There’s no joy on Long Island for fight fans.
Locals Al Iaquinta and Gian Villante both succumbed to strikes on the preliminary portion of UFC 268 at Madison Square Garden, in the first and second rounds, respectively.
Iaquinta, a former lightweight title challenger, couldn’t get it going against California’s Bobby Green. A straight right off a jab made Iaquinta stumble, and he couldn’t recover as Green swarmed with hammer fists until the referee waved off the action at 2:25 of the first frame.
Before a pumped-up Green screamed “New York” four times during his post-fight interview in the octagon, he alluded to a “Mortal Kombat” reference he said was made by Iaquinta in the lead-up to the fight, promising a “flawless victory.”
“No disrespect to Al. I love Al. He’s a great guy,” Green said. “But he said he was gonna ‘flawless victory’ me. But you have to be careful what you say because you have to back it up at the end of the day.”
Villante, who announced this week he would retire following the event, was unable to ride off into the sunset on a high note. The heavyweight ate a heavy roundhouse kick from Chris Barnett, with follow-up strikes putting an end to the former Hofstra football standout’s MMA career.
In the cage afterward, the affable Barnett commanded props for his opponent from Villante’s hometown crowd, and the fans obliged vociferously.
In perhaps the most predictable occurrence of the night, Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler blew the roof off the Garden to kick off the pay-per-view-portion of the proceedings.
The two elite lightweights exchanged heavy blows for 15 minutes, punctuated by Gaethje dropping Chandler backward with a right uppercut 90 seconds into the second frame on his way to a unanimous decision, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27.
Chants of “Gaeth-je” and “Chand-ler” sang out throughout — mostly the first one, as he was the arena’s collective favorite.
After posing for a photo with one another, a battered Chandler quoted “Gladiator” on his way to the back, shouting in the direction of fans behind the media section: “Are you not entertained?” Safe to say, they were.
Bronx-born Shane Burgos, who grew up in and fights out of Monroe, N.Y., put his KO loss from earlier this year behind him, winning an entertaining unanimous decision, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28, over Ransomville, N.Y. native Billy Quarantillo. The win was his first since November 2019, the last time the Garden hosted a UFC event, snapping a two-fight skid.
“I’m back, baby!” Burgos exclaimed in the octagon after the decision was read. “Two f—ing years since I had my hand raised.”
Frankie Edgar, the former lightweight champion who at age 40 is now competing at bantamweight, was stopped via strikes for the second time in 2021.
Marlon Vera put an end to what was a close fight through two rounds with a front kick up the middle that dropped the Toms River, N.J., native for the finish at 3:50 of the third and final round. In February, he had been floored by a violent flying knee by recent 135-pound title challenger Cory Sandhagen.
UFC paid tribute to longtime Post photographer Anthony Causi during the event, the promotion’s first in New York since Causi died in April 2020 at age 48 of COVID-19.
A glass plaque with his image reading “In memory of Anthony Causi” was posted cageside, with an assigned media spot for him.