wandshogun09

Definitely gonna tell the Mrs and kids that Saturday plans are cancelled because I’m watching the “Nitboy” and “Kimbo Bimbo” fights on DAZN: ‘The Home Of Boxing’.

I’m not waking up early on a Sunday morning for Eggs Bennedict. I’ll catch up on it tomorrow.

From the president of a company that promoted a card with two rapists in featured fights (one of them the main event) in July, the man who’s done business with wifebeaters (no surprise why he gets on fine with them), racists, keeps giving domestic abuser Sedriques Dumas chance after chance and publicly licks Trump’s arse… So because he personally doesn’t like Francis Ngannou, we all suffer, the Heavyweight division suffers, the UFC product suffers etc. Also, he doesn’t personally have to “do business” with him, does he? Didn’t he say when they were in court that he doesn’t have anything to do with matchmaking and all that anymore? The UFC is a big enough company now that surely Dana can do his job (whatever that actually is in 2026) and Ngannou can be on the roster and the two barely need to even cross paths. Let Hunter Campbell and Mick Maynard handle it like they seem to do everything else now. But no, Dana doesn’t like him so we can’t have that.

And this is what makes me laugh when people defend MVP and blame everyone but him for his fights being steaming turds. On the one hand they’re going ‘It’s the matchmaking, they should’ve booked him against top ranked fighters. At least they wouldn’t be scared to fight’. Then on the other hand, they’re going ‘Coker knew how to matchmake to get the best out of MVP’. Yeah by feeding him bums 🤣 Which is it? Do they want him to fight the elite of the division or Just Eat delivery men? I don’t know why they can’t just accept that the common denominator in all of this is MVP. It’s him. We all know how much the UFC loves a UK/European star. Especially a ready made one where they don’t have to do any of the work building them up. Look at the way they treated Paddy Pimblett from pretty much his first day in. They didn’t sign MVP to sabotage him. Do people really think they didn’t want him to do well so they’d have another name guy they could put in prominent positions on cards? Of course they did. They matched him up with guys who it’s pretty hard to have shit fights with, probably hoping he’d deliver a couple of these ‘viral knockouts’ from a decade ago that his fans still desperately cling to, so they could push him as a star. But he’s such a dullard he couldn’t even get past that stage and they soon realised that all he had was a load of backpedaling, emoting and taunts. I think the Patterson fight was their last attempt to see if they could salvage something from the whole ‘MVP in UFC’ experiment. A lower level opponent who’s aggressive, sometimes to the point of being a bit reckless, but never boring, and the fight was in London. How the MVP arse lickers have convinced themselves that was the UFC trying to fuck with him baffles me. I think it’s obvious they were hoping that would turn out as a showcase for MVP in front of the UK crowd. But he shat the bed again and I think right there they decided they weren’t renewing his contract so they gave him Ruziboev for his last fight. That’s the only fight of MVP’s six in the UFC where I think they set it up with the hope of him losing. Then he went and won another stinker.

I’ve never rewatched the fight and I never will. But from my memory, I think he just tried that in a desperate attempt to get his hands on MVP and make something happen. I’m blaming MVP regardless. Daley never wrestles, there’s a reason he had to try to go that route in that fight, and only that fight in his entire career. And it wouldn’t have been out of fear of striking with him where Daley’s concerned. It’d have surely been just to get a hold of him. Unfortunately, MVP’s defence off his back was probably just about good enough to stop Daley doing much on top and we got the nothing happening stalemate we got. Honestly think that was the last time I ever looked forward to a MVP fight. And that was 2019.

I’ll never forget how disappointing the Paul Daley fight was. That was one of those rare Bellator fights that people seemed to be genuinely buzzing about, MVP didn’t really have the rep for being boring quite so much back then and any Semtex fight was almost guaranteed pure violence, plus they had a bit of beef. That fight being such a dud is when I started becoming really disillusioned and sour on MVP. Looking at his record, most of his fights before that were finishes and he was only two fights removed from caving Mr Cyborg’s skull in with the flying knee. But even his next fight after that, I have vague memories of the Fernando Gonzalez fight being horrificly dull. His defenders act like it’s all new fans who slag him off but we all sat through the snoozers in Bellator as well. He’s always had a tendency to stink the place out. It’s just back then, he would throw in the occasional highlight reel KO to kind of make people forget, plus he was younger so there was always that hope that he’d put everything together eventually and become more consistent and better to watch. By the time he got to the UFC though, he was already pushing 40, that hope was gone and so were the occasional viral KOs. He’s only got worse as time has gone on. No doubt he’ll beat up some bin man on a Jake Paul card now and people will act like the UFC fucked up letting him walk. Like I said, good riddance.

It’s so annoying because he does half the job - avoiding the opponent’s attacks or, more often, makes them freeze and stop attacking altogether - maybe better than anyone else in the game. But then he doesn’t follow up and capitalise on the advantage his style has created for him. He basically makes a lot of these guys sitting ducks. Then does nothing. Yet none of it’s ever his fault apparently.

Yeah so much for Cyborg’s retirement 🤣 that was one I don’t think anyone believed would stick.

Poor Grasso…

Been a little while but we’re back at the Apex… PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD Raul Rosas Jr vs Raoni Barcelos Rodolfo Vieira vs Robert Bryczek Rinya Nakamura vs Brady Hiestand Mehemmedeli Osmanli vs Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu - TUF Bantamweight Finale Melissa Amaya vs Valesca Machado - TUF Strawweight Finale Elves Brener vs Josiah Harrell PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Rodolfo Bellato vs Christian Edwards Montel Jackson vs Ricky Simon John Castaneda vs Alateng Heili Norma Dumont vs Ailin Perez Mickey Gall vs Sedriques Dumas Yazmin Jauregui vs Vanessa Demopoulos Like most Apex cards, not the best, not the worst. I’m not really feeling that main event myself but it’s not a terrible fight. Bit of a test for young Raul. His first five rounder and first headliner and he’s up against an experienced, tough veteran in Barcelos, who’s on a five fight win streak and is currently the only man to beat Payton Talbott. The rest? Rinya Nakamura’s fight might be worth a look. The two TUF finals mean nothing to me and sod trying to pronounce the names of the men’s final, but I’ll give them a chance. Elves Brener is usually in entertaining scraps. Same with Simon and Castaneda as well. Yazmin Jauregui looked like a fun prospect for a short spell but fell off just as fast, I’d like to see her get back on track. And of course, it’s the Battle Of Bumcheeks between Norma Dumont and Ailin Perez. You know whose side I’m on. Yeah, not much to this card but it’s far from the worst Fight Night we’ve ever had. And to be fair, the Apex isn’t as lifeless as it used to be now they’ve tarted it up a bit. Team Norma…

UFC debuts don’t come much better than Salahdine Parnasse do they? Granted, Dan Hooker isn’t the best win in 2026 but he’s a bit of a name, he’s mixed with some of the best in the division and he’s a scrapper. Also thought he looked a fair bit bigger than Parnasse in there on the night. Didn’t matter. Parnasse just breezed through him. Beautiful finish. Bas Rutten was smiling somewhere watching that kick bury into the liver. As intros to the UFC go, this couldn’t have gone any better for Parnasse. A performance like that, basically flawless, over a decent name, in a main event, in front of a rabid home crowd? He looked right at home in there as well. Didn’t seem in any way overwhelmed by the moment, no sign of the old ‘Octagon jitters’ at all. And I think that can be chalked up to how much seasoning and experience he got before coming to the UFC. I liked the Max Holloway callout after the fight and I’d love to see it. I can’t see Max going for it right now though unfortunately. I think he’s in that phase of his career when he’s just after legend fights and big paydays. Parnasse is probably more likely to get someone like Rafael Fiziev, I reckon. We’ll see though. I’d be well happy if we got Parnasse vs Holloway. Axel Sola’s KO of Fares Ziam in the all France co-main was terrifying but much needed to wake the crowd back up after the rotten MVP ‘fight’. Scary one though. Hopefully Ziam’s alright because just look at this shit. Didn’t help that Ziam basically folded in half and fell face first into his own knee on the way down. Nasty stuff. Good to see Sola back on track though after that Mason Jones loss. That was his first loss and was the kind of war that can change a fighter. Sola’s responded perfectly to the loss though with back-to-back first round finishes over Ismael Bonfim and now Fares Ziam. Sola seems a good guy as well from bits I’ve caught since Saturday. Apparently him and Ziam have known each other for years and he seemed genuinely gutted that he knocked him out the way he did. Mate. Not surprised in the slightest but, once again, absolutely bloody rotten. MVP is arse to watch. Awful. As much as I can’t stand him, I wasn’t calling for his release because he is 5-1 in the UFC. But can I say I’m sad about them not renewing his contract? Will I miss him? Will I fuck. The arguments I’ve seen defending him since Saturday seriously boggle my mind. It happens every time. I’ve never seen such a boring bastard have so many defenders, I don’t get it. I don’t know if it’s fans who think they’re coming across more intelligent for pretending to enjoy his snoozers or what? I refuse to believe anyone is genuinely entertained by his bullshit. The most common argument I keep seeing is blaming it on the matchmaking. Far be it for me to defend the UFC but I need someone to explain to me how the matchmakers fucked MVP over exactly? They didn’t give him one opponent you’d describe as ‘grappler first’ until maybe this Ruziboev fight. And even then, Ruziboev came from a Boxing background. The rest were all predominantly strikers. Shara Bullet can only strike and has one working eye, for fuck’s sake. In theory that should’ve been a layup for MVP. Sam Patterson was a step down, a lower ranked guy and all his UFC fights previously had ended in the first round, win or lose. I genuinely think the matchmakers were trying to give MVP a showcase there and he still managed to drag Patterson to the only boring fight he’s had in the UFC. Same with Shara Bullet. That was about as favourable a stylistic matchup as they could’ve given him. I keep seeing his defenders say the Holland and Cannonier fights were fun but, while they probably weren’t as bad as the Ruziboev and Patterson turds, I don’t have good memories of them either. The narrative they’re running now seems to be ‘they should’ve given him top ranked guys who aren’t scared to fight him’. Yeah, because that Ian Garry fight was a real thriller. I don’t think it matters who you put him in with, he has a real knack for dragging guys into the worst fight of their career and I don’t think that was ever gonna change. To Ebb’s point, I’m not even sure MVP did want out of the UFC. It seemed like it at times because of how outspoken and critical he was. But even after this fight, he seemed to be campaigning to be given another chance in the UFC and had the cheek to say he’s gonna revamp his style, up his volume and take more risks. Laughable that he’s only come to that realisation after SIX chances in the UFC yet now suddenly vows to change when his contract is up. Easily one of the most frustrating fighters of all time. Even in this fight, one of the few times he actually committed to a strike, he kicked Ruziboev’s knee backwards and you could see Ruziboev basically abandon trying to grapple after that. It was effective. And what did MVP do? Fuck all. He had the guy compromised and did nothing to take advantage of it. It’s what drives me mad when people go ‘well he’s a counter striker, it’s not his fault his opponents won’t throw’. Like being a counter striker means you can’t ever be offensive or try to draw opponents onto your strikes. Basically, it’s all on the opponent to run face first at his fists. If they don’t do that, hey, what’s he supposed to do? Pathetic. Good riddance. Can’t wait to not watch him on Jake Paul’s next Netflix show or whoever is stupid enough to pay and book this walking sack of entertainment repellent. Daniil Donchenko won comfortably on points against Punahele Soriano but it wasn’t the banger I expected. I’ve said a few times that I really like watching Donchenko but this fight did make me think his ceiling might be a bit lower than I hoped. He did win clearly and I thought he looked a right handful in the first round but I felt like he faded a bit as it went on. Not drastically or anything but, still, I have some doubts. Still plenty of fun to be had with him around this level though and he’s a perfect fit for those European cards. Kurtis Campbell redeemed himself a bit after a disastrous UFC debut in London. In fairness, the guy who chinned him in London, Danny Silva, is a really good fighter and probably a little bit underrated in my opinion. Wasn’t like he lost to some bum. He looked good here. Although you’ve gotta take into account Peek is a bit of a wally, not the most skilled fighter and was coming off a two year layoff. A step in the right direction for Campbell though. Man, Losene Keita absolutely smoked Muhammad Naimov in the main card opener. This has to be a lock to be in the running for ‘best finish of the year’ when December rolls around. Just blitzes Naimov in less than three minutes, quickly clocks the empty seat cageside, jumps out of the cage, sits down and gives himself a round of applause? Ridiculous 🤣 if only this was his UFC debut instead of the disappointing decision loss to Nathaniel Wood. Would’ve actually matched the hype he had coming in. Loved it. Makes it even more satisfying for me because I still held a bit of a grudge against Naimov for being a dirty cheating bastard against Wood himself, so Keita ironing him out kind of felt like justice was served in the end. Keita calling out Lerone Murphy felt pointless though. I’m all for a post-fight callout but that one just seems like he’s aimed a bit too high, too fast. Doesn’t seem like a realistic one right now. That aside, a perfect night for Keita after a less than ideal start in the UFC with the Pitbull cancellation and the Wood loss. Most of the prelims are a bit of a blur. I had them on live on Saturday but mostly as background noise while the kids were running riot with their cousins. Like @Cousin Jim Bob says, my ‘one to watch’ Lima vs Charriere fell slightly flat. Not a bad fight at all but didn’t catch fire like I thought/hoped it might and that’s mostly because it ended up just not being that competitive. Thought Lima had a really strong performance but, yeah, the showboating got a bit annoying and I don’t remember Lima doing that in his other fights. Was happy to see Mario Pinto get another win and get back to finishing after that rotten decision he went to last time. It wasn’t the type of performance that filled me with optimism for his future though sadly. If you’re any kind of serious prospect, you really should be running through a guy like Ryan Spann without much resistance. But he had to come through a couple of shaky moments here. Not a great look at this level. I like Pinto though. Seems a good lad and was refreshingly honest post-fight about his anxiety before fights. I’m sceptical about how far he can go but I’d love to see him prove me wrong. Pavel Andrusca stood out to me. Jumping in on just a few days notice, up in weight, against a pretty seasoned UFC veteran in Nathaniel Wood, survives a knockdown and comes through with the win. Impressive stuff. I’ll be looking forward to seeing his next fight, hopefully under better circumstances. And I don’t know if anyone caught the women’s curtain jerker but Delphine Benouaich had quite a memorable UFC debut. Christ! What a way to start the night. Absolutely butchered fellow newcomer Sofia Montenegro with elbows and choked her out cold in two rounds. Brutal scenes. I didn’t know either of these two going in so I don’t know how much of this was Benouaich being a problem or just Montenegro being shite. But if Benouaich fights with this kind of aggression going forward, she’s exactly the type of fighter the Strawweight division needs.

Slight problem…

My memory is hazy but I’m pretty sure the first time I heard or seen anything of Nitro was in the dying days of the Worldwide run on ITV in late 95. They definitely showed the first ever Hogan vs Sting match from Nitro that November and I don’t recall seeing anything before that. If I did, it was probably through the mighty DSF - the home of boobs and bodyslams. What more could you want? Yeah that was the first episode we got over here. Vividly remember my old man telling me he’d read somewhere it was gonna be starting so I started recording it every week on an 8 hour tape and that Macho Man vs Belfast Bruiser match was definitely the first match on the tape. I think they got it earlier than we did, they might’ve even got it from the start. But they definitely had it from late 95 because, for some reason, I have a really vivid memory of watching an Eddie Guerrero vs Johnny B Badd match on there and looking that up now it was the November 13th 1995 episode. They probably had it from the debut episode the jammy sods. I remember telling a school mate at the time who lived round the corner from us about DSF showing the WCW PPVs and he didn’t believe me until he stayed over one Saturday and we were watching one of the World War 3 shows (think it was 95). And we were both shocked when the German commentator started speaking English for a minute, thanking their UK viewers. Speaking of German channels showing wrestling, was it RTL2 or something like which used to show Attitude Era WWF? I vaguely recall seeing Raws from 99 on there, which was a godsend because we didn’t have Sky Sports for a bit back then.

Yeah, those Weidman vs Silva fights are ones I think are pretty clear with what happened and it always boggles my mind when I see people, to this day, try to argue that Weidman fluked it or that it only happened because Anderson “fucked around too much”. It’s mental. Weidman handily won the first round of both fights with his grappling and at no point was he in serious trouble on the feet in either fight. Yet you had people at the time, and for years since, claiming Anderson was just about to turn things around and knock Weidman out before he got sparked himself or his leg turned into a noodle, depending on which fight you’re looking at. If you take the Anderson fanboy blinkers off it’s, as you say, an obvious case of Weidman being a bad style matchup for him, combined with great game planning from Longo/Serra, combined with Anderson just about coming to the end of his prime. It was the perfect storm for his reign to end. Anderson vs Yoel is an interesting one because at first glance you’d think he’d be a problem opponent for Silva because of his wrestling. But then you remember that Yoel barely actually used his wrestling most of the time and probably would’ve just stood around waiting for his perfect KO opportunity that most likely would’ve never came. Leading to Anderson winning one of his frustratingly dull decisions. Probably would’ve looked a lot like the dud Yoel had with Izzy in 2020. While we’re on the subject of Longo’s coaching success stories, I’ll even throw Merab in there. With the benefit of hindsight now he looks like he was always a dead cert to become champ at some point but that wasn’t always the case, especially when Longo first took him on. He was still working construction a good few fights into his UFC run and lost his first two fights in the UFC (to Frankie Saenz by decision and then got submitted by Ricky Simon) before he went on the big winning streak towards the title. Of course, Serra and Weidman will always be the biggest and more memorable title wins out of that camp considering they beat all time great, pound-for-pound guys. But really, all four of Longo’s world champions are pretty cool, kind of unlikely successes. Weidman was the only one that I think came in almost earmarked for possible championship success but even then, with prime Anderson as champ when he debuted it wasn’t a given he’d make it. The other three all looked pretty unlikely for various reasons earlier on in their careers and all beat guys who were either favoured or at least much more hyped to win the titles.

Yeah Arse Chin’s always seemed like one of the more switched on fighters in the game. Especially from the era he came from when it was even harder to secure your financial future than it is now. Out of all those names from that era, he’s gotta be one of the ones doing the best these days. Financially and health-wise.

That’s the problem itself though. This is proof that they don’t have the roster anymore to sustain the 40-odd events a year or whatever it is these days. Already seeing a load of people calling for Tom Aspinall to be stripped now, and some calling for Kayla Harrison to be stripped. In a way I get it, if they’ve taken the belt off Shevchenko while she’s out injured, when she hasn’t even been out a full year yet, there should be consistency when it comes to other inactive champions. I get that argument. But is this what people really want? Three champs stripped, vacant titles all over the shop, creating vacant title fights left and right where the winner never truly feels like the legit champ because they never beat the champ. I get that it’s always a shit situation and sometimes it’s necessary but shite like this is what adds to the overall apathy towards the UFC these days. Almost nothing means anything anymore. That would’ve been better yeah. And if they have to have a specific amount of numbered events for the year, they could’ve changed a Fight Night to a numbered event to make up for losing one here. Like, would anyone have had a problem with last night’s Paris card being changed to a numbered event, with Aspinall vs Gane 2 headlining and Parnasse vs Hooker as co-main? Aspinall was back training a while ago and said he was just waiting on a fight date. Then again, Hearn’s said this week that Aspinall’s still gotta have more tests before he’s cleared medically or something. That type of thing though. Or, it’s not ideal, but maybe try taking the Yan vs Merab 3 co-main off 333 and bring it forward a few weeks and have that headline 332? It weakens 333 but Volk vs Evloev can just about carry that card and they’re really not in a position at the moment to be having two title fights on one card without spreading their main event level fights too thin.

Blew his knee out in his last fight nearly two years ago. Should’ve retired but never did. Like one Malteser sat in the bowl of shit that is UFC 332.

We’ve reached the point in MMA’s decline where numbered events are having worse title fight main events than most Fight Night cards. I like Natalia Silva but this is absolutely hideous as a headliner for their so-called ‘top tier’ of events. They’ve stripped Valentina Shevchenko of her title because of her inactivity due to injuries. And this is what we’re left with. Half expecting them to do the same with Tom Aspinall now and do something horrid like Gane vs Hokit for the ‘undisputed’ belt. They can make all the money they want, the sport’s in the toilet. Rest of the card… Some alright stuff on there, interested to see Soldic’s debut etc. But man, this is a numbered card? Also worth bearing in mind that this is in Salt Lake City at high altitude so even the fights that look half decent have a higher chance of being shite than normal due to exhaustion. Especially when a bunch of these fights have been thrown together last minute. Shambles.

Not as such but the Aljamain Sterling fight in October 2022 turned out to be his retirement fight after the fact. I don’t think he intended it to be his last fight at all going in but he’d been plagued by injuries and, if you remember, his shoulder injury was what led to him getting finished by Aljo that night. He announced he was retired a few months later if I recall right. Not sure what he’s doing now but I think he stays fairly busy helping fighters out in the gym and has some supplements business going.

This gets underway in just over an hour. Gone Parnasse, Sola and Ruziboev in the poll. Not massively confident in those pics but I think the main and co-main go that way. MVP vs Ruziboev? Who even knows, right? I picked Ruziboev partly because I think he might be able to get the grappling going and partly wishful thinking because I’m absolutely all the way the fuck over this MVP bollocks at this point and I’m sick of him moaning and acting hard done by when the truth is him being a boring bastard is the only thing that’s held him back. Expecting the worst out of that one but hoping Ruzi somehow gets his neck and ends it early for all our sakes. The rest should be decent enough and I’m really looking forward to the main event especially.

Yep. And trained/cornered Bob Sapp for his early fights when it actually looked like he might make a legit go of it.

The lads.

Yesterday was the 31st anniversary of the debut of WCW Monday Nitro. Love that intro. Even though, in typical WCW fashion, the original version still had Vader in it despite him being done with WCW in August and never appearing on the show for its entire run. Didn’t the WWF debut the ‘Raw on the roof’ intro the very next week after Nitro debuted? Was that a coincidence or a direct response?

Seriously, it’s taken me two weeks to get around to this. I never watch Fight Nights live anymore unless they’re in Europe or China like last week’s but I’m usually able to catch up on the US ones in the week. Not lately 🤣 with the kids being off school I’ve barely had time to shit let alone watch fights. Didn’t help that I saw spoilers for this as well. It sounded like a decent show though so I was determined to get it watched at some point. Finally done it. Enjoyed the Robocop vs Fluffy fight a lot. It was never gonna be boring. I did have a feeling Rodrigues was gonna come out on top by the time fight week rolled around though. Fluffy’s a good fighter but it feels like people overrate him a bit. He had that hot streak a few fights ago and looked a handful and it seems like he’s been kind of living off the fumes off that in the eyes of a lot of fans ever since. But when I thought of this fight and how their styles match up, I had a hard time seeing where Fluffy really had the advantage. Going in I felt like the grappling could be competitive but Robocop was more legit there. I felt like the striking could be competitive but Robocop would be both the better striker and more powerful. And I always felt like Robocop would be the tougher guy, more durable and more willing to bite down and get into a war if needed. Whereas we’ve seen Fluffy wilt under pressure in the past. Fair play to Fluffy here, he hung in there and didn’t fold like I thought he might. I saw him lasting the full five rounds as almost a moral victory in a way. But there was no doubt Rodrigues had won when it was over. I was really happy to see Rodrigues get his first main event win here. Even sweeter that he went into the hostile territory of Fluffy’s backyard here to do it as well. Love a bit of Robocop. He’s been great to watch over the years and this kind of felt like a bit of a reward. Fully aware this is probably as good as it gets for him. He won’t be beating the tippy top guys at Middleweight. But he’s a perfectly serviceable Top 10 guy. What next for Rodrigues? I know he called out DDP after and I do think that could be a fun fight to watch. I just can’t see it being next. Looking at the rankings, I think Robocop vs Joe Pyfer would be good and I’d love to see Robocop chin the prick if possible. But it seems like they wanna give Pyfer the big push and, with him coming off that Adesanya win, they’ve probably got bigger plans for him. Maybe Robocop fights Adesanya? Izzy’s below him on both lots of rankings but it’s a big name and winnable for Rodrigues at this stage so he’d probably jump at the opportunity. Maybe do Fluffy vs Cannonier or something. Petrino vs Spivac…yeah, again why was this co-main? Utter shite. You’d hope they’d think twice about giving fights like this such high billing in future but you know we’ll be seeing more of it. I don’t think I’ve ever been as depressed by one turn of phrase watching MMA than I was when Bisping said to Petrino “you’ll probably be in the Top 10 on Monday morning” in the post-fight interview. And sure enough, he’s at #8 on both sets of rankings now. I saw the other day that it was the anniversary of the Fedor vs Cro Cop fight. How far the Heavyweight division has fallen. Was happy to see Reinier De Ridder get back in the win column and especially in such a decisive way getting the first round finish. It was badly needed after those last couple of losses. Fresh start at 205 is off to a good start but I’m really not convinced this LHW run is gonna work out for him long term. For one, I don’t really see Dolidze as a proper 205er anyway. He did fight there pre-UFC (so did De Ridder) but in the UFC he’d only had one fight at 205 before this and it was against the empty shell of Anthony Smith. This was basically two Middleweights fighting without the weight cut, so I’m holding fire on De Ridder’s prospects at 205 for now. It was a solid start though. Like @Daisaid though, Dolidze was goofy as fuck for pulling guard and going the leg lock route so early here. Dolidze has had success with leg locks in the past, using them to lead to ground strike finishes himself. But why invite a ground exchange with a fresh De Ridder, especially when you’re leaving your head exposed to ground and pound? Negative Fight IQ from Dolidze there. MarQuel Mederos vs Mason Jones was a hell of a scrap. At this point we’ve all come to expect it out of pretty much any Jones fight but Mederos more than held up his end of it here. He completely surpassed my expectations. I fully admit that, going in, if anything I felt like this was a step backwards for Jones coming off that FOTY contender win over Axel Sola in London. I saw this fight announced and I was thinking ‘Mederos? Why?’ Like I touched on in the opening post, I barely remembered Mederos at all despite being pretty sure I probably saw all, or at least most, of his four previous UFC fights. I thought it was a bit odd that Jones was being matched with him here because I was sure coming off that win over Sola that it would bag Jones a bit of a name fight next. But all credit where it’s due, Mederos stepped it up here and in one fight he’s completely changed my opinion on him. I can only assume Mederos is one of those guys who fights better when there’s pressure and he feels some danger and a bit under threat, because this was an awesome fight and a great performance from him. I was gutted to see Jones lose here. Really felt like he was building some serious momentum since returning to the UFC with the Jeremy Stephens win and then back-to-back bangers against Bolaji Oki and then Sola. This has obviously derailed all that but he’s been so exciting you know the matchmakers probably love him so I can see them still giving him good fights. I wouldn’t mind seeing him take the rest of the year off now though. He’s had three wars in less than 12 months now. Probably be a good idea to just rest up for a bit, enjoy Christmas and come back fresh in the new year. No doubt he’ll probably be back out in 6 weeks or something though. Thought this was cool from Mederos… It’s amazing how one night, one performance, one result against the right opponent, can totally change perceptions of a fighter. I went from seeing Mederos as a non-descript prelim filler guy who I was completely indifferent to, to him almost forcing me to become fan overnight. We’ll see what he does from here. There’s a possibility that this was just the ‘Mason Jones factor’. He’s got a habit of dragging guys into wars they don’t usually have. Also the fact Mederos brother died the week before this fight could’ve brought something extra out of him. Crazy that he still even fought under those circumstances. But I’m interested in Mederos for now, and I never was before. Hopefully they give him something good next and we’ll see if he can build on this win. Carli Judice continues to be one of the more watchable fighters in the women’s Flyweight division. She’s had some really nice finishes in the UFC, although her only managing a decision over no hoper Juliana Miller last time wasn’t the best. This was a return to form though. Stopped Jeisla Chaves in under two minutes with a filthy teep to the gut… Strickland should be able to do this by now considering how many teeps that prick throws per fight. Obviously I know Judice is fighting far inferior opposition compared to Strickland’s. Chaves looked like a scrapper in the pre-fight video package but Judice absolutely folded here there. Good stuff. Although I’m very sceptical about where Judice’s ceiling is. The finishes have been cool but they’ve all been at a fairly low level and that Miller fight really didn’t fill me with confidence. Hope she proves me wrong because the division could really do with new blood, and especially a finisher. Anthony Wint had no bother with Terrance Chatman in the main card opener. Had zero thoughts on this going in. Heavyweight and two guys I’d never heard of? Yeah, I wasn’t exactly invested. Still no real thoughts post-fight either. Wint looked alright and he’s a monster physically. He definitely looks the part. But Chatman was arse (trying a Kimura from the bottom in half guard in 2026?) so the win didn’t tell us much. And I’ve already seen quotes from Wint saying he doesn’t even like fighting, that’s it’s “one of the stupidest things you can do with your life” and he just enjoys competing. In some ways that’s a perfectly normal and healthy mindset to have but it just makes me think he’s one of those guys who’s gonna completely fold as soon as he faces real adversity. We’ll see but it doesn’t exactly sound like his heart is in it and that can be just as dangerous as being hooked on fighting. Jamall Emmers got the quick win over Lerryan Douglas. Really disappointing from Douglas. I highlighted him in the opening post as someone worth looking out for and he did have a really entertaining debut against Erosa. Emmers came out and smoked him in a round though. He’s decent, to be fair, I was just hoping Douglas would turn out to be a bit better than this. Apparently Douglas suffered a broken orbital from the finishing punch as well. Rough night at the office. I was dreading Gaziev vs Nzechukwu, as I do most Heavyweight fights outside the top few ranked guys these days. But mercifully, it was over in about a minute, before it had the chance to become shit… Not sure what Nzechukwu was doing here though, basically turning the wrong way in trying to avoid Gaziev’s punch 🤣 seemed to have no cage awareness or defensive timing at all. All the survival instincts of that one dopy wildebeest you see just standing in front of a lion, long after its mates have all fucked off. But that’s Heavyweight MMA in 2026 for you. These two are going nowhere. Marcio Barbosa made short work of Ryan Kuse. Barbosa is quickly becoming a prelim favourite of mine. Reminds me a bit of Figgy when he was on the rise and just brutalising the opposition. This wasn’t anywhere near as aesthetically pleasing a finish as his one shot demolition of Dennis Buzukja last time, but he still showed he’s got that fight ending power. He was supposed to fight Danny Silva here, which could’ve been fantastic but Silva dropped out with something serious, a blood clot I think it was. Hopefully he makes a full recovery and hopefully Barbosa gets a better opponent next time. Really enjoyed the Stan Dorsainvil vs Gauge Young fight. Didn’t have any expectations going in, had never heard of Dorsainvil and he was stepping in on short notice. I liked him. Nice win for him, especially with the less than ideal circumstances, and I’ll be keeping a look out for his next fight after this. Not a lot to say about the Wayne’s World lads fight but Jackson McVey got the first round finish with a nasty knee to the old bread basket… Beautiful. Completely missed the little bit of trivia that Schultz actually had a win over McVey in the amateurs when I did the rushed opening post. So a bit of revenge for McVey here. Shanelle Dyer looked pretty good again in the Fight Pass opener. The Strawweight division, and the women’s game in general, badly needs more strikers so she’s a welcome addition. I don’t see her going too far and this was only Elise Reed she beat up. But she’s getting stoppages in a division that doesn’t typically have a ton of finishers so she’s alright in my book. Yeah, wasn’t bad this. Would’ve been better if I could have watched it in less than a fortnight spoiler free but that’s on me. In closing, it appears hell actually froze over in Sacramento. Anyone who knows their MMA history knows there’s a lot going on here. A lot of water under the bridge and a lot of fences mended and beef squashed. I know Cruz has had both of them on his podcast over the last year or so but I think this is the first time I’ve seen Faber and Dillashaw together since TJ had the nasty split from Alpha Male years ago. Nice to see them all together here. Three of the best ever in the lighter weight classes and their stories are all so intertwined.

Roberto Soldic has signed with the UFC. Former two weight KSW champ, was the last man to beat Dricus Du Plessis before Khamzat did it last year, knocked out Mamed Khalidov, went to a split decision loss against Yaroslav Amosov. Still only 31 so could potentially make some noise. Good stuff.