Michael Chiesa went full force in his criticism of UFC Vegas 110 loser Isaac Dulgarian.
In a battle of featherweight prospects on Saturday’s UFC APEX show, Yadier del Valle made it look easy against Dulgarian, dominating him on the ground before securing a rear-naked choke submission victory. The bout likely would have come and gone without much controversy were it not for Dulgarian’s uncharacteristically poor grappling and online scuttlebutt regarding the matchup’s odds.
Dulgarian was a considerable favorite heading into the fight, but social media commentators noted the lines began to move abnormally on Saturday ahead of the event with the gap between the competitors narrowing. On the ESPN post-fight show, Chiesa did not touch upon that controversy, but he lambasted Dulgarian’s performance in his breakdown of the finishing sequence.
“This is where it just looked like Dulgarian was a little bit lost,” Dulgarian said. “As you can see, del Valle’s working this rear-naked choke, and Dulgarian’s not fighting the top hand, he’s attacking the choke hand. Once he gets the hands broken apart, he starts to punch, and you don’t punch in these positions you’ve got to fight the hands. Look at this, he goes to peel the choking hand, let’s it go, and then at one point he starts to punch again. I’m just thinking to myself, ‘Are you just lost because del Valle is just so strong. You got your first takedown stuffed, are you lost, are you out of sorts,’ going back to punching del Valle while he’s behind him.
“And then this was the beginning of the end right here. Del Valle switches to hand-on-bicep and it’s a shallow grip. Look at this. Switches to hand-on-bicep, the top hand is right there for the taking. It gets right on the forehead and look at this, he doesn’t even try to peel it. It’s right there for the taking. Del Valle’s not even stretching the body, he doesn’t even peel the top hand, I just don’t know if he was just surprised that del Valle stuffed the first takedown. Did he think he was just going to buzz through the guy? Del Valle just had him lost and had him out of sorts, that’s jiu-jitsu 101.”
Following del Valle’s win, several notable sportsbooks singled out the controversial bout, with some even offering compensation to bettors who backed Dulgarian.
It should be noted Dulgarian has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing, but whatever the reason for his flop, he drew Chiesa’s considerable ire.
“If you’re on the main card of a UFC, it’s one thing if you kind of just get punched into submission, but a lot of Day 1 mistakes,” Chiesa said. “You could even hear on the broadcast, what is this guy doing? You peel the top hand, you don’t punch behind you. That is the most useless strike you can possibly throw.
“I’m sitting here on the pre-show hyping you up as a guy that can go into the top 5 and win fights and it doesn’t even look like you could fight somebody in the bottom of the top 500. I’ve got to be honest, that was an F-minus performance. It was absolute trash.”
Del Valle improved to 10-0 with his second UFC victory of the year after being signed off of Dana White’s Contender Series in 2024. The Cuban featherweight later took to Instagram to celebrate his win, making mention of betting in a caption.
Prior to Saturday’s loss, Dulgarian had won two of his first three UFC fights and it looked like his aggressive wrestling would make him one to watch in the 145-pound division. Unfortunately, he now has a lot of work to do to restore his reputation and as far as Chiesa is concerned, Dulgarian better shape up or ship out.
“For a guy in Dulgarian, you don’t even run your feet,” Chiesa said. “Every fight before, you shoot, you run through these guys. You shot to del Valle and you let him control you. You know to cut the corner on your double leg, you know to run your feet, you know to re-attack, you know your short offense if you’re caught in a front headlock. You fought like an amateur.
“He literally laid an egg. He fought like an amateur. You fought like a guy that doesn’t even belong here and I hope to just totally crap on the guy, but I’ve got to be honest with my assessment. If that’s how you’re going to fight, there’s other people more deserving.”
Robbery? Ante Delija releases first statement after being ‘robbed’ by UFC Vegas 110 eye poke ruling.
Eyes. ‘Different breed’: Waldo Cortes-Acosta explains why he fought through eye poke at UFC Vegas 110.
Take. Ronda Rousey argues UFC might crumble when Dana White retires: ‘Without him, it’s just 3 letters.’
Preference. Steve Garcia explains why he prefers Josh Emmett fight over Youssef Zalal.
Upset. Kamaru Usman: Daniel Cormier ‘100 percent’ should be upset about Tom Aspinall leaking conversation.
Roundtable. Mackenzie Dern vs. Virna Jandiroba and the best of the UFC’s least meaningful title fights.
Halloween. MMA world celebrates Halloween: Watch Kai Kara-France’s hilarious Spider-Man homage.
The finishes from UFC Vegas 110.
Max Holloway goes hiking in Iceland.
Jed and Jose were on Submission Radio this weekend.
SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
I can’t tell if this is a callout?
Happy birthday. That was a tough one.
I’m very interested to see how this whole Dulgarian situation plays out. We almost went down this rabbit hole with James Krause a couple years ago, and if this is as sketchy as some are speculating then this could be the biggest story in the sport in years. Or it may all fade away until the next suspect series of events.
If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKlee or @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let us know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and like us on Facebook
Subscribe to my channel
