UFC Edmonton mailbag: Brandon Moreno’s masterclass, Rose Namajunas at 125 and Erin Blanchfield’s ceiling

UFC Edmonton went down this past weekend and a couple of very notable results happened. In the main event, Brandon Moreno broke his losing streak, dominating Amir Albazi in a sensational performance for the former champion, while in the co-main event, Erin Blanchfield also got back in the win column, albeit by eking out a win over former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas.

So with a lot to talk about, let’s dive right in to this week’s questions.

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Brandon Moreno

“Thoughts on the fact that Moreno put on a masterclass but didn’t even get a bonus?”

“Masterclass” is the correct word for what Moreno did to Albazi on Saturday; he won that fight pillar to post. Credit to Albazi who despite being clearly outclassed still hung tough, even surviving a couple of scares in there, but that was one of those one-sided performances that really puts into perspective the gap between Albazi and the top tier of the weight class.

It was also a stark reminder of how small the margins are in MMA. Moreno was on a two-fight losing streak heading into this weekend and as such was almost an afterthought. But those losses were contentious split decisions and in another universe, Moreno is still the UFC flyweight champion. On any given night he can perform like the best in the world.

As for not getting a bonus, it’s to be expected. Though “performance” is open ended enough to mean anything, the Performance of the Night bonuses are derived from the old Knockout and Submission of the Night awards, and the UFC treats them as such, which is fine. Jasmine Jasudavicius, Dustin Stoltzfus, Charles Jourdain, and Youssef Zalal all probably could use the $50,000 more than Moreno.

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Rose Namajunas

“If ‘Thug Rose’ didn’t get to cocky and attempt a takedown on the heavier grappler, would Blanchfield’s low Fight IQ lose her the fight?”

Man, I sure thought it was going to.

It’s no secret that I’ve been extremely high on Blanchfield as a prospect. I’ve got a lot of Take Equity stored up in her becoming champion one day. And for 10-plus minutes on Saturday, I was calling my Take Broker to scout options for dumping my stock.

Simply put, Blanchfield was atrocious for the first two rounds of that fight. I have no idea what the plan was, but I simply cannot imagine the plan was “willingly engage in a long-range, low-volume kickboxing match with Rose” because that would be among the dumbest game plans ever created. And it’s not like Rose was forcing Blanchfield out of her comfort zone, Blanchfield just didn’t try to do anything other than get sniped. It was maddeningly bad, and I still cannot figure out why she did it.

HOWEVER, I take issue with the idea that Rose “got cocky” with her takedown attempt. Rose got forced into that takedown attempt, because in the third round, Blanchfield started fighting. Namajunas has never liked to be in fire fights, and after punting the first two rounds, Blanchfield decided to start walking into the line of fire and exchanging. Although she also got hit a bunch, Blanchfield started landing and tagged Rose, leading her to look for an escape route with the takedown. I don’t think that was necessarily bad Fight IQ from Rose, but a good adjustment from Blanchfield.

That being said, there was one instance earlier in the fight that I’ve re-thought quite a bit, and while I don’t think it’s “bad Fight IQ” per se, I do think it’s instructive of where Namajunas is in her career and up at flyweight.

In the second round, Rose hits a trip on Blanchfield and ends up in side control, but instead of holding the position and working, Namajunas immediately stands up and retreats to striking range. Part of me can understand the thinking there of not engaging with the grappler, but another part of me believes that’s a sign of a legitimate issue with Namajunas at this stage of her career: she doesn’t fight to win, she fights not to lose.

If you go back and watch the Carla Esparza rematch (don’t do that to yourself, it’s terrible) that fight is really just two women completely unwilling to risk losing, so neither does much of anything, and frankly, that’s no way to be a professional fist fighter. I’m not saying everyone has to become Justin Gaethje, but passivity is a deadly sin in this game and Namajunas really seems to have that in her now, especially when she’s facing someone who can clearly threaten her.

I don’t know where Rose goes from here, but if she can’t get that spark back, I think we’ve probably seen the end of fun Namajunas fights and her title aspirations.

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Erin Blanchfield

“She’s still only 25, but how long until Blanchfield’s reliance on her toughness as opposed to learning striking defense becomes a concern?”

It’s already a concern, though not the biggest one I have at this moment.

Blanchfield is a terrible striker, full stop. It’s not just her defense, it’s her offense as well. For as comfortable and effortless as Blanchfield looks on the ground, she looks physically uncomfortable and uncoordinated striking. Like a newborn baby deer stumbling around on legs it’s just figuring out are hers, that’s Blanchfield when it comes to striking.

Right now, the only reason Blanchfield’s striking can be effective is, as you pointed out, because she’s pretty tough and she’s willing to take one to give one. But that sort of brawling mentality goes a long way, especially in a weight class where there are maybe a half-dozen people who can really crack. Honestly, if I were coaching her (and let me stress this: I am not a coach, I am a moron) I’d work on building her offense because that’s a more critical piece of the puzzle right now. Give Blanchfield some real weapons she can rely on on the feet and the defense can get sorted out later.

But the thing that most concerns me about Blanchfield right now is how disjointed her game is. Blanchfield is a great grappler and a solid wrestler and athlete, but none of it works together. She does not blend the martial arts, she engages in them separately at each stage and so both are lessened dramatically by that. Nobody would ever confuse Khabib Nurmagomedov with an elite striker, but he had enough tools there to compete and his striking game was entirely catered to serve his grappling. That’s what Blanchfield needs and instead she has a great Plan A and limited ways to impose it.

The upper bounds of women’s flyweight has people who can match the physicality Blanchfield brings to bear. We saw that in the Manon Fiorot fight, and to some extent, we saw that on Saturday. Blanchfield is not the sort of hyper-athlete that can just run over even the best fighters, so she needs to get a cohesive offensive sorted out sooner rather than later or she’ll never win the title.

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Callout

“Asking as a Blanchfield fan, how does a fight against Alexa Grasso go for her? Was that the right callout?”

In case you missed it, Blanchfield called for a fight with Alexa Grasso next, and I while I initially liked it, I’ve cooled on the idea with more time to think about it, at least promotionally.

Fiorot has the next shot at Valentina Shevchenko, but after that, the title picture is pretty empty. A win over Grasso would definitely put Blanchfield in line for the next title shot, but if Grasso wins and so does Shevchenko, now the UFC just killed off a contender for a fight that we really do not need to see again.

Instead, Blanchfield should fight Maycee Barber. This is obviously dependent on Barber being healthy enough to compete, and for the moment, that seems like it may not be the case. But if she can solve whatever issues she’s facing, Blanchfield vs. Barber makes the most sense as a no-doubt-about-it No. 1 contender fight.

That being said, if Barber doesn’t work out and the Grasso fight is what happens, that’s not a terrible consolation prize. And I’m genuinely interested in the matchup. Historically, Grasso is a bad defensive wrestler, which lines up well for Blanchfield, but Blanchfield is so one-track at this point, that should help Grasso prepare and make things tough on Blanchfield. Valentina Shevchenko took Grasso down a billion times because she’s a physical monster AND she’s dangerous on the feet. Blanchfield doesn’t have that same threat so Grasso has a very good chance against her.

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Youssef Zalal

“How good is Youssef Zalal? I admit I didn’t pay much attention to his 1st run in the UFC but 3 subs in his last 3 fights is impressive, along with the fact he took Ilia Topuria the distance back in 2020...who would you book him against next?”

Seems pretty good!

Zalal is a lock for making the 2024 All-Violence Team with three finishes and two bonuses in three fights, and it just goes to show that sometimes the best thing for a career can be to leave the UFC. Development isn’t linear and it’s not the same for every fighter, and the regional circuit can be extremely good for building a fighter back up after a tough run. Just look at Zalal.

As for who he should fight next, let’s go with the winner of the Nate Landwehr vs. Doo Ho Choi fight at UFC 310.

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LONG TIME

“UFC cards feel like they are getting longer, and in some cases, they are. Your solution?”

Per the great Mike Bohn, UFC Edmonton ended with 3:06:38 of total fight time, the third-longest in UFC history. And I’ll be honest, it felt like that.

Fights were on for seven hours and Saturday frankly, parts of it felt like an eternity. It’s not necessarily anyone’s fault but a lot of that card was competent yet unmemorable. It’s like that line from Ocean’s 11 where Brad Pitt tells Matt Damon the bad guy needs to like you and then forget about you immediately. The UFC Edmonton undercard was the Linus of fight cards.

And in my mind there are only two ways to “fix” this. The first is to bring pageantry back into the production to break things up and keep it feeling fresh. But we know that’s never going to happen, so the other option is to have fewer fights.

13 fights is a lot of fights. Hell, it’s a lot of anything (other than rice). 10 fights is a nice round number that’s hard to feel bad about. Part of the reason I like Contender Series so much is that it’s five fights, and we’re done. In the absence of pageantry, efficiency rules. And on Saturday, I was definitely wishing for a little more efficiency.

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Thanks for reading, and thank you for everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.