman’s case to earn a title shot. Usman claimed he broke both hands in the process, but we’ll find out when the medical reports come out. Eight wins in a row is impressive enough that he could reasonably be fighting for the title in his next contest, but he hurt his marketability severely in the process.

Demian Maia: Even though Maia lost a clear decision, he did better than most expected him to. At 40, he’s lost a step in terms of athletic ability – not that he had much to begin with – and he stood little chance of getting someone like Usman to the ground. Even worse, his kickboxing didn’t appear to be as effective as it was even just one fight ago against Colby Covington. Despite that, he still managed to go the distance with Usman.

Diego Rivas: Rivas performed terribly, making my first reaction to put him in the loser’s column. Seriously, there probably isn’t anyone less reluctant to let their fists fly than Rivas. However, it’s hard to say he’s a loser when he had an INSANE amount of support from the crowd. He could have farted into the microphone and they would have cheered. It’s a moment he’ll never forget. Even a loss can’t put a complete blot on the moment for the native Chilean.

Guido Cannetti: Cannetti won because he sucked less. I get that sounds cruel, especially given he was clearly the less gifted of the fighters in the cage. But his performance wasn’t very impressive, landing more volume because Rivas’ specialty is winning staring contests. He won, but I struggle to see him winning against anyone else in the division – given CM Punk doesn’t drop to bantamweight -- with a performance like that.

Brandon Moreno: Let’s be clear: Moreno was dominated by Alexandre Pantoja. It wasn’t close. Nonetheless, Moreno never gave up and had a few bright moments, particularly in the final round. The kid appears to have lucked out somewhat during his improbable 3-0 run to open his UFC career, but he’s also showing an insane desire to win even when most others would already be broken. Despite the one-sidedness of the contest, no one should be any less excited about the future of Moreno.

Henry Briones: Given Briones was supposed to lose this fight – and was lucky to even remain on the UFC roster given his three-fight losing streak going into this contest – he was already ahead of the curve. His scrappiness ensured that everyone enjoyed his fight and though he ended up losing, he never should have been in this contest in the first place. Briones did well just picking up this paycheck.