UFC Fight Night: MacDonald vs. Saffiedine (UFN 54) took place on Saturday, October 4, 2014 from the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
The main event was a 5-round welterweight bout between two top 10 ranked guys in Rory MacDonald and Tarec Saffiedine.
Check out our biggest winners and losers from UFN 54 below.
Winners:
Rory MacDonald: Rory MacDonald entered UFN 54 as the 2nd ranked welterweight in the UFC and after his performance in his home country of Canada; he is the clear-cut number one contender to the welterweight title. MacDonald took on the 9th ranked Tarec Saffiedine in the main event. ‘Ares’ was absorbing some hard leg kicks from Saffiedine, but MacDonald was likely ahead on the scorecards heading into the third round. MacDonald took his time the whole fight and in the third round, he landed a vicious punch that dropped Saffiedine. The Tristar Gym fighter would not let Saffiedine recover and finished him with some nasty unanswered punches and got the TKO victory at 1:28 of Round 3. MacDonald made a huge statement and proved to be a legitimate threat to Johny Hendricks’ championship by becoming the first person to ever knockout Saffiedine. MacDonald’s performance was remarkable and his next fight will likely be for the UFC Welterweight Championship.
Elias Theodorou: The undefeated Elias Theodorou (9-0) was set to take on Bruno Santos (14-1) at UFN 54. Theodorou looked dominant in his last fight where he finished Sheldon Wescott at 4:41 of Round 2 to become the TUF Nations middleweight winner. ‘The Spartan’ was a heavy favorite coming into UFN 54 and he would not disappoint. In a grueling three round battle, the Canadian was able to show off his cardio and grappling ability while improving his record to 10-0 with a unanimous decision win over the Brazilian. Having only being an MMA fighter since 2011, Theodorou has looked very impressive and is already 2-0 in the UFC. The future looks bright for 26-year-old Theodorou and his victory at UFN 54 was just another step in the right direction for him.
Losers:
Bryan Caraway: In what was a huge opportunity for him, Caraway was unable to put together a performance he would have liked. Caraway took on the streaking Raphael Assunção in a pivotal battle in the UFC’s bantamweight division. ‘Kid Lightning’ was coming into UFN 54 on a two-fight win streak both by way of submission. The Washington native was unable to put anything too successful together. Caraway’s only real success came with a few takedowns that he landed, but even then, Assunção was able to get right up. Caraway looked very outmatched on the feet and that was were almost the entirety of the fight would take place. Caraway lost the unanimous decision in a fight where he was unable to win a round on the judges’ scorecards.
Patrick Holohan: Patrick Holohan looked absolutely fantastic in his UFC debut at UFN 46 when he was able to get the upset victory over Josh Sampo in front of his home crowd in Dublin, Ireland. UFN 54 would not be as enjoyable as that night in Dublin was. It was not a performance to be disgusted by, but it was certainly not the outcome that he had wanted especially with all the momentum he had coming into the fight. Holohan took on the debuting Chris Kelades who took the fight on less than a week notice. Kelades was able to score the upset over Holohan with a unanimous decision victory. After suffering his first career loss, Holohan certainly has many things to work on, but his future in the flyweight division is still bright, it just took a slight step back.
