Jack Della Maddalena looked incredible in his title winning effort over Belal Muhammad. He was clean and crisp in the early rounds and tough and rugged in the later rounds. Belal Muhammad seemed intent on striking with Della Maddalena in the first round and I think that set him on a course towards defeat. After taking damage in the first and second he was unable to deliver his power wrestling/smothering game. With Della Maddalena able to avoid almost all the takedowns he was able to continue chipping away with his combos and avoiding the returns with his high level head movement.
In the co-main Valentina Shevchenko used her striking to get past Manon Fiorot. She stunned Fiorot with her counter right hook early and kept landing that shot throughout the fight. She sprinkled in some takedowns to build a solid case for the judges.
Before those fights Aiemann Zahabi was awarded a unanimous decision against Jose Aldo. That's despite Aldo clearly winning the first two rounds. I had this as a draw since Zahabi came very close to finishing an exhausted Aldo in round three (thus earning a 10-8 from me). Aldo suggested he would be retiring after this one.
Natalia Silva was one of two women to announce themselves as threats to Shevchenko this night. Silva styled on Alexa Grasso for a lopsided unanimous decision. Her speed and striking looked fantastic tonight.
Benoit Saint Denis opened up the main card by submitting Kyle Prepolec. Prepolec was coming in on short notice and as a massive underdog. Still, he managed to hurt Saint Denis in the first round.
The featured Prelim saw Mike Malott run through Charles Radtke. Malott's striking was on point and led to a brutal TKO.
Jasmine Jasudavicius also announced herself as a title contender at 125 lbs. She took Jessica Andrade down with ease and sliced through her guard to score a quick submission finish (and earn her black belt).
There was more weird judging with Modestas Bukauskas vs. Ion Cutelaba. Cutelaba totally outworked Bukauskas but somehow lost a split decision with one judge giving Bukauskas a 30-27 score.
Navajo Stirling stayed undefeated tonight. He started slow against Ivan Erslan but almost got the finish in the third round.
Marc-Andre Barriault landed a scary elbow TKO on Bruno Silva. Silva would be down for a long time and need a stretcher to leave the cage.
Daniel Santos returned from a two year lay off to take a decision over Jeong Yeong Lee. Santos used all aspects of MMA against Lee, who was just punching.
Bekzat Almakhan is the reason Canada didn't go perfect on the night. He starched Brad Katona with a first round uppercut KO.