Bloody Elbow · May 9, 2022
UFC 274: Oliveira vs. Gaethje - Unofficial Awards
Andre Fialho celebrating his KO win over Cameron VanCamp at UFC 274UFC 274 was far from a perfect event. It featured one of the worst fights in recent memory when Rose Namajunas and Carla Esparza must have had an unspoken agreement between one another to see who could create the least amount of effective offense over the course of 25 minutes and still pull out a victory. Neither competitor will ever live down the performance. It’s not like Ovince Saint Preux and Shogun Rua did much better earlier on the main card. But the other three fights on the main card… it’s hard to ask for them to be better than they were. Due to his weight miss, Charles Oliveira was unable to retain his title, but he sure as hell added to his legacy by going toe-to-toe with the legendary action fighting Justin Gaethje and coming out on top. Michael Chandler delivered a new challenger – perhaps frontrunner – for KOoTY when he became the first to put Tony Ferguson to sleep. And though it isn’t getting much love due to the lower stature of themselves in comparison to the rest of the fights, Randy Brown and Khaos Williams deserve major kudos for their curtain jerker. Will they be rewarded with my Unofficial Awards? Let’s find out….