Bryce Mitchell absolutely mauls Edson Barboza at UFC 272
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, March 5, 2022, for UFC 272, going down at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, live on pay-per-view.
Headlining the event is a truly epic non-title bout between two of the best welterweights on the planet, best friends turned bitter rivals, Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal.
Co-headlining the event is a catchweight (160 lbs) bout between former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos and Renato Moicano.
Dos Anjos was initially slated against Rafael Fiziev tonight, however, Fiziev withdrew from the bout via injury about a week ago and was replaced by a rising prospect in Moicano.
Our feature fight of the night came in the featherweight division between ranked contenders Edson Barboza (No. 10) and Bryce Mitchell (No. 11).
Barboza has gone 2-2 since moving down to 145 lbs, though a bad decision in his divisional debut says he should be 3-1 at featherweight. Nonetheless, he faces an undefeated, but still somewhat unproven Mitchell here tonight.
Many would consider this a classic striker versus grappler match up, as Barboza’s a former kickboxing champion with loads of knockouts to his resume, while Mitchell is one of the better pure grapplers we’ve seen in the sport.
Something’s got to give in this fight.
Continue reading to see how this featherweight contest went down:
Official Result: Bryce Mitchell def. Edson Barboza via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-26, 30-27)
Mitchell opens up the bout with a hook kick, to our surprise, as Barboza immediately returns two hard inside leg kicks. He lands a few more throughout the first couple minutes, as Mitchell is pressing the action.
Mitchell begins to evade the kicks a little better and opens up with some body kicks of his own. He then catches Barboza with a nasty combo that momentarily drops him. Barboza gets back to his feet however, before he’s taken down.
Barboza doesn’t have many answers for Mitchell off his back, but he’s eventually able to get up and land a nice right hand that backs Mitchell up as the round comes to a close.
Mitchell secures a takedown early in the second and remains on top for the entirety of the round, over four-and-a-half minutes. And the third round is more of the same, only Mitchell is able to pass Barboza’s guard and really pound away at him. He wasn’t able to do that so much in the second.
Mitchell showed us why he belongs in the top 10 tonight, and it should be incredibly interesting seeing what’s next for him. He just melted through a very tough talent, and handily.
Khabib Nurmagomedov and Kevin Lee are the only two men who’ve ever mauled Barboza like that, and now Bryce Mitchell.
This is what the sport is all about ❤️@ThugnastyMMA delivers a powerful message 🙌 #UFC272 pic.twitter.com/XGjJyrv8mj
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) March 6, 2022
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