Best performances imo of the champs:
1: Whittaker- Came to fight, lost to the better man, strategy was flawed in first fight. Made improvements in the rematch.
2: Stipe- Came to fight. Had a small margin of error to navigate and was not able to avoid being hit. He needed a perfect fight. No shame there.
3: Woodley - at least he didn't get finished, but he had to know he wasn't winning and it didnt feel like he "went for it" but rather he pretty much accepted defeat. Finally someone made him pay for his backing against the fence, so more props to Usman for his performance than anything, Usman is a beast.
4: Jan - I want to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was hurt or in danger of having his jaw broke, but he offered what appeared to be minimal resistance to that RnC.
5: Rose - absolutely fucking horrible, embarrassing. Gave her belt away because she wouldn't fight to defend it. I try not to shit on fighters, but I'll give credit where credit is due, and that was an absolute shit performance
That is the same order I have.
1. Whittaker came in confident for his Defense against interim champ Izzy, but the walkout, the fight, it just wasn't in the cards. He still brought it.
2. Stipe, I thought this fight was going to go exactly how it did after watching a rabbit hole of both their careers side by side and when Francis took him down I was like, oh boy Stipe is in trouble. But he stayed in the fight, made me think Ngannou might gas if it goes too much longer at one point, even might have slightly rocked Francis (though Francis said it just knocked him off balance), but then got reckless and finished.
3. Woodley, didn't get finished, had like one moment in the 4th or something like that, got to put him 3rd due more to the other poor perfromances.
4. Jan, Same as
@jeff7b9 said, hoped for more, but minimal resistance in the end, a disappointing fight. However, I will say, one thing that doesn't get mentioned ever is that Jan apparently suffered some kind of neck or spinal issue a few months prior to that and I even want to say I read an interview where he was still not fully healed about a month before the fight. So the way that choke was applied w/ a neck/spine injury could make the quick tap seem more reasonable to me.
5. Rose, on par w/ Lewis/Ngannou for the worst fight of possibly all time, but considering this was a title match and her corner was telling her she was winning and following the game plan, I think you have to rank Rose/Esparza II as a worse fight than Ngannou/Lewis and the absolute bottom of this and any other similar list.
