wandshogun09

8 hours ago, WeeAl said:

I fancy Chandler massively

Not a clue what he’s on about but I love this. Absolutely off his head 🤣

 

Yeah, Cacace’s performance against Cordina was the highlight of the undercard for me. Just relentless. Really enjoyed that fight.

Kabayel just broke Sanchez down with the body shots, started with them early and just kept digging away with them until Sanchez folded. 

Tracy Smothers thought Taker was a cock. Good enough for me.

Taker in the locker room in 96 burying Kloudy, the male valet of the Body Donna’s…

”Some fucking guys would do anything to get in this business”

Tracy…

”Yeah, how long you been dead now?” 

1 hour ago, WeeAl said:

Rountree smashing his way through Hill en route to a fight with Pereira? Please, please don't tease me. That's a ball tingler. 

Not so fast. Rountree vs Hill is off. Rountree with the old tainted supplements…

27 minutes ago, air_raid said:

and two Raw vs SmackDown matches underneath would have had HBK vs Eddy (returned to full blown heel in jealous pursuit of Dave’s gold) and Taker vs Angle 

Can you imagine that? As it stands, I don’t remember much of that year’s WrestleMania. But if Taker and Angle had that same match they had at No Way Out plus Shawn Michaels vs Eddie Guerrero which you know would’ve been incredible, it might’ve gone down as one of the all timers. Or at the very least in that WMX bracket of having two absolutely killer matches. 

It’s no Fury vs Usyk but we’re off to Saudi Arabia again in a few weeks. First ever UFC Saudi show…

ESPN MAIN CARD
Robert Whittaker vs Khamzat Chimaev 

Sergei Pavlovich vs Alexander Volkov 

Kelvin Gastelum vs Daniel Rodriguez 

Shara Magomedov vs Joilton Lutterbach

Muhammad Naimov vs Melsik Baghdasaryan

Johnny Walker vs Volkan Oezdemir 

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS 
Nasrat Haqparast vs Jared Gordon 

Rinat Fakhretdinov vs Nicolas Dalby

Farid Basharat vs Montel Jackson

Muin Gafurov vs Kyung Ho Kang

Magomed Gadzhiyasulov vs Brendson Ribeiro 

Abu Azaitar vs Denis Tiuliulin

Xiao Long vs Chang Ho Lee - Road To UFC Bantamweight Final 

 

 

I like it. I think there’ll be a couple more fights added yet and I don’t think the bout order is finalised. It’s a strong Fight Night card though and I love that main event! If you remember, the UFC were actually supposed to make their Saudi debut back in March but basically offered up an Apex card and were swiftly told to piss off. They’ve come back with this and apparently old Turki wants the UFC over there regularly like he’s been doing with the big Boxing cards. Can definitely see Islam Makhachev defending the title over there if he gets past Poirier in a few weeks. Interesting times ahead. 

Oh and just a head’s up, with this card being in Saudi Arabia, we’re getting a lovely UK friendly start time. From what I can tell the main card kicks off at 8pm!

 

 

Robert Whittaker vs Khamzat Chimaev is a hell of a main event! Absolutely buzzing for this. Would’ve looked right at home as a PPV co-main event. Here it’s headlining a Fight Night. Obviously this being the UFC’s debut card in Saudi Arabia is why they’ve put together such a strong main event but, still, it’s gotta be one of the best Fight Night headliners in UFC history. It’s a big fight for the Middleweight division. Whittaker is currently ranked #3, a former UFC champion and is always in and around the title picture. He’s never more than a couple of big wins away from another shot at the gold. For Khamzat, this is his ticket into the title shot mix. He’s ranked #10 as I type this and a win over Whittaker would instantly catapult him into the conversation. Obviously you’ve still got Israel Adesanya lurking and he’ll probably get the next shot at the champ Dricus Du Plessis. Not that I think he deserves it coming off that Strickland loss but I think it’s the way they’re gonna go. This fight could well turn out to be a title eliminator.

Like I said, Bobby Knuckles is never far from title contention. And it’s likely to stay that way until he significantly declines. I’ve criticised the depth and quality of the Middleweight division plenty of times and I stand by it. Beyond the top handful of fighters, with a few exceptions the skill level drops off a cliff mostly. But Whittaker has always stayed at the top of the division. Since moving up to 185 way back in 2014, he’s gone 13-3 with the only losses being the two against Izzy and the surprising (at the time) TKO loss to Du Plessis last year. Wins over Uriah Hall, Derek Brunson, Jacare Souza, Yoel Romero x2, Darren Till, Jared Cannonier, Kelvin Gastelum, Marvin Vettori and in February he bounced back from the DDP loss in style beating Paulo Costa on points in a really fun fight. It’s easy to forget he’s still only 33. Feels like he’s been around forever considering we first saw him on the excellent TUF Smashes season in 2012. He sounds well motivated to prove a point against Khamzat as well…

“Nobody wants to fight him, nobody wants to have a go at him, so I get to have that run at him, which will be fun. Those are the fights that excite me because they’re the type of fights I get a lot of honour and pride out of.”

“I do understand the task at hand. It’s going to be hard. He’s a hard fighter. He likes to grapple a lot. He uses his reach and range to good effectiveness. He’s got good knockout power. He likes to play the villain against his opponents but he’s an honourable fighter. We’re gonna get in there and we’re gonna have an honest fight. We’re both going to leave it in there. He’s not a quitter, I’m not a quitter, so I look forward to making history in Saudi Arabia.”

“The body’s good, I’m in a great headspace to take another hard fight. I’m looking forward to it. Every hard fight pushes my skills to that next level. This gets me in line to get the belt back, and that’s the goal.” - Robert Whittaker

Always respectful. One of the classiest good eggs in the game by far. Impossible to dislike him. If you do, you’re the problem. He’s as babyface as it gets, the Ricky Steamboat of MMA. I’d love to see him get another crack at the belt but with the current landscape at 185, it’s gonna be difficult. He’s 0-2 to Izzy and already got stopped by Du Plessis not long ago. His best bet was probably when Strickland was champ briefly last year. If Strickland had managed to beat DDP in January and hold onto the strap, maybe we’d be looking at a Strickland vs Whittaker title fight around now but it never panned out. Fair play to Whittaker taking on a fight like this. As he said, there isn’t a queue of 185ers campaigning to fight Khamzat or calling his name in post-fight interviews.

Khamzat’s a funny one. Undoubtedly one of the scariest fighters in the sport. Undefeated at 13-0, 11 of them didn’t require judges, 8 of them never made it out of the first round. The insane hype surrounding him hasn’t always matched what we’ve seen in the Octagon and I think that’s led to a bit of pushback from some fans and people playing his skills down. His last fight with Kamaru Usman in October didn’t help. He looked as scary and dominant as ever for a round but slowed down significantly after that and Usman got back in it and arguably won the second and third rounds. Some had Usman winning and were calling it a robbery but I’m not having that. I think that was more because Usman did better than expected. I had it a draw myself. I think you have to give Khamzat the first round 10-8, he was too dominant for 10-9. He ultimately got the decision but it wasn’t a good look for Khamzat overall. Especially with Usman taking the fight on short notice.

It was a close one and I’d have to rewatch it and score it properly. But I don’t remember having a problem with him getting the nod. If it was 5 rounds though, it could’ve got very ugly for him down the stretch. So I get why there’s doubts and why his aura has been dented a bit. Still, that Khamzat first round is a hell of a storm to weather and I don’t think many at 170 or 185 survive it. The problem with Khamzat seems to be he doesn’t manage his pace at all. He comes out going 100% from the off and, while that’s usually too much for most of his opponents to withstand, it’s gonna be his undoing sooner or later at the elite level. I’m not so sure it’s an actual cardio issue. I think he just doesn’t know how to pace himself. Anyone’s stamina would be flagging going balls out non-stop like that. If he can find the balance, he’s gonna be an absolute nightmare to deal with. I mean, he is already but if he can limit his bursts of aggression to the point he can maintain that over the course of a 3 or 5 round fight, he’s gonna be a right bastard to beat.

Fascinating one this. It’s got to the point with Khamzat now where the easy prediction is just to say if Whittaker can get through that initial onslaught and survive the opening round, it’s his fight to lose. But I’m not sure it’s as simple as that. Like, how much damage is he gonna take in that first round and what shape will that leave him in as the fight goes on? I’ve got no doubt Whittaker is tough enough to potentially take whatever Chimaev throws at him for 5 minutes. But I also believe Chimaev is dangerous enough early to finish pretty much anyone in that first round if he gets into a good position on the ground or something. This being a 5 rounder adds another layer of intrigue though. Khamzat’s first 5 rounder. Don’t be surprised if, for once, we see a bit more of a cautious approach from him early this time, with him being conscious that he might need to conserve energy for the later rounds. He’s gonna have to try to reign himself in a bit. If he doesn’t, and he banks on just bulldozing Whittaker out of there quick, this could go off the rails for him big time. You’d think the way the Usman fight played out will have been a lesson to him that these top level players and former champions won’t necessarily go away easily. But we’ll see.

 

Sergei Pavlovich vs Alexander Volkov is a bit of a weird one. At face value it’s just a run of the mill Heavyweight fight. And not a bad one, to be fair. I feel like I’m always down on the Heavyweights but this is actually a solid fight. Pavlovich is obviously a heavy hitter and going up against a giant of a man in Volkov, it’s an interesting clash of styles and physical frames. It’s weird in the fact of the circumstances of how it came about. It definitely wasn’t the original plan. Volkov had apparently signed to fight Jailton Almeida at UFC 302 and Pavlovich was reportedly being lined up to fight Ciryl Gane in Paris in September. For whatever reason, the UFC decided to switch things up. Tom Aspinall was talking about it on Helwani’s show recently and said he’d heard the UFC announced it without either guy signing a contract. Nothing new there then, but it’s always mad when you hear about that shit going on in the biggest MMA promotion in the world. Then you factor in that Pavlovich and Volkov have trained together in the past and you see what Volkov’s saying about the fight and it all just feels odd…

“I found out about this fight when it was already announced. The UFC, as I understand it, received a ‘yes’ from Sergei Pavlovich’s team, because they replied that they would agree if I agreed. This card is important for the UFC and Dana White, so few people asked my consent here.”

“I had already turned down several fights because I didn’t want to fight with my compatriots who I trained with. My limits on refusals in the eyes of the UFC, unfortunately, are gone.” - Alexander Volkov

Doesn’t sound like he’s too jazzed about this fight, does it? And then when you read his memories of what sparring was like with Pavlovich…

“Pavlovich hits very hard. It was very difficult to work with him. I don’t think I won a single round against him. After every blow, my legs were giving way. To be honest, when he came to sparring, I tried to stand less with him because I understood that every time he hit, some kind of injury could happen.” - Alexander Volkov

Oh dear. Yeah, he’s not sounding up for this. Not sure why they couldn’t have just left the original fights with Jailton and Gane intact but, given Gane’s recent antics, I’m guessing he didn’t fancy fighting Pavlovich and that’s what’s forced the shuffle. Reading those quotes from Volkov though, it seems like he’s already going in with a defeatist mindset. Maybe he rises to the occasion, maybe it’s mind games. Fuck knows? But on the surface, it looks like he’s already mentally beaten.

Looking forward to seeing Big Sergei back in there. Obviously he’s coming off that quick knockout loss to Tom Aspinall at MSG in November. In fairness though, that fight was thrown together just a couple of weeks before the show because Jon Jones got injured (surprise, surprise) and got the Stipe Miocic fight cancelled. So neither Pavlovich or Aspinall would’ve had an actual training camp for that fight. They jumped at the opportunity purely because it was for the interim title and on a huge card. It was worth the gamble so they both just rocked up with no camp and threw bombs at each other. Like a lot of Heavyweight slugfests, it felt very much like a case of whoever lands first. But Sergei tagged Aspinall and got slept with the counters. It was a fun big man shootout for the 1:09 it lasted but Sergei ended up flat on his back looking at the lights on the ceiling of MSG. Before that though, he’d been a wrecking ball. He was on a 6 fight winning streak in the UFC, with all 6 fights ending by KO/TKO in the first round and had stopped Derrick Lewis, Tai Tuivasa and Curtis Blaydes in his 3 previous fights. Overall he’s 19-2 now with 15 first round knockouts. Like any Heavyweight, he’s not without flaws. He had a couple of fights go the distance earlier in his career and I’ve read he looked shite in at least one of them. But they were so long ago now. He’s way better than most of the dross in the division. Volkov’s coming off 3 wins now and submitted Tuivasa last time out at UFC 293 in September. His size and height would usually make this interesting but if those sparring stories are true (and why would Volkov lie and make himself look bad?), it doesn’t sound like Pavlovich had much trouble with that. Yeah, bit of a strange booking really but hopefully it’s a good fight.

 

Kelvin Gastelum vs Daniel Rodriguez is OK. Not in love with it but it’s not a bad fight. I’m just sort of done with expecting much from Gastelum at this point. It always boggles my mind when I remember how young he still is. He’s only 32 but it genuinely feels like he’s a relic from a bygone era these days. The names he’s fought is insane and he’s had some big wins over the years against the likes of Bisping, Jacare etc. But at just 32, it really feels like he’s pretty much shot at the top level. Not that he was ever truly tippy top level but he did have that war with Adesanya and came close to winning at various points. I think that was the fight that sapped whatever was left of his prime though. He was always a bit inconsistent but since that Izzy fight he’s gone an abysmal 2-5 and hasn’t looked great in any of them. He’s coming into this fight off a submission loss to Sean Brady in December. Still, it’ll be nice to see him get to compete on the same card as his twin brother from another (German) mother…

Rodriguez is the older man at 37 but hasn’t really taken the punishment Gastelum has or faced as much stiff opposition. He’s 17-4 and his notable wins are over Li Jingliang (where’s he, actually?), Kevin Lee and Tim Means. But even then, the Jingliang win was a split decision that I recall being hotly debated at the time. And Lee and Means were both on the downswing. D-Rod is now coming off back-to-back losses to Neil Magny and Ian Garry, he was finished in both, got brutally headkicked by Garry, and has been out of action just over a year now. Yeah, they might have a decent dust up but they both have the look of fighters on the way out.

 

Shara Magomedov vs Joilton Lutterbach is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** on this one. Might seem a strange choice but I’m oddly intrigued by this matchup. Magomedov was originally supposed to fight Ihor Potieria here, a fight I was really looking forward to. But Potieria jumped in against Michel Pereira on short notice at UFC 301 in Rio at the start of May, and that was that. Pereira buzzsawed through him quick and choked him out. I think the plan was for Potieria to still fight Magomedov but he got crushed by Pereira in such a way that he wasn’t gonna be able to turn around and fight again just weeks later. Magomedov then called out Pereira but that’s obviously not happening now.

Shara Bullet came into the UFC last year with a fair bit of hype around him. He’s from Dagestan, Russia, just turned 30 in May and so far he’s gone undefeated at 12-0 with 10 knockouts, 7 of them coming within the first round. His last fight before signing with the UFC he won by KO in just 8 seconds! Definitely dangerous but largely untested. His first 11 opponents don’t even have a Wikipedia page and I’m not sure how good any of them were. But we’ll find out soon enough if he can hang with legit opposition. And to be fair, he did alright in his UFC debut…

He took on Bruno Silva at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi in October. It was an entertaining enough scrap and Shara ended up winning a decision. Silva’s no world beater but he’s a tough guy and had gone the distance with Alex Pereira a few fights ago. I recall Shara winning quite comfortably. Although I do also recall his grappling looking very suspect and I came away from that tight feeling like there’d be fun matchups to be had with him against some of the strikers in the Middleweight division, but that ultimately his lack of ground game will let him down and his ceiling probably isn’t particularly high. We’ll see, I guess.

Joilton Lutterbach steps in on about a month’s notice. Never heard of him but I’ve done a bit of digging and he doesn’t sound like the worst replacement. He’s Brazilian but fights out of Germany, 31 years old and has a record of 38-9-0-1 with 27 wins inside the distance. So quite a bit of experience. Although, like Shara, a lot of his opposition are unknowns. I say ‘a lot’ and not ‘all’ because there are some recognisable names on his record. Most notably, he fought Dricus Du Plessis back in 2019 on a KSW show. DDP won by TKO in the second round. Might have to give that a look before this one. Over the years he’s fought in a bunch of different promotions from Shooto Brazil to M-1 Challenge to Cage Warriors to KSW to PFL and most recently Brave CF. He’s coming into this fight on a 4 fight winning streak. Just quickly looking at Lutterbach’s record, he’s lost to some dodgy opposition so I’m not expecting too much from him. But the amount of fights he’s had alone and the experience could make it interesting. If he’s got much of a grappling game (and he does have 13 wins via submission), he could prove to be a tricky test for ‘The Bullet’ here.

 

Muhammad Naimov vs Melsik Baghdasaryan. Solid enough. Not getting the nipples hard or anything but it’ll do. Naimov’s from Tajikistan, 29 years old and 11-2 with 8 finishes. He’s on a 6 fight win streak and has beaten Jamie Mullarkey, Nathaniel Wood and Erik Silva since signing with the UFC last year. I don’t really remember his last fight (Silva) but he looked decent in the Mullarkey and Wood fights. Although he was cheating like prime Eddie Guerrero against Wood with the repeated groin strikes and fence/glove grabbing. Baghdasaryan is Armenian, 32 years old and 8-2 with 5 knockouts. Also has a 9-2 Kickboxing record and he’s 3-0 in Boxing. Can’t say a ton sticks out in the memory about his UFC run so far but he’s coming off a points win over Tucker Lutz last July.

 

Johnny Walker vs Volkan Oezdemir sounds like a potentially hilariously goofy fight to me and I’m all for it. There’s been a few exceptions but, on the whole, you’re usually getting something weird and wonderful out of a Walker fight. Win or lose. This is a man who once knocked his opponent out and then dislocated his own shoulder doing ‘The Worm’ in his celebration. He’s an absolute loon but the Light Heavyweight division could do with more like him, to be honest. Never gonna be champion, probably never even gonna challenge for UFC gold, but he brings a bit of fun to a division that often lacks it.

Last time we saw him, it ended like that. He got decked by Magomed Ankalaev in their Apex headliner in January. A rematch of that mad fight in Abu Dhabi last year where Ankalaev caused a No Contest due to an illegal knee to Walker’s head while he was grounded. Ankalaev has mostly been a dullard but Walker just seems to bring out the chaos in fights. Oezdemir should be the ideal opponent for Walker to have a bit of a nutty scrap with. He’s 19-7 and has had a really hot and cold the in the UFC. Easy to forget he actually fought for the title against Daniel Cormier at one point. He’s had some alright wins but has mostly lost when he’s stepped up a level. Heavy handed though and he’s not afraid to throw them. He’s coming off a first round finish over Bogdan Guskov on the Paris card in September.

 

Nasrat Haqparast vs Jared Gordon isn’t setting the world alight but I don’t mind the fight. They’ve both had very hit and miss UFC stints but they’re both coming into this fight off good wins. Haqparast is still only 28, 16-5 and is now on a 3 fight win streak. He got a first round stoppage over Jamie Mullarkey in a POTN winning showing back in December. It’ll also be nice to see him get to compete on the same card as his twin brother from another (Mexican) mother…

Gordon’s 35 now and has a 20-6-0-1 record. He’s been on the UFC roster since 2017 but mostly went under the radar until he got robbed by the judges of his rightful win over Paddy Pimblett in December 2022. Still pisses me off and I’ll continue to recognise that as a win for Gordon. His luck didn’t get any better in his next fight, a No Contest due to a clash of heads with Bobby Green, which left Gordon with a concussion. He did manage to end 2023 on a positive note though, getting a first round TKO over Mark Madsen on the MSG card in November. That must’ve been the personal highlight of his career so far, as a New Yorker getting that moment at MSG.

 

Rinat Fakhretdinov vs Nicolas Dalby is a pairing I really like the sound of actually. Fakhretdinov is 21-1-1 now with 17 finishes. He got off to a good start in the UFC, going 3-0, and absolutely smoked Kevin Lee in less than a minute last July. Granted, it was a washed up Lee but if nothing else it was a name on his record that could’ve catapulted him onto bigger things. It’s cooled off slightly though, with him being taken to a draw by Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos on the São Paulo card in November. I vaguely recall thinking Rinat won but Zaleski did have a big third round that might’ve forced a 10-8. Regardless, coming straight back against Dalby isn’t a step backwards by any means. Dalby’s coming off a TKO win over Gabriel Bonfim in the FOTN on the same São Paulo card Rinat last fought on. It was a cracking fight and, for me, Dalby’s best win and overall performance in the UFC to date. Bonfim was undefeated going in, 12 years younger than Dalby and had home field advantage. Great win for Dalby. He also dragged Darren Till to the most entertaining fight of his career back in 2015 on a Dublin card. Looking forward to this. Two hard nosed pitbulls colliding.

 

Farid Basharat vs Montel Jackson is alright. Was supposed to be Said Nurmagomedov against Jackson but Said’s out. Shame, was looking forward to seeing him back in there. Basharat is a strong substitute, in fairness. He’s Afghan but fights out of London, unbeaten at 12-0with 7 finishes and has gone 3-0 in the UFC since making his debut last March. He’s beat Da’Mon Blackshear, Kleydson Rodrigues and Taylor Lapilus so far and has looked pretty good from what I remember. Jackson’s been on the roster since 2018 now but I don’t remember much about him. He’s 13-2 and coming off 4 wins on the trot. In his last couple of fights he beat Julio Arce on points and knocked Rani Yahya out. Could be decent. Usually I’d confidently pick Basharat but short notice throws a wrinkle into any matchup and could favour or hinder either guy.

 

Muin Gafurov vs Kyung Ho Kang. Just filler but whatever. I’ll give it a bash. Gafurov’s 27 years old, from Tajikistan and has a record of 18-6 with 17 finishes. Not bad on paper but he’s gone 0-2 since signing with the UFC. He lost on points to John Castaneda in his debut last June, then got guillotine choked in just over a minute by Said Nurmagomedov at UFC 294 in October. That Nurmagomedov loss especially was a bad look for Gafurov. From my memory of it he just rushed in and overcommitted to a takedown, left his neck out there and Said was on it like a shot. Kang’s 36 and has a 19-10-0-1 record. He’s been in the UFC since 2013 and I can barely remember a thing about his 11 years on the roster. I probably saw most of his fights as well. He’s coming off a decision loss to John Castaneda in November but had won his previous two fights. Meh. Not gonna pretend I give a bollocks about this.

 

Magomed Gadzhiyasulov vs Brendson Ribeiro. Not a clue. Never seen Gadzhiyasulov but looking him up on Sherdog, he’s from Dagestan, 30 years old and undefeated at 8-0 with 6 first round finishes. Fought in Eagle FC and Brave CF before winning his fight on DWCS back in October. He’s also had a bunch of amateur fights. And Ribeiro, I’ve only seen him once but that was when he got chinned in less than 2 minutes by Zhang Mingyang at UFC 298 in February. He’s 15-6-0-1 and all 15 wins came inside the distance. Going in blind but it sounds like this could be explosive.

 

Abu Azaitar vs Denis Tiuliulin is just there. Can’t say I’m arsed. I’ll go through the motions. Azaitar’s Moroccan, 38 years old and 14-4-1 with 8 inside the distance. He’s actually been on the UFC roster since 2018 but he’s ridiculously inactive. He’s fought just 3 times during his 6 year stint. Shocking. He most recently fought at UFC 294 in October, so this is a quick turnaround by his usual standards. He went into that one off a 2 and a half year layoff and lost a decision to wifebeating shitarse Sedriques Dumas. Yeah, he’s going nowhere. Tiuliulin’s 36 with a record of 10-9-0-1. Yep. He’s also going nowhere. He’s coming off 3 straight losses and was stopped in all of them. He got battered by Christian Leroy Duncan in his last fight in November. Expectations aren’t high for this. I’ll honestly be surprised if Azaitar turns up. I mean, fighting twice in 8 months? Asking a bit much that.

 

Xiao Long vs Chang Ho Lee then. Absolutely zero idea on this. Never seen nor heard of either but it’s the finals of the Road To UFC Bantamweight tournament. Not sure what exactly that means because the winner and loser will probably be kept around regardless. Maybe the tournament winners come in on a better contract or something. Fuck knows? Anyway, Xiao Long’s Chinese, 26 years old and has a 26-7 record with 13 finishes. Nothing jumps out looking at his record but he’s coming off 4 wins in a row and he has gone 5 rounds before. Chang Ho Lee is South Korean, 30 years old and 9-1 with 6 finishes. He’s fought in ONE FC and Brave CF and he’s stopped his last 3 opponents.

 

 

That’s UFC Saudi. Dana’s turn to tickle Excellent Turki’s taint.

Yep. Fury, AJ and Wilder should’ve all fought each other years ago yet they fucked about so long Usyk’s gone and mopped up all the gold from under their noses. 

2 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Tyson himself clarified in the presser that he thought he was cruising going into the 11th.

Tyson also thought it was January 1st though. 

4 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

I thought rounds 1/2 were Usyk's, 3-7 was arguably Fury's fight and then round 8 onwards Usyk took over. I think. I got swept up in it and didn't score it properly.

The mark of a great fight. It’s a bit of a cliche and judges (rightly) get a lot of stick but I really would hate to be a judge for fights like this. Watching at home I definitely felt Usyk won, and I feel the same today. But if we were getting swept up in it, imagine being sat ringside for and having to basically remove emotion from it and just focus on scoring? I know it’s their job but Christ it’s a difficult one.

2 minutes ago, gmoney said:

He had a great match with Kurt Angle, I think it was the 2006 No Way Out one. I remember being gripped by that.

Yeah that was a corker.

@air_raid is your man to fill in the blanks but I’m sure Angle vs Taker was originally planned for WrestleMania that year but they had to shuffle the deck (possibly due to Eddie’s death?) so we basically got a full on WrestleMania match a month early at No Way Out. 

Absolutely. There’s nothing to dislike about him.

While I’m here, thought this was cool. Mairis Breidis and Jai Opetaia just can’t escape each other.

Happy Undisputed Usyk Sunday 🇺🇦 

35 minutes ago, thevestofdeanambrose said:

Had to check the date on my watch after Fury wished everyone a Happy New Year. 

Yeah, Usyk must’ve hit him even harder than it looked.

Unbelievable fight. I really wasn’t liking the way it was looking for Usyk in the first half of the fight but that home stretch was something else. The drama when he was smacking Fury around like a pinball machine was off the charts. Usyk might well be the #1 P4P now. Insane resume when you look at what he’s done at both Cruiserweight and Heavyweight. 

No-one’s gonna give a shite on Fury vs Usyk day but here’s tonight’s Apex bollocks…

Yeah he never backs up these claims with hard evidence or points to where he’s getting these numbers from. It all just smacks of him desperately trying to convince people that this Power Slap shite is massive and…well, good. It’s fucking shite. No skill required, no athleticism required, no tactics needed or reason to be invested. If you’ve seen one ‘match’ you’ve seen all there is to offer. They might do numbers and views on some platforms but I refuse to believe it’s this monster thing like he’s making out. And it’s certainly not doing bigger numbers than all these long established sports that are engrained in American culture like the NFL, NBA, MLB etc. Get to fuck. He’s trying to talk it being this mega thing into existence. Bluffing us into jumping on the shitty bandwagon. Who is actually watching it? Because every single comment I ever see about it is negative, apart from shills like Kevin Iole that have financial/career incentives to big it up. I’ve never seen fans going ‘I can’t wait for Power Slap tonight’. 

Biggest pile of old wank ever and it genuinely feels like it was dreamed up at the Blackjack table in Vegas one night at 3:40am, with Dana saying something like “The fanbase are retards. They’ll eat up any slop if I tell them to. Shit, I could probably convince them that two fat fucks slapping each other in the face was a real sport and they’d watch it!” It’s a vanity project more than anything with Dana wanting to prove he can sell anything and make it a success. When let’s face it, him without the Fertittas is like when Vince Russo never had Vince McMahon (ugh) standing over his shoulder sifting through his 99 rotten ideas to find one good one. Dana’s success in life pretty much all stems from him going to a school reunion one year while he was teaching bored housewives Boxercise, and bumping into his old school pals Lorenzo and Frank again. No doubt he served his purpose back in the early to mid 2000s Spike TV reality show era. But he outstayed his welcome a long time ago. If he’d stayed in with his Pot Noodle and a wank the night of that school reunion he’d probably still be pissing about in Boston, pretending to be Freddie Roach for Shirley and Pam’s 7pm class.

Didn’t watch it and I was only really arsed about Doumbe’s fight anyway. Glad to see he won and it sounded like he looked really good. I saw clips on Twitter of the little face-off with Anthony Pettis after and I’d be up for that. I’ll believe it when I see it though. Wasn’t long ago they had Doumbe facing off with MVP and we saw where that went. Doumbe vs Pettis would be a cool fight. But no doubt Doumbe smashes him at this point in both their careers.

I liked this from Doumbe playing off the old splinter in the toe thing from his last fight 🤣

Pretty much my thinking as well Daz. Hoping Usyk, expecting Fury. Although I’m thinking it goes the distance.

From the weigh in…

I totally get why they do it but having that many people on the stage ruins these face-offs for me. Like I said, I get it to an extent and Tyson did push Usyk here. I get why they’d want enough people up there to be able to break it up. But that many? At least a topless John Fury didn’t get to stand right in front of them during the face-off this time though, like he did at the Ngannou weigh in.

Fury weighed in at 262lbs. So 15lbs lighter than he was against Ngannou. Usyk was 233lbs which is a lot heavier than I expected, 12.6lbs more than the Dubois fight. I understand why he might wanna be bigger for this fight but I’m not sure I like it.

 

Edit - There’s a video going around now from the weigh in and it sounds like Usyk actually weighed in at 223lbs but Buffer misheard it and announced 233. Fucking amateur hour. 

That’s a hell of a pic. The last two men to unify all the belts in 1999 and the next two to do it in 2024. 

Tremendous thread on Usyk’s career on Twitter…

 

I love Hashimoto and his big fat face. Kicking arse while looking like a Japanese Robbie Coltrane. He quickly became a favourite for me when I used to watch New Japan on Eurosport in the 90s. He was ace. 

Took me all week but finally caught up on this. It was a solid little Fight Night, to be fair. Nice little tribute to Art Jimmerson from Bisping at the top of the show as well…

Was chuffed to see Derrick Lewis get the win and finish in the main event. For one, just because I’m a Lewis fan but, also, if he’d lost then that would’ve probably meant more Nascimento headliners and nobody needs that in their lives.

Have it. 

I picked Lewis in the poll in the end, just because I know at his best he doesn’t generally lose against this level of opponent. But given the run of form he’s been on the last couple of years plus him getting up in age plus Nascimento being more of a grappler…I had fears it could go very wrong for him. Thankfully he found the finish but there were spells where it looked like it might all go tits up. I liked that he started the first round off by surprising Nascimento with his own grappling approach. The last thing Nascimento would’ve been expecting would be for Lewis to initiate the clinch and go for the takedown. Once that initial element of surprise passed though, and Nascimento got on top, there’s always the risk Lewis becomes disillusioned, starts feeling sorry for himself and mentally checks out. We’ve seen it before. Whenever they were on the feet, Lewis was clearly the more effective striker. But towards the end of both the first and second rounds, Nascimento got him down and was having success. Obviously, Lewis coming out and bombing him at the start of the third ended all that but there were shaky moments there for him.

It was great to see Lewis win. But I’ve gotta admit, as much as I love the bloke, the whole post-fight bit just felt like he couldn’t be bothered. Usually his post-fight interviews are the highlight of his fight week, more than the fights themselves a lot of times. Here he was just completely rehashing bits of past interviews. Even he seemed underwhelmed by this shit.

On 5/13/2024 at 1:36 PM, Kfogg1991 said:

Obviously I'm overjoyed the BLACK BEAST got another knockout win against a guy everyone said was going to beat him and is a style that derick can't hang with.

Eh?

I mentioned in the opening post that Nascimento has a style that you could see causing Lewis problems. And that’s because he does. Certainly wasn’t a case of everyone saying Nascimento wins.

Not sure who Lewis fights next. You look at the rankings and he’s literally fought pretty much everyone already. He’s ranked #10 now and of the guys above him he’s already fought Spivac, Tybura, Almeida, Volkov, Blaydes, Gane and Pavlovich. The only ones he hasn’t fought are Jones, Aspinall and Miocic. And he’s not gonna be fighting any of them. So it’s either fight down in the rankings or a rematch. The UFC just announced they’re going back to Paris in September. It’d be a rematch I’d have almost zero interest in but it wouldn’t shock me if they went with Gane vs Lewis 2 in Paris. Just because Gane’s ducked Aspinall multiple times and Lewis has already fought everyone. There aren’t many options for either.

Buckley vs Ruziboev was an alright fight, nothing special, but it was boosted big time by the crowd being so into it and supporting their hometown guy in Buckley. It wasn’t a bad fight but if it was in pretty much any other city it would’ve been looked at as a bit lacklustre. The bubble’s burst already for Ruziboev for me. This wasn’t a good performance from him. I’m sure he’ll still have his moments but he just didn’t do enough here. On the feet he spent too much time standing around. And on the ground, Buckley spent most of his time on top leaving himself wide open for a triangle or armbar and, while Ruziboev threw a few attempts up, he’ll be kicking himself watching the fight back that he wasn’t able to capitalise on Buckley’s iffy defence. Fair play to Buckley though. He was going for the kill and certainly had the big moments of the fight. He rightfully got the decision.

Didn’t expect to see Randy Orton pop up!

Buckley calling out Conor after though? I get why guys do it but if it’s not a realistic fight then it’s just a waste of mic time. That post-fight interview is a fighter’s opportunity to call their next move. Doesn’t even have to be shit talking or a “cutting a promo” on someone or disrespectful. Just throw a realistic name out there. An opponent you’d like either because it’s a fun matchup or good for you style-wise or you want their spot in the rankings. If not a specific name, maybe campaign to get on a certain card that’s upcoming or something. Calling out the biggest name in the sport when you’re a middle of the pack guy and Conor has so many more appealing options, it’s just a waste of an opportunity on Buckley’s part. If he wanted to get ‘the rub’ off Conor’s name, he should’ve just called someone out to fight on the McGregor vs Chandler card next month or something. This was pointless. McGregor vs Buckley is obviously not happening. Him and Cormier have been going back and forth on Twitter since Saturday night. That’s all it’s achieved. Bickering with retired fighters.

Carlos Ulberg blitzing Alonzo Menifield in 12 seconds wasn’t really how I saw that one going. I mean, they both have high finishing rates so it’s not a massive surprise it didn’t go the distance but I never expected it to be that quick. Merciful really. In general both 205 and Heavyweights fights are cack if they go longer than about a round and a half. So this was fine with me.

Carlos Diego Ferreira put a colossal beatdown on Mateusz Rebecki. It was a rough first round and Rebecki looked a handful and even dropped him towards the end of the round. Then Ferreira just came back and brutalised him en route to the late TKO stoppage.

Poor prick. 

Hell of a win for Ferreira this. I touched on it in the opening post but this really felt like a case of the matchmakers thinking they were ‘feeding’ Ferreira to Rebecki. Ferreira at 39 years old and not being that active recently gets thrown in with a guy who was 19-1 and on a 16 fight winning streak? Ferreira wasn’t having it though. Battered him. Nothing against Rebecki and I’m sure there’ll be much better to come for him. But I’ve always enjoyed watching Ferreira and it was cool to see him get a win here in a fight that, on paper, he probably had no business winning.

Woodson vs Caceres was a close one. I had them 1-1 after 2 rounds and thought the third was close. To be honest, I had Caceres edging it but didn’t have a massive problem with Woodson getting the nod. I think Caceres had the fight sewn up until the last 90 seconds or so and, while I still had him winning, that last minute flurry is almost certainly what nicked it for Woodson. Decent fight, not as good as I hoped but decent. Liked Woodson’s callout of Bryce Mitchell after the fight. Wouldn’t mind seeing that.

Well we got to see more of Robelis Despaigne. He’s shit. Just another crap Heavyweight who’s lethal in the first 30 seconds then total dogshit after that. There was always a high possibility of it considering how late he got into MMA and the fact that he’s from a pure striking background and likely had zero ground game. Still, to get found out by fucking Waldo Cortes-Acosta of all people, and in a dud of a fight. Not good. No doubt Despaigne will KO other Heavyweights. There’s enough bad HWs knocking about and he’s dangerous enough early that he’s most likely gonna have some more highlight reel finishes yet. But the excitement (well, hope) I had after his debut has evaporated now. If he was gonna go on a streak of any real significance, this is a fight he needed to be winning. If you can’t beat ‘Salsa Boy’, you’re going nowhere.

Chase Hooper vs Slava Claus was never gonna be boring and, with the contrasting styles, there was always a chance one would completely dominate where they’re strong and the other is weak. Hooper absolutely bossed this though.

It was only one tap, but it was a tap. Not sure what all the protesting was about after the fact. It was cut and dry. Really strong showing for Chase. Reminded me of Joe Lauzon when he was on the rise.

Not sure what Bisping was banging on about at the end though. “Chase Hooper is a contender” and “this was a tough stylistic matchup for him and he dominated”. I get they’ve gotta hype him up but this was far from a bad style matchup for Chase. If anything, it was probably the best matchup for him because of Slav’s almost nonexistent grappling. Providing he could secure the takedown, this was always gonna be his fight to lose. He just had to avoid Slav’s boxing. But even then, he dropped Slav early! That was a surprise. He’s definitely improving and maturing as a fighter. I was ready to write him off not too long ago so fair play to him. But it’s way, way too early to be talking about him as a “contender” after wins over Nick Fiore, Jordan Leavitt and Slava Claus. Calm down.

Man, Esteban Ribovics Cro Copped the shit out of Terrance McKinney. 37 seconds is all it took…

Cool to see Ribovics get a highlight reel finish like this. I said I’d enjoyed his first couple of UFC fights but he went 1-1 and both went the distance. Exciting fighter but this was the kind of performance and finish that will obviously get him more noticed. And McKinney, fucking hell. Disaster for him. But win or lose, you can just never blink in his fights. 22 fights into his career and he’s NEVER gone the distance. And 18 of those fights haven’t got out of the first round. Insane. There mightn’t be another fighter in the game who embodies the phrase ‘live by the sword, die by the sword’ as much as McKinney.

Wasn’t a fan of the Tabatha Ricci vs Tecia Pennington fight. Wasn’t expecting much from it though, to be fair. Neither have been known to have really exciting fights and then you add in that Tecia was coming off 2 years out, my expectations weren’t exactly high. With that said, I felt Ricci was very lucky to get the decision here. I had Tecia winning myself.

Trey Waters vs Billy Goff was an unexpected banger and the FOTN. Seriously, if you skipped this card (and I wouldn’t blame you), at least watch this. One of my favourite fights so far this year but it’s gonna go under the radar because it was on the prelims of a Fight Night. Like I said in the opening post, I wasn’t familiar enough with either man to say much about the matchup going in, positive or negative. Loved this though. What a scrap. And just like that, I’ll be taking notice and I’ll actually give a shite the next time I see either of their names on a card.

Christ 😬 Absolute dogfight. The right man won. I had Waters winning on the cards for sure. But Goff refused to go away and, despite the height and range advantage for Waters, Goff just stayed in his face the whole time.

Charles Johnson vs Jake Hadley was a really good fight like you’d expect if you’ve ever seen these guys fight before. This really should’ve been on the main card. Especially with Johnson being from St Louis! Would’ve been the perfect main card opener. I don’t know what the matchmakers have against Johnson. He’s never in bad fights, gave a good account of himself against Mokaev, had a corker with Azat Maksum last time. Yet 6 of his last 7 UFC fights coming into this one were at the Apex in front of empty chairs. He finally gets in front of a crowd, his hometown crowd at that, and they bury his fight on the Fight Pass stream? Maybe the matchmakers just don’t like the ‘skullet’ hairdo. It is shocking.

This was a strong performance from Johnson. Looked really sharp and you could tell he was buzzing to be fighting at home. I’ve never warmed to Hadley and I don’t see him ever really going on a proper run, just can’t seem to string the wins together. But he’s the kind of fighter who’s gonna make for an entertaining fight with pretty much anyone. This was good stuff and the crowd being so into it, cheering everything Johnson did and booing Hadley, it just made it that bit more fun to watch. Nice win for Johnson. Wouldn’t mind seeing him get a ranked opponent next, Tim Elliott maybe? I just hope they don’t relegate him back to the Apex. He’s better than that. He deserves to be fighting in front of crowds. Hadley’s already on about fighting on the Manchester card. Makes sense. Mokaev still had a pop at him for losing. I know they’re on completely different trajectories at the minute but I still wanna see Mokaev vs Hadley at some point. Maybe if Mokaev gets a title shot and loses, that can be his bounce back fight? Fun domestic fight for a UK card and there’s been too much shit talk on both sides for it to never happen.

Happy again to see Veronica Hardy get another win. That’s 3-0 for her now since returning last year from that massive layoff. It was only JJ Aldrich, not an amazing win and I’m still not convinced Hardy goes too far in the division. But I never really rated her skills at all early in her career before the layoff, she’s definitely improved since then. And to be fair, she’s still only 28 and I’ve heard and read she never really had proper training camps until her last few fights. I’d like to see her prove me wrong and keep going from strength to strength, I’m a fan of her and Dan. Hey, maybe she’ll get higher billing than the Fight Pass opener next time! 


So yeah, pretty enjoyable night of fights in the end. I know we’re like a stuck record now but it really is time to knock the Apex on the head. I don’t think it’s gonna happen, despite what Dana said. But we can hope. A show like this, which didn’t look much good on paper, was significantly improved by being in front of an actual crowd who were invested. I’m not sure you get the same kind of scrap out of, say, Trey Waters vs Billy Goff in the soulless UFC warehouse. And the fact that the show reportedly did so well ($2.4M gate) tells you there’s really no legitimate argument for not having these shows on the road in front of actual ticket buying fans rather than a smattering of media and a select few people who were gifted tickets at the Apex, people who are either there to do a job and people who aren’t really fussed. It’s dead. No atmosphere whatsoever. Sack it off. Yesterday. 

I think Fury wins but I hope you’re right @Gooner just find Usyk impossible to root against. Regardless, I can’t wait for this now. Although I don’t know what’s going on with the outfits here 🤣

Manchester headliners confirmed. Think this is about what everyone expected. 

 

Edit - Also announced Bobby Green vs Paddy Pimblett, Muhammad Mokaev vs Manel Kape and the previously announced Arnold Allen vs Giga Chikadze as filling out the rest of the main card. Not bad at all. Wouldn’t wanna pay for overpriced tickets plus travel to Manchester, book hotels etc to be in the arena until 6am. But it’s a very solid card all in all. 

Fuck. This is so sad.