Better contender performance. Erceg vs Pantoja or Umar vs Dvalishvili?

[13Seconds]

Both Erceg and Umar lost competitive battles vs Pantoja and Dvalishvili. Both competitive fights where either of these two contenders might have won with mid fight adjustments.

Erceg fumbled it in the last round while Umar gassed. Who came the closest to winning?

 

[MMASpeculator]

1 more round and Erceg finishes Pantoja. 1 more round and Merab might have finished Umar.

Erceg with the better performance imo.

 

[sdpdude9]

Erceg for sure. He was competitive all 5 rounds. While I don’t agree with the narrative that Umar got “destroyed” in the latter rounds he clearly was a step behind and fading.

 

[King in the North]

Definitely Erceg

Umar didn’t look bad but he clearly lost three rounds. Maybe even four.

 

[JustOnce]

Umar. Umar arguably won the third though he didn't.

 

[gentel]

Erceg for sure, that was the performance of a lifetime jumping straight into a title fight and almost pulling out the win, just that misguided decision to try and grapple in the 5th round

And Pantoja is top-3 P4P imo, with a totally reasonable argument for #1

 

[swizztony]

Umar just based on the fact that it was that close with a broken hand

 

[RockyLockridge]

Erceg not particularly close

 

[13Seconds]

Umar just based on the fact that it was that close with a broken hand

Important to note that Merab was injured too.

 

[Siver!]

Erceg had the better performance, but is far less likely to win a title in the future.

 

[bjjwar]

Umar beat Merab the first rounds. He broke his hand, but mainly just gassed quicker. He showed he's the much better fighter since he was easily beating Merab when both were fresh. Props to Merab tho for beating everyone while being terrible at everything.

 

[DrRodentia]

I think Umar showed more elite level skill. If he would have just calmed the fuck down a little bit, that fight was his.

Pantoja likely overlooked Erceg a little bit, and that resulted in a surprising performance.