wandshogun09

This is on now apparently. Read that Ismael Bonfim came in 7.5lbs over the Lightweight limit for his fight. Ridiculous. Fight’s still going ahead as well. Might skim through some of this if I get chance tomorrow or in the week but this really looks like the type of Fight Night I might well just skip altogether.

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.

Late getting this up, can you blame me? We’re off to Salt Lake City with this bag of wank… PARAMOUNT+/CBS MAIN CARD Natalia Silva vs Wang Cong - Vacant Flyweight Title Deiveson Figueiredo vs Payton Talbott King Green vs Esteban Ribovics Roberto Soldic vs Khaos Williams Roman Kopylov vs Ateba Gautier PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Alden Coria vs Imanol Rodriguez Damian Pinas vs Andrey Pulyaev Marcus McGhee vs Anthony Romero Anthony Wint vs Lucas Armand FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Mick Parkin vs Johnny Walker Rafael Dos Anjos vs Alexander Hernandez Ismail Naurdiev vs Marvin Vettori Jacobe Smith vs Bruce Whitehead Court McGee vs Eric Nolan Deary me. Alright. There is some good stuff on there. I’m not gonna completely shit on the whole card and pretend there’s nothing worth checking out there. Stuff like Green vs Ribovics, Soldic’s debut, couple of other bits and bobs and fighters I enjoy watching on there. There’s no getting away from it though, that main event is dead on arrival and I don’t think the co-main is great either considering how washed up Figgy has looked in his last handful of fights. Also worth mentioning that this show is in Utah so high altitude. So there’s a chance that even the fights that look decent end up suffering from that. I guess the best way to look at this is to just treat it as a Fight Night. If you look at it through that lens it’s actually a solid little card 🤣 Natalia Silva vs Wang Cong then. Yeah. Safe to say this isn’t gonna be as long and detailed a preview as I usually do for these numbered events. There’s just not much to this at all, is there? The fight itself I’m OK with. If it was a prelim or somewhere on the main card of a Fight Night or something. But as a title fight headlining the UFC’s ‘top tier’ of events? It’s just not hitting the spot. This was supposed to be Silva challenging the champ Valentina Shevchenko but Shevchenko suffered a back injury. Initially it was reported that she was stripped of the title but I’ve also read that she agreed to relinquish it to let the division move on while she recovers. Regardless, same end result. The title is vacant. And this is what the UFC came up with. Not ideal. I get Silva being involved, she was next in line for a crack at the gold anyway. It’s Wang Cong making this feel very prelim-ish for me. And that’s probably because five of her six fights in the UFC so far have been on the prelims. I like Natalia Silva and not just because she’s a prime candidate for the ‘Hannah Fry’s Hot People’ thread on here. She has a likability beyond that for me and I really enjoyed her fights when she first came into the UFC and was on the rise. It wasn’t a who’s who of names initially but she beat Jasmine Jasudavicius in her debut, which is a decent win, and then scored a couple of highlight reel finishes over ham and eggers Tereza Bleda and Victoria Leonardo. Gradually she stepped up in competition and, since her Octagon debut back in 2022, she’s gone undefeated in the UFC at 8-0 with wins over the likes of former champions Jessica Andrade, Alexa Grasso and Rose Namajunas in her last three. She’s 29 years old, 20-5-1 now and hasn’t lost since 2017 in a promotion called Thunder Fights in Brazil. It’s been a while. Her last few fights haven’t been much fun to watch though. As she’s stepped up in levels, she’s still been winning fairly comfortable decisions but her performances haven’t blown anyone away. I vaguely remember thinking she looked good in the Grasso fight but the Namajunas fight last time out was arse. China’s Wang Cong is 34 years old with a record of 10-1. She has a background in Kickboxing and Sanda but made the transition to MMA in the summer of 2022. At just 4-0 she got on Road To UFC and then made her UFC debut in August 2024, knocking out Victoria Leonardo in about a minute. Between the vicious and quick KO, which isn’t typical in the women’s Flyweight division, plus her whole Joker gimmick, she had a little bit more buzz around her than your average debuting 125lber. And it didn’t hurt that she had history with champ Shevchenko either. Her claim to combat sports fame was that she held a points win over Shev way back in 2015 in their Kickboxing days. The hype train came to a crashing halt before it even picked up any speed though, when Wang got dropped and submitted in just her second UFC fight by no hoper Gabriella Fernandes. She’s bounced back with four straight decision wins but, I don’t know, I’m not convinced she hasn’t already peaked. She’s coming off a win over Tracy Cortez on the McGregor vs Holloway 2 undercard in July in what I recall being a bit of a dud. So there we are. Our main event. A title fight. Not gonna try to pretend I’m really looking forward to this but I’m hoping Silva wins. Neither as champ are gonna set the world alight but Silva’s more worthy of being in this position and I’m hoping she’ll be one of those fighters who steps their game up when they win the belt. At 34, there’s less upside in Wang anyway. They’d kind of have that storyline of doing Wang vs Shevchenko 2 but, even then, would anyone really care? It’s hardly Alex Pereira coming over from Kickboxing to MMA to haunt his old nemesis Israel Adesanya, is it? And like I said, Wang’s been mostly on the prelims in her UFC career, with a good chunk of her fights being on the early prelims on Fight Pass and stuff. Now we’re expected to buy into her as a headliner and title challenger? No-one would’ve given a shite about this anyway but it certainly doesn’t help that Wang hasn’t been positioned or promoted as a contender at all previously. She’s only ranked #6 and #8 on both sets of rankings as well. It feels like there had to be something better than this but then you look at the rankings and everyone’s either booked or injured. Oh well. At the very least I hope it’s a good fight. I’ll stick it on Sunday with my finger hovering over the fast forward button. Deiveson Figueiredo vs Payton Talbott is a weird one. I’d have been really into this if they were both meeting in their primes but Figgy just looks like a bit of a spent force at this point. You know what the matchmakers are going for here. They’re looking to feed a once great champion in Figgy to their new prospect on the rise. It’s been the nature of combat sports forever. We’ve seen it so many times. I’m not even blaming the UFC. They badly need to build new guys up and one of the tried and tested ways to do that has always been to try to get them wins over established names and legends who are now on the decline. Give them ‘the rub’ to use a pro wrestling term. It’s still a bit sad to see though. I’d love to see Figgy turn back the clock and pull out a vintage performance but I don’t think he’s got one left. He’s gonna be 39 in December and he’s had his battles, his injuries, his rough weight cuts. It’s all miles on the clock. He’s gone 1-4 in his last five and I don’t think he’s looked good at all lately. Even the lone win, it was over Montel Jackson in a shitty fight and he only managed to scrape a split decision. He lost his last couple of fights against Umar Nurmagomedov and Song Yadong and Song subbed him last time out. He had the knee injury against Sandhagen last year. Just feels like he’s been done since that cracking fight with Petr Yan in Macau in 2024. He lost that one as well but it was the last time I felt like we got a glimpse of the Figgy of old. Talbott’s a decade younger at 28 and he’s 11-1 with 8 finishes. He had that loss to Raoni Barcelos in early 2025 but I’ve liked the way he’s responded. Thought he looked really good in his bounce back against Felipe Lima and he had no bother beating up Henry Cejudo in his last fight back in December. Cejudo was on the way out but Talbott still had a very strong performance and showed improvements in his wrestling. Yeah I don’t like this one for Figgy myself. Hopefully he at least makes a scrap of it but I’ve got a feeling there’ll be calls for him to retire after this one. King Green vs Esteban Ribovics is a fight with no real stakes or relevancy to the Lightweight division but it should be fun to watch for however long it lasts. Green just turned 40 and this’ll be his 56th pro fight yet he’s still looking pretty sharp. He had those brutal back-to-back losses to Paddy Pimblett and Mauricio Ruffy in 2024/25 and I honestly thought that might be the end of him but, fair play, he’s clawed his way back, has won his last four fights in a row and finished his last three opponents. This year he’s stopped Daniel Zellhuber, subbed Jeremy Stephens and weathered the early storm of Terrance McKinney last time out in July and came back to TKO McKinney that same round. Argentina’s Ribovics is a decade Green’s junior at 30 years old and he’s 16-3 with 13 of his wins coming inside the distance. Not a future champ or anything but he’s been exciting to watch win or lose. He also has a win over McKinney, via brutal headkick in 2024, he had that FOTY contender against Zellhuber at the Sphere etc. He’s got his flaws and he came up short when he stepped up against Gamrot earlier this year. But he brings it. He’s coming off a TKO win over a shot to bits Edson Barboza at UFC 330 in August. Roberto Soldic vs Khaos Williams. Wasn’t exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to fights worth highlighting on this card but this is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** here and it was an easy choice. This is the UFC debut of Soldic. His signing was announced in early September and it really stood out as one of the better and bigger signings the UFC has made in years. This along with Salahdine Parnasse coming in and one or two others, it does give me some hope that the UFC are actively trying to snap up the best fighters out there again. For a while they seemed to be in full-on penny pinching mode and lowballing the top name free agents. But lately they have been better at picking up some of those guys. Soldic is Croatian, still just 31 years old so in theory he still probably has some time to make some noise in the UFC, and he’s 21-4-0-1 with 19 finishes, 18 by knockout. I admit I haven’t seen a ton of him but I’m familiar enough to be excited. Think it was Jim who said his fighting style is similar to Mirko Cro Cop and there’s definitely something to that. He hasn’t done too badly in MMA either. He was a two division champion in KSW at Welterweight and Middleweight. He was the last man to beat Dricus Du Plessis before DDP came to the UFC. They’re 1-1 against each other so the trilogy decider is right there somewhere down the road now they’re both in the UFC, although Soldic is coming in at 170 here so he’d have to go back up to 185 for that. He knocked DDP out in their last fight as well. Only man to do that. He also has a knockout win over Mamed Khalidov, who was widely regarded as one of the best fighters outside the UFC for years. And Soldic also fought Yaroslav Amosov back in 2016, losing by split decision. That’d be an interesting rematch now with both a decade more experienced. Khaos is 32 and 16-5 with 10 finishes, 9 by KO/TKO. He’s coming off a first round stoppage over Nikolay Veretennikov in May but had lost back-to-back fights before that. He’s not terrible, he’s usually entertaining to watch and he’s heavy handed. But he’s a guy a fighter the quality of Soldic should be beating. Who the fuck knows though in MMA? The x-factor here for me is that Soldic hasn’t fought since February 2025. So he’ll have been inactive for 18 months by the time the Octagon door shuts behind him. Not great. I’d still favour him but there’s potential for ring rust here. Hopefully he gets this one out of the way, wins spectacularly, and gets a few fights in to knock the cobwebs off. He could be a fantastic addition to the 170 and 185 divisions if he’s on form. Roman Kopylov vs Ateba Gautier kicks off the main card. Interesting one this because it’s a fairly significant step up for Gautier. He came in off DWCS in 2025 and started smashing fools up in the UFC with ease. He made short work of bottom rung jobbers like Jose Medina, Robert Valentin and Tre’ston Vines. All first round demolition jobs where Gautier faced zero resistance. He looked a beast but the opposition was so shite you couldn’t put much stock in the wins. At UFC 324 in January he was taken the distance by Andrey Pulyaev, which was a bit of an eye opener because Pulyaev isn’t much good. Gautier still got the win and I don’t think he was ever in any real bother, but it was one of those performances where the hype cooled off. He returned to form in May with a second round walloping of Ozzy Diaz. But again, Diaz is shite so it didn’t tell us much. I like Gautier, he seems a good guy and he’s clearly got some potential. But while I initially was happy to see them take it slow with him, I’m at the point now where I wanna see him tested. Kopylov, on paper, could be that guy. He’s not amazing himself but he’s tough, he’s been subbed but he’s never been knocked out and he’s been in with the likes of Gregory Rodrigues, Paulo Costa and Fluffy Hernandez. He’s a guy who probably isn’t just gonna fall over as soon as Gautier touches him. There’s every chance Gautier still just blitzes him here but it feels like a fight that should give us some answers and an idea of where Gautier is at in his development so far. Alden Coria vs Imanol Rodriguez could be a bit of a sleeper actually. They’re both relatively new in the UFC so it’s not a fight that instantly jumps off the page. But from what I remember of both, this could be a fun one. Coria’s 28 years old and has a record of 13-3 with 9 finishes. He made his UFC debut just over a year ago and has gone 3-0 since with wins over Alessandro Costa by TKO and then a couple of decisions over Luis Gurule and Stewart Nicoll. I remember him looking good in the Costa fight especially. Rodriguez is Mexican, 26 years old and undefeated at 7-0, all finishes. He scored a first round knockout on DWCS last October then made his UFC debut on the Mexico City card in February and stopped Kevin Borjas in a wild shootout. Damian Pinas vs Andrey Pulyaev should be worth a look. Pinas has looked good (behave) in the UFC so far. He’s only 24 years old and he’s 10-1 with a 100% finish rate, mostly knockouts. He came in through DWCS and made his Octagon debut on the Mexico card in February, ironing out Wes Schultz in a round. He followed that with another first round KO over Cesar Almeida on the McGregor vs Holloway 2 card in July… That was particularly impressive because, from what I can tell, Almeida had never been knocked out in MMA, or in his 57 fight Kickboxing career, which included a trilogy against Alex Pereira. Make no mistake, Pulyaev is being brought in as cannon fodder here. Whether it plays out like that we’ll see. We’ve seen that kind of matchmaking backfire in the past but Pulyaev is most likely getting chinned here. He’s 29 with a 10-5 record and just got the soul choked out of him by Nursulton Ruziboev in June. Eyes rolling into the back of his head, the lot. In fairness though, Pulyaev did manage to go the distance with Ateba Gautier, so maybe the matchmakers think he’ll give Pinas some rounds. I’m expecting a squash match though. Marcus McGhee vs Anthony Romero is a last minute change. McGhee was supposed to fight Benardo Sopaj here but Sopaj dropped out on the Wednesday of fight week. In steps Romero on just three days notice. He’s 7-2 with 6 finishes and is the Bantamweight champion in a promotion called UNF apparently. He last fought in May when he scored a 25 second knockout. McGhee’s a likeable guy and a decent fighter. At 36 he most likely doesn’t have a ton of time left in the sport. He’s 11-2 now and his record is a bit of an odd one. He came into the UFC in 2023 and started the usual climb against lower-middle of the pack level opposition. He stopped Journey Newson, JP Buys and Gaston Bolanos in his first few fights. He got a bit of a step up and beat Jonathan Martinez on points. Then in July 2025, he was just randomly thrown in with Petr Yan of all people. It was a big opportunity and it wasn’t like he performed badly, but he lost a clear decision and that was that. He dropped right back down in levels last time and won a decision against John Yannis. Now here we are. Anthony Wint vs Lucas Armand. Not a clue on this. Wint just turned 31 years old in mid September and he’s undefeated at 8-0 with 7 not making it to the judges scorecards. All sounds good but he’s untested so far. I’ve seen the grand total of one fight of his. He made his UFC debut on the Sacramento card in August and won via easy first round submission. But his opponent Terrance Chatman was also making his debut and looked utter shite so it wasn’t a win you can gauge anything on. Wint certainly looks the part physically though. The man’s a tank. But he’s up against another newcomer here. Armand’s 30 and also unbeaten at 6-0 with 5 finishes. He actually went to a fourth round in his last fight in March and got the TKO late. Whatever that’s worth. Hopefully it’s watchable but it’s Heavyweight MMA. Watch at your own peril. Mick Parkin vs Johnny Walker is one of those fights that sounds like it could be both hilarious and horrendous in equal measures. The Heavyweight debut of Johnny Walker. Is it just me or does this sound like a terrible idea? Walker’s a guy who’s become a bit of a meme solely because of how he gets knocked out. Chances are, if it’s a Johnny Walker fight week, you’re more likely to see highlight reels of him getting sparked than you are seeing edits of him actually winning. And that guy, not known for his durability, is now moving up to a weight class where the opponents are bigger and hit harder? There’s always the counter argument that maybe him not cutting down to 205 will make him more durable. But I’m not feeling it. He’s a big fucker. He’s always been at the bigger end of the size scale at 205. I can see the logic in him moving up when you look at his frame and him being mid 30s now. But I don’t know. It’s probably not gonna end well for him. Not sure this will be the fight that highlights that but we’ll see. I don’t particularly rate Parkin. There was a time when it seemed like fans were pushing him as some hot prospect but I’ve never really bought into it myself. He turns 31 the day before this show, a toddler by Heavyweight standards really. And he’s 10-1, coming off his first loss to Marcin Tybura, followed by an 18 month layoff. I don’t have a clue what to expect out of this one. Rafael Dos Anjos vs Alexander Hernandez. Christ. I don’t like this. As a long time fan of RDA, I was quietly hoping he’d just decided to retire. We last saw him in October 2024, blowing his knee out in 90 seconds and losing to Geoff Neal. That was the same card as Topuria vs Holloway. Feels like an age ago. And RDA was 40 then. Now he’s coming back, just a few weeks shy of 42, after a two year layoff? Yeah I don’t have a good feeling about this. That felt like the universe was trying to send him a message that it was time to pack it in, and he’s ignored it. A great fighter in his day, former champ, ripped the title off prime Anthony Pettis, beat Cerrone twice, stopped Bendo, beat Nate, beat Lawler etc. It’s over though. It’s been over for a while. And I hate that he’s probably gonna lose to a twat like Hernandez. A guy RDA would’ve dog walked at his best. Feel like this is gonna be a real downer moment on the card. Ismail Naurdiev vs Marvin Vettori is whatever. Not a bad fight, especially considering it’s on the Fight Pass bit, but it doesn’t really move me one way or the other. Feels like Vettori is just going through the motions at this point. I’m sure he was making noises about retiring not long ago. He’s still only 33, not a spring chicken but not an old man either. But he’s coming into this fight having gone 1-5 in his last 6 and he’s lost his last four in a row. He was never tippy top level but the guy who challenged Adesanya for the title and had that five round war against Paulo Costa (underrated forgotten fight) seems like a distant memory now. Naurdiev’s 30 years old and 25-8 with 19 finishes. Nothing special from what I remember of him but Vettori seems so faded and checked out at this point, Naurdiev might beat him. He’s coming off a devastating first round KO win over Ryan Loder here. Jacobe Smith vs Bruce Whitehead has been chucked onto the card pretty much at the last minute. Weird one really because Smith was actually booked to fight Kevin Holland back in July but it fell apart. If they were stepping him up against Holland there, you’d think they’d still be looking at similar names for him. But here we are and he’s facing a complete UFC newcomer. Smith’s a guy the UFC seem high on and the commentators are always pushing him as some can’t miss prospect. He’s 30 years old and undefeated at 12-0 with 10 finishes. He’s looked good so far. Although his last fight really soured me on him big time… He bashed up Josiah Harrell in a round back in February and, as you can see there, took fucking liberties with extra punches at the stoppage. I recall the commentators heaping the blame on the ref for that but for me Smith was as much in the wrong, and probably more in the wrong. He was still punching after the ref put his hands on them to stop the fight. A proper cunt move however you spin it. Never heard of this Whitehead fella but I hope he somehow pulls off the upset. He’s 29 with a record of 8-2 with 5 finishes. He’s fought exclusively for Fury FC so far. Court McGee vs Eric Nolan jerks the curtain. Man, Court McGee is still knocking about? I thought for sure this has to be it for him, then I saw an article saying he’s not even thinking about retirement. Jesus. He’s 41 years old now but he might as well be 81. Feels like he’s been on the roster forever. He won TUF back in 2010, for fuck’s sake. The season coached by Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. He’s gotta be one of the longest serving active fighters in the UFC at this point. I know there’s one or two who’ve been there longer. Jim Miller for one. But he must be near the top of the list. He’s 24-14 now, has lost four of his last five and he dropped a decision against Michael Chiesa in his last fight over a year ago. Chiesa has retired since then and McGee is still here. Nolan’s 29 years old and 8-5 with 6 finishes. He’s 0-2 in the UFC so far. Feels like a real litmus test to see what McGee has left. If he loses to a guy like this, what are we even doing anymore? 332…

That’s my hazy memory of it. After seeing how he went out of his way to make Luger and Sting for the three or four years previous, that Steiner match was nothing like that. Could also be partly that Flair was at war with Jim Herd right around that same time as well but it wouldn’t surprise me if he just didn’t fancy giving Scotty much shine. Bret always says that him and Flair were having great matches initially in the WWF until Vince put the belt on Bret. Then he says Flair started pulling weird shit in their matches after that and calling flukey looking, out of the blue small package finishes for Bret in the middle of them building heat before Bret could even make a proper comeback. It kind of tracks with the Steiner thing a year earlier. And it seems the type of sneaky shit Flair would do if he had a problem with someone.

Yeah, I’m not gonna complain about Scott Steiner content on the Vault but I did think when I saw they’d specifically titled it ‘Big Poppa Pump’ that it’d just cover that part of his career. Yet the first sight of bleached Scotty is almost an hour in. I haven’t seen the Flair match in years but wasn’t that the one where Scotty claimed Flair sabotaged him somehow? I know it could be just because he hates Flair but I remember there being talk of some fuckery going on. Can’t remember the details. It says a lot about his WWE run that all they could include was his debut at Survivor Series 2002, which was great, but they edited out his “GIMME THE FUCKIN’ MIC” so it doesn’t quite hit the same. And the Test match from Bad Blood where Scott falls off the apron. Still pisses me off how his WWE run played out. I know it was partly because of his foot injury but Triple H insisting on them doing 20 minutes on PPV right out the gate certainly didn’t help. He never recovered from that.

Short bit about John Tenta on BBC when he was over here. Guessing this would be around the time he was posting on here?

Apologies. Don’t know what relevance, if any, this has to the show. But it said ‘All Out’ on the caption. Just seen Mick Foley literally on his hands and knees bowing down to a couple of women wrestlers… He’s never ever beating the creepy, pervy uncle allegations. What in the public humiliation kink fetish is he playing at? Is there even a context to this? Was it actually part of the show or something a fan just caught? Biggest surprise was his knees work well enough now for him to get down and back up again. But Christ, this looks awkward.

Shite card but here’s the usual fight day stuff… Pretty much the whole bout order got shuffled this week. Not sure when they changed it but I know Vieira vs Bryczek was co-main at the start of the week. Now it’s the Battle Of Buttocks. I’m fancying a Barcelos win in the main event. Can’t really put my finger on why, more of a gut feeling, but I’m never confident in Rosas and I think this might be a serious test for him. Co-main, it’s gonna be awful to watch but hopefully Dumont gets the win. Perez is rotten and, while I’m a fan of the female bum, her whole arse shaking schtick just comes off really try-hard and desperate to me. Norma actually threw condoms and money at her at the weigh in 🤣 and Perez immediately put her country’s flag on the floor to pick that stuff up. Not a great look that, frantically scurrying around on the floor to grab those rubbers and dollar bills. The rest isn’t grabbing me. Although it always baffles me whenever I realise Sedriques Dumas is still around. Why the UFC persist with him, I’ll never know. Awful fighter, even more awful person. I could swear they let him go after his last loss but here we are again. The funny thing about this though, is he was originally supposed to fight Mickey Gall but Gall dropped out. The replacement they’ve brought in, Luis Hernandez, is a cop! Really does write itself this one, doesn’t it? If I still did full event write ups for Apex cards, this would probably be my ‘one to watch’.

According to Sid those Warrior matches were the final straw in why he quit.

You just know Austin was gonna be fed to Warrior on a random Raw sometime in 96 if Warrior stuck around. They were gonna keep feeding him midcarders and, from the way they presented Austin in the first half of the year, and even in the few months after KOTR, it’s clear they didn’t really know what they had on their hands with Austin until Bret came back. I could absolutely see it happening. Not that Austin couldn’t have came back from it. If Triple H did (with a bunch of help and political bollocks) then Austin definitely could on sheer talent and drive. But it’s mad to think Warrior vs Austin is even a match that could’ve happened, and especially knowing it was probably ending with Warrior’s hands raised in four minutes tops. If they’d have brought Warrior back in late 97 as Vince was trying though, different story. Austin had obviously taken off by then and was well on his way to becoming the champ at Mania. Crazy what a difference 18 months makes.

Sums it up… Good to see you posting again @Lion_of_the_Midlands