10 memorable moments from UFC Fight Night, including eye test, cats, karate machine gun

Before the MMA world turns its attention to the busy upcoming weekend with both UFC and Bellator events, let’s take some time to reflect back on what took place at UFC Fight Night 86 in Zagreb, Croatia.

In Sunday’s FOX Sports 1-televised main event, former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos put the top of the division on notice with a resurgent performance against Ben Rothwell. In the co-main event, Derrick Lewis let those who are hoping to climb the heavyweight rankings know they may have to speak to him before they make their move.

A little further down the card, lightweight Mairbek Taisumov raised eyebrows with his fourth straight knockout win.

A lot went down last weekend in Zagreb, and here are the 10 most memorable moments.

1. Back in the hunt

Dos Santos (18-4 MMA, 12-3 UFC) entered his fight against Rothwell (36-10 MMA, 6-4 UFC) with many wondering if recent losses to Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem had left him at a point where retirement was a viable option. Dos Santos silenced that talk with a dominant win.

Dos Santos picked apart Rothwell over the course of five rounds, abusing him with body shots and letting all his doubters know there’s still a lot of fight left in that 32-year-old body. Dos Santos’ win was impressive enough that it led to questions about fighting for the heavyweight title, maybe even at UFC 198, if need be.

Whatever the timeline, Dos Santos has his sights set on regaining the title Velasquez took from him at UFC 155.

2. Beastin’

Things didn’t look good for Lewis (15-4 MMA, 6-2 UFC) early in his heavyweight contest against Gonzaga (17-11 MMA, 12-10 UFC). The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt took Lewis to the mat early and gained side control, and when Lewis gave up his back, well, things looked even worse. However, Lewis worked back to his feet, and when the opportunity presented itself to throw hands, Lewis did so, dropping Gonzaga to the mat, earning the stoppage and a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus.

As for what’s next for the surging Lewis, he has his eyes focused on Roy Nelson.

3. Rewriting the book

Heading into UFC Fight Night 86, the book on Francis Ngannou (7-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) was that he was dangerous on his feet, but his lack of experience on the ground could hurt him against the wrestling-based attack of Curtis Blaydes (5-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC).

That book was left in tatters after Ngannou shrugged off the majority of Blaydes’ takedown attempts. When Blaydes did get Ngannou to the mat, he quickly got back to his feet and took control with his striking – striking that won Ngannou the heavyweight contest after he left Blaydes with a right eye that was swollen so badly that the doctor had no choice but to stop the fight at the end of the second round.

Ngannou remains a work in progress, but he’s a promising work in progress.

4. Doctor’s orders

About the right eye of Blaydes. It was evident to the cageside physician that Blaydes was unable to see, yet Blaydes’ corner kept telling the doctor the fighter was fine.

The doctor, not buying it, told referee Kevin Sataki that Blaydes was done. The reply from Sataki was, “He says he can see.” As if to prove his point, the doctor held up a finger, and Blaydes had to blindly reach and grab the doctor’s hand to physically count how many fingers he was holding up. Even after that Sataki could be heard saying, “But he says he can see.”

It’s understandable that a fighter would want to continue. What’s not understandable is that a corner, and especially a referee, would try to ignore a doctor saying, “It’s over.” Thankfully, the fight was waved off before Blaydes could suffer further damage.

5. Strange advice

In between the second and third rounds of his heavyweight fight against Marcin Tybura (13-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC), Timothy Johnson (10-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) told his corner that he felt he had damaged something in his left arm after blocking a kick. His corner responded by saying, “Break it on his (expletive) face then. Hit him with it.”

Johnson ignored that advice and went on to win the fight by unanimous decision.

6. Weird feline fact

Every once in a while we learn a little something personal about a fighter during a broadcast. Thanks to Brian Stann, we learned that Cristina Stanciu (5-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC), who suffered a unanimous-decision loss Maryna Moroz (7-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC), in their entertaining strawweight fight, has a lot of cats – 25, according to Stann.

That’s a lot of cats.

7. Definition of insanity

Ian Entwistle (9-3 MMA, 1-2 UFC) had one goal in his bantamweight bout against Alejandro Perez (17-6 MMA, 3-1 UFC): get a leg-lock submission.

Perez was having none of that, and he countered well and landed a significant amount of strikes to the head of Entwistle in the process. While absorbing those strikes, Entwistle continued to go for the submission, which proved to be a huge mistake, and he was forced to verbally submit after Perez’s attack became too much to bear.

It should also be noted that Entwistle accused Perez of greasing his legs, which led to a brief stoppage in which the referee, Grant Waterman, checked Perez’s legs, found no foul, and subsequently had some blunt words with Entwistle about the accusations.

8. Talking to you, Joe Silva

Mairbek Taisumov (25-5 MMA, 5-1 UFC) entered his lightweight bout against Damir Hadzovic (10-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) with three knockout victories in his previous three fights, and he made it four straight by stopping Hadzovic with a hellacious uppercut.

While the finish was impressive, more impressive was Taisumov using his in-cage mic time to call out the UFC in general and matchmaker Joe Silva specifically.

“Joe Silva, UFC, how many knockouts and TKOs do I have to have to get (an opponent) in the top 10?” Taisumov asked.

Taisumov doubled down on asking for a top-10 opponent post-fight.

9. Best winning celebration

Damian Stasiak (9-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC) ended Filip Pejic’s (10-2-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) UFC debut at the 2:16 mark of the first round, submitting him via rear-naked choke.

The submission was impressive, but more memorable was Stasiak’s celebration, which Stann referred to as “the karate machine gun.”

10. Act like you’ve been there before

If you want to see a fighter pull off the nonchalant post-knockout walk, check out Jared Cannonier.

Cannonier (8-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) dropped Cyril Asker (7-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) with a big left, and then noticing the referee was not stopping the fight, he literally walked to where Asker was sprawled on his back and finished the fight with ground strikes.

After the referee called the fight, Cannonier stood and walked away like it was just another day at the office. Impressive work from a heavyweight who declared he plans on dropping to light heavyweight at some point.

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 86, check out the UFC Events section of the site.