UFC 328 gave us one massive title upset and one all-time great championship battle. Here are the top takeaways from Saturday night’s event in Newark, New Jersey.

1. Who would’ve ever thought we’d see another Sean Strickland title reign at middleweight? Definitely not the oddsmakers. Not most of us in the media, either. On paper, this looked like another opportunity for Khamzat Chimaev to go out and do his thing. And, for exactly one round, that’s what we got.

Chimaev took Strickland down 15 seconds into the fight and then kept him there for the entire first frame. Strickland did not even get credit for a single attempted significant strike in Round 1. All he did was avoid getting choked. Somehow, that turned out to be a brilliant strategy, since Chimaev fell completely apart in the second round and then had to gradually rally himself back into the fight down the stretch. This allowed Strickland to have exactly the kind of fight he wanted: A battle of jabs contested at a comfortable distance. And he won it. By the skin of his teeth.

Strickland’s best UFC performances have all come in fights where he was greater than a 2-to-1 betting underdog. In fact, he’s only lost one UFC fight where he closed at greater than 2-to-1. That was against Kamaru Usman in 2017. Of his seven UFC losses, he opened as the betting favorite in four of them. Something about being counted out and having his back against the wall seems to bring out the best in him. So now maybe the trick is figuring out how to tap into whatever that is, even when he’s the defending champ and not the misfit toy everyone is ready to throw away for good.

2. So much for Chimaev the boogeyman. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more dramatic drop off between the first and second round. He steamrolled Strickland for the first five minutes, then came out the next round and looked like an out-of-shape cyclist pedaling uphill. Chimaev, the unstoppable wrestler, actually pulled guard! Twice! How did the fabric of the universe not tear immediately apart?

I’m sure we’ll get plenty of theories to sort through. Maybe it was the weight cut. Maybe he came in hurt. Maybe he just spent too much of what he had trying to get a first-round finish. The really weird part is that when he had only just enough gas to stand and trade with Strickland, he did surprisingly well. He arguably landed the more significant punches, and had a chance to win the decision just on striking alone. 

But now the blueprint is out here. The guy who seemed unbeatable last week now seems troublingly vulnerable. He also seems a lot less ferocious. All it took was a little bit of fatigue to turn him into Strickland’s high-fiving sparring buddy. Suddenly those vows of destruction and dismemberment were but a distant dream.

Really, that’s one of the big takeaways from this fight. Once again, we were promised an epic blood feud and instead got a very strategic battle for points and positioning. Maybe that, too, was Chimaev letting himself get sucked into what Strickland does best.

3. Can you believe the UFC once thought about getting rid of the flyweight division? Joshua Van and Tatsuro Taira gave us an all-time classic to remind us of how dumb that idea was. This was a fight that had everything. High-level grappling. Devastating striking. Wild swings in momentum. Unbelievable grit and heart. In the end we even got a stoppage we can argue over, and you know how much MMA fans love those.

Van proved yet again that he’s an incredible young talent, and in a way that should make his rematch with Alexandre Pantoja even more hotly anticipated. But I can’t say that Taira’s stock plunged with the loss either. He proved his toughness and his determination beyond all question. There’s every reason to think he’ll be back with a vengeance soon. Maybe the fun at flyweight is just beginning.

4. What are we supposed to do with you, Alexander Volkov? According to the UFC’s own rankings, he’s the No. 2 guy on the list of heavyweight contenders. But for the life of me I can’t remember the last time I saw him in a fight that was a clear victory for him and also an enjoyable experience to watch. He got a debatable decision win over Waldo Cortes Acosta here, and he did it in part by shutting down any threat that a fun fight might break out. Mainly what he did was shut down the possibility of a new heavyweight title contender without solidifying himself as one.

It’s painful, is what it is. And there’s no reason to think it’ll end soon.

Ed Mulholland via Getty Images

5. Jim Miller has had one of the greatest careers in UFC history and you can’t convince me otherwise. No, he’s never won a UFC title. Never even got a shot at one. Most of the big-name opponents he fought, he came away as the loser. He’s spent the bulk of his career on the undercard. Always a supporting cast-member. Never a starring role.

But at age 42, he’s still out here racking up submission wins in the UFC, and no one has more UFC victories than him. He’s also never missed weight, never been anything less than a total professional, never embarrassed the organization or himself. In this sport that’s practically a miracle, especially after 21 years of uninterrupted competition.

Miller is a reminder that you don’t need to win them all to be a legendary fighter. He’s gone through Lyme disease and losing streaks and, most recently, his son’s battle with cancer. Through it all he’s kept showing up and giving us everything he’s got, but without ever making too big a deal out of it. That’s why we owe it to him to make a big deal out of it ourselves. It’s not just an uncommonly special career. It’s something we may never see again.