wandshogun09

Back in Abu Dhabi with this beauty… PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD Alexander Volkanovski©️vs Movsar Evloev - Featherweight Title Petr Yan©️vs Merab Dvalishvili - Bantamweight Title Lone’er Kavanagh vs Ramazan Temirov Alexander Volkov vs Rizvan Kuniev Aaron Pico vs Losene Keita PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Azamat Murzakanov vs Dominick Reyes Nikita Krylov vs Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev Abus Magomedov vs Cam Rowston Grant Dawson vs Nurullo Aliev FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Asaf Chopurov vs Colby Thicknesse Abubakar Vagaev vs Jacob Malkoun Daniel Santos vs Bolaji Oki Noah Gugnon vs Kody Steele Iasmin Lucindo vs Nicolle Caliari Big fan of this card. First off, that main and co-main one-two is class. At a time when we’re seeing some weird matchmaking and title pictures are in shambles left and right, it’s nice to see a double header of title fights here that feel legit with deserving challengers. There’s a few fights scattered around the undercard that I’m not bothered about, there always is, but on the whole I think this card has some serious quality throughout. Oh and we get the early start time. 3pm prelims, 7pm main card. Get in! Don’t think it’s on Box Office either, I thought it might be, to be honest. Lovely stuff. Alexander Volkanovski vs Movsar Evloev headlines. A fight that feels overdue. The right fight to make in the Featherweight division. And to be honest, a very intriguing one styles-wise. Really interested to see how these two match up because, at 145, we really haven’t seen Volk face many wrestlers. Those Islam Makhachev fights were up at Lightweight. The last time we saw Volk against a guy who was predominantly wrestling-based at 145, you’re going all the way back to 2018 and the Chad Mendes fight. Volk, at this later stage of his career, facing an undefeated guy like Evloev feels like it could be one of his toughest challenges. But we’ll see. On the flip side, on paper it’s definitely the toughest challenge of Evloev’s career to date. A true all time great right there. When he finally lays down the gloves and it’s all done and dusted, Alexander Volkanovski is going down as one of the absolute best fighters the sport of MMA has ever seen. Undoubtedly one of the greatest Featherweights of all time and you can make a strong case that he’s number one. Wins over Chad Mendes, Jose Aldo, Max Holloway three fucking times, Brian Ortega when he was still young and in form, Korean Zombie, Yair Rodriguez and Diego Lopes twice. The Holloway wins alone put him at HOF status because Holloway is also one of the greatest 145ers ever. To go 3-0 over that guy is insane. Not to mention, by their third fight Volk had him completely figured out and it was the most one-sided of their trilogy. That night was probably Volk at his absolute peak. He also deserves massive respect for his efforts up a weight class against Makhachev. Their first fight in early 2023 was a classic and to go up in weight and give another one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the game such a hard fight shows how great Volk is. The rematch was a disaster but Volk also jumped in on stupidly short notice so deserves credit for that too. Regardless, his Featherweight resume speaks for itself. A living legend. Russia’s Evloev is 32 years old, undefeated at 20-0 and has been on the UFC roster since 2019. He’s won ten straight fights in the UFC. Looking at all that in black and white, it might seem kind of odd that he’s only just now getting his first crack at UFC gold. But there’s been a few things going against him. One, he’s had quite a few setbacks with injuries over the years which has caused him to lose both time and momentum in his career. And two, the UFC brass clearly aren’t big fans of his fighting style and don’t see him as marketable. The marketability thing, whatever, he’s not the most interesting personality. I get it. And the fighting style, it’s a fact he’s a decision merchant. He’s only managed finishes in 7 of his 20 wins and he’s finished none of his 10 UFC fights. I think the reputation he has for being boring is harsh though myself. He had three really enjoyable fights in a row against Diego Lopes, Arnold Allen and Aljamain Sterling in about an 18 month spell in 2023-24. Then in his last fight he beat fellow undefeated top contender Lerone Murphy in the main event of the London card in March. It was close and many felt Murphy should’ve got the decision, but in the end it went to Evloev and here we are. Volk’s 38 years old now and there’s been rumblings surrounding his more recent fights that he’s close to retiring. He’s denied it but I get the impression there’s something to it and he’s looking at this as his last run, taking it one fight at a time and his next loss might well be his last fight. Even now, in the final chapter of his career, he’s still running circles around younger guys like Diego Lopes. I think it was quite obvious the UFC wanted Lopes to win that one, which is probably why they did the unnecessary immediate rematch despite Volk already beating him clearly the first time. Bullshit and it actually pissed me off that, with Volk’s limited time left in the sport, they were wasting one of his few remaining fights on a needless rematch with Lopes when there were other more deserving contenders waiting in the wings. To be fair to Volk, even he was quite vocal in his confusion about them running the Lopes rematch instead of giving guys like Evloev and Lerone Murphy a shot. It always seemed like it was a UFC decision, not a Volk decision, to deny those guys their chance. The fact the UFC even booked that Evloev vs Murphy fight felt like they just wanted to eliminate one of them from the title race. Volk seems well up for a fresh challenge though. “I’m very confident I beat all these guys. All of them. I look at fighting the best. If we’re talking legacy, who do we want? I want the undefeated guy that’s beat all the top guys, ‘cause I know that beating him is gonna look good on my resume. I’m confident that Movsar’s gonna keep beating all these other fighters after, so it’s gonna age well.” “Spam wrestling with me. I know it ain’t gonna be a boring fight with me ‘cause you ain’t holding me down. I don’t want you to feel like you have to strike with me. I don’t want any excuses. I want you trying to spam wrestling. He’s obviously a winner, he knows how to win, and I want him to try that with me just to show him that, yeah, you know how to win, but not against me.” - Alexander Volkanovski I like the edge to this talk. Seems like he really wants to prove a point in this one. The “I don’t want you to feel like you have to strike” bit is referring to Evloev’s fight against Murphy. Evloev oddly neglected his wrestling for a lot of that fight and it seemed like he did it on purpose because he knew he was unlikely to get a title shot if he won by just wrestling. I think there’s truth to it because as soon as Evloev started wrestling towards the end of the fight, he was having his way. Felt like he let the fight become much closer than it needed to be by opting to strike more, he probably could’ve won more convincingly had he stuck with his bread and butter. Sad state of affairs really when fighters feel they have to deviate from their style and strengths to appease Dana or whoever. But yeah, that’s why Volk is saying that. He wants Evloev’s A-game. How we seeing this then? I’m probably gonna lean towards Volk but I genuinely think Evloev might give him some problems here. The Murphy fight being so close is probably gonna make people think this is an easier fight for Volk than it really is but I think it’s misleading. Like I said, I think Evloev fought more of a standup fight that night specifically because he thought it would give him a better chance of pleasing Dana and the matchmakers and securing the title shot. Now he’s got the shot, I think he’s gonna fight more to his strengths. But Volk’s not gonna be easy to take down and he’s gonna be even harder to keep down. We saw that in the first Makhachev fight and Makhachev is obviously significantly bigger than Evloev. And on the feet, Volk’s the better striker hands down. But I think this is a fascinating clash of styles. Fan opinions and predictions are probably gonna be heavily favouring Volk because he’s understandably loved and Evloev seems to be mostly disliked. But I can see this being a real battle and personally, I’m really glad this fight is happening just because it’s a different kind of opponent for Volk than we’re used to seeing. It feels fresh, which is very much welcome after Volk’s been stuck in the Lopes loop for the better part of two years. Petr Yan vs Merab Dvalishvili 3 is a phenomenal co-main event. Easily could’ve headlined a card itself this one. The way the first two thirds of their trilogy have played out so far makes this one very interesting. They’re all tied at 1-1 and both guys respective wins were in convincing and pretty dominant fashion. Then you factor in the injuries possibly effecting both in the previous fights, Merab’s reign of terror over the Bantamweight division going into the rematch and then Yan’s unexpected return to form and regaining the title, it’s been quite a rivalry so far. Now we’re gonna settle the score. Petr Yan being the man to stop Merab’s run as champion back in December was not what I expected to happen. Merab had won their first fight in March 2023 with a complete shutout on the scorecards. Just about as lopsided as a fight gets. At the time it felt like it signalled the end of Yan’s prime. It was that one-sided a loss. Yan had been at the top of his game just a couple of years earlier and was being talked about as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the game around the time he was putting on showcase performances against the likes of Urijah Faber, Jose Aldo and Cory Sandhagen. He was the champion and I think many felt he was about to go on a long reign. By the time he fought Merab though, he’d already lost the title on a disqualification and then dropped back-to-back decisions against Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley. They were close, hotly debated split decision losses though. The Merab loss was not only his third loss in a row, it was one-way traffic. As skilled as Yan was, it felt like he was never getting near that belt again. He worked his way back with wins over Song Yadong and Deiveson Figueiredo in 2024 but was given an odd step down and beat Marcus McGhee in July 2025. He got the title shot rematch against Merab off the back of that win, which didn’t feel like enough. I’ll admit, I completely dismissed Yan’s chances going into that Merab rematch. He’d looked solid but unspectacular against mid-level McGhee and Merab had been on a tear and had already successfully defended his title three times between January and October 2025 with wins over Umar Nurmagomedov, O’Malley and Sandhagen. All signs seemed to be pointing towards another successful title defence for Merab, which would’ve been a record setting fourth in 2025. Didn’t pan out like that. Merab got busted up pretty good en route to losing a clear decision and his title. It’s gonna be weird seeing Merab as the challenger again here. His reign wasn’t even that long but he was such an active champ, crammed a lot into a fairly short reign and he won his defences so clearly it felt like he had a longer run on top. He tweeted in the immediate aftermath of the loss that he’d been battling norovirus and had an injured hand going in which could’ve been factors in why it was so surprisingly one-sided but it also comes off as shameless excuse making. Who knows? One thing I did think might’ve been a factor though, and I said it at the time, is Merab possibly being burnt out going in. Like I said, he’d already defended the title three times in 10 months last year before the Yan fight in December. Take into account the consecutive training camps and three weight cuts in a relatively short timeframe and that’s a lot to put your body through. It’s one thing cramming quick turnarounds and multiple fights in on the regional scene but when we’re talking about five round title fights at the highest level in arguably the toughest weight class in the UFC, it’s insane to even try to attempt four title defences in a year. Not an excuse, Yan fought his arse off and that was the main reason it went how it did. But I can’t dismiss it as a possible factor either. “I’m working very hard but now I’m trying to be smart. I was working hard for my last fight but I wasn’t taking breaks. I was just training and burning myself out. Petr Yan will never be an easy fight for me. I knew that but it even surprised me how good he is and how hard he hits. If I don’t prepare really, really well, he will beat the shit out of me again.” - Merab Dvalishvili Great, great fight this. And neither have fought since that December fight. So if burnout was an issue for Merab last time, it’s not gonna be here. He’s gone from fighting four times in 2025 to not fighting at all yet in 2026. He probably needed that break so hopefully we see the absolute best of him here and hopefully Yan’s been able to build on his incredible performance last time and we get both firing on all cylinders. Yan really shocked me in that last fight. I genuinely believed that Yan’s prime had been and gone, that his best days were behind him. But that was the best performance of his career easy. Even if you buy into the Merab burnout talk, and again I do think there’s something to it, that doesn’t account for just how clear a win this was for Yan. I do think we’ll see a better Merab here but if Yan fights the way he did last time, it’s gonna be a bastard to get that belt off him on that kind of form. Can’t wait. Might be looking forward to this more than the main event, to be honest. Lone’er Kavanagh vs Ramazan Temirov could be a cracker. Kavanagh fights generally are very entertaining whether he wins or loses. But man, they’re really not giving him any soft touches are they? He got knocked out by Charles Johnson then took a short notice main event against Brandon Moreno, in Mexico. He put on a bit of a masterclass there and beat Moreno. Then in his last fight in July he got subbed by Brandon Royval in another corker. Then coming off that loss, they’re throwing him in with this guy? That’s Temirov absolutely walloping Steve Erceg in the first round on the last Abu Dhabi card back in July. He’s from Uzbekistan, 29 years old and he’s 20-2 with 13 inside the distance. He’s no joke. He’s not typically some bomber either, the way that Erceg fight played out was a bit of a surprise. From what I remember Temirov’s more of a grinder. So he might actually be even more of an awkward opponent for Kavanagh. I don’t think he’s just gonna stand and trade here. You never know though, after sparking Erceg like that he might fancy his chances on the feet. Alexander Volkov vs Rizvan Kuniev. Sigh. If we must. Can’t say I’m feeling this. The one fight on the main card that I’m really not looking forward to. Kind of feel bad for Volkov. He had that controversial decision loss to Ciryl Gane at the end of 2024 where fans and media almost unanimously thought Volkov got shafted. Dana was caught on camera after the fight telling Volkov to his face that the judges “fucked him” but that they’d make it right or some bollocks. And here we are two years later. Gane’s out there blinding cunts and getting rewarded with the title and headlining MSG and Volkov’s…well, he’s piss-arsing about with Kuniev. In fairness, Volkov hasn’t done himself any favours since that Gane fight. He’s won back-to-back stinkers against Jailton Almeida and Waldo Cortes Acosta. But still. It must piss him off seeing Gane bullshit his way to gold. Can’t even be bothered to talk about Kuniev. He’s 34 years old, 14-3-1-1 and went 1-1 in rotten fights with Blaydes and Almeida before stopping Tyrell Fortune in a surprising FOTN last time out. Aaron Pico vs Losene Keita opens up the main card and what a perfect way to kick things off. Easy choice as ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** for me this. Can’t go wrong. And this wasn’t even the original fight. It was supposed to be Pico against Arnold Allen, which was a really good bit of matchmaking in its own right. Allen dropped out, Keita stepped in and I genuinely think this is an upgrade. Pretty badass quote. Pico’s flaws are well documented. The man’s mega aggressive, sometimes to his own detriment. He’s 14-5 and pretty much all his losses can be chalked up to him chasing the kill so much he forgot the other guy can hit back and got caught with something nasty. It was his undoing against Lerone Murphy in his UFC debut. Offensively he’s a lot to handle but defensively he’s always been lacking. Murphy put him out with a spinning elbow. Pico did rebound nicely on the Miami card in April, taking a decision off Patricio Pitbull. He didn’t get the finish but I actually felt like it was one of Pico’s best performances. He was still aggressive but he fought a bit smarter and I think it was only for the fact Pitbull has a concrete head that it went the distance. As for Keita, he didn’t get off to the best start in the UFC either. He dropped a decision to Nathaniel Wood in his debut. Like Pico though, he came back in style… That’s how his last fight ended. Sparked Muhammad Naimov in the first round, spotted an empty seat at cageside, hopped the fence, sat in the seat and gave himself a round of applause. One of the maddest finishing sequences you’ll ever see. That was the Paris card in early September, so although he’s stepped in on short notice here, he was straight back in camp so he should still be sharp. Love this fight. Pico’s still only just turned 30, Keita is 28. Both are coming in with some momentum and both are hungry to make a statement and are looking to get themselves into a good spot in the rankings. Feels like great timing for these two to cross paths. Got a really good feeling about this. Feels like it has all the ingredients for a bit of a crazy fight. Azamat Murzakanov vs Dominick Reyes. Not too fussed about this, to be honest, but it could be alright I suppose. Murzakanov just seems too small for 205 to me, especially against these guys at the bigger end of the division. I guess his stocky frame would make it hard to cut to Middleweight though. Too big for 185, too small for 205, he’s kind of stuck in that no man’s land. He’s done alright despite that though. He went 16-0 until he ran into Paulo Costa last time out and got stopped by a headkick. I remember him doing pretty well early in that fight as well. But he’s already 37 and it kind of feels like he’s already hit his ceiling. Reyes has had a funny old career. He was undefeated and everything was going great until he got robbed against Jon Jones in 2020. That started a horrible slump and four fight losing skid. He clawed it back with a three fight streak of knockout wins which really saved his career. Then he got chinned by Carlos Ulberg in Perth last year. Then won a decision over Johnny Walker in a dud back in April. Yeah. Not sure what to expect here. There’s definitely potential for fireworks. Murzakanov can whack and he’ll obviously be looking to get back on track. Hopefully Reyes goes for it and we get something decent out of this. Nikita Krylov vs Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev is actually kind of interesting to me. Krylov’s clearly nothing special. He’s 34 years old, 40-odd fights deep into his career and he’s 1-3 in his last 4. We last saw him getting his jaw nearly twatted off his head by Robert Whittaker in July. He is what he is at this point. He’s not gonna go on some miraculous surge all of a sudden. But he’s knocked around, fought some big names and he’s experienced. It’s Yakhyaev I’m interested in here. He’s Russian born but fights out of Turkey, he’s 25 years old and he’s undefeated at 10-0 with 9 coming inside the distance. So far, so good. But the knock on him has been his level of opposition. He’s 3-0 in the UFC, all first round finishes, all less than three minutes. But he’s beat Rafael Cerqueira, Brendson Ribeiro and Julius Walker. Bottom rung of the ladder jabronis. He chinned Walker in just 8 seconds last time out, for fuck’s sake. No need to rush him but it’s clear he’s needed a bit of a step up. Say what you want about Krylov but he’s definitely that. So yeah, Yakhyaev has looked a handful so far but I’m hoping Krylov can at least ask a few questions of him here. Abus Magomedov vs Cam Rowston I’m neither here nor there on. Not the best, not the worst. Just midcard filler. Magomedov is 36 years old with a record of 29-7-1 and 22 finishes. If he’s remembered at all it’s probably for his loss to Sean Strickland back in 2023. That win is oddly what bagged Strickland his title shot against Israel Adesanya, and we know how that went. So I’ve held a grudge against Magomedov ever since. He’s had mixed results in the UFC, he’s going nowhere. He’s coming into this fight off a submission over Michal Oleksiejczuk in June, but Oleksiejczuk has no ground game so how impressive is that really? Rowston’s Aussie, 31 years old and 15-3 with 13 not making it to the scorecards. He’s 3-0 in the UFC so far but it’s been ham and egger city. Grant Dawson vs Nurullo Aliev feels very much like the matchmakers going ‘let’s just put these two boring bastards against each other, that way one of them definitely loses’. I don’t hate the fight myself and sometimes these tunnel vision grappler vs tunnel vision grappler fights turn out to be really fun. Could also be a snoozer but I’ll give it a chance. Dawson’s 32 years old and 24-3-1. He’s actually got a really solid UFC record of 12-2-1 with good wins over the likes of Jared Gordon, Mark Madsen, Damir Ismagulov (who at one point was expected to be one of the new wave of 155ers taking over) and Carlos Diego Ferreira. He’s no bum. But his reputation as a ground based grinder has definitely held him back. I don’t think he’s that bad to watch myself. He’s coming into this fight off a submission win over Mateusz Rebecki in May. Tajikistan’s Aliev is kind of similar. He’s 25 years old, undefeated at 12-0, yet he’s never talked about as a strong prospect and he never really moves up the ladder. And it’s surely because of that grinding style. It’s been effective for him but it’s an open secret that the UFC don’t like that style. In his last two fights he’s derailed the hype train of Shem Rock and grappled Mike Davis into oblivion to the point Davis had a massive meltdown on social media about wrestling being “gay” and stuff. Quite looking forward to seeing how this goes. I’m not expecting a thriller or anything but I’m intrigued to see how their grappling matches up. Asaf Chopurov vs Colby Thicknesse is a fight to keep an eye on. This is Chopurov’s UFC debut and I’m reading and hearing a lot of good things about him. Seeing lots of talk that he’s a serious prospect and one of the better signings the UFC have made this year. He’s 24 years old, Georgian born but fights out of Russia and he’s 11-0 with 10 not needing the judges input. Apparently he also went 34-1 as an amateur. He won the UAE Warriors Bantamweight title last year and has successfully defended it twice. He’s also a teammate of Petr Yan, so it makes sense him debuting on this card and he’ll no doubt benefit from being in camp with Yan. From what I can tell his main strength is his grappling but he’s said to be very comfortable striking too, although his defence isn’t amazing yet. He definitely sounds promising. They’re not giving him a complete scrub here either. Thicknesse is no world beater but he’s 9-1, coming off a couple of wins and he’s one of Volk’s main training partners. So again, he’ll be in camp with Volk for this fight which can only help him. Definitely gonna be watching this with a lot of interest. Abubakar Vagaev vs Jacob Malkoun is whatever. Don’t hate it, it just doesn’t move me. Vagaev signed with the UFC earlier this year and he was a decent enough pick up, I guess. Former champ in the ACA promotion in Russia, he’s 25-4, a teammate of Khamzat Chimaev and has some solid wins over recognisable names like Albert Tumenov and Michel Pereira. Not an earth shattering signing but not bad. The problem is, based on the limited stuff I’ve seen of him, he doesn’t seem very exciting to watch. Out of his 25 wins he’s only managed 5 finishes and his UFC debut win over Saygid Izagakhmaev in July was a bit of a snoozefest as I recall. Malkoun’s Australian, 31 years old, 10-3 and on a three fight win streak. Never particularly rated him really. He’s one of them that’s been on the roster since 2020 and done nothing that’s stuck in the memory in all that time. He beat our boy Gerald Meerschaert on points last time out on the Perth card in May but sadly Gerald’s looking well past it these days. Daniel Santos vs Bolaji Oki should be exciting for however long it lasts. Don’t think I’ve ever been bored by either of these two yet. Santos hasn’t always been the most consistent in terms of results but he pretty much always brings it. He’s 14-3 now and coming off a TKO loss via body shot against the Korean Superboy in May. Before that though, he’d won four in a row. Belgium’s Oki’s 30 years old and 10-4 with 6 finishes. He’s had a rough run in the UFC but never a dull moment. Badly needs a win here though, he’s coming off back-to-back stoppage losses to Mason Jones (in a banger) and Manoel Sousa. Noah Gugnon vs Kody Steele. I’ll be tuning in early for this. Think I’ve said it a few times on here but Steele has been great to watch so far in the UFC. He’s 31 years old and 8-1 with 6 finishes. He’s gone 1-1 so far in the UFC, a points loss to Rongzhu in a hidden gem last year, then he bounced back with a first round heel hook win over Dom Mar Fan on the Perth card in May. Gugnon is probably expected to win though. He’s French, 25 years old and 10-2 with a 100% finish rate. He fought in Ares in France previously and made his UFC debut on the Serbia card in August, submitting Milos Janicic in the first round. Iasmin Lucindo vs Nicolle Caliari kicks off the night. Can’t say I’m arsed but whatever. Not a terrible fight. I remember loving Lucindo’s UFC debut fight with Yazmin Jauregui back in 2022, to be fair. Think both were debuting, both were really young and I had zero expectations going in. Turned out to be a banger. She’s still only 24 now and she has a record of 18-6 with 11 finishes. Not gonna pretend I can remember a lot about her UFC run after that Jauregui fight but she’s had some alright wins over the division’s veterans like Karolina Kowalkiewicz, Marina Rodriguez and Angela Hill. Caliari’s 29 with a 9-4 record and all 9 wins coming inside the distance. She got off to a rough start in the UFC, going 0-2, but she finally got her first Octagon win in May, subbing Shauna Bannon. Whatever that’s worth. Not expecting much from this but I’ll probably end up watching it because of the early start time. And that’s 333.

Got the house to myself for a bit so finally got caught up on the bits of this card I missed. It was one of those cards that we seem to be seeing more of lately. Full of quick finishes and violence, which is obviously no bad thing. But a lot of it felt a bit squash matchy and lacking in the stakes department, so how much of it are we even gonna remember a week from now? Still, better than a bunch of snoozers. Main event came and went. Not a terrible fight but there’s just nothing to talk about really. Like Egg says, nothing of note actually happened. I felt like Silva was clearly the better fighter overall and I’m glad she got the win. But it wasn’t the type of performance that’s gonna endear her to the majority of the fanbase, or the UFC, and it’s not gonna have anyone beating down the doors to watch her next fight. All that said, I’m kind of interested to see her inevitable fight with Valentina Shevchenko whenever Shev’s healthy again. Not that I’m counting down the days to it or anything and I’m certainly not expecting a barnburner. But I wouldn’t hate the fight. Already seeing some negative shit aimed at Silva. Set of bastards. Leave her alone. Nah, to be honest, I can see why her style wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea. She’s not the most exciting fighter to watch, she seems to have leaned into a strictly point striking style in her last bunch of fights and that’s only gonna be amplified now she’s in five rounders. But she’s good. There’s skill there and I’m hoping she can step her game up now she’s champ. Can’t see her reign lasting long though, Wang made it closer than I expected here so I imagine Shevchenko, even an older Shevchenko, will probably prove too much for her. But I’m already seeing a bit of pushback and negativity towards Silva since Saturday that I’ve never noticed before. There’s a video doing the rounds today of Silva returning to her hometown in Brazil with the belt and the streets are pretty much empty. I don’t know if they just didn’t put the word out and publicise it enough to the locals or if they just don’t care enough to show up. But I actually felt sorry for her. Bless her. She seemed to handle it well, still smiling, but it was the saddest ‘champion’s parade/homecoming’ I’ve ever seen. No sod there. I said going in I had a bad feeling Payton Talbott was gonna give Figgy a beating and I did pick him to get the stoppage. I didn’t think it’d be that quick though. Kind of sad to see but Talbott did what he had to do. Talbott’s a funny one. He looks like he might be the real deal but it’s hard to say that with any real confidence because his biggest wins so far have been over last legs Cejudo and Figgy. Big wins in terms of name value but I’m really not sure how much stock to put into those wins because I’m not sure how much those guys had left. I get why the UFC made these fights, it never hurts to give new guys the rub of beating established names. But I’d like to see him against someone more in form next. Cory Sandhagen or Mario Bautista could be interesting. As for Figgy, I do think he’s past it. He’s gone 1-5 in his last 6 now and, while it’s easy to look at the list of guys who beat him and say ‘no shame in that’, it’s not just the losses themselves but his own performances haven’t been good at all. Think I said in the opening post but I feel like that Petr Yan fight in 2024 (which I loved) was the last of whatever Figgy had left in the tank. He hasn’t looked good at all since then, he turns 39 in December and he had all those rough weight cuts at Flyweight, the hard battles with Moreno and even the knee injury against Sandhagen last year, which it appears wasn’t major but was just another thing sapping from whatever he had left. Now he’s just got done in two minutes by the young up and comer. There’s only one way this story usually leads. His trajectory is all heading downwards. I saw something the other day that he was on about going back down to Flyweight to challenge Van. Terrible idea and just reeks of desperation. The thought of him trying to cut to 125 again now, at nearly 40, after a few years up at Bantamweight, when he used to struggle making 125 years ago, sounds like a disaster to me. Ribovics vs Green was one of many quick fights on this card. Herb Dean gets a lot of shit for his multiple refereeing blunders, and most of them completely justified in my opinion, but I didn’t have a big problem with this. Green got dropped two or three times in a short period of time and was all over the place. The last knockdown didn’t look quite as bad as the others and he was protesting but he was taking a lot of punishment and I can definitely see why Herb stepped in. Couple of solid name wins in a row for Ribovics now over Barboza and Green but Barboza was shot to bits and then Ribovics missed weight for this one. Not good. Exciting fighter but I think this is about his ceiling. Beating up older guys who are past their best. Although saying that, I picked Green to win so fair pla…actually not fair play because Ribovics missed weight. Not sure who they throw Ribovics in with next. He’s just entered the Top 15 on the media version of the rankings. Maybe Fiziev? That could be fireworks. Found it quite funny that on a card full of quick finishes, Soldic vs Khaos was one of the few fights to go the distance. Given both men’s styles, going in I would’ve bet a bollock that this wasn’t seeing the scorecards. Thought Soldic looked really good all in all though. And honestly, considering his inactivity in recent years, getting a full three rounds in here really wasn’t the worst thing in the world for him. Khaos had a good opening round and I thought Soldic looked like a guy who’d been inactive for a long time. I don’t think it was even two minutes in before Rogan started with the “well the UFC is a completely different level” shite. Thankfully Soldic found his groove as the fight went on and his quality showed in the second and third. Good stuff. Really hoping he builds on this and stays active now. Not to the point of burnout like we saw with De Ridder when he got away from ONE and first came over to the UFC but hopefully now the cobwebs are off he’ll get fighting more regularly. You look at his record and his last few fights before this were Feb 2025, then you’re going back to May 2023, then Dec 2022, then Dec 2021. He’s had five fights in five years and that’s a lot of significant lengthy gaps. He could be a really fun addition to the Welterweight division but he’s got a lot of lost time to make up for. I’d like to see him against someone at the lower end of the Top 15 next. Maybe Daniel Rodriguez or someone like that, ideally on a fairly quick turnaround, then if he wins that, start looking at juicier fights in 2027. It’s down the line but I think a fight with Jack Della Maddalena could be a really fun standup scrap in the future. Had a feeling Roman Kopylov was gonna put an end to the Ateba Gautier hype train but I didn’t see it ending as early as it did. I had it in my head that Kopylov would probably have to weather an early storm but that his durability and experience would get him through it, then he’d drag Gautier into a longer fight and either win on points or force a late finish. Nope. Three minutes into the first round… The reaction from the crowd and the commentators like it was some huge upset was a bit weird really considering Gautier really hadn’t been tested at this level before. I like Gautier a lot but the hype on him was based entirely on wins over the absolute bottom rung ham and eggers of the 185 division. I’d like to see Gautier bounce back from this and at just 24 years old it seems silly to write him off for good. But I’m not sure he’s ever going further than what we’ve seen already. Nice guy, powerful dig on him, not sure there’s much more to him. He’s got some time but there’s obviously a lot of work to be done with him. Imanol Rodriguez finish was nasty stuff. Can’t recall the last time I saw a front kick to the body quite like it the way the toes dug into Alden Coria’s gut the way they did. Look at that shit! The toes completely disappeared into his belly. I’d seen limited footage of both going into this fight but I remembered Coria being decent, so for Rodriguez to put him away like that, in the first round, was impressive. Looking forward to seeing more of Rodriguez. 8-0 now, all finishes, 26 years old, he’s one to keep an eye on. Bunch of fun fights to be had with him in the Flyweight division as well. Damian Pinas definitely has a dig on him. We’d already seen his power in his two UFC fights but this one was especially brutal. In real time it didn’t even look like he put that much into that uppercut but it connected flush right on the sweet spot and Pulyaev’s whole head twisted. Devastating shot. I like him, I get the excitement and I can see why people wanna see him against a ranked opponent next. I’m not against him being stepped up a bit next time out. At the same time, he’s only 24. Rush him too quick and it could backfire. Clearly has potential but talk of him fighting a Top 10 guy now seems too soon for me. Going from Pulyaev to the Top 10 is a hell of a jump. I’d like to see a step up but not that fast. Feel bad for Pulyaev at this point. This is how he’s looked at the end of his last two fights now against Ruziboev and Pinas. Does he have to die every time? Marcus McGhee was entertaining as always and got the first round finish. Rough day at the office for Anthony Romero but, in fairness to him, he stepped in on about three days notice for this and I thought he showed flashes of potential the short time it lasted. I’ll be interested to see how he looks next time with a full camp. The win doesn’t do much for McGhee and at 36 he could really do with kicking on in some more meaningful fights but a win’s a win I guess. Brick shithouse Anthony Wint just ran straight through Lucas Armand in seconds. Nothing to say about it, just a complete squash. Mrs Wand was in the room when I had this fight on and when Buffer announced Armand she repeated his nickname ‘Do Or Die’ for some reason. Then 20 seconds later, he’s on the floor eating canvas and she just looked at me and went “…I guess it’s ‘Die’ then”. Cold. Had to laugh at Wint in the post-fight interview keep doing the ‘I don’t even like fighting’ bit then immediately saying he “really, really, REALLY” wants to fight on a quick turnaround against Sean Sharaf. I really didn’t know what to expect out of Heavyweight Johnny Walker but he straight up murdered Mick Parkin in cold blood. Christ. That’s how you wanna make a statement in a new weight class. Still not convinced the HW move is gonna work out for Walker long term but sod it. Maybe he can actually go further at HW just on account of the sheer lack of depth. It wasn’t like 205 was overflowing with talent either but he’s at least got the speed and athletic edge up at HW because most of them are just blobs who are gonna plod straight at him. Disaster for Parkin. Loses to a faded Tybura, 18 month layoff, slaughtered by Walker in a round. Are Johnny and Valter still beefing? Book it. First brother vs brother fight in UFC history. The Bret vs Owen of MMA. With Valter being the leg lock guy now he can even threaten to rip Johnny’s leg outta his leg. Jacobe Smith had no trouble with Bruce Whitehead. Don’t really know what the point of this was to be honest. Especially knowing that Smith was supposed to fight Kevin Holland recently, so to see this last minute fight against a no name just thrown together on short notice was an odd one. Not sure what to make of Smith. Undoubtedly an athletic freak and clearly has potential but these type of fights aren’t telling us anything and he’s not gonna learn much from them either. I’d say rebook that Holland fight but Holland’s been matched up with Uros Medic on the MSG card next month now. Hopefully we see Smith against someone who should give him some kind of test next though. And I still think he’s a dick for that Josiah Harrell stoppage last time. Rafael Dos Anjos return was sadly predictable. Thought he was looking really good early, like surprisingly good, and I started getting my hopes up that, despite having realistic expectations for 40+ year old RDA, at least he might win this fight. Then it all went to shit. Great fighter in his day but he needs to pack it in. Fair enough he was coming off a two year layoff but considering how sharp he looked early I’m not sure you can even chalk it up to ring rust. I think he just doesn’t have it anymore. No way even a slightly off form RDA loses to Alexander Hernandez. It’s over. Looked like he was gonna retire after the fight with him immediately taking his gloves off but never got the mic time. It’d be nice to give him one more in Brazil and give him his moment win or lose. Eric Nolan with the late stoppage in the curtain jerker. Sad to see Court McGee go into retirement on his back, especially in his hometown, but I’m glad he still got his moment post-fight to say a few words, lay the gloves down and get the old montage treatment. I didn’t know he’d already announced going in that this would be his last fight. Could swear I saw a quote saying he wasn’t even considering retiring. For the best though. Never was gonna be a contender but a tough guy and he’s a real success story if you know about his past battles with addiction. Yeah. Exceeded low expectations. Roll on 333. Hopefully have the thread up for that soon.

Me and my brother (and sometimes a mate or two) used to go to Boxing shows and most of the UK UFC cards but it gradually stopped as we all got older and busier and ticket prices became silly. But there was a time when me and my brother said that whenever AJ vs Fury got made, we’d be there. Fast forward a few years and instead of the trip to Wembley we always envisioned, it’s looking like he’s staying at mine that night and we’re watching it with a chippy tea and a few rums. And I’m fine with that. At 41 years old, I’d go as far as to say I prefer it. Just can’t be doing with all the pissing about with tickets, travel, hotels, dealing with twats in the crowd etc anymore when I can watch it from the comfort of my living room with a better view and my bed just a flight of stairs away when I’m knackered. Old bastard and I don’t care. The only reason to actually go now is to be able to say I was in attendance, and I don’t give a bollocks about that anymore.

Christ. In 2010, sweet, I’d be all in. But in 2026?

Yep. And to think Turki Drummer wanted it in New York. For all the delays and all the blame to be passed around for them, this always should’ve been in the UK. Glad they at least got that sorted.

I actually toyed with the idea of starting a thread for this earlier in the week and couldn’t be arsed. You’re right though, it definitely deserves its own thread rather than just being glossed over in the This Week’s Boxing thread like it’s some random Boxxer or Zuffa card. Isn’t Manny Pacquiao also rumoured to be on the undercard?

That match was included in one of those ‘Sting in 92’ comps on the Vault a few months back. Quoting myself like a dick but I’d only be repeating myself…a significant wound from my childhood was healed.

I was always gutted we never got a satisfying ending to the Windham vs Rhodes team breakup. They should’ve absolutely had a big grudge match at Starrcade 92 and then maybe followed up with a proper slobberknocker blowoff at Superbrawl 3 or something, instead of Baz pissing about in a really disappointing match with Muta and Dustin being saddled with Maxx Payne. Having a Windham vs Rhodes ‘street fight’ or something, along with the Sting vs Vader strap match main event would’ve been class. It’s WCW all over though. I’m not gonna go into it again but they did similar a year later with the Hollywood Blonds breakup. They split in the October, there should’ve been a properly built up, heated Austin vs Pillman match on Starrcade. Instead they just threw them out there in a quick match with a shite finish on a Clash and that was that.

Main and co-main for UFC 335 in December got announced last night… I like it. Although I’ve got a feeling Pereira might be getting brutally slept this time. It’s a more straightforward fight than Gane was on paper, Pav’s not as awkward, but he’s more powerful than Gane and Pereira isn’t exactly slick defensively or hard to hit. I’m still not feeling Pereira as a HW. Oliveira vs Lopes should be tons of fun. Also confirmed for that card are Bo Nickal vs Joe Pyfer and Brandon Moreno vs Charles Johnson. Shaping up quite nicely. They also announced the Qatar card for late November recently and I’ve gotta say I’m a big fan of this. Easily one of the stronger Fight Night cards of the year on paper and better than some numbered events we’ve had IMO. I’d say the top five fights there could’ve headlined Fight Nights in their own right. Even Almabayev vs Horiguchi or faded Hooker vs shot Ortega, which don’t automatically scream main event, we’ve definitely had worse this year. Main event is an interesting one and I real serious test for Stirling. Aljo vs Vallejos is a great fight and, again, a legit step up for Vallejos. Hooker vs Ortega is whatever, both way past their best but it’ll probably be entertaining enough if Ortega shows up this time. Really hoping Horiguchi gets back on track but Almabayev is a tough rebound. Cannonier vs Aliskerov I’m not counting the days to but has slugfest potential. Solid card. And it’ll be on at UK prime time which obviously never hurts.

Fight day… Going with Silva, Talbott, Green, Soldic and Kopylov on the main card. I feel like Silva really should win the main event but who knows? Cong might be better than she’s showed so far and if Silva chooses to strike it out, it could be more competitive than many expect. I think Silva gets it done on points though. I reckon Talbott puts a beating on old Figgy. Hopefully it’s more of a fight than that but I just feel like Figgy’s absolutely done. Talbott by KO/TKO for me. Green vs Ribovics is a bit of a coin flip to me but I fancy Green to get the better of it. Think I’m feeling Green by sub actually. Got Soldic by stoppage over Khaos. Can see it being short and explosive and I think Soldic is just a higher quality of fighter. There are ingredients there for the upset though. Soldic’s 18 month layoff, now making his UFC debut at high altitude, plus Khaos has a dig on him. Stranger things have happened but I think Soldic comes through with the finish. And it’s not much more than a gut feeling but I think Kopylov might just derail Gautier tonight. There’s always the possibility Gautier just goes out there and smokes him early but I can see Kopylov dragging him into a longer fight and getting the win.

It’s becoming an increasingly regular occurrence lately but I never got around to watching this until this morning. Walked into the fallout of the main event the day after and just never got to watching it until now. Scary situation with the Rosas vs Barcelos ending. Like I said, I’d already seen spoilers for the show and caught some stuff about the main event, so it wasn’t as shocking and confusing to me as it would’ve been for anyone watching spoiler free. By the time I watched it I already knew Barcelos was alright. Even still though, very worrying scenes. Definitely seemed to be more of a medical issue than any kind of impact causing a knockout or something. He just seemed to completely fade and go limp before he even went down. All I could think seeing how it played out was that I was so glad Rosas recognised something was wrong and didn’t follow up with any shots on the ground. Like Dai said it was a cracking fight before the unfortunate ending. Felt like Barcelos was well on his way to victory and, while Rosas answered some questions on his heart and ability to go into deep waters, I did think the fight as a whole showed he still needs a lot more time. I hope they don’t push him into a big fight now based off this ‘win’ but I suspect they might. Gotta say as well, once again, what the fuck was Herb Dean doing at the finish? There didn’t seem to be any signs that he was gonna stop the fight despite Barcelos clearly having some major issues. It took Rosas to basically stop the fight himself before Herb basically went ‘oh yeah, maybe he’s done’. The bloke’s a liability. Genuinely dangerous. He’s been doing this dopey, half soaked, going through the motions shit for years now and there’s still some who call him the best ref in the sport. I can’t even remember now, was he always like this or did he used to be better but has since also checked out like Dana, Rogan etc? Because I honestly don’t think he’s any better than refs who used to get shat on all the time like Mazzagatti, Winslow etc. He’s been shit since at least 2020/21 when the whole Dan Hardy debacle happened. Perez vs Dumont was as crap as I think everyone expected. I completely zoned out of this one and started skimming through it before the first round was even over. It looked awful though. And Perez won which somehow made it even worse. We did get another shocked Norma face when the decision was announced though… Cracks me up. This is back-to-back fights now where she’s done nothing for 15 minutes and then acts horrified and surprised when the judges go against her. It didn’t look like Perez did much either and I did see a lot of people saying Dumont should’ve got the decision. But in a fight this shit, who even really cares? When you leave a fight this close and barely do anything the whole fight, you kind of give up the right to moan when the scorecards don’t go your way. Best thing this fight provided, other than the gifs above, were these two tweets… Got a chuckle out of me anyway and each a very justified dig at both women. If you want a true indication of just how deep into the sewer the women’s Bantamweight division has gone, Ailin Perez is now at #2 or #3 depending on which set of rankings you look at. Ailin Perez is considered the second or third best 135er on the planet. Let that sink in for a second. I genuinely think Ronda Rousey could come back and be champion again. The division hasn’t evolved at all since she left, if anything it’s got worse. Once Harrison and Nunes are gone, which genuinely could be after their fight next month, we’re fucked. Luis Hernandez making short work of Sedriques Dumas was a satisfying watch. Less than one minute it took. Quite an animated celebration as well. The win itself tells us sod all because Dumas is pure shite. Hernandez could be useless himself and still be able to roll over Dumas. So time will tell on him. This was a real feel-good moment regardless, watching that scumbag get dealt with. We say it after every loss but surely that’s it for Dumas now, right? Surely. Right? If they still keep him around after this, that’s basically proof that they’re doing it just because Dana has nothing but contempt for the fanbase and/or is looking after his fellow wifebeater. The two TUF finals came and went. The men’s one was over before it got going and ended on a DQ. What was he playing at with this? I love the little look back at the ref, presumably hoping he wasn’t looking when the knee landed. Just bin TUF man. A final ending on a DQ and no-one cares anymore. The women’s final was better, it at least had a proper conclusion and Tina Black looked a bit of a handful. Didn’t know her or her opponent going in though so the jury’s out until we see her face more established competition. Did appear to have some actual power though, which the Strawweight division can always do with. If you skipped the prelims, Brady Hiestand had a tremendous performance pulling off somewhat of a surprise win over Rinya Nakamura. Hiestand had fought in the UFC previously but I had no real recollection of him and he’d been inactive since 2024 coming into this one. And considering Nakamura was being talked up as a bit of a prospect not long ago, I thought this was gonna be a bit of a layup for him. I think it was supposed to be. Hiestand gave him hell from the off and found the submission in the second round. Really impressive performance, especially after two years out. Not much else of note from the prelims. Elves Brener wiping out Josiah Harrell was rough to watch though… Knowing Harrell had a brain issue a few years ago, then since he’s come back he’s been on the receiving end of that late stoppage against Jacobe Smith and now this? Not good. Montel Jackson got a nice finish over Ricky Simon and I was happy to see Yazmin Jauregui blitz Vanessa Demopoulos in a minute in the curtain jerker. She really needed a win like that. Not a bad little show, although I think the fact my expectations were rock bottom helped.

To be honest I rushed that post together in about two minutes and completely overlooked it 🤣 love Meerschaert but I wish he’d stop now.

Yeah they were trending downwards anyway in terms of thin cards but it does seem like that $7.7 billion from Paramount has got them feeling like they don’t even need to try anymore. Complacency off the charts. In fairness there is good stuff on there. The main and co-main just really drags it down for me. Like I said though, I’m just looking at it as a strong Fight Night. Which it essentially is for us anyway with it all being on TNT/HBO Max or whatever. I’m guessing no-one bothered with the press conference for this? I didn’t either because why would you? I did catch a snippet of it though and they didn’t even get a translator in for Ateba Gautier. They forgot apparently. Again, they just don’t care anymore do they? I know it’s not the end of the world but how did that slip through the cracks? The guy’s opening the main card and he’s someone they seem to see as a prospect, yet none of the UFC’s world class production team thought to bring in a translator? Dana was too busy tripling down on insisting he’s the promoter for AJ vs Fury and raging at Eddie Hearn. Fat twat.

Well, if nothing else, they finally had a press conference and their first ever face-off… I still refuse to believe it until I actually see them in the ring throwing punches but I guess it’s now officially closer to happening than it’s ever been before.

Apex… PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD Brendan Allen vs Christian Leroy Duncan Jai Herbert vs Matheus Camilo Loopy Godinez vs Ketlen Souza Andre Fili vs Kai Kamaka III Malcolm Wellmaker vs Otari Tanzilovi PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Gerald Meerschaert vs Julius Walker Ismael Bonfim vs Francisco Prado Niko Price vs Leon Shahbazyan Felipe Franco vs Brendson Ribeiro RJ Harris vs Allen Frye Jr Darya Zheleznyakova vs Alice Pereira Melissa Gatto vs Ernesta Kareckaite Don’t have a lot to say about this at all. Allen vs CLD is an OK main event for the Apex, I guess. It’s one of those fights where I genuinely wouldn’t give a bollocks if it got cancelled though. Nice to see CLD get the spotlight though, hopefully he rises to the occasion. What else? I quite like Loopy but she’s a bit hot and cold. Wellmaker had a really strong start in the UFC but got derailed badly and is now coming off back-to-back losses. Herbert vs Camilo could be fun. Oh and Niko Price there. He’s back already despite his fight with Michael Chiesa in March supposedly being both men’s swansong. Apparently this is definitely his farewell now. Niko said the matchmakers talked him into having one more because Chiesa’s retirement overshadowed his last time.