It was amusing to have Iwo Baraniewski and Ibo Aslan paired off together at UFC 323 simply for the Iwo/Ibo dynamic, which had a little David Letterman at the 1995 Oscars doing the “Oprah/Uma” bit feel to it. On paper, this looked like it was going to be a competitive, entertaining fight for as long as it lasted, but what ended up coming to pass was something absolutely bonkers.
Despite the fact that this fight only lasted 89 seconds, it felt like there were 47 shifts in moment and 2,487 significant strikes landed, with both men throwing caution to the wind and everything including the kitchen sink at one another in hopes of securing a victory. Right when one man seemed to have a slight advantage, the other countered with a bomb of their own, turning the tables again and again until Baraniewski was finally able to put Aslan down for good.
WATCH: See What Sean O’Malley Had To Say About His Return To The Octagon At UFC 324
I’ve mentioned it a couple times now over the last two weeks, but watching this fight play out with the Xtreme Couture crew being in the back, hollering instructions at the television as Aslan had his Polish counterpart hurt, and then got hurt himself, only made the experience even more exhilarating.
This might have been the most thrilling 90-second fight in UFC history and was certainly deserving of a place in this year’s Top 5.
Others Receiving Votes: Merab Dvalishvili vs Umar Nurmagomedov, Alexander Volkanovski vs Diego Lopes, Chris Duncan vs Mateusz Rebecki, Petr Yan vs Merab Dvalishvili, Max Holloway v Dustin Poirier, Diego Lopes vs Jean Silva
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