BOSS FIGHT #2: WHAT’S HOT AND WHAT’S NOT?

A Saturday night in Portland, OR, with five fight to pick from. What more could I want from a show? Debuts and title contention opportunities? Ok, I'll take them! Boss Fight #2 had everything I could have wanted, but as usual there were some winners and some losers. So without further ado, here's what hot and what's not!

HOT

• Christian Bonanno - I know, I'm shocked I'm picking Uccisore again as well...honest. But a dominant performance on the night against Simon Bishop took the THRONE fighter to 4-0 and a favorite to become the middleweight champion on UGP #4. He'll have a tough challenge on his hands in the form of Jeremiah Ford, who will be out for revenge in the rematch. But for now at least, Bonanno is the hottest fighter in UGP, in my opinion.

• Viktor Volkov - That's what we call a rebound! We all knew Volkov was better than we saw in his first fight, and that knock out loss to Nathan Lucas. But did any of us expect this from him? Well, yeah. On his feet or on the ground, he dominated Van Damme, and showed us all what we should expect to see from him in the future as he looks to establish himself as a cruiserweight contender.

• Jakko Wirman - As I said, there were a few debuts on Boss FIght #2 - Wirman and Robert Guillman. But it was Jakko Wirman who impressed me the most. Some people may not rate Maxine after the fights she's had, but she showed what she was capable of on the night. But it wasn't enough to keep Wirman down, before he locked in that armbar. I expect big things from Wirman in the future.

NOT

Think what you like about people such as Kevin Van Damme, Kira Izumi, Sang-Hyun Lee, or Mad Maxine each losing another fight. All of them are yet to get off the starter's blocks here in UGP, and are falling behind the competition after all. Maybe you think Simon Bishop blowing his shot at the middleweight title is deserving of being NOT.

But for me there was only one NOT on this show, and that's the graphics guy! Displaying Kira Izumi's name over Sang-Hyun Lee's image? I hope somebody got punished for that one.

We'll be back on Saturday night in Atlantic City, NJ with UGP #4 where we'll determine the inaugural champions in four different divisions! Derrick La'Bell and Ferdinand Diao duke it out for the Heavyweight title. Christian Bonanno and Jeremiah For square off again to determine who'll become the Middleweight champion. Daniel Fisk and Seth Daniels face each other in the finals of the Cruiserweight tournament, and Jordan Parker-Kane faces Hanako Takeuchi to find out who'll be the first ever Lightweight champion. Plus much more!

-Danica McDaniel