Fortunes changed for five at TUF 24 Finale

Demetrious Johnson may struggle as a drawing card. and be hurt by a lack of depth in his division, but no fighter in MMA history may be as good from an all-around technical standpoint.

For years, the UFC flyweight division has been maligned for lacking excitement, and its champion — Demetrious Johnson — has been accused of lacking some combination of charisma and public interest.

Saturday's Ultimate Fighter 24 Finale contradicted the former, as Johnson and challenger Tim Elliott, along with the flyweight division’s two leading contenders — Henry Cejudo and Joseph Benavidez — all put on exciting fights with twists, turns, surprises, and drama. Johnson does leave room for charisma and drawing power. But on the flip side, people are starting to recognize now — and this will become even more apparent when this era is looked back at historically — that Johnson is not just an all-time great, but perhaps the best technical fighter of his era. Especially when you combine his high skill level sets at everything he does, combined with his conditioning.

Mighty Mouse is making noise as he climbs the ladder towards some of the most important records in UFC history. With his eleventh straight win, he's currently tied with Royce Gracie for fourth place on the all-time list in that category, behind Anderson Silva (16), Jon Jones (13) and Georges St-Pierre (12), arguably the three greatest fighters in UFC history.

With his tenth straight win in a championship match and ninth title defense, “Mighty Mouse” tied Jones and St-Pierre for second place in the former category. He's tied with only St-Pierre in the latter category, being one behind Silva's records of 11 and 10, marks he could own outright sometime in 2017

In that championship run, there was only one fight that he didn't win convincingly. That was a split decision win in a fight that could have gone either way against Benavidez on Sept. 22, 2012, the finals of a tournament to determine the first champion in the division. He settled that score a little over a year later, on Dec. 14, 2013, when he knocked out Benavidez in the first round on Benavidez's home turf in Sacramento.

Johnson lost the first round at the TUF 24 Finale, and ultimately the heavy underdog Tim Elliott's size and unorthodox style made the fight interesting and exciting for the entire five rounds on Saturday at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas. But when it was over, there was little doubt Johnson was the superior fighter, winning rounds two through five.

And now, as Johnson goes in quest of records, Benavidez (25-4), the second-best flyweight in history, having gone 10-0 in the division against everyone not named Johnson, looks to be the next obstacle. Benavidez beat Cejudo (10-2) in a close fight on Saturday, a narrow split-decision, that was an evenly-matched as it comes. And it had some controversy.

With Cejudo docked a point due to two low kicks in the first round, the fight was close enough that there was a decent chance that point deduction could have spelled the difference. As it turned out, it didn't, as Benavidez won on two cards by 30-26 thanks to judges Glenn Trowbridge and Derek Cleary. Cejudo got a 29-27 nod from judge Marcos Rosales. The majority of media scores scored it a 28-28 draw, which ironically was not a score any of the judges shared.

The match was nonstop, with Cejudo putting Benavidez into trouble in the first round, and generally, Benavidez's superior speed and slightly better conditioning became more evident in the second and third rounds. What's notable about the scoring is that media scores as tallied by MMA Decisions were even, with five media members for Benavidez via 29-27 scores, five for Cejudo at 29-27, and nine others having it 28-28.

The 30-26 seemed a stretch because the first round for Cejudo was the only round that it seemed clear who won, even though that round was also competitive.

To show how close it was, Benavidez landed 22 significant strikes to 21 for Cejudo in the first round according to FightMetric.com. The second round had the same 22-21 edge for Benavidez. The third round saw Cejudo have a 26-25 edge. But Cejudo's punches in round one did more damage which should have negated the slight volume edge by Benavidez.

With Benavidez already having lost twice to Johnson, it can be argued this third meeting would be a tough fight to sell. The reality is, that's the case with every fight in the Johnson scenario, as very few people believe anyone in the division can beat him. Johnson would get more competition at bantamweight, but in doing so would give up the quest for those imminent records. Plus, even though he would be competitive at the higher weight, physically he really is much smaller than all but a few bantamweights.

And it's not like Benavidez will mean less than fighters like John Moraga, Ali Bagautinov, Chris Cariaso and Kyoji Horiguchi, all of which have gotten title shots. One of the biggest problems of Johnson's reign has been the lack of strong contenders. Benavidez has been No. 2 since the inception of the division. The only other true star that has come along, Cejudo, was put in a title shot probably too early under normal circumstances, just three years after starting, largely due to a lack of anyone else other than Benavidez who was seen at that level.

With Johnson and Benavidez seemingly on a collision course, let's look at how fortunes changed for five other stars of Saturday night's show.

TIM ELLIOTT – Elliott was a unique title contender, having won an exhibition tournament of fighters not on the UFC roster that aired on the just-completed season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Elliott (14-7-1), even in losing, making his UFC record 2-5, gave a strong enough account of himself that he should have earned a spot back on the roster. His next fight could be with Brandon Moreno (13-3), who beat Ryan Benoit earlier in the show and asked for a top 10 opponent next.

HENRY CEJUDO – Even though Cejudo has now lost two in a row, Saturday's loss was close enough that he seems a pretty clear No. 3 in the division. He should next face Kyoji Horiguchi (18-2), because a winner of that fight should be in line for a title bout.

JORGE MASVIDAL – Masvidal (31-11) defeated Jake Ellenberger (31-12) in a fight with a strange conclusion, as Ellenberger's toe was caught in the cage. Ellenberger was getting pounded on while trying to get his toe out, and in Herb Dean stopping the action because Ellenberger wasn't defending himself in just trying to extricate himself, Dean had no choice but to then rule the fight for Masvidal.

It's a unique situation — and perhaps rules should be put in place in the event something freaky like that were to happen again — that the referee would have the discretion to halt the action as opposed to the stoppage meaning the fight had to be over.

Masvidal issued a challenge to Donald Cerrone (31-7) after the fight, which is shooting pretty high. If Cerrone beats Matt Brown on Dec. 10 in Toronto, he's more likely to face a higher-ranked fighter next. If Cerrone loses, the Masvidal match becomes more possible. But because of how Saturday's fight ended, a rematch with Ellenberger might be in the cards as the fight really proved nothing.

SARA MCMANN – McMann (10-3), was hopeful a win over Alexis Davis (17-7) would get her a bantamweight title shot. With first-round losses to both Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes, and with a Valentina Shevchenko (13-2) vs. Julianna Pena (8-2) just announced, that winner would seem to have the best chance at the next shot. That would leave McMann's top potential opponents to be Holly Holm (10-2) or Raquel Pennington (9-6).

JARED CANNONIER – Cannonier (9-1) made a name for himself in his close win over Ion Cutalaba, taking Fight of the Night honors in the process on a show with considerable competition for that award. Given the style of Saturday's fight, an opponent that would bring out the best in Cannonier is Steve Bosse (12-2), coming off his own FOTN-winning performance in a wild fight with Sean O'Connell in June.