UFC Vegas 79, The Morning After: The Most Pointless Rematch Of All Time?

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Why did UFC march out Michelle Waterson-Gomez to get slaughtered by Marina Rodriguez last night (Sat., Sept. 23, 2023) on the main card of UFC Vegas 79? What was the point? Was this a rematch that anyone asked for?

In a word: no.

The opening line to my X-Factor prediction last week was, “Why are we doing this again?” My fellow MMAmania.com writer Alex Behunin dedicated an entire section of his Random Land column pointing out the oddness of the booking and also questioned why it was happening.

The fight wasn’t competitive, and nobody really expected it to be competitive. Rodriguez beat Waterson-Gomez two years ago in a fight that wasn’t particularly close. Since then, “The Karate Hottie” hasn’t won a single fight, and she’s a long-in-the-tooth veteran that’s been fighting since 2007. It’s unreasonable to expect major growth from her at this stage in the game. Rodriguez, meanwhile, has gone 2-2 since defeating Waterson-Gomez the first time, but her wins include the likes of Mackenzie Dern and the likely next Strawweight title challenger, Xiaonan Yan.

Two-fight losing streak or not, Rodriguez is an elite Strawweight and could still fight for the title someday. Waterson-Gomez, meanwhile, entered the fight having lost three in a row — and again, I cannot stress this enough: one of those defeats is to Rodriguez! — and her best career win overall is … Angela Hill in a highly controversial split-decision? She’s never been a title threat.

There was no reason for the fight to be booked, and unfortunately, the fight itself reflected that simple fact. Rodriguez mauled “The Karate Hottie.” She began the contest well-aware of her massive edge in the clinch, so it took her very little time to grab the former Atomweight, yank her around the cage, and rearrange her face with elbows and knees.

The referee wanted to stop the fight for pretty much the entire first round, but Waterson-Gomez is tough and kept fighting back. Consequently, the damage continued to build until she was covered in blood, having landed neither any significant shots nor takedowns.

It was genuinely not fun to watch Rodriguez savage Waterson-Gomez in predictable fashion. Her corner should’ve thrown in the towel after round one, but instead she got an extra couple minutes of abuse for no reason. Well, the entire seven minutes and 42 seconds of combat was unnecessary, but that second round was EXTRA not-needed.

The cherry on top: Waterson-Gomez’s children were in the crowd, in tears at their mother’s battering. Did we learn nothing from Mark Coleman?

This fight really stands out to me as the worst, most unnecessary rematch in modern UFC history. We’ve seen some strange ones recently, sure — did we really need Anthony Smith vs. Ryan Spann 2? — but this feels special. I cannot find an explanation or redeeming factor here. At least Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock 3 sold a boatload of pay-per-views! Charles Oliveira vs. Nik Lentz 2 was a really fun fight, even if the third was a couple years too late to be necessary.

Okay, so Rodriguez needed a step back in competition. Good thing Angela Hill is always available and has never fought Rodriguez! Literally any other Top 11-20 Strawweight that Rodriguez hasn’t previously beaten up would be a better match up. It’s also a weird waste of one of Waterson-Gomez’s likely few remaining fights as well. She’s a popular fighter, and her management is friendly with Endeavor. Why sacrifice her pointlessly and push her closer to retirement/release?

None of it makes any sense.

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For complete UFC Vegas 79: “Fiziev vs. Gamrot” results and play-by-play, click HERE.