wandshogun09

Love this.

I love that match. I remember hearing about it but never had the WrestleFest 94 tape. I tracked it down years later when we got internet and bought the VHS solely for that match. Didn’t regret it. I‘ve said it before whenever that match comes up on here but it’s a travesty we never got a Bret & Owen vs 123 Kid & Marty Jannetty match around that time. I’m sure Bret even teased it possibly happening in an interview before the Quebecers match at Rumble 94. The Steiners vs Kid & Marty would’ve been ace as well. Imagine how far and how high Rick and Scott could’ve thrown and suplexed those two? While we’re on the subject of great tag team matches, one of my favourites has always been the Hart Foundation vs Brain Busters from SummerSlam 89. Has Bret ever talked about that match in any interviews? He’s got such a great memory when it comes to matches in his career but I think I’ve watched every shoot interview he’s done and I can’t recall ever hearing him talk about working with Arn and Tully. Been years since I read his book but surely he mentions it in there?

Oh yeah, Dana especially thought Shogun was done after that Coleman fight in Dublin. It’s on camera from one of his old video blogs where he rushes into Shogun’s locker room immediately after the fight and puts him on the spot, with a camera in his face, about fighting Chuck Liddell on a fairly quick turnaround. Yep… Chuck was in his own slump at the time and coming off that horrid one punch KO loss against Rashad Evans so Dana was looking to get his boy back in the win column and saw Shogun as easy pickings. A big name win over a shot Shogun. I like Chuck but the way that backfired is up there with one of the most satisfying fight results ever for me. Then to make it even better, they then ‘fed him’ to undefeated champ Machida, who opponents could barely lay a glove on, much less beat, and Shogun solved the puzzle twice (despite the dodgy decision the first time) and sparked him in the rematch. Just beautiful stuff. It was never gonna last obviously. Even in the win over Machida I think he re-injured his knee. And then Jon Jones came along and that was a wrap for Shogun’s reign. But I’m so glad he got to win that belt. If he didn’t win it when he did, Jones would’ve won it off someone else and Shogun would’ve gone down as one of the greatest Light Heavyweights to never hold UFC gold. Would’ve been a travesty. It’s actually quite remarkable he had the run he did in the UFC despite the horror show of injuries he had coming in the door. People forget but that layoff after he lost his UFC debut to Forrest Griffin was brutal. He was out about 15 months and in that time he had his knee completely reconstructed, started training again and then blew the knee out again and had to have it redone. Just nightmare stuff. No wonder he looked 80 years old in his return against Coleman! When you watch his fights back as well, you notice how he had to revamp his style after the injuries. You watch his Pride fights and he’s much more of a kicker and knee-er than a boxer. Later in his career when his knees were knackered, he became much more of a puncher and started knocking people out with his hands, which he wasn’t doing in his younger days. I don’t think he gets credit for how he kind of reinvented his style halfway through his career and still had success. I’m yapping. Could talk about Shogun and Wandy and that era for pages and pages 🤣 If they put Pereira on the Manchester card and they want him against a UK fighter, I can’t think of a better time to bring Darren Till back. I’d love to see Pereira 360 Haduken punch him into oblivion.

Finally caught up on all this. Saw some of it on Sunday but was busy with family stuff over the bank holiday weekend so only just got around to watching everything else. Decent show. Thought Pantoja vs Erceg was a brilliant fight. That’s kind of been lost in all the talk of the scoring but that’s always the case when there’s a close or debated decision. What a fight though. I’d liked what we’d seen of Erceg in his previous UFC fights and I thought he might give Pantoja a good fight but I hadn’t seen enough to be confident in his chances or anything. His stock went up here for me, regardless of the result. He gave Pantoja all he could handle. He did well on the feet as expected but even in the grappling he was doing some good stuff defensively. I felt like it was 2-2 going into that last round but a couple of them probably could’ve gone either way. But yeah, like @Dai says, Erceg’s decision to shoot for the takedown in the 5th was baffling. And ultimately it cost him the fight. Mind boggling. Even worse because he did the same thing at the start of the round. He took Pantoja down, it backfired and he got reversed. He managed to get free and have success on the feet for a good chunk of the round after that and it was all still up for grabs. Then he did it again, it backfired again and Pantoja ended the round on top of him and 2 of the judges gave him that round. Fucked it. A massive error on his part and one that’s gonna haunt him for a while. Had he kept it on the feet, there’s every chance that belt would be in Australia right now. Seen all kinds of robbery talk. You expect it after every close fight now but I’m not having it. I felt like it was close and it was all to play for in that 5th round. In the end, Erceg shat the bed with that ill-advised takedown. Seeing people talking like Erceg clearly won and was robbed is shite. And once again, I think most of it is based solely on Pantoja’s cut. A lot of fans these days seem to think a cut is the be all/end all when it comes to scoring fights. But that could come from one exchange and fights are scored round by round. The “yeah but look at his face” thing is just pure laziness a lot of the time where they’ll lose track of the scoring so just go by whoever looks more beat up facially when the fight is over. The one judge having it 49-46 Pantoja was off, yeah, it wasn’t that wide. But Pantoja winning wasn’t a robbery by any stretch. We’ll likely see a rematch at some point in the not too distant future. It’s Flyweight, of course we will! The matchmakers love a rematch, especially in the Flyweight division. But I don’t wanna see it next. Even with how close this was, it wasn’t like it was some mega controversial decision and Erceg is the one who threw it away at the end. He should at least have to beat another top contender now before getting another crack at it. Maybe they just go ahead with Pantoja vs Mokaev next. Although I’d have thought Mokaev would be in a prominent fight on that Manchester card in July and I can’t see Pantoja fighting again that soon. I don’t know. Pantoja vs Mokaev and Erceg vs either Royval or Moreno seems like the way to go but we’ll see. Seeing Jose Aldo back in there looking so sharp was so satisfying. One of the best of all time hands down. What a career. I saw a few doubting him on social media before the show and kept seeing talk about his ‘2 years away’ and stuff. But like I said earlier in the thread, it’s not like he’d been inactive. He had those 3 Boxing fights in 2023. If anything he’d been more busy since we last saw him in the Octagon than he’s been in years. The man. And it wasn’t like Martinez even looked bad. But this was just the difference between a very good fighter and an all time great fighter. Even an out of prime Aldo is still a handful for most. It’s why a lot of the talk around fighters primes is bollocks. A lot of the time it’s people either saying you’re in your prime or you’re washed up. There’s a middle ground there. You can be past your absolute peak but still really, really fucking good. And that’s where Aldo is now. I wouldn’t pick him to beat all the top contenders today. He’s not quite that guy anymore. Although, call me crazy, I don’t think O’Malley is a terrible or unwinnable matchup for him. But he most likely loses more than he wins at the very top of the current Bantamweight division. I think he still schools the vast majority though. Not even sure what’s next for Aldo. It’s common knowledge that this was the last fight on his UFC contract. It seemed like his return came out of the blue but maybe he wanted to just get that last fight out of the way so he’d be contractually free to go wherever he wants after. Maybe this was a one and done thing and he’ll go and do more Boxing now or even entertain PFL or something. I think his Boxing fights last year were all on Fight Pass so that’ll probably be why the UFC were cool with him taking those fights while still being under contract. Now he’s an actual free agent. But I don’t know, maybe he sticks around and signs for a few more fights? The fact that he says he was asking for Top 5 ranked opponents here suggests he’s looking at another run. Why ask for a top ranked guy if it’s a one-off? If he’s gonna fight on, I’d like to see him stay in the UFC. If he can make more money elsewhere, more power to him of course. But purely as a fan, there aren’t many obvious fights for him outside the UFC. There are still big fights for him in the UFC, at 135 and 145. Anthony Smith completely killing the Petrino hype was not how I expected that one to go at all. Smith’s had the look of a fighter on his last legs to me for a while. Even physically, he looks like he doesn’t put the work in like he used to. And Petrino was the younger, bigger, stronger, undefeated powerhouse on the rise. For Smith to go to Brazil and derail him in his backyard like this was a surprise. I think I said in the opening post, my expectations for Petrino had cooled off a bit after his lacklustre win over Tyson Pedro in March. But still, I was fully expecting him to put a beating on Smith here. And it was looking like it was heading that way in the early exchanges. Then he left his neck out there and tried to slam his way out of the guillotine. Bad look for Petrino this. Obviously Smith has a lot of experience but it wasn’t even like he caught Petrino with some crafty veteran move. The choke couldn’t have been more transparent, you could see it coming a mile away and Petrino still got caught up in it. Michel Pereira! What a crazy fun fighter to watch. I was expecting an entertaining fight out of these two and was kind of disappointed it ended so quick, to be honest. But Pereira just running through the opposition is becoming one of my favourite things in MMA. He’s one of the only good things the Middleweight division has going for it these days. Although the moonsault with the knee coming down on Potieria’s head was clearly illegal… Honestly, Potieria has a perfectly legitimate case for appealing this result. I know we all love Pereira but there’s absolutely no argument that that wasn’t illegal. Sure it mightn’t be intentional but that’s the thing, doing backflips and moonsaults and shit on your opponents, you can’t 100% control where your legs are landing. If this was Pride, Pereira would no doubt be going for 450 curb stomp knockouts and all sorts. But that was effectively a grounded knee and who knows how buzzed Potieria was by the time that choke got slapped on. Whatever. Even if he appeals it, nothing is likely to come of it. Yeah, that was the Tristan Connelly fight where he was pissing about so much he seemed to gas out and got outworked to a points loss. He got a load of shit for that performance and the criticisms stuck with him for a while after that, even when he was winning fights it was a stigma and a knock on him for a bit. I think people need to drop that now though. Whatever happens with Pereira from here on in, it’s clear he’s done a good job of finding a healthy balance with that style and it’s more effective these days. Then you couple that with him actually being in the right weight class and he’s in a much better place now. Still only 30 as well. I don’t know where his ceiling is. I feel like I’m always half expecting him to get derailed going into fights and then he just blitzes the opponent away in hilarious fashion. It does feel like the run could all end in an instant but what a joy he is to watch. Never a dull moment. And to be fair, he’s now on an 8 fight winning streak, 3-0 since moving up to Middleweight and he’s won his last 3 fights at 185 in around a minute apiece. Looking at the rankings, I’d give him a Fight Night headliner next against either Dolidze (#11) or Hermansson (#9). What can you say about Caio Borralho vs Paul Craig? I like Craig but I thought he looked awful here. Probably the best Borralho has looked so far in the UFC but I’m not sure if this was a case of him stepping his game up or him looking good because Craig looked bad. Either way, it couldn’t have gone worse for Craig. I think most MMA fans like Craig. He’s a likeable guy. But man, he’s struggling now. At 36 years old and 1-4 in his last 5, I think it’s time to accept that he’s just never gonna get over the hump. He’s got the capability to beat good fighters but there’s just not enough to his overall game. The grappling is obviously his bread and butter but even there he came unstuck against Brendan Allen in his last fight. And the striking, gotta say he’s rotten. Just looks really unsure of himself, doesn’t commit to anything, doesn’t really set anything up and doesn’t move his head at all. He was a sitting duck here for the KO and Borralho jumped on it. Brito vs Shore, where do you even start? First off, all credit to Brito. I thought he looked like a real problem. He was racking up damage with all those leg kicks right from the off. He was winning the fight for as long as it lasted. The doctor stoppage was mad though. Yeah, it looks bloody vile. But it’s not like this was a cut above the eye or something. And Shore was still able to stand on the leg, walk on it and was still in the fight. He didn’t seem particularly bothered by it. The doctor takes a look at it, which is fine. But the way he was digging his bastard fingers into the cut? Nah. What the fuck was that? Then he stops the fight. Shore’s old man has been tweeting about it. Obviously a cut like that and all the swelling and stuff would be no fun. But it’s a fight. There’s gonna be damage. Shore wanted to continue and there was nothing that urgently required the fight to be called off, in my opinion. Shore’s dad was saying the doctor in the cage said the leg was fractured and that’s why the fight was stopped. Then they went to the hospital, no fracture just some stitches and they were off home. Bullshit. I usually always agree with erring on the side of caution but stopping a fight for a cut on the shin? I’d understand if you could see bone poking out and stuff but not this. Again, Brito looked great. The way the fight was going, unless Shore created some big turnaround, Brito was most likely gonna win anyway. But it was a shite way for it to end. Lucindo vs Kowalkiewicz was about what you’d expect when you’ve got a 22 year old on the rise against a 38 year old on the decline. Sad for Karolina, she’s always seemed lovely and it’s been nice seeing her have a bit of a late career revival with the little win streak she’s been on. Had a feeling it was coming to an end here though and while Lucindo didn’t blow her away, I did think she made Kowalkiewicz look her age here. Not sure how much longer Kowalkiewicz is gonna keep doing this. It was her first loss in a while but, pushing 40, it’s hard to see where she goes from here. She’s clearly not getting back in the title mix at this stage of her career and I doubt she’s getting the kind of purses that make sticking around all that worthwhile. Fully expecting her to be back out on an Apex card in the next few months though. Really enjoyed Orolbai vs Brener. Despite highlighting it as my ‘one to watch’, I didn’t really know what to expect just because I’ve only seen a handful of fights from them combined. Yet to be disappointed in either though and this was more of the same. Definite Orolbai win but, as Brener showed against Kutateladze, he doesn’t go away easily. Granite hard little bastard. Orolbai’s wrestling was the big difference maker in this one. Plus, despite his striking not being very good, he certainly carries power and Brener felt it more than once. The knockdown in the last few seconds of the fight really sealed it for Orolbai. Even with the point deduction, he’d built up too much of a lead by then. Brener is tough as shit though. Really thought he might pull out the come from behind finish the way the last round was going at times but it wasn’t to be. Good fight. Both were exhausted in that third round but just kept pushing through it. Drakkar Klose vs Joaquim Silva was alright. Thought it was a close (no pun intended) one that came down to how you scored the second round and I really felt like it could’ve gone either way. Didn’t have a problem with Klose getting the decision but Silva definitely had a strong argument and I can see why he’d feel hard done by. It was one of them though where neither really put a stamp on it or clearly pulled ahead to where they can gripe about it too much. Mauricio Ruffy had a quite a UFC debut. And of course, anytime someone has an impressive debut, the comparisons to Conor McGregor come. I thought that was a bit much myself but whatever. I liked Ruffy here. Just schooled Mullarkey and put him away inside a round. Fair play, he certainly made his debut a memorable one. The performance itself plus he made the most of his post-fight interview. When you’re name dropping the champ after your debut, it’s gonna get some attention. “I have a message for Islam Makhachev. Enjoy your days at the top. I know you’re upset because I beat your friend. Enjoy your days, because a new king is coming.” - Maurício Ruffy Apparently he stopped Makhachev’s teammate on DWCS last year. It seems mad talking about the champ this early but I kind of like it. Why not aim for the top? Remains to be seen if he can back it up but he’s thrown it out there now. If he does go on to be a serious contender, and Makhachev is still champ if/when he gets there, that clip and quote is gonna be all over the promos. Long way to go though and we need to see a lot more from Ruffy. He looked great here, really sharp and accurate. But you have to put it in perspective, Mullarkey might be the most hittable sod in the division. He was kind of tailor made for a precision striker like Ruffy to style on. Good debut all the same. But I wanna see more before we start declaring him 155’s next big thing. That Dione Barbosa vs Ernesta Kareckaite fight didn’t hold my attention. I gave them a chance like I always do with debuting fighters, but it didn’t grab me. Didn’t take long for my mind to drift. Saw a few cries of robbery and, from what I did see, I was half expecting Kareckaite to get the nod. But it went to Barbosa. Whatever. Can’t say I’m fussed. About the decision or to watch either’s next fight. Was happy to see Ismael Bonfim get back to winning ways. Especially at the expense of Vinc Pichel who I’ve long thought seems a bit of a dick. Wasn’t a mind blowing performance but I thought Bonfim looked good on the whole against a tough, ageing journeyman. Hopefully he can build himself back up off this now. He’s still only 28 and already has a decent amount of experience. Be interesting to see who he’s matched up with next. And Alessandro Costa looked really good kicking off the Fight Pass bit. Just broke Borjas down with horrible leg kicks at the end there. Feel like he’s a bit better than his 2-2 UFC record suggests. The 2 losses were against Albazi (ranked #3 currently) and Erceg who just ran the champ mega close in a great fight. Costa vs Erceg was a cracker as well from what I remember. Costa’s worth keeping an eye on, I reckon. At the very least, he’s fun to watch. Solid card, not amazing. Wasn’t anywhere near 300’s league, or 299/298 before that, but it was never gonna be. Still, the main event was excellent and Aldo’s triumphant return ranks among my favourite Brazilian card moments. Some good stuff on the undercard as well. Let’s face it, I was never gonna give a thumbs down to a card where Shogun Rua gets announced for the Hall Of Fame! Bless him. Goes without saying, absolutely 100% deserved. Seen a few comments from the numbskull newer fans acting like he’s a bum or something. Pricks need to educate themselves. Pretty much all his fights are out there and easily accessible, most of them are on Fight Pass. There’s no excuse. Funny thing is, most of these accounts have clowns like Strickland as an avatar and are the first to call others a “casual” if they have an opposing take on something 😂 Shogun was the bollocks. DC was spot on when he said that by the time Shogun got to the UFC, he was already probably out of his prime. The injuries had already set in and he was on borrowed time physically. The fact that, despite that, he still solved the Machida puzzle, became UFC champion, knocked out Chuck, had an all time great fight with Hendo etc, just shows the fighter he was. And of course, his run through the 2005 Pride GP is still surely the best tournament streak by any fighter in MMA history. The fact these two are both going in the HOF the same year warms my heart. Chute Boxe taking over the Class of ‘24! WAND SHOGUN 👊🇧🇷

Pocket sized beast. Love watching Inoue.

Yeah, you just know he was being absolutely insufferable the whole time he was there.

Main event for Abu Dhabi. Hopefully it happens this time.

State of this raggedy old cunt. Whipping your cock out on planes and in public places is OK apparently. But don’t you dare take to long pissing while you’re at work. I like the idea of pizza people still inconveniencing this old creep though. Can just picture him raging outside the bog doors and having flashbacks about what Jim Herd did to him in 1990.

Yeah he definitely retired at some point and came back. This seems out of the blue but it’s probably about the right time now. He’s 43 years old and seems to have his focus on other things these days. If this is it, he went out with a first round KO win, which is cool. All that said, yeah, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if him and Mike Perry are throwing bare knuckles by the end of the year. It’s mad that those two never crossed paths in the UFC, to be honest. I actually had to check they never fought because it seems like it should’ve happened.

Ciggy Smalls.

Sausages cooked with all the heat of a Dino Bravo house show match in 1989.

If you’re betting on the fights tonight, probably go the opposite of this, but here’s my picks anyway…

As always, pinch of salt and we’ll see if it sticks but Matt Brown appears to be done…

Grandad Sid.

More Apex slop for you… ESPN MAIN CARD Edson Barboza vs Lerone Murphy Khaos Williams vs Carlston Harris Oumar Sy vs Antonio Trocoli Adrian Yanez vs Vinicius Salvador Luana Pinheiro vs Angela Hill ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Alateng Heili vs Kleydson Rodrigues Ramiz Brahimaj vs Themba Gorimbo Abus Magomedov vs Warlley Alves Tom Nolan vs Victor Martinez Tamires Vidal vs Melissa Gatto Piera Rodriguez vs Ariane Carnelossi Emily Ducote vs Vanessa Demopoulos Like a lot of these Apex cards, especially lately, I’m really not feeling this. I like the main event. That’s actually better than your standard Apex headliner. But the rest? Not much to it, is there? Couple of bits and bobs I’m interested in but I’m gonna be skipping a fair bit of this. I mean, unless they switch the bout order up, 3 straight low level women’s fights kicking off the card? 💩 Edson Barboza vs Lerone Murphy tops this one. Good fight. Much better headliner than we usually get on these Apex cards anyway. As I’m typing this, Barboza is ranked #11 in the Featherweight division, Murphy isn’t ranked yet. So this is big for him. His first UFC main event, against a popular name and an exciting fighter, plus a win gets him in the rankings. Barboza’s no spring chicken now. He’s 38 years old and this’ll be his 36th pro MMA fight. Add to that a 28 fight Kickboxing career and that’s 63 fights total and an overall combat sports record of 49-14 with 36 of his wins coming by knockout or TKO. He actually has one win by submission as well early in his MMA career but, on the whole, you know what you’re getting out of Barboza. While he’s obviously had to work on other areas of MMA, he’s about as pure a striker as there is in the sport. Definitely one of the best kickers in the game. Past and present. Love watching him. He’s had his ups and downs in the UFC but whenever I think of Barboza it’s the spectacular knockouts of Terry Etim and Beneil Dariush that jump out first. Then throw in wins over Anthony Pettis, Gilbert Melendez, Paul Felder, Dan Hooker etc. He’s never been close to being ‘the guy’ at 155 or 145, but he’s had quite a run. He’s just never quite found the consistency to put together a real streak of wins consecutively. A lot of that is because he’s been caught lacking in other areas like the grappling. But when he’s on his game and sharp, he’s a dangerous man. And always a good gatekeeper and litmus test for guys trying to crack into that top end of the division. His last fight was a similar thing… He went 5 hard rounds with Sodiq Yusuff in a really good fight in October. And Barboza won and almost had Yusuff out of there at one point. So while he’s getting up in age now for a lighter weight class fighter, make no mistake he can still hang with some of these up and comers. When I say he’s a gatekeeper, I mean no disrespect. He’s the guy those young rising contenders have to get through to put themselves in the conversation for title fights. And as we saw in the Yusuff fight, Barboza is no soft touch or easy stepping stone. He’s in a similar boat here… Lerone Murphy is the next guy who’s gonna have to take the test. Feels like a long overdue step up for Murphy and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. Of all the UK fighters on the roster, Murphy is probably the one who’s gone under the radar the most for me. He’s still yet to be beaten. He’s 13-0-1 with the only ‘blemish’ being a split draw against Zubaira Tukhugov back in 2019. He’s won 5 fights since then but just never really seems to advance or have any meaningful fights. It’s partly on him. He doesn’t exactly put himself out there, he’s not really outspoken and doesn’t have the biggest personality. Which is fair enough but it’s meant he hasn’t stood out from the pack or received the appealing fights others get. Arnold Allen went through similar until he broke through with that Dan Hooker stoppage. Some of it with Murphy is just bad luck though. He was supposed to co-main against Dan Ige on an Apex card in February but had to withdraw due to injury. He also missed all of 2022 because of fight cancellations. He came back in 2023 with wins over Gabriel Santos and Josh Culibao but didn’t exactly wow anyone and those wins just felt like sideways steps more than anything. There were those rumblings of a big UK domestic clash against Nathaniel Wood, and they were going back and forth, but it amounted to nothing in the end. It’s been the slowest of burns but this is the big opportunity for him now. Time to make something happen. Good stuff. Like I said, Barboza is nobody’s pushover and he’s shown in recent fights that he’s still got something left. If you’re not quite up to the task, he’s probably not the guy you want standing across the Octagon from you. We know what Barboza is about and how he’s gonna approach this. Just pure, vicious, blunt force Muay Thai brutality until either you go to sleep or he fades trying to end you. The interest here is how Murphy handles it. His first main event, first 5 rounder, and I don’t think we’ve ever really seen him face someone as lethal as Barboza. Does Murphy rise to the occasion, does he fold? Regardless, it’s time to see what’s what. Murphy is gonna turn 33 in July. Far from old but it’s time to crack on and either go on a big run or fall on the sword. Still no real clue how good he actually is because his career has been so stop/start but you get the feeling the next couple of years is gonna be crucial for him if he’s ever gonna make a proper run at the top of the 145 division. It’s a ‘now or never’ thing at this point. Khaos Williams vs Carlston Harris as co-main? Yeah, me neither but that’s the way Big Marcel has it listed currently. I know it’s only the Apex but still. It’s not a terrible fight. I just don’t particularly care about it. Khaos is a guy I’ve enjoyed watching when I’ve seen him but he’s in and out so sporadically and infrequently it’s hard to get invested. I remember when he burst into the UFC and immediately scored back-to-back quick KOs over Alex Morono and Abdul Razak Alhassan. Just blasted them both to bits in 30 seconds each. I genuinely thought we might have a new potential contender on our hands but he lost to Michel Pereira and seemed to fizzle out. He’s only fought once a year the last couple of years. He’s still only 30 and has a record of 14-3 with 8 finishes. He could still carve out a nice little midcard run, but he’s gotta show up to work to do that. Harris is 36 years old, 19-5 and has 11 finishes. He’s coming off a late come from behind submission win over Jeremiah Wells back in August. Can’t say I remember much else about him but looking at his record, he’s gone 7-1 in his last 8 with the only loss being to Shavkat Rakhmonov. Not the worst. Hopefully Khaos shows up for this one. If we’re going off recent form, this’ll probably be his only fight in 2024, so make the most of it. Oumar Sy vs Antonio Trocoli is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Yeah, it’s slim pickings but this has my attention. It’s the UFC debut for Sy but he sounds like a solid signing. He’s French, 28 years old and undefeated at 9-0 with 7 finishes. I’ve seen him listed as 6’4” or 6’5” in different places, and apparently he’s got a 83.9in reach. A big boy for Light Heavyweight. He’s already fought in promotions like Oktagon, KSW and Ares. A UFC signing that isn’t coming off DWCS? That’s a rare thing these days. And it’s nice to see they’ve actually picked a guy like this up rather than let him slip away and sign with another promotion like they’ve done in other cases. He was supposed to face Rodolfo Bellato here but Bellato just dropped out. Antonio Trocoli steps in on 2 weeks notice. Just in case you wanted someone to root against in this fight. Yeah, Trocoli is dating Mackenzie Dern. He’s a weird one actually. He’s 33 years old, also 6’5” and has a record of 12-3-0-1 with 8 finishes. He also hasn’t fought since November 2021! He’d won a fight on DWCS before that but it got overturned to a No Contest when he got popped for PEDs. He was given another chance in 2022 and was actually briefly booked against Ovince Saint Preux but withdrew with Visa issues and Dana binned him again. Third time lucky? Obviously they need a substitute for Sy but this has to be a bit of a favour to Dern. He’s already got 2 strikes against him and hasn’t fought in ages. This has to be a last chance thing. So yeah, some new blood at 205, I guess. It’ll probably be shit now but I’m trying to be glass half full. I don’t know if they’re planning on going to Paris again in September like they have the last couple of years. If they are though, it’s a no brainer to get Sy on there. Hopefully he turns out to be the real deal because we all know the 205 division needs all the help and depth it can get. Adrian Yanez vs Vinicius Salvador is one of the few fights that should be worth watching on this card. Never miss a Yanez fight. Shame he’s in a bit of a slump now because he’s been non-stop excitement ever since he put pen to paper and signed with the UFC. Out of his 7 fights in the UFC so far, he’s got either a POTN or FOTN bonus in 5 of them. Great to watch. It was all going well until last year. He had a rotten 2023. He got stopped in brutal fashion by both Rob Font and Jonathan Martinez. Hopefully he can rebound here. This is definitely a step back in competition so I’m liking his chances of bouncing back. But I don’t know enough about Salvador to be mega confident about it. He’s Brazilian, 27 years old and 14-6 with all 14 of his wins coming inside the distance. He’s dropped decisions to Victor Altamirano and CJ Vergara in his last two outings. So you’d think Yanez can win this. The one vague memory I have of Salvador though is that he’s awkward and one of those annoying fuckers who likes to showboat and taunt and shit. Hoping Yanez can get to him but he might be difficult to look good against. We’ll see. Luana Pinheiro vs Angela Hill is doing very little for me. Maybe it’ll be better than I’m expecting but I’m just not arsed. Pinheiro is 30 years old and has a record of 11-2, 7 finishes. We last saw her in November getting spin kicked in the mouth by Amanda Ribas and TKO’d. Before that she was on a 9 fight win streak but the most notable win was over a past it Michelle Waterson and even then she only managed a split decision. Not convinced. As for Hill, I don’t know what to make of her. She’s never been a contender but she has the odd night where she looks better than I remember. She’s 39 now and has an abysmal 16-13 record. I was pretty much completely writing her off going into her last fight against Denise Gomes in November. Gomes was coming off bulldozing Mexican prospect Yazmin Jauregui in just 20 seconds and it felt like one of those evil matchups where they were feeding the ageing veteran to the young slugger. But Hill beat her! Every time I think she’s done, she wins a fight I expected her to lose and keeps herself off the chopping block. This looks like another winnable fight for her, IMO, but watch her go and lose now. Pointless trying to predict her fights. Alateng Heili vs Kleydson Rodrigues. Dunno. Alateng’s one of those fighters who’s been on the roster for years and I can’t really remember anything about him. He made his UFC debut in 2019 and has gone 4-2-1 since with no real notable wins to speak of. He’s 16-9-2 overall now and coming off a points loss to Chris Gutierrez in October. Rodrigues is repping Team Nogueira so I’m automatically rooting for him. He’s 28 years old and 8-3 with 6 finishes. Hasn’t got off to the best of starts in the UFC though unfortunately. He did score a 59 second stoppage over Shannon Ross last year but that was sandwiched between losses to CJ Vergara and Farid Basharat. Ramiz Brahimaj vs Themba Gorimbo is one of the few fights I actually give a bollocks about on this card. We haven’t seen Brahimaj in a while though. He last fought in February 2022, submitting Micheal Gillmore in 2 minutes on the undercard of Islam Makhachev vs Bobby Green. That feels like a lifetime ago now. He’s had a couple of fights scheduled since but had to pull out with injuries both times. Hopefully he makes it through camp this time. He’s 14-4 now and wildly inconsistent from what I remember of him. My investment here is all about Themba Gorimbo. That’s how his last fight in February ended. A 32 second walloping of Pete Rodriguez. I was pleasantly surprised with that. Obviously Themba gained a bunch of fans last year when that story did the rounds of The Rock buying him a house. That whole thing was clearly designed to make Rock look good but Gorimbo came across as such a good soul that I instantly became a fan and wanted to see him succeed from that point on. I had a bad feeling about that last fight though, just because Rodriguez was so heavy handed and I hadn’t been blown away by Gorimbo’s early UFC fights. But maybe some of that was because his circumstances back then were holding him back as well? Now he’s got a proper home and some money and was given that bit of a leg up from The Rock, now he can just focus 100% on getting better and achieving his goals, maybe it’ll make a difference. He’s 33 years old already, I’m not expecting title runs or anything like that but I’d love to see him reach whatever his true potential is. He was sending money from his minimal fight purses back to his village in Zimbabwe even before Rocky shone the light on his story. He’s fighting the good fight. Impossible not to root for him. Abus Magomedov vs Warlley Alves is just there. Might be alright but they’ve both found their level. I’ll never forgive Abus for getting smashed up by fucking Strickland last summer. That win lead directly to Strickland getting the title shot against Adesanya and we saw how that ended. That fight also gave Strickland’s loser fanbase the one bit of ammunition they were looking for to claim he’s an exciting fighter, a ‘warrior’ and all that shite. He’d looked a bit handy in the very limited footage I’d seen going in so that got my hopes up that maybe he’d chin Strickland. But no. He came into a 5 round fight with only 1 round’s worth of cardio, faded terribly and got stopped in the second round. He followed that with a points loss to Caio Borralho in November and I seem to recall he faded in that one as well. Useless. And Alves looks like he’s on his last legs. Crazy to me that he’s still only 33, feels like he’s been around forever. His career highlight will always be the night he choked Colby Covington in about 90 seconds. But that was 2015. He’s now 14-7, on a 3 fight losing streak and just got wrecked by Ikram Aliskerov at UFC 294 in October. This should really be a ‘loser leaves’ match at this point but it won’t be. These Apex cards need filling. Tom Nolan vs Victor Martinez. Not sure. I’m not clued up enough on either really. Quickly looking them both up, I see Australia’s Nolan is 6-1 with 4 knockouts. He made his UFC debut in January and got sat down in a minute by Nikolas Motta. He’s only 24 so there’s time to bounce back, not the end of the world. But definitely not a good start. Martinez is 32 and has a 13-5 record with 8 by KO/TKO. He also got chinned in his UFC debut, Jordan Leavitt crushed him in a round with knees from the Thai clinch well over a year ago. Well, one of them is guaranteed to get that first Octagon win. Unless it’s a draw. Watch it be a draw now. Tamires Vidal vs Melissa Gatto isn’t setting anyone’s world alight. In fairness to Vidal, I remember liking her UFC debut. She absolutely folded poor Ramona Pascual with a nasty flying knee to the body. Don’t see that often but it was a cool finish. Unfortunately, she then shat the bed in her next fight and dropped a decision to Montserrat Rendon. Gatto is stepping in on short notice here, replacing an injured Hailey Cowan. She’s Brazilian, 28 years old and has a record of 8-2-2. She’s lost decisions to Tracy Cortez and Ariane Lipski in her last two fights. Piera Rodriguez vs Ariane Carnelossi isn’t grabbing me. I’m saying that about pretty much every fight on this card, aren’t I? Going through the motions…Rodriguez is Venezuelan, 31 years old and has a record of 9-1 and 5 finishes. She’s coming into this fight off the first loss of her career, she got armbarred by Gillian Robertson last April. She was meant to fight Cynthia Calvillo recently but the fight got binned last minute due to Calvillo missing weight. And Carnelossi has been on a milk carton since May 2022. She lost a decision to Loopy Godinez and hasn’t fought since for some reason. She’s Brazilian, also 31 and has a record of 14-3 with 11 finishes. Emily Ducote vs Vanessa Demopoulos is just…whatever. Both are going nowhere. Ducote is 30 years old, 13-8 and coming off a decision win over Ashley Yoder. Before that she’d lost back-to-back fights. Demopoulos is 35 years old, 10-5 and beat Kanako Murata on points in her last fight. She lost to Karolina Kowalkiewicz before that. Just nothing happening Fight Pass fodder. No fucks given whatsoever. That’s yer lot. Never ending Apex shite.