‘I Could’ve Come Back’

UFC Vegas 79 went down last Saturday night (Sept. 23, 2023) inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Rafael Fiziev, who saw his night come to an unfortunate end after suffering a devastating knee injury, resulting in a technical knockout loss at the hands of Mateusz Gamrot (recap here).

And Andre Fialho, who suffered his fourth straight loss after suffering a technical knockout defeat at the hands of Tim Means. But which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?

Michelle Waterson-Gomez.

Coming into her rematch against Marina Rodriguez, a lot of people felt re-booking them to fight one another just two years removed from the first fight was puzzling to say the least. Rodriguez won the first fight via unanimous decision, at Flyweight and “Karate Hottie” went on to lose two more fights while Rodriguez went 2-2 before matchmakers felt it was time to run it back.

It was pointless to some.

Nevertheless, the ladies signed on the dotted line to fight at Strawweight and what proceeded was a dominant victory for Rodriguez, who took it to Waterson-Gomez, busted her open and ultimately put an end to the fight in the second round. After the fight, former UFC Light Heavyweight champion, Rashad Evans, revealed that Waterson-Gomez told him she felt should could’ve turned things around had the fight not been stopped.

“It was tough,” Evans said during the UFC Vegas 79 post-fight show via MMA Fighting. “Because at the end of the night, when she came to me, she said, ‘I didn’t want him to stop it. I wanted to come back. I wanted to come back and I know could come back.’”

That’s an attitude all true warriors possess, never feeling that they are out of the fight even if it looks one-sided from the outside looking in.

Nevertheless, that is now four straight losses for “Karate Hottie,” who drops to 1-6 in her last seven fights. It’s a drastic downfall from where she was just win away from possibly fighting for the women’s Strawweight title in 2020. Indeed, she came up short to Joanna Jedrzejczyk in Oct. 2019, which snapped her three-fight win streak. Jedrzejczyk eventually went on to fight for the title against Zhang Weili, losing via split decision.

As for Waterson-Gomez, that defeat started her downward decline, going on to lose five of her next six fights with her lone win coming against Angela Hill via split-decision in Sept. 20.

Where it’s gone wrong for Waterson-Gomez is hard to pinpoint, but it isn’t anything new for fighters. We’ve seen plenty of times where one loss is the beginning of an avalanche that seemingly can’t be stopped in a fighter’s later years, and we can look at Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman, as examples.

I don’t foresee the promotion cutting her at this point, and it’s never fun to see that happen to anyone. But if Waterson-Gomez wants to turn it around, the best move would be to take some some time off and consider a change in divisions. It’s not that another weight class will offer up any less challenging obstacles, but a change in scenery may be worth the risk.

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