The FOX UFC Fight Night card on Saturday night in Tampa endured a lot of last minute changes over the past few weeks, but the show still delivered with a ton of huge moments highlighting the show.
At the top of the card, Glover Teixeira scored a thunderous knockout win, finishing Rashad Evans less than two minutes into the first round for his third straight victory. Despite taking the fight on short notice, Teixeira was the favorite going into the fight and his performance showed why he earned that respect.
Fantasy players on UFC.com agreed with Teixeira's status as the favorite, because he was favored to win by 65 percent of the participants, with 52 percent picking him to win by knockout. Teixeira certainly paid off with his win as he moves one step closer towards title contention.
In the co-main event, Rose Namajunas was the overwhelming favorite with 79 percent of fantasy players choosing her to win, but the method of victory was problematic. 51 percent of players picked Namajunas to win by submission, which wasn't a bad choice considering her history on the ground with past opponents. Unfortunately, this time around Namajunas was fighting Tecia Torres, who had never been beaten as a professional, much less submitted. In fact, 79 percent of players who picked Torres saw the fight ending by decision, and that is ultimately the way the fight played out.
Khabib Nurmagomedov was one of the overwhelming favorites to win and he certainly did his job, as 93 percent of players chose him to come away victorious, with 55 percent picking him by knockout. Nurmagomedov made a lot of fantasy players happy after he scorched newcomer Darrell Horcher by TKO in the second round.
Much like Nurmagomedov, John Dodson was a massive favorite going into Saturday night, with a whopping 92 percent of players selecting him to beat Manny Gamburyan. Out of that 92 percent, 64 percent picked Dodson to win by knockout and he delivered in a big way. Dodson finished Gamburyan with a barrage of strikes just 47 seconds into the first round.
One of the biggest upsets on the card in terms of fantasy selection happened on the prelims, with Raquel Pennington defeating Bethe Correia by split decision.
Going into the card, Correia was selected by 61 percent of players to win the fight, with only 39 percent picking Pennington to walk away victorious. For the players who did get the Pennington pick correct, 66-percent chose her to win by decision, so that paid off in a big way by the end of the night.
Another upset that took place happened in the fight between Santiago Ponzinibbio and Court McGee.
McGee was a 63 percent selection, with only 37 percent going with Ponzinibbio. The Argentina native got the job done with a first round TKO, and even that baffled most fantasy players, with 52 percent of those picking Ponzinibbio to win by decision.
Michael Graves also pulled off another upset on the prelims, as he submitted highly touted prospect Randy Brown with a second round rear naked choke. Brown was selected by 72 percent of fantasy players, with another 49 percent picking him to finish the fight by knockout. On the flipside, Graves was only selected by 28 percent of players, but he definitely helped sway the odds for those who selected him with such a dominant win on Saturday night.
All told, five total bouts on Saturday night ended up with upsets going against the odds of fantasy players. It's just another shining example of how MMA can be one of the hardest sports to predict, and the underdogs pulled off quite a few surprising wins once FOX UFC Fight Night was wrapped up in Tampa.
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