Flashback - Fight Night: Mendes vs. Llamas

This epic card happened 7 years ago today in Fairfax, Virginia. 

To start off the main card, Dustin Poirier began his epic lightweight run. Poirier KO’d Diego Ferreira (who would go on to win his next six fights) in the first round. Afterwards Poirier was very fired up and called out Louisiana. Subsequently he would make a quick turnaround and fight 2 month later in his home state. 

Any card is made better with Clay Guida. He  earned his 12th victory in his 21st UFC fight. 

Pena got her 2nd victory by KO in a row, in her return after winning TUF. This was the beginning of her winstreak that would be ended by Valentina.

The co-main event was a lightweight battle between Jorge Masvidal and Al Iaquinta. This would be Masvidal's last fight at lightweight and Iaquinta would not fight for another 2 years. The fight was an entertaining one. In the first round Masvidal opened up cuts on Iaquinta's face en route to winning the round on all the scorecards. Accoring to MMA Decisions, most media scorecards would go to Masvidal while the official ones read split decision win for Iaquinta. I like this fight because it shows the evolution of Masvidal from 2015 to 2019.

During the telecast, a promo was shown for Aldo vs. McGregor which was slated to take place in three months. The main event would prove a springboard for Mendes into that main event. If Mendes doens't beat Lamas, maybe he doesn't get the call and deprive us of Mendes vs. McGregor, which was a classic fight. Mendes swarmed him and was relentless with ground and pound until the ref stopped it.

Llamas would go on to face three legends in a row after this fight (Sanchez, Holloway, Oliveira). Another interesting note is half of the main card is still in the UFC.

* Edited at 04.04.2022, 3:27 PM ET *