Usually in these pieces I like to only focus on the fights that actually have relevant consequences to the top 15-ish of the respective division, or fights that warrant my attention for other good reasons. UFC 225 had a lot of both of these, so this column will be an extensive follow-up on most of 225 as a whole. The Ige-Santiago fight wasn't super important, so I'll cast that aside and start with Guida vs Oliveira. I picked Guida to win and of course my 20-20 hindsight is telling me how stupid I am for thinking so. Guida obviously likes to be in top position on the ground, so I figured he'd be content with chilling in Oliveira's guard for three rounds and scoring via damage and control time. This never materialized, and it appeared that Guida really never stood a chance in this fight. His call-out of Nate Diaz seems much more laughable now than the time it happened, if that's even possible. Guida has certainly delivered exciting performances in the past, but the sport has evidently moved on from him. No one would fault him for retiring. As for Oliveira, I haven't much to say, as he seems to alternate wins and losses in the UFC, so as soon as he gets out of limbo, I'm sure I'll have something.

My parlay ended in devastating fashion early on with Sergio Pettis' split decision win over Joseph Benavidez. I'm surprised it wasn't unanimous for Pettis, even though I was in hard damage control until the final bell, telling myself Benavidez did enough to steal a decision. In reality, Benavidez was flailing punches the whole night, and was at the ass-end of the only knock-down of the fight. Plus, Pettis stuffed all the takedown attempts which, when done over and over, the judges love. I doubt Sergio Pettis gets the next shot at DJ though. Call me crazy, but a one win streak from a split decision to get a title shot just doesn't do it for me. He'll probably get either Ray Borg or Jussier Formiga in a title eliminator. Benavidez, on the other hand, could realistically get either of those two, or a ton of others. I'll predict that he gets matched up with Alexandre Pantoja next.

Next, Anthony Smith retired (literally) Rashad Evans with a knee from the clinch a minute into the fight. For a career middleweight fighting a career light-heavyweight, it was quite ridiculous to see how much bigger Smith was than Evans. Entertaining fight for as long as it lasted, I suppose. Evans will probably resume his his analyst career, while Smith actually seems like he can hang with the light-heavy's. 

In the FS1 prelims, what a night-and-day fight it was in rounds 1 and 2 between Rashad Coulter and Chris "Big Mexican with a Big Head" De La Rocha. Both guys seem to be amateurish, especially De La Rocha. For as exciting as round one was, Coulter was running on E after two minutes and De La Rocha clearly just wanted to lay on Coulter. He got his wish in round two, and Jesus Christ was it hard to watch. He'd land a punch every ten minutes until the referee spared us all because Coulter was paralyzed from poor cardio via powdered donettes and slushies. Not much more to talk about in this one, thank God.

In another fight I picked incorrectly, Mirsad Bektic out-grappled Ricardo Lamas in a unanimous decision victory. If Bektic can stay consistent and keep things rolling, he'll probably challenge for the title in a year or so. Looking at the rankings, Bektic could easily get matched up with Chan Sung Jung, better known as The Korean Zombie, especially since Josh Emmett's face is still broken. As for Lamas, I'm not out on him just yet, but he has lost two in a row. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets matched up with someone like Makwan Amirkhani or some other unranked prospect.

We certainly had some questionable judging in the Gadelha-Esparza fight. Gadelha, the heaviest favorite on the card, seemed to be out-struck and out-grappled on multiple occasions. Perhaps they were covering for Vegas, or themselves, who knows? Actually, probably neither, but you catch my drift. I just wish they were this lenient for my Benavidez fight. This turns out to be a huge win for Gadelha, as she maintains her #3 contender spot in an all of a sudden top heavy division that is finally experiencing some turnover. On the other hand, this is really, really unfortunate for Esparza. She seemed to back on the right track, but now she, along with a couple others, are now in that Tatiana Suarez range, and I doubt anyone wants to face her right now. We'll see what pans out here.

After three minutes into the first round, Alistair Overeem and Curtis Blaydes remembered they were actually there to fight. I don't think the way this fight played out surprised anyone, for the most part. Overeem wanted to keep distance and counter, and he had success in most of the striking exchanges. Conversely, Blaydes wanted to get attached to Overeem but couldn't seem to effectively traverse Overeem's knees. After some back and forth, Overeem did that thing that he always does, that thing that I hate, and shelled up against the cage for no apparent reason and let Blaydes unload on him. This allowed Blaydes to secure his final takedown and (hell)bow a bloody hole in Alistair's head. If you missed it, it looked like Stipe vs Overeem, just this time it was elbows instead of punches and there was a lot more blood. As far as I can tell, Overeem still wants to fight, and looking at the rankings, it seems most likely he'll get matched up with Andrei Arlovski. That of course, depends on each guy's likely medical suspensions lining up and if Arlovski still wants to fight as well. For Curtis Blaydes, he could probably sit out and get a title shot, in my opinion. However, there is so much up in the air depending on who wins the Stipe-DC fight, the UFC may force him into a title eliminator with Alexander Volkov. We shall see...

On the main card, we were treated to a surprise three round slug-fest between Andrei Arlovski and Tai Tuivasa. Tuivasa was a considerable favorite heading into the fight, and I think we can all understand why. But credit to Arlovski, his chin magically fossilized over the duration of his win streak and turned to stone, just in time for Tuivasa. Arlovski clearly showed that he can still hang at heavyweight, but the UFC is probably happy he lost and didn't derail the Tuivasa hype train. I sort of mentioned this before, but it's hard to predict who Arlovski will face next. He was ranked 9th and lost to 12. Maybe they'll feed him to Big Sexy, or whatever Justin Willis' nickname is. Tai Tuivasa, I would assume is going to take some time off, as he's been pretty active this year and just took a ton of damage. Therefore, no prediction for Tuivasa's next fight. 

Next, Holly Holm probably pissed off the UFC by defeating Megan Anderson via lay and pray. Not only did she eliminate a mysterious and possible Cyborg contender, she really exposed a giant hole in Anderson's game. Anderson, the much bigger woman, was helpless underneath Holm, and simply could not get up. She was clearly winning on the feet, but was so easily taken down and controlled. I was actually excited to watch Anderson fight, but this was disgusting. This was the golden ticket to face Cyborg, and you go in there like you've never trained off of your back before? Like, what the hell was that? Holm didn't seem too definitive about what she wanted to do next, and there's no one to fight at 145 for Anderson, so... skip.

Now, what we've all been waiting for. All hail King Colby y'all. Just kidding, but still. I, for one, am GLAD Colby won. I think his act is kinda lame but I respect the hustle and he really does make me laugh (in a good way) sometimes. Plus, if you really think about, Colby taking the belt to Trump is a good thing. Every major outlet would cover it in some capacity, big or small, and it would bring a lot more attention to the UFC. Especially with some of the things Colby has said, you already know some news outlets would not be able to resist making some kind of tie to Trump, because Colby is a racist (he's not), or some other lame buzzword reason. Regardless, just think of all the attention the UFC could get from having a champion meet the president. Love him or hate him, Covington is getting the UFC's brand out there, and that should be recognized to an extent. You and all the other fighters can laugh and point all you want, but right now, Colby is winning. 

Back to fight talk. I believe Tyron Woodley destroys both RDA and Colby Covington. Don't give me that cardio talk either. Woodley kinda pisses me off sometimes when he talks, but he is an elite fighter, both physically and mentally. You gotta respect his greatness. The point is, at least there will be an entertaining build-up to the unification bout. Trust me, I really wouldn't mind a Woodley-RDA fight, but you wouldn't even care until a week before. Now, we can have months of surely entertaining banter, capped off with a bad-blood, high-stakes bout. 

This wasn't the dominating KO victory Colby Covington predicted, but it was still a convincing win. RDA very well may be the more talented fighter, but Colby gave him no chance at all to show it. Colby is the better wrestler, so he turned the fight into a grueling, 25 minute wrestling match (with some strikes here and there). RDA could hardly load up and fight in space, where he would certainly have the advantage. You simply have to respect the elite wresting and cardio from Colby Covington. The banter between him and Woodley has already begun, we're just waiting for the fight booking now. As for RDA, this is a demoralizing loss. Was Colby in his head? Maybe, but that's no excuse. In the UFC Embedded's, his team talked a big game and failed on the biggest stage. RDA does seem like the kind of guy to want to bounce back quick from this, though. I would have to assume it's either Till, Thompson, or Usman next for RDA.

Now for the main event that should have been for the belt. (You can take your .2 lbs and go to hell, Illinois Commission.) I'm very happy that the fight delivered, but not with the decision. I thought round 5 was 10-8 Romero and it should've been a draw. With the Whittaker win, the UFC can now move on from middleweight Yoel Romero with a clear conscience. As much as I'd like to see these two fight again, you can't have a rubber match when it's 2-0. That's not how it works. Plus, whether you think Yoel could've made the weight without the commission stepping in or not, he's been a liability his past two fights. Although there is no clear contender at 185 outside of Romero right now, I just can't see this fight happening again. I'm not even sure Whittaker would take another fight with Romero, considering all the shit he's been put through with him. Maybe with the weigh-in changes being discussed by Dana White things could change, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Robert Whittaker has proven to be a worthy belt holder, so I wouldn't mind terribly if he were to choose a different contender to face. Both men were physically battered from this fight, so there's gonna be some time before we get some clarity on this situation for good. 

Overall, the main event was a success considering the circumstances, but I just feel bad for Yoel. Yoel truly feels that he won, which is understandable, but he's probably going to be forced up to light-heavyweight now. God, I can't help but wonder what would happen if Yoel actually had the energy to finish Whittaker in the 5th. Whittaker was in TROUBLE, but Yoel couldn't even will himself to ground and pounding, all he could do was lay on him. Sad! Regardless, what's done is done, and there is no obvious contender for Whittaker. While Whittaker heals, the UFC may just have to book Gastelum and Weidman again for some clarity at the top. I have a feeling both men would be opposed to this, but unless Luke Rockhold miraculously changes his mind about the 185 lb weight cut, this is probably the only way to decide with Yoel Romero now out of the picture. Speaking of Yoel, he could have earned himself a title eliminator with Alexander Gustafsson with a win on Saturday night, according to Dana White. Now, that's still possible considering how the fight transpired, but if Yoel continues to fight, it's much more feasible to see him matched up with either Jan Blachowicz or Jimi Manuwa, as those are the highest ranked guys without fights booked, other than Gus. Please don't retire, Yoel.