UFC Fight Night 80 blog: Sage Northcutt soars; Paige VanZant falters

By Case Keefer (contact)

Published Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015 | 6:55 p.m.

Updated Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015 | 9:32 p.m.

Not all careers of heavily hyped prospects pan out the same.

Tonight’s UFC Fight Night 80 at the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan provided a reminder on the dangers of declaring a fighter bound for greatness too soon. On a card that felt assembled to feature 21-year-old women’s strawweight Paige VanZant and 19-year-old lightweight Sage Northcutt, the two endured contrasting fates.

Although Northcutt wasn’t perfect, he achieved mostly what was expected in submitting Cody Pfister via guillotine choke 41 seconds into the second round. Northcutt’s undefeated record in the octagon stood; VanZant’s vanished.

Rose Namajunas obliterated VanZant, beating her up for four rounds before concluding with a rear-naked choke at 2:25 of the fifth round.

“I’m a finisher so it was really frustrating not to get it right away but as time went on, I said I was just going to keep doing what I was doing,” Namajunas said afterwards while still in the octagon.

VanZant slithered out of several earlier submission attempts. VanZant’s defense brought the crowd to their feet, but her offense left much to be desired.

Namajunas was faster, slicker and more powerful, landing strikes and takedowns at will. The 23-year-old, who lost to Carla Esparza last year in the inaugural strawweight title fight, opened a cut on VanZant’s right cheek within minutes.

VanZant could never touch Namajunas.

“I feel great,” Namajunas said. “I don’t know what else to say.”

Northcutt had more words. The permanently peachy youngster gave a lengthy celebratory speech where he declared everything “awesome.”

Pfister got a takedown early, but the highly touted Northcutt didn’t panic. He brought Pfister to the ground twice within the next two minutes of fight time before finishing.

“I tried to be patient and wait for the submission to come to me,” Northcutt said. “I never really have a game plan other than to finish my opponent as quickly as possible.”

Veterans Michael Chiesa and Thiago Santos also picked up victories on the main card. Chiesa submitted Jim Miller via rear-naked choke at 2:57 of the second round in a lightweight bout.

Santos beat up Elias Theodorou and scored a unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-27) in a welterweight bout.

Check below for live coverage of the event and come back to lasvegassun.com later for more.

UFC President Dana White has repeatedly heralded Paige VanZant and Sage Northcutt as two of the future stars of mixed martial arts in recent interviews.

He gets to showcase both of them tonight at the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan in the first of three straight fight cards around Saturday’s mammoth UFC 194. VanZant headlines UFC Fight Night 80 in a women’s strawweight bout against Rose Namajunas, while Northcutt is in a supporting role against Cody Pfister in a lightweight bout.

The main card begins momentarily and airs through UFC Fight Pass. VanZant reached main event status by winning her first three UFC bouts in devastating fashion.

The 21-year-old submitted Alex Chambers, knocked out Kailin Curran and routed Felice Herrig in a unanimous decision. She’s stressed patience with her career, but might not be able to delay a potential title shot much longer with a victory.

It was only a year ago, nearly to the day, that Namajunas came in as a favorite in the inaugural UFC strawweight championship bout. She was ultimately upset by Carla Esparza, but bounced back to submit Angela Hill in October.

Namajunas is one of the top 115-pound female fighters by any measure, and should provide VanZant’s stiffest test since she lost to Tecia Torres in Invicta nearly three years ago.

Northcutt has taken the opposite approach to VanZant. He’s made it his stated goal to become the youngest champion in UFC history.

The 19-year-old still has four years to break the record Jon Jones set at 23 years old. He’s beaten all six of the opponents he’s faced within two rounds so far, including knocking out Francisco Trevino 57 seconds into his UFC debut in October.

Northcutt vs. Pfister isn’t the only lightweight fight on the main card. It’s not even the most significant.

Veteran Jim Miller meets former “The Ultimate Fighter” champion Michael Chiesa in the co-main event. The opener of the main card comes in the middleweight division, where Thiago Santos challenges Elias Theodorou.

Stay tuned to lasvegasssun.com for a full live blog including round-by-round scoring of the main event and check below for full results from the preliminary card.

Tim Means knocked John Howard out cold 21 seconds into the second round of their welterweight bout. The first round was close with Howard countering a striking deficit with a handful of takedowns, but Means caught him with a left hook during an early exchange in the second.

The Fight of the Night may have already taken place. After losing the first two rounds including nearly getting knocked out in the first, Sergio Moares landed a combination to score a TKO victory over Omari Akhmedov 2:18 of the third round in their welterweight bout.

A middleweight bout between Kevin Casey and Antonio Carlos Junior lasted 11 seconds before it was rendered a no contest. Junior inadvertently poked Casey in the eye, leaving him unable to see or continue.

Rising bantamweight contender Aljamain Sterling put a methodical beating on Johnny Eduardo. Sterling wrapped up the fight by submitting Eduardo with a guillotine choke at 4:18 of the second round.

Santiago Ponzinibbio proved too much for Andreas Stahl in a welterweight bout. Ponzinibbio scored a TKO victory over Stahl at 4:25 of the first round.

Danny "Hot Chocolate" Roberts consummated some of his hype as a welterweight prospect with a quick finish in his UFC debut. Roberts submitted Nathan Coy with a triangle choke at 2:46 of the first round.

Zubaria Tukhugov got the judges' nod in a tightly contested featherweight fight. Tukhugov edged Phillipe Nover by split decision (30-27, 29-28, 28-29) by winning the stand-up portion of the fight and stuffing takedowns.

Kailin Curran felt obligated to give a worthy performance in the first bout of a historic fight weekend, and she succeeded. Curran submitted Emily Kagan with a rear-naked choke at 4:13 of the second round in their strawweight bout.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.