UFC Freedom 250 Recap: Biggest Winners & Losers

Donald Trump and Dana White made a promise a couple of months ago. They said that the UFC Freedom 250 will be the biggest event in the history of the sport. Both men are known to exaggerate in their statements every now and then. Yet, when everything was said and done on June 14th, no one can argue that they didn’t deliver on their word. As for us, we can only wish a happy birthday to Mr. President, and congratulations to Dana White on the card he assembled. 

Of course, no spectacle would be possible without the fighters in the octagon. This fight card had it all. There were some immense trash talk episodes leading up to the event. Empty promises, delivered statements, and treats that weren’t fulfilled. What we received the most is what we came to see. It was a war in front of the White House with every fight that UFC planned for this one of a kind event. Ilia Topuria, Justin Gaethje, Alex Pereira, Sean O’Malley, Ciryl Gane, Josh Hokit, and the rest of the fighters brought their A game to the UFC Freedom 250. 

Now that the heads have cooled down, at least ours, we can’t say the same for Topuria, Garcia, and Pereira, it is a good moment to pick a few thoughts regarding the event that just ended. If you’ve been placing your house on Topuria to win, as many exclusive UFC Freedom 250 picks and predictions suggested you should do, you probably need a few more days to cool off. The same can’t be said for Arman Tsarukyan who allegedly placed a $1 million wager on Justin Gaethje to win his bout vs. Ilia Topuria. Now, that’s a way to wrap up the betting weekend. In addition to Arman, let’s see who are the other winners of the UFC Freedom 250. 

The No1 Winner-Justin Gaethje

It’s been a long time coming, but Justin Gaethje is finally the undisputed UFC Lightweight champion. He won his belt in a bloody fashion, as he left Ilia Topuria’s face disfigured in his route to winning. Both men exchanged strikes throughout the four rounds, but as the match was coming to an end, Justin was looking as if he was just starting, while Topuria had a bloody face, bruises and cuts all over his face. Gaethje was synonymous for a tough and resilient fighter, and now has just confirmed it once more at the biggest stage of course, nothing is to be taken from Ilia, as he has landed so many body hits on Gaethje that at one point he was close to a stoppage himself. Yet, as so many times before, he survived, turned the tides of the match, and after delivering numerous strikes on Topuria led this bout to a TKO win. Now, Justin Gaethje is the undisputed champion at 155 pounds, looking at his peers below. He can take as much pride in this win as he likes, as winning a belt against an undefeated, 17-0 Topuria, is a feat not many fighters would manage to achieve. Until this bout, the Georgian-Spanish fighter had an aura of invincibility and was a two division champion. Now, he has finally tasted defeat. At the same time, Gaethje is at the top of the world, and the 37 year old fighter, who was close to retirement is now looking to future bouts, title defences, and some of the biggest paydays of his life. 

Ciryl Gane

Gane is in the same boat as Justin Gaethje. After years of missing out on the heavyweight title, he has finally got his hand on another interim belt, and will be looking to crown himself a champion in his next fight. For a heavyweight division mainstay and a fighter who wasn’t shy of crossing paths with Francis Ngannou, Jon Jones, and Tom Aspinall, most pundits were dedicating their attention to Alex Poatan Pereira leading up to this fight. Gane made sure that in the aftermath everyone was talking about him. Of course, Pereira was one trying to make history by being a three division champ, so the media was covering him more. For now, that dream is put on hold. Instead, we’re having Ciryl Gane living his dream. After his last bout, a controversial no contest against Aspinall where everyone poured their hate on Gane for what might be an unintentional eye poke. Today, Gane is only the second ever fighter to stop Pereira with striking, with the first one being Israel Adesanya. While Tom Aspinall stated that he will no longer fight in UFC, he has unfinished business ahead. A rematch against Gane is necessary for both men, and of course, the winner could fight Pereira again, assuming the Brazilian ace finds his footing in the heavyweight division. One can dream, right?

Jos Hokit

Well, you could say a lot about Hokit and be right. He was all over the place during the media day in front of the Lincoln Memorial, even feuding with Ilia Topuria. Yet, when it mattered the most, he delivered. Lewis was no match for The Incredible Hok who now moved to 10-0 in his professional career, and he is the next in line to get in the title contention at UFC. While most of us who were betting on UFC Freedom 250 knew that Hokit has what it takes to beat Lewis, until you do it, it doesn’t matter whether you claim you can or cannot do something in the world of MMA. Now, in the aftermath of the White House card, Hokit has two consecutive wins against top 10 heavyweight in the UFC moving his professional record in the octagon to 4-0. While his pre match appearance and treatment of the media is too similar to WWE for your average UFC fan, as far as what he does in the octagon he might be close to being a top 3 heavyweight fighter in the division. What adds to the win of his own is the fact that he took on both Topuria and Pereira during the lead up to the event, and when it all was said and done, both of them lost, while he added another convincing win to his resume. 

The Losers – No1 & No2

Ilia Topuria didn’t lose just a single match. He lost more than he could have imagined. First, he is no longer undefeated. Yes, Ilia was quick to change his record on his Instagram page to 18-0. Now, Ilia is 17-1. Secondly, he lost the belt. No longer being a champ must stings like hell, especially when it was evident that ego was getting the better off Topuria in recent months. He’s good, but not as good as to underestimate the hardest hitter octagon has ever seen at 155 in Justin Gaethje. Lastly, Gaethje mauled Topuria for four rounds, leaving him in quite a mess. There’s a chance that Ilia has suffered permanent damage to his vision, and it is almost certain that his appearance will be different coming forward. 

For many fans, the beating Ilia received was well deserved. He didn’t show proper respect to Gaethje who is one of the veterans of the sport, and his record before the last bout which stood at 27-5 was nothing to scoff at. Justin has both strength and size to take any opponent in the division, and in his eyes, Topuria was a worthy opponent, and Gaethje gave him full respect and prepared for the bout accordingly. El Matador still started the fight on a higher note, and after landing quite a few hits on Justin’s body he had him on the ground, and that’s where the bout received a u-turn. Instead of waiting for Gaethje to stand up, and to continue dismantling him, Topuria went for submission. That gave time to Gaethje to rest, pick himself up, and turn the tides of the bout. What followed were a series of vicious attacks by Gaethje who managed to land more and more strikes on Topuria’s head and body as rounds progressed. 

When it was all said and done, it was only fair to give some of the flowers to Ilia. Both men were gladiators, and Topuria continued to pose a threat to Gaethje even after it was evident that his vision was compromised, and that his face was getting to a point where it was recognizable. The bout ended in a TKO after Topuria was unable to get up from his still during the break leading up to the final round. While this defeat was hard for Topuria, what follows will be even harder. First, he will need to rest and take some time to heal, both physically and mentally. He will have to learn to be more humble, as he has not lost by a fluke hit to the head or judge’s decision, but was dismantled by his opponent throughout four rounds. Lastly, he will have to climb his way up to a title fight, and that means at least two more bouts of lesser importance, at least compared to what Topuria was used to, up to this point. 

In addition to Topuria, we also need to single out Michael Chandler as a big loser of the White House UFC card. For a man who stood up and waited for Conor McGregor to fight him for too long, he cannot get a win against anyone who enters the same octagon as him. Maybe Conor should have done him an honour, and get an easy comeback to UFC that way. Chandler has lost his fourth consecutive defeat, and third via stoppage. In front of the President, he was knocked out by Maurico Ruffy. Chandler is now 2-6 in UFC, and considering he is in his 40s, he is closer to retirement than he is to fighting another serious name in the company. He looks fine, when you look at his body, as he takes good care of it. Yet, his end product in the octagon has been subpar for years now, and he’s better off retirement as he’s not getting any younger, and dare we say, not any better either. 

Alex Pereira

We’re not putting Alex Pereira in the same tier of losers as Ilia Topuria and Michael Chandler. Yet, he did lose, and failure must hurt, but we also cannot look past the fact that Alex Pereira tried to make history. If he won, he would be one step closer to becoming a champion in three different divisions. No fighter before has managed to do it. Now that he has failed to achieve that feat, we must turn around and say that Pereira bit more than he could chew. Moving up division is a move worth respecting but, getting straight into title contention was a bit overboard.

The UFC needed to know better. Getting bulkier always means getting slower. Instead of having Poatan fighting Gane straight out of the gate, he was better off facing one of the lesser fighters in the division. Of course losing to another heavyweight under the same spotlight would hurt less, but would have similar consequences. The question that remains now, is whether Alex has what it takes to fight in the heaviest division UFC has? He now knows that he’s not fast enough, and maybe even not big enough to face the best of the best. The only way to find out where he stands, is to quickly pit him against another heavyweight. While it’s hard to predict who that might be, one thing is clear, Alex is ready to fight as soon as possible. 

During his White House interview, Alex has stated that he has signed a contract with UFC for numerous bouts, and that he intends to honour the deal he signed. In his own words: “Brother, I’m an employee of the UFC. So it doesn’t matter who they put on. As long as the guy has two arms and two legs, not like Goro from Mortal Kombat, they have 4 arms, I’m fighting.”