Stock Report: UFC Fight Night 175

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UFC Fight Night 175 lit up the UFC Apex with early fireworks, including four straight submissions to start off the evening, and even if that energy fizzled out just a bit by the end of the main event between Anthony Smith and Aleksandar Rakic, the card delivered for the most part. As with every time men and women stake their health, pride and livelihoods against one another in the Ultimate Fighting Championship Octagon, some fighters’ stock rose while others fell.

STOCK UP

Aleksandar Rakic: While it’s hard not to speculate on how much of Saturday’s lopsided main event was owing to a possible decline in Anthony Smith’s abilities, credit must be given where due: Rakic dominated a recent title challenger so thoroughly that by the final round, the UFC booth was reduced to wondering aloud whether it was fair to criticize him for not finishing the fight. Rakic overpowered, outworked and out-thought “Lionheart” for three rounds; even on the occasions that Smith was able to get the fight into the positions he wanted, he found himself still at a disadvantage.

Almost as critical as the victory is its timing. Rakic put his lone UFC loss in the rearview and moved to 5-1 in the Octagon just as divisional overlord Jon Jones has vacated the light heavyweight title in an apparent dispute with the promotion. While Rakic’s call for a title shot in his next fight feels premature, it is not outlandish to think he might be just one win away now.

Impa Kasanganay: It has been a whirlwind month for “Tshilobo,” to say the least. Just 18 days after the UFC signed him through Dana White's Contender Series, Kasanganay stepped up to face Maki Pitolo. Against an undeniably scrappy and underratedly skilled fighter—regardless of the Hawaiian fighter stereotypes heaped on him, Pitolo is more than just a brawler—Kasanganay swept all three rounds, looking increasingly comfortable as the fight wore on. While the 26-year-old is still very much a work in progress, barely 18 months from his professional MMA debut, he has now announced himself as a new person of interest in a UFC middleweight division in need of new blood.

Alexa Grasso: In much the same way Kasanganay made a statement in his UFC debut, Grasso’s first bout in the flyweight division sets the tone for her career going forward. If she had lost to Ji Yeon Kim, we might be asking right now if Grasso’s strength and size were enough to compete in the new weight class, or whether she had made a mistake in moving up. Instead, Grasso turned in a largely dominant three rounds during which she frankly bullied Kim for several long stretches, and the more appropriate question now is whether the 27-year-old Mexican should face a Top 15 opponent next. In a flyweight division where the top tier feels quite a bit less crowded than her previous strawweight haunts, Grasso came up with a solid win at the perfect time.

STOCK DOWN

Anthony Smith: Smith’s rise to light heavyweight contention, culminating in a title shot against Jones last March, is one of the unlikeliest career arcs in modern MMA history. For anyone who remembers “Lionheart” as a seemingly good-not-great journeyman in the early 2010s, it was a bit of a feel-good story just to see him finally make it to the UFC in 2016. The question now is whether Smith’s last two fights are just a bump in the road, or a sign of regression to the mean. In his last fight, he weathered a horrific beating by Glover Teixeira that had fans outraged that it was allowed to go on as long as it did, and is a likely frontrunner for this site’s 2020 “Beatdown of the Year” award. In Saturday’s three-round main event, up-and-comer Rakic dominated Smith in every imaginable aspect of the fight. While Rakic’s advantages in size and apparent strength surprised no one, they were not the deciding factor; Rakic was simply more aggressive, more effective and quicker to the punch. Going forward, Smith has his work cut out for him if he wishes to remain relevant in the newly volatile post-Jones light heavyweight division.

Robbie Lawler: It isn’t the loss that stings—though four straight Octagon defeats are obviously not a good look for anyone—but the way it went down. Lawler’s greatness has never been about being untouchable or unbeatable; after all, he was already the owner of double-digit losses when he cemented his all-timer status by winning the UFC welterweight title in 2014. He is one of the most beloved fighters in the sport because of his rare blend of elite skills, competitive fire and blood-and-guts attitude. Against Neil Magny on Saturday, however, Lawler looked less ruthless than tentative, frustrated and stymied. The weird, controversial Ben Askren fight aside, Lawler has been thoroughly dominated in three of his last four fights, but while the other two were against Top 5 fighters known for suffocating pressure in Colby Covington and the 2017 version of Rafael dos Anjos, Magny is a fringe contender at best. That Lawler looked so ineffectual against him is not a good sign for the 38-year-old's future.

Hannah Cifers: Speaking of four straight Octagon defeats, it feels cruel to pile onto “Shockwave” here. Cifers has lost four fights in the UFC this year, all by stoppage, but in a certain light, it isn’t as bad as that sounds. In January, she was pounded out by Angela Hill, after a close first round, but Hill is finally putting it all together and should probably be on a four-fight win streak right now. She was tapped out by Mackenzie Dern in May, but Dern does that to a lot of people, including fellow UFC fighters Montana De La Rosa and Amanda Bobby Brundage. In June, Mariya Agapova was a red-hot phenom fighting a full weight class above Cifers. And on Saturday, Cifers absolutely walloped Mallory Martin in a 10-8 first round before getting outgrappled and choked out in the second.

More of a problem than the losses themselves is that Cifers came in heavy; after all, fighters willing to take matchups on short notice in multiple weight classes have often enjoyed a special kind of career lifespan in the COVID-era UFC. The weight miss, however, makes it seem likely that the taciturn North Carolinian will be receiving a pink slip in the coming weeks.