wandshogun09

Don’t say that Ebb. Although it does always cross my mind with these bigger signings. I even mentioned in the opening post that I hope he comes in strong like Amosov did, and not shitting the bed like Mix. Not long to wait now. We’ll see tonight. But there’s always the possibility of a bed shitting, especially with a guy debuting in such a big spot (main event, home crowd etc), it’s a great opportunity but also brings some pressure to deliver as well. And as much as Hooker isn’t the very elite of 155 in the UFC, and he has had some rough results lately, he still might be the toughest test of Parnasse’s career to date. It’s an interesting one but I really hope Parnasse turns out to be the real deal.

Yeah, even Barnett’s later fights in his last UFC run (we’ll pretend the Travis Browne fight didn’t happen) were good fun. I remember really enjoying his fights with Roy Nelson and Andrei Arlovski around that time. And of course, the demolition job he did on Frank Mir didn’t upset me either.

Both the WWF and WCW Vault channels have been a bit dead lately for me, bar the odd exception. Last couple of uploads have been a step back in the right direction though. Hulk Hogan vs Terry Funk from Saturday Night’s Main Event in Jan 1986. Love this match… Also, I know their story has been told to death but the Bret vs Shawn ‘Greatest Rivalries’ documentary/sitdown that was released on DVD years ago but oddly wasn’t on the Network…

This’ll be worth a go. Josh Barnett on Matt Serra’s podcast. Can’t really go wrong with these two…

The French crowds are usually lively, to be fair. And I expect they’ll be well into this especially. Parnasse could well end up being the best French signing the UFC have ever made and with him instantly coming in with the main event rub he’s probably gonna get the superstar reaction if he goes out there and does the business.

It’s the Pont de Bercy bridge apparently. From what I can tell it’s near the Accor Arena, where this event is being held. I don’t think there’s any more to that as the location for the face-off. And here’s our first look at Parnasse in the UFC fight clobber…

Remember this banger? 14 years ago now.

Wouldn’t be fight week without a fight going tits up. Mairon Santos dropped out last night. Nathaniel Wood is staying on the card and accepted a last minute opponent switch. He’s now fighting 24 year old unbeaten Moldovan Pavel Andrusca. While I’m here, first Hooker vs Parnasse face-off from today. Only in Paris could a face-off for a fight look romantic.

Anyone seen the interview with Itauma where he’s saying he’s not sure he’s ever done 12 rounds in the gym? Christ, what were they actually doing in camp? If they weren’t having him do 12 for a big, durable lump like Hrgovic that’s an astounding level complacency and overconfidence. Even if you think he’s gonna blow the guy out of there, you’d surely prepare for worst case scenarios. Mental.

Back in California. LA hosts this one… PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD Joshua Van©️vs Alexandre Pantoja - Flyweight Title Arman Tsarukyan vs Mauricio Ruffy Patricio Pitbull vs Doo Ho Choi Gable Steveson vs Sean Sharaf Alonzo Menifield vs Iwo Baraniewski PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Marlon Vera vs Charles Jourdain Tai Tuivasa vs Robelis Despaigne Michael Aswell Jr vs Joo Sang Yoo Ryan Gandra vs Ozzy Diaz FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Edmen Shahbazyan vs Brunno Ferreira Casey O’Neill vs Eduarda Moura Giga Chikadze vs Joanderson Brito When they did the initial press conference for this show when tickets went on sale, TNT Sports were tweeting clips of the presser and their caption on all the clips was saying that this is on Box Office. Seems a weird choice, to be honest, given the start times and the fact there aren’t any Brits on the card. But it might’ve been an error on their side because the UFC website still has it listed for normal TNT and TNT’s more recent tweets haven’t said ‘Box Office’. With that out of the way, this is a pretty fun card, I reckon. Co-main should be a decent watch, feels a bit mismatchy but I’ve thought that with a few cards this year and it’s been a pretty good year for the underdogs. The main event should be a hell of a fight, hopefully we get the classic we should’ve got in December. Rest of the card isn’t bad either. It’ll do. Joshua Van vs Alexandre Pantoja 2 then. A rematch of the brief first fight back in December and a very necessary one. Really looking forward to this and I’m glad they gave them the headline spot. The Flyweights often get relegated to co-main under another title fight so it’s refreshing to see them go on last here. Fully aware that it’s almost certainly more because PPV is a thing of the past now the Paramount deal is in full swing so they don’t have to worry about putting on main events that ‘draw’ anymore. It’s not some noble choice by the UFC to boost the Flyweights. But still, it’s good to see them get top billing for a change. I’m genuinely buzzing for this one. Got a really good feeling about it. So yeah, they crossed paths at UFC 323 in December, co-main under Merab vs Yan 2. Pantoja had been a pretty dominant champ. He won the title from Brandon Moreno in a FOTY contender in 2023 and had successfully defended it four times over the next couple of years. With his high level grappling, his aggression, toughness and his granite chin, it was hard to pick anyone to beat him by late 2025. There was a sense going in that the title shot might be coming a bit too soon for Van. He’d been looking good but he was still only just 24 and didn’t have anywhere near the big fight experience some of the top ranked Flyweights did. I saw him as a serious prospect, one for the future. I didn’t expect him to be challenging for the title so soon. But in June 2025, he’d jumped in on short notice against #1 ranked Brandon Royval and beat him in a tremendous fight. It was hard to deny him after that. Van and Pantoja faced off in the cage immediately after the fight and the stage was set for them to square off in December with the gold on the line. It was an opportunity Van couldn’t pass up and kind of a no lose situation for him in a way. If he lost, it was the result most expected and he was young enough to come back from it. If he won though, massive. The risk vs reward factor was heavily weighted towards the reward side for him. Unfortunately it ended in disaster. The fight got underway and they were going at a frantic pace. Pantoja threw a headkick, lost his balance and as he fell he posted his arm to break his fall. Something he’s probably done hundreds of times in fights and in the gym. This time, he landed awkwardly, injured his arm and couldn’t continue. For old school fans it was very reminiscent of the first Shogun Rua vs Mark Coleman fight in Pride. Just one of those freak injuries. Whole fight lasted just 26 seconds and was ruled a TKO victory for Van. Making him the new Flyweight champion. For Van, it was a far from ideal or satisfactory way to win the title. And for such a great champion like Pantoja to lose the title that way sucked arse. On top of all that, although the fight only lasted 26 seconds, in that short space of time it looked like it was shaping up to be a really fun scrap. 2025 wasn’t exactly full of FOTY contenders. It felt like we might’ve been robbed of one in Pantoja vs Van. Just really disappointing. You knew as soon as the fight ended, given how it ended and considering the reign Pantoja had as champ, there had to be a rematch. But Pantoja was obviously gonna be out a while. The division had to move on. Joshua Van was now the champion. He was an active fighter on the come up. He made his UFC debut in mid 2023 and has fought 11 times since. And he fought four times in both 2024 and 2025. He had that knockout loss to Charles Johnson in 2024, which looks like more of a weird upset as time goes on, but because of his activity, he got straight back on the horse and that loss kind of got forgotten. Following that loss, he rattled off five straight wins in less than a year and put himself in position for that first Pantoja fight. Mad really. So considering how he likes to stay busy, I don’t think anyone was surprised that he didn’t wanna sit and wait for Pantoja to heal up. He was gonna defend the title in the meantime. He took on Tatsuro Taira at UFC 328 in May. Again, co-main under Khamzat vs Strickland. It’s a bit of trivia that makes me feel old as fuck but it was pretty cool that Van vs Taira was the first title fight in UFC history where both fighters were born in the 2000s. The fight itself was tremendous. Van came through with the fifth round stoppage but it was an incredible fight. I wouldn’t have it at number one but it’s on the list for FOTY for me. One of the best fights in Flyweight history for me as well. Although probably a shade behind Figgy vs Moreno 1 and Pantoja vs Moreno 2. A real back and forth war. A fight so good people were talking after about possibly doing the immediate rematch. But there’d been footage of Pantoja back in the gym around the time of that fight and I always felt like he was getting a title shot straight away whenever he was given clearance to fight again. And rightly so. The way he lost the title, you have to give him his rematch. Plus I think Taira will benefit more from not being thrown straight back in the fire. He’ll come again. Pantoja deserves a re-run. It’s the right fight to make. Plus he’s 36 now. He doesn’t have time on his side like some of the younger contenders do. This’ll be fight 37 for him. He’s 30-6 with 20 finishes and wins over Brandon Moreno twice (three times if you count their first meeting on TUF), Brandon Royval twice, Manel Kape, Steve Erceg, Kai Asakura and Kai Kara-France. He’d subbed the two Kais in back-to-back fights before suffering the injury against Van. That made it feel even more harsh. He was always a top tier Flyweight but he’d gone the distance three times in a row starting with his title win against Moreno in 2023. Him submitting Asakura and KKF felt like he was finally getting some momentum going and people were finally talking about him as the beast he is and giving him the respect he deserved all along. Then the injury happened. Could be worse. Could’ve been a knee or shoulder or something. Mangling your elbow is no fun either but he’s back fairly quick from it. Hopefully he’s fully fit and not rushing his recovery. “I’m ready. After December, what happened to my arm, two days after that I went to the gym, started training with just one arm. That’s who I am. I’m not done. I’m not done. I have so much to conquer. I have so much to prove. I want to take the belt again. I want to be UFC champion one more time. That’s what I want.” - Alexandre Pantoja I do wonder though, in the future are we gonna look back at this injury as the beginning of the end of Pantoja’s prime? He’s 36 years old regardless. Had this injury never happened, he’s already had a good innings on top. Then you factor in some of the wars he’s been in, now this injury. Then you think about this wave of new blood that’s came into the Flyweight division over the last few years who’ve now found their feet and are up there at the top end of the division. Van, Taira, Kape etc, Kavanagh could be one for the future, you’ve still got vets like Royval and Horiguchi lurking. It’s a shark tank. How much longer can Pantoja compete at the level we’ve seen from him? All that said, I’m definitely not writing him off. Even at 36, he was showing no signs of slowing down in his last few fights before Van, and that one ended in seconds due to injury. He hasn’t had that long of a layoff either so shouldn’t be too rusty. Like he says in the quote above, he was back in the gym almost immediately. Again, if it was a knee or neck or whatever, it’d be different. But while never ideal, an arm injury isn’t gonna stop you training completely and there’s still stuff you can do. Unless his arm is completely knackered beyond repair now, any talk of a possible decline is pure guesswork at this point. He might’ve got old overnight but that can happen to any fighter in the later stages of their career. I’m not sure this injury will be a major factor in that. They had a press conference recently and I was surprised how heated Van and Pantoja were getting. Dana actually had to hold Pantoja back at one point. I didn’t watch the full thing, I never do with the pressers anymore, but from the clips I saw they were going back and forth talking some shit. Van seemed to be instigating most of it, kind of heeling it up, which I didn’t expect. They were both really respectful in the run up and aftermath of the first fight. What changed in eight months, I don’t know. I kind of like the more vocal Van but I hope he doesn’t go full on with it now and force it. It doesn’t feel like it really fits him being the dickhead. I think Pantoja even commented that Van was basically trying to be something he’s not. Van’s always came across quite likeable in the past from bits I’ve seen. I don’t wanna see him go the Strickland route. Plus he doesn’t need to. Unlike Strickland, he’s a ridiculously entertaining fighter. He doesn’t need to overcompensate by creating a ‘character’. And also, with no PPV to sell anymore, what’s the point anyway? If we were still in the days of them trying to flog PPVs, I’d kind of get Van trying to force some manufactured beef. There’s no need in 2026 though. Just be yourself. If a rivalry organically materialises, great. But I’m not into the forced shite. Yeah, excited for this. As long as there’s no injury this time, I can’t see any way these two don’t deliver a really good fight. Van is the type who has fun scraps with everyone and Pantoja hasn’t been too shabby in that regard himself over the last few years. That Moreno FOTY and the Erceg fight were incredible. Pantoja is gonna be bang up for this as well. He would’ve been anyway given how the first fight ended but now Van’s getting mouthy it’s gonna add an extra layer of motivation. And for Van, there’s gonna be no shortage of motivation either. A win here really solidifies and legitimises him as champ. He’s the champ officially anyway and the Taira win was certainly a championship calibre performance. But there’s always gonna be an asterisk next to that title ‘win’ over Pantoja. Many at the time were saying it should’ve been ruled a No Contest. I disagree but those are the type of conversations that were, and still are, going on when it comes to Van as champ. That he’s not the ‘real champ’ and all that bollocks. In a way I get it because Pantoja has every reason to still feel like he’s the true champion. It wasn’t like he was beaten or out-fought or out-skilled. It was just one of those shitty things that happens in MMA sometimes. But Van didn’t commit any fouls and his actions kind of led to the chain of events that caused the injury and the fight to be stopped. It had to go down as a win. And the only fair course of action then was to give Pantoja an immediate crack at whoever the champ was, as soon as he was healthy. And here we are. Can’t fault it. It’s all worked out in the end and thankfully Van held onto the belt long enough to be waiting for Pantoja’s return so we get the rematch. Wouldn’t have been quite the same if Pantoja came back to Taira holding the belt. We needed to see the unfinished business settled. Arman Tsarukyan vs Mauricio Ruffy is our five round co-main event. Came a bit out of left field this one. It was heavily rumoured that we were gonna get a Tsarukyan vs Charles Oliveira rematch on this card. Not 100% sure what happened there but I’m guessing the recent shocking death of Allan Nascimento - Oliveira’s teammate and friend - had a lot to do with it. Never really saw this Ruffy fight coming but I don’t hate it. I think Tsarukyan is most likely gonna steamroll him but it’s a fresh fight and I don’t see it being boring. Not sure why it’s five rounds either. Seems proper random which non-title co-mains they make five rounds but whatever. I don’t think they’re gonna need the full five rounds anyway. In the unlikely event Ruffy wins, I think it’s gonna have to be by knockout. And if Tsarukyan wins, it’s gonna be via grappling and I don’t see how Ruffy survives 25 minutes without getting subbed. I know I’ve probably gone and jinxed it now but I just don’t see this going the distance one way or the other. Tsarukyan is pretty much smack bang in the middle of his prime right now. Which is what has made his last couple of years in the UFC all the more frustrating. He’s 29 years old and 23-3 with 15 of his wins not making it to the scorecards. He made his UFC debut back in 2019, at just 22 years old, and fought Islam Makhachev his first night in! He lost on points but it was a brilliant fight. One of the fights I always recommend if someone asks for fun grappling heavy fights to watch. Since then he’s gone 10-1 in the UFC but, in my opinion, it should be 11-0. That one blemish was a decision loss against Mateusz Gamrot in 2022, which I remember thinking Tsarukyan absolutely won. That aside, he’s managed to officially bag wins over the likes of Joel Alvarez, Beneil Dariush, Charles Oliveira and Dan Hooker. He completely squashed Hooker in his last fight on the Qatar card in November. But typical of Tsarukyan, he kind of self sabotaged and undone the positives by dropping the nut on Hooker at the weigh in. There’s always some shit with Tsarukyan 🤣 Dana clearly hates him. It seems to stem from Tsarukyan pulling out of the scheduled Makhachev rematch last year but that can’t be the only issue. Fighters drop out of fights all the time. It seems to go deeper than that with Dana to me. Tsarukyan had weighed in as the official backup when Topuria fought Oliveira last June. Turned out he wasn’t needed but he made championship weight. That usually puts you in the mix for the next title shot. Fuck all for Arman. Then before the Hooker fight, Dana flat out said Tsarukyan would get a title shot with a win. Tsarukyan did win and then nothing. Then they made an interim title fight between Gaethje and Pimblett. Despite Tsarukyan being ranked #1 in the Lightweight division. How do you do an interim title fight and not include the top ranked guy? Jokers. I get that Tsarukyan’s a bit of a loose cannon but what’s the point of even having rankings if Dana just ignores them when he doesn’t personally like you? Tsarukyan’s been left out in the cold so far this year. I think he was holding out hoping for the title shot but Dana obviously didn’t wanna give him that. So Tsarukyan’s been keeping himself busy elsewhere. At one point it seemed like there wasn’t a week that would go by without him competing in a wrestling or grappling match. Seriously, he’s barely stopped. Since the Dan Hooker fight in November, he’s had four submission grappling matches and has gone 7-1 in freestyle wrestling on RAF shows between January and July this year. Urijah Faber and Tony Ferguson were two of his victims. With him spearing Faber off the stage during their match. Like I said, there’s always some shit with Tsarukyan. He lost his last match against Colby Covington in July unfortunately. I was hoping Tsarukyan would embarrass that dickhead but he was giving up size to Covington in that one. Back on the UFC front, for what it’s worth, Helwani’s saying that Tsarukyan has been told by the matchmakers that he’s getting the title shot if he wins this Ruffy fight. Yeah, we’ll see. Why should we believe it this time? Sounds like Tsarukyan doesn’t even buy it anymore… “In this sport, nothing is guaranteed. You’ve got to be ready. You’ve got to beat anyone. If they give me one more fight, I’ll beat. Ten more fights, I’ll beat. Eventually, I’ll become champion. I was waiting for the title fight, but Gaethje, he doesn’t want to fight again this year. So they gave me an opportunity to fight in LA, I said yes. Oliveira, I said yes. Unfortunately, he pulled out because of the situation with his friend (Nascimento). But Ruffy is a great fight too. Wrestler vs striker. I think the fans are going to love the fight and I’m excited as well.” - Arman Tsarukyan It’s a shame they’ve fucked about so long giving him the title shot. We’re unlikely to ever see that Makhachev rematch now unless Tsarukyan ever goes up to Welterweight. And I don’t think that’s a wise move. And then when Topuria was champ, him against Tsarukyan could’ve been a hell of a fight but they shoved Tsarukyan in with Hooker instead and did Gaethje vs Pimblett with the winner challenging Topuria. We saw how that went and now Gaethje unexpectedly has the belt. Ruffy’s the wildcard here, and in the Lightweight division in general really, but I can’t see this ending well for him myself. He just turned 30 and has a record of 14-2 with 13 knockouts. He’s a really exciting fighter to watch, always has some wacky strike to pull out of his bag of tricks and he’s looked really impressive when he’s been able to do his thing and let loose on the feet. His spinning wheel kick KO against King Green early last year was spectacular. But he did have that awful showing against Benoit Saint Denis last September, where he was schooled in the grappling and then submitted. It was the first time we got to see his grappling put to the test and, well, he flunked that test. Failed miserably. He actually left the Fighting Nerds camp after that loss and went to train with Alexander Volkanovski and his team in Australia. I’m always sceptical when a fighter just switches gyms after a loss because it feels like they’re blaming it all on the gym and not dealing with their actual shortcomings. But, to be fair, there are much worse places he could’ve picked to revamp his training than with Volk, one of the greatest of all time. And so far, since switching teams, he’s gone 2-0 with two knockouts over Rafael Fiziev in January and then Michael Chandler on the White House card in June. Not sure how much stock to put into it but there’s talk coming from his camp that Ruffy’s tightened up and made significant improvements in his ground game. Coach Joe Lopez claims Volk even struggles to keep Ruffy down in the gym now. Yeah, I’m not falling for it. No doubt training with Volk can’t do Ruffy’s grappling any harm and he will make progress there eventually if he consistently spends time on the mats with him on a regular basis. But I’m not having that he’s got that much better in less than a year and with just two training camps there. Feels like they’re putting that out there trying to convince everyone but both of his fights since switching gyms have ended on the feet. Until we actually see these supposed improvements in the cage, I’m not buying it. And either way, even if he has made big gains, it’s not gonna be enough to close the gap and catch up to where Tsarukyan’s grappling is at. “My opponent’s plan is the same every time I fight. To grab me and take me down. I’ve been working on this, putting myself out of my comfort zone. I go to the gym to try to get better and evolve. This fight is an opportunity to show myself, not anyone else or fans, how my dedication has helped me. I’m still learning this sport and I like what I’m seeing.” - Mauricio Ruffy Despite the scepticism I mentioned having about fighters gym-hopping after losses, it was clear as day after that Saint Denis loss that Ruffy had to change something and shake things up a bit. So credit to him for recognising that and doing what he needs to do. As for Tsarukyan, he was asked how he thought the fight would play out and he kept it short and to the point. “My prediction is a stoppage. It’s a five round fight so probably a round three stoppage. TKO. Elbows. Cut his face.” - Arman Tsarukyan Dana made sure he got right between them during the press conference face-off. Always a smart move where Tsarukyan’s concerned. Hopefully they beef up security for the fight week presser and weigh in face-offs as well. Because if they leave him to his own devices and let him get too close, one of these times, Tsarukyan is gonna do something stupid that gets a fight cancelled. It could’ve happened when he headbutted Hooker. That could’ve so easily opened up a cut or something and then the fight’s off and the show loses its main event (or in this case co-main). Let’s hope there’s none of that here. You’d think Tsarukyan wouldn’t risk it either. At this point he knows Dana isn’t a fan of him. Why give him reasons to be able to justify not giving you a title shot? Also, why fight for free when you have a paid fight coming up? He’s not wired right. If it all goes off without a hitch though, I just can’t see past Tsarukyan winning. Either by submission or a bloody ground and pound beat down. Ruffy’s coaches can talk about his improved grappling until the grass turns blue, I just don’t see how he stops Tsarukyan from taking him down. I’m hoping Ruffy can at least make a good fight of it but, even in a year when we’ve seen some mad upsets, I’d be surprised if Tsarukyan doesn’t win this fight decisively. Patricio Pitbull vs Doo Ho Choi should be an entertaining enough fight. Although with Pitbull, it really doesn’t look like there’s much fight in the old dog these days. When he finally made the jump to the UFC last year, he was already past his prime and I think everyone accepted it was too late for him to make a real impact in the Featherweight division. But I did kind of hope that he might still have some fun scraps in him. Like when Michael Chandler came over from Bellator, he was also clearly past his peak but, win or lose (and it was mostly lose), he still had some bangers in the UFC and stayed in the mix and somewhat relevant for years as a result. Pitbull just looks a bit knackered though. He’s 39 now, record of 37-9 with 24 finishes and he’s gone 1-2 in the UFC. We last saw him on the Miami card in April, losing a decision to Aaron Pico. Hopefully Choi ‘The Korean Superboy’ can drag one last bite out of the old Pitbull. Choi’s 35 himself, which is hard to believe because he looks like a school leaver. He’s 17-4-1 with 15 finishes and has always been an exciting fighter to watch. The highlight of his UFC run would have to be his losing effort against Cub Swanson in their FOTY contender back in December 2016 (Christ, that fight’s nearly a decade old?!). That was his best fight but he’s never dull. He’s coming into this fight on a three fight win streak with three knockouts against Bill Algeo, Nate Landwehr and Daniel Santos. The Santos fight last time was another belter. Gable Steveson vs Sean Sharaf. Here we go again. Another glorified squash match for Steveson. Understandable, I guess. He’s 26 years old and only 4-0 in MMA. No rush. I want them to rush him though. Ideally I’d like them to rush him straight into a KO loss. Bollocks to him. As promising as he looks, and as much as the Heavyweight division could do with him, I want him to fail and fuck off like he did with the WWE and NFL. Bloke’s a sex pest who’s only walking free due to a technicality and a loophole that got changed because of his case later. I wish nothing good for him. He made his UFC debut in July, fittingly on the undercard of fellow rapist Conor McGregor’s disastrous return. As expected, he put no hoper Elisha Ellison away in a round. It was a pure showcase but, even in the short time it lasted, I thought he was a bit sloppy and over-aggressive and Ellison landed more shots on him than you’d expect before getting chinned. Unless he tightens up big time, someone’s gonna clip him somewhere down the road and it’s gonna be beautiful to see. Until then, we have to endure him being fed these jobbers. And speaking of Sharaf, he’s 33 years old, 4-2 overall, he’s gone 0-2 so far in the UFC and was stopped both times. You know what this is. Alonzo Menifield vs Iwo Baraniewski is opening up the main card and is gonna be ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Totally get why they went with this to kick off the main card. Of all the fights on this show, this is probably the one that screams ‘first round knockout’ the most. Menifield hasn’t typically been a KO machine in the UFC. He had a few good ones early in his UFC stint but in more recent years he’s either been winning decisions or getting stopped himself. His last fight was a different story though. He fought Zhang Mingyang on the Macau card in May and they had a batshit one round slobberknocker. Menifield fought like a man possessed and battered Zhang to a TKO late in the round. I actually missed that whole card but made a point to go back to watch that fight later after reading about it. Genuinely one of the best one rounders of the year. Poland’s Baraniewski is very much a finisher. He’s undefeated at 9-0, all finishes, all in the first round, 7 by KO/TKO. He’s 3-0 in the UFC so far with knockouts over Ibo Aslan, Austen Lane and Junior Tafa. Alright, absolute ham and eggs level of opposition but old Barry-ski treated them as such. He smashed all of them in 90 seconds or less. Marlon Vera vs Charles Jourdain could be good. I’m just not sure Chito gives a shite anymore. The knock on him has always been that he’s a ridiculously slow starter and lets big chunks of rounds slip by. It’s frustrating because, when he does go on the offence, he’s fun to watch. But it’s been an issue in a bunch of his fights and he actually seems to be getting worse for it in his more recent fights. He’s 23-12-1 with 18 finishes. He had that hot streak a few years ago where he beat Frankie Edgar, Rob Font and Dominick Cruz in consecutive fights but his form has dropped off a cliff at this point and he’s coming into this fight off the back of four straight losses. We last saw him on the Mexico City card in February, dropping a decision to David Martinez. He’s still only 33, it’s not like he’s ancient. But it’s hard to see a way out of this slump now. Especially because he seems so disinterested and like he’s just going through the motions. Jourdain’s a few years younger at 30 and has a record of 18-8-1 with 15 finishes. Hasn’t been the most consistent fighter over the years but he’s usually pretty entertaining to watch. And to be fair, he’s won his last three in a row against Victor Henry, Davey Grant and Kyler Phillips and got POTN or FOTN bonuses for all three. Form-wise, it feels like the timing is right for him to beat Chito. Desperate times for Chito now. If he loses a fifth fight in a row here it might be time to consider a career change. He doesn’t seem to even wanna be in there at times anymore. Tai Tuivasa vs Robelis Despaigne is on. Not a clue what to make of this. For one, I can’t believe they’ve given Tuivasa another fight. His record stands at 14-10 now and he’s coming into this fight off, count ‘em, SEVEN straight losses. Seven. At the start of the slump he was losing to the likes of Gane, Pavlovich, Volkov etc. As the losing streak’s gone on though, the opposition has got weaker, they’ve scaled back the level of his opponents, he still can’t get a win and he’s looking awful every time. He lost to Louie Sutherland by decision last time, on the Perth card in May, and it was one of the worst fights so far this year. Sutherland has fought four times in the UFC and the only one he was able to beat was Tuivasa. That says a lot about how arse Big Tai is these days. Yet here we are again. And he’s welcoming Despaigne back to the Octagon. That’s the last image we saw of Despaigne. It took him about three minutes to bulldoze poor old Junior Dos Santos on the Rousey vs Carano show on Netflix back in May. Sad to watch as a fan of JDS but that’s the game. Despaigne turns 38 just before this fight and he’s 6-2 in MMA with all his wins coming by first round knockout. He’s a one trick pony and his previous UFC stint didn’t pan out. He went 1-2 the first time around and was swiftly let go after a points loss to useless Austen Lane. We’ve seen no evidence that he’s any better now than he was then but, as one dimensional as he is, he’s a knockout artist and the Heavyweight division can always do with more of them. Seriously, there was a four fight stretch early in his career where he knocked out all four opponents and the longest fight in that four was just 18 seconds. He had a 3 second KO followed by a 4 second KO at one point. No matter what the level of opposition, that’s insane. He also went 7-0 with 6 knockouts in Karate Combat after the UFC binned him, whatever that’s worth, and 5 of them were also in the first round. If he makes short work of Tuivasa here, they’re surely gonna cut Tai loose this time. I don’t know why they’ve kept him around this long. Michael Aswell Jr vs Joo Sang Yoo is alright. Aswell’s 25 years old and has a record of 11-5 with 6 by KO/TKO. He’s gone 1-3 in the UFC so far, not great. But he kind of got thrown to the wolves against Bolaji Oki and Luke Riley. He had a cracking fight against Gaston Bolanos last time out in June. Again though, a loss. He badly needs to stop the rot here. South Korea’s Joo Sang Yoo is 32 years old and 9-1 with 5 finishes. He got off to a solid start in the UFC, faceplant KOing Jeka Saragih with a vicious left hook in just 28 seconds in his debut. He got stopped by Daniel Santos in his last fight in October though. Fun fight but from what I remember Yoo kind of threw it away by showboating and taunting, and Santos made him pay. Hopefully he learned a lesson there. Ryan Gandra vs Ozzy Diaz should be a knockover job for Gandra. He’s Brazilian, 31 years old and 10-1 with 8 finishes. Not sure how good he actually is but he’s been ironing out guys at Diaz’s level without much bother so far. He scored a first round knockout on DWCS last August. Then he made his UFC debut on the Mexico City card in February and disposed of Jose Medina in just 41 seconds. Then in his last fight on the Holloway vs McGregor undercard in July… Sparked Zach Reese with a peach of a left hook in just over a minute. We haven’t seen enough of him to base much of an opinion on his overall game but he’s not needed a well rounded approach for these lads. And Diaz is shite from what I’ve seen. He’s 35 years old, 10-4 overall and 1-2 in the UFC. He just got bashed up by Ateba Gautier in May. Gandra shouldn’t have much hassle here. Reese is better than Diaz so this is actually a bit of a step backwards for Gandra if anything. Edmen Shahbazyan vs Brunno Ferreira is OK. Can’t say I’m that arsed one way or the other but it’s perfectly fine prelim filler. Both have had their moments. Shahbazyan is still only 28, I always forget how young he was when he first came into the UFC as an unbeaten Ronda Rousey protege. He was knocking guys out left and right initially but the hype train came right off the tracks in 2020/21 when he lost three in a row to Brunson, Hermansson and Imavov. He’s never been quite the same since. He did manage a three fight win streak last year but then that got derailed when he dropped a decision against Brendan Allen in June. Ferreira’s 33 years old and 15-4 with 14 finishes. He’s a heavy hitter but there’s not a whole lot else to his game. He’s got some decent wins over Gregory Rodrigues and Marvin Vettori but he’s coming into this fight having lost back-to-back fights. Casey O’Neill vs Eduarda Moura is whatever. O’Neill is a Scottish born Aussie, 28 years old and has a record of 11-2 with 6 finishes. There was a time when I thought she might have some potential but then she scraped a split decision against Roxanne Modafferi and suffered back-to-back losses to Jennifer Maia and Ariane Lipski. She bounced back with a forgettable points win over Luana Santos in 2024 and then disappeared until March this year. She surprised me a bit in her return, swarming Gabriella Fernandes for the first round knockout. Still not expecting her to go any higher than she is but, coming off a layoff, I thought she’d lose that Fernandes fight so fair play. Brazil’s Moura is 32 years old and 12-2 with 9 finishes. She lost a decision to Wang Cong back in February. Can’t remember much about her really other than the fact she’s a serial weight misser. She missed the Strawweight limit two fights in a row back in 2023/24, moved up to Flyweight, won a couple of fights and then still missed weight at Flyweight for the Cong fight last time out. So three weight misses in five fights! Inexcusable. If she does it again here, they should sack her off. Giga Chikadze vs Joanderson Brito is kicking off the night apparently. It’s hard to believe Chikadze was once being talked about as a potential title contender at Featherweight and now here he is jerking the curtain. He was on quite a little streak at one point and started calling out all the top names at 145. Then he took a bad beating from Calvin Kattar (another guy who looked legit then fizzled out) in 2022 and he’s never been the same since. He’s gone 1-4 in his last 5, has lost his last three fights and got knocked out by Kevin Vallejos in his last fight in December. Brito’s 31 and 19-5-1 with 16 inside the distance. He’s looked a handful at times, lacklustre at others. He’s coming off a couple of wins here though and just subbed Jordan Leavitt in June with a first round ninja choke. Summer’s over.

Well this was quite a show. The Wand family household hasn’t witnessed this level of chaos on a Saturday morning since my daughter somehow flooded the bathroom a few months ago. Crazy scenes in the main event. I don’t think I saw one person predict or make a serious case for a Song Yadong win going into this one. I certainly didn’t see it coming. After all my talk in the opening post of him never living up to his potential or the early hype, fair fucking play to him. Massive win and quite an upset. For it to happen in China just made it all the more dramatic. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a reaction as loud as this from a Chinese crowd as they were when Song put Umar out. They were going mental for ages after the fight was over. Obviously they wanted him to win but, like almost everyone, they’d probably already resigned themselves to the idea that he was most likely losing. Him pulling off the win, and especially the way he did it, was nuts. Nothing even against Umar but this is surely going down as one of the best moments of the year. Incredible stuff. Thought Song fought well in general as well. I don’t believe in flukes in MMA anyway but this definitely wasn’t one. I felt like Umar probably nicked the first round but Song was always in it and holding his own. Then in the second, that right around the ear/neck just done Umar in completely. Madness. Already seen calls for Song to get a title shot. I honestly don’t think it’d be outrageous after a win like this but I feel like they’re gonna give it to O’Malley. And O’Malley does have that win over Song back in January which makes Song’s case a bit more difficult to argue. Although, if Merab beats Yan in October and gets the belt back, maybe Song gets the shot because I can’t see them doing Merab vs O’Malley 3, and nor should they really. We’ll see. Song might be out a while anyway now with that gash above his eye. But yeah, hell of a win for Song this was. The way it went down, the fact he was widely expected to lose and with it being in China, it’s gonna go down as one of, if not the career highlight for Song when it’s all said and done. Had no expectations or anticipation for the co-main but, Jesus Christ, Denise Gomes crushed Yan Xiaonan in brutal fashion inside a round. I do love a standing elbow and that one was a beauty. Think I did mention that Gomes is more heavy handed than your average Strawweight but I didn’t really expect her to just blow a veteran and former title challenger like Yan out of the water in a round like this. Yan is late 30s now and was coming off a year plus layoff, so you’ve gotta take that into consideration and kind of put it in perspective. But still, this was an impressive performance from Gomes. Easily her best win to date and she’s still only 26. Nice to see Kai Asakura get another win and another finish, just a shame it came at the expense of Aoriqileng who I’ve had a soft spot for ever since his UFC debut years ago. Nasty finish from Asakura this was. The noise the headkick made was like a baseball bat whacking a ball and you could see the sweat fly off Aoriqileng’s head. It’s a testament to his toughness that he never went down immediately from that one. Then Asakura’s finishing knees to the body on the ground were horrible. Good stuff from Asakura here. Still not confident he can get over the hurdle when he faces guys who wanna grapple more but that’s two wins in a row now and two finishes. Considering he went 0-2 initially in the UFC, at least he’s back on track for now and avoided becoming the Japanese Patchy Mix. Sumudaerji vs Perez 2 didn’t grab me. Didn’t look like a terrible fight but it was the only one on the main card that didn’t hold my attention. At least they never had any controversy or fight ending fouls this time though, they settled their business and now they can move on. Thoroughly enjoyed Liu Ce’s debut. Wasn’t pretty but it was exciting as fuck for the less than five minutes it lasted. Just a wild shootout. It was clear Levi Rodrigues was outgunned in the striking but he was game to be fair. Liu Ce wasn’t gonna stop until he put that boy to bed though. Gnarly finish. Rodrigues fell like a sack of shite. Looked like he had no bones in his body. Liu Ce is gonna be must see viewing for me from now on. I understand the opposition wasn’t great here. I’m fully aware of that and I’m not expecting Liu to be able to have success fighting like this against everyone. But at the same time, the Light Heavyweight division is pure shite these days. We need guys like this. Even if they ultimately amount to nothing and don’t make even the slightest dent in the rankings, 205 needs exciting fighters badly. I’ll be tuning in for this fucker’s fights every time if this was typical of his style. It’s a way off but imagine him potentially fighting a Rountree or Jiri somewhere down the road? Loved the Bilal Hasan debut. Exactly what you want if the idea was to showcase him. I know the guy he fought on DWCS was supposed to be woefully outmatched but, to be fair, his opponent here Rojas was undefeated at 9-0 just like Hasan. And Hasan still slept him. 🤣 Not sure how much of a shelf life the whole Michael Jackson gimmick is gonna have for him. He’s obviously new so it hasn’t got old yet. And it felt kind of fitting here with this show actually being on MJ’s birthday. But if he’s gonna do this every time, I dunno, I can see it wearing thin eventually. I liked him here though. He seems like he’s one of those action fighters where you can pretty much throw him in with anyone and you’re probably getting something at least decent to watch out of it. Still plenty of questions for him to answer and tests for him to pass but, as a first impression, I liked what I saw here. Prelims had their moments too. Rei Tsuruya just pissed straight through Kevin Borjas. Kind of expected it because Tsuruya’s a really strong grappler and, as much as I’ve enjoyed watching Borjas at times, he’s not that good. A Tsuruya steamrolling was always kind of on the cards here but I was a bit disappointed Borjas got squashed as easily as he did. Tsuruya looks like he could still make some noise in the Flyweight ranks. Still only 24 and his only loss is to current champ Van. Oh and Julia Polastri pulled off a legit Knockout Of The Year contender in the early prelims… Absolutely wiped Xiong Jingnan the fuck out. Proper throwback but it reminded me of Pete Williams vs Mark Coleman way back in the early days. Poor Jingnan. It’s just not working out for her in the UFC at all. Shame she never got out of her ONE contract a few years earlier. At 38 she’s definitely made the jump too late. Yeah cracking show that. The China shows usually come and go with little of note happening and not many talking points. This might’ve been the best one they’ve had there for me though.

Ah man congratulations to you both.

And even if there was something up with his leg like Warren claims, it was probably caused by him getting sloppy and out of position due to his conditioning. Not great but I’m already seeing people talk like he’s on the scrapheap. He’s 21 for fuck’s sake. He can come back from this. No guarantees he will but he can if he does the right things. A lot of Boxing fans seem obsessed with completely writing fighters off after their first setback. Conditioning can be worked on. He clearly had the heart and the desire to keep fighting, which is a good sign, but his body just wasn’t gonna hold up and he never had the gas in the tank. I’m not with the doom and gloom mentality of writing an obituary on the lad’s career at twenty bastard one years old. The ball’s in his court now how he responds to this loss. Time will tell. Fortunately for him, time is something he has.

Anyway, sod all that. Dubois random “gimme some of that face to face shit boy” to Wardley tickled me more than it should. I love his weirdness.

Yeah I’m not saying it was Ali vs Frazier 3 or anything. I enjoyed it though and Hrgovic weathering the early storm and coming through with the win was good drama.

Some fight that was though. Hrgovic’s toughness dragged him through that somehow. Itauma looked great early and was winning the rounds but Hrgovic soaked up everything he throw at him and outlasted him. Not sure exactly what happened with Itauma. Was it just exhaustion? I felt like Hrgovic might’ve hurt him to the body the way he was wincing through that last round. Shame to see him lose but he went out on his shield there. He was trying even when his body was failing him and you can’t teach that. At 21, he obviously has time on his side but he’s got some work to do.

Hopefully this’ll be a lesson to all promoters and potential opponents to just not even bother entertaining the idea of doing business with the scruffy little scrotum. No doubt some idiot will book him again and we’ll go through this same old rigmarole again in six months time. But anyone with functioning brain cells isn’t gonna waste their time. It’s not like he even generates a ton of interest or hype either is it? Genuinely baffles me why promoters keep giving him the time of day, or why fighters ever sign on to fight him. You’re asking for this shite. Can’t say I feel bad for Perry for that very reason. You have to know when you sign the contract that there’s about a 90% chance the twat pulls out.

This is already underway but sod it 🤣

Back with our yearly September Mexican themed event that’s never actually in Mexico. Glendale, Arizona hosts this one… PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD Jean Silva vs Jose Delgado Brandon Moreno vs Joseph Morales Tommy McMillen vs Marwan Rahiki Manon Fiorot vs Alexa Grasso Waldo Cortes Acosta vs Curtis Blaydes David Martinez vs Dan Ige PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Tim Elliott vs Edgar Chairez Ignacio Bahamondes vs Muslim Salikhov Yousri Belgaroui vs Djorden Santos Drakkar Klose vs Tommy Gantt Rafa Garcia vs Rongzhu Jessie Rosas vs Sean King JJ Aldrich vs Regina Tarin Is it just me or is this one of the best looking Fight Night cards we’ve had in a while? Maybe not names-wise, although I don’t think it’s bad in that sense either, but just in terms of fights that look like they have a high chance of delivering something exciting, this looks pretty fucking sweet to me. I’m interested in every fight on the main card to some degree. Can’t even remember the last time I could say that about a non numbered event. And even some of the prelims look tasty. I’ve completely lost track lately of fight announcements and didn’t expect much at all when I looked this card up to do this thread. Pleasantly surprised. Jean Silva vs Jose Delgado is our main event. Wasn’t the original plan. This was supposed to be Silva against Yair Rodriguez. The fight only got announced in early August and within just a few weeks it was off. Really frustrating but it comes as no surprise with Yair at this point. The bloke’s spent a big chunk of his career dropping out of fights. Delgado isn’t ideal as a replacement from a name perspective. He’s still relatively new in the UFC and definitely hasn’t established himself as any kind of card headliner. But he’s an exciting fighter and, as far as actual fight quality goes, I genuinely think this could be just as good as the Yair fight would’ve been. If not better. It’s a huge opportunity for Delgado as well. He’s only just about in the media rankings in the #15 spot and he’s not in the meta rankings at all. Silva’s at #6 on both. So if Delgado can come in and pull off the win here, it’ll be massive for him. He’s gotta get past this maniac first though… Brazil’s Jean Silva’s been one of the best additions to the roster for me over the last few years. Easily one of the most entertaining fighters to ever come off DWCS. He’s 29 years old with a record of 17-3 and 15 of his wins not making it to the scorecards. He beat Kevin Vallejos on points on DWCS back in 2023, which is a fight I really need to go back and watch. Then he went 5-0, all finishes, in his first five UFC fights. With notable wins over Charles Jourdain, Drew Dober and a ninja choke submission over Bryce Mitchell. He had his first setback in the UFC on last year’s Noche card, a second round stoppage loss against Diego Lopes. But it was a batshit fun fight, a real back and forth dogfight and Silva came close to putting Diego to bed before getting a bit too over-aggressive and running into a spinning elbow. It was a wild one. One of my favourite fights of 2025. But a loss for Silva all the same. He rebounded at UFC 324 in January with a points win over Arnold Allen in another very enjoyable fight. This cracked me up. Who the fuck does that in a fight? I really liked that fight. Allen’s a weirdo in his own right but a different kind of weirdo. He was doing some odd shite at the weigh in face-off, apparently ‘casting a spell’ on Silva. Neither of them are the full ticket. But on the night, Silva came through with the win. Shame he never got to fight Yair here really. Would’ve probably been a good time to catch him coming off a layoff and it’d be a decent name to put on Mean Jean’s record. Oh well. Like I say, Delgado is the type who’s gonna bring it so I don’t think we actually lose anything in terms of the fight itself. Yeah, Delgado’s stepping in on short notice here. He’s American born, from Arizona, but obviously of Mexican descent. He’s 28 years old and he’s 12-2 with 10 coming inside the distance. He came into the UFC on a five fight winning streak in early 2025 and quickly rattled off a couple of first round knockouts over Connor Matthews and Hyder Amil. The Amil win was particularly impressive because Amil was undefeated going in, was starting to get some hype and Delgado just wrecked him in 26 seconds. That win turned some heads and it’s definitely when I really started to take notice of him. But then he fought Nathaniel Wood in October, missed weight and then lost on points. If I remember right, I actually had Delgado edging that decision but it was a close, competitive one and it was a bit of a banger as I recall. Delgado has since won a couple of decisions over Andre Fili and Austin Bashi. Again, both fun fights. The jury’s still out really. He had a hot start in the UFC but, despite always being in entertaining fights, him going tooth and nail with an older Fili and a so-so Bashi makes me question how far he can go. But who knows? Maybe he’s one of those fighters who rises to the occasion when the pressure is on. Either way, I think we’re in for some chaos here. Very much looking forward to this one. Like I said, I’m not sure where Delgado’s ceiling is and this is undoubtedly his toughest test yet on paper. But at the same time, Silva’s not without flaws himself and he’s the type of fighter who will happily put himself in harm’s way to make something happen. I have to favour Silva. He’s fought better opposition and he’s beat better opposition. But when you get two fighters like this who just love a scrap, crazy things can happen in there and I wouldn’t completely count Delgado out. He’s a live underdog for me. Should be a cracker though regardless. Just feels like one of those pairings that can’t miss. It’s a matchup that’s probably gonna get criticised on social media because Delgado has been chucked into the headline spot earlier than anyone expected but sod it. The circumstances with ‘Sick Note’ Yair dropping out forced their hand and I’m not gonna moan about Delgado getting the call. It’s a fan friendly fight and if Delgado was gonna get an unlikely opportunity like this, I guess it makes sense to do it on the Noche card. Brandon Moreno vs Joseph Morales isn’t the best co-main but I don’t hate it. Moreno still has some name value on the Mexico and Mexico themed cards. Although I think it is dwindling at this point. He’s still only 32 but Christ he’s had a tough shift. We’re a long way removed from his peak of 2019-23ish when he won the title and had that four fight series with Figgy. I’ll always have a soft spot for Moreno. Seems a good egg and his first fight with Figgy is still probably the greatest Flyweight fight ever, in my opinion. But he’s 23-10-2 now, has lost four of his last six fights and he’s coming into this one off back-to-back losses to Tatsuro Taira and Lone’er Kavanagh. Kind of tells the story itself that. The younger generation of Flyweights are taking over and, as great as Moreno was for a period, he’s being left behind now. Taira stopped him, Kavanagh beat him soundly over five rounds and looked about three times faster than him. Even though he’s also managed some decent wins over the last few years, he just hasn’t looked right to me since that Figgy series ended. Morales is the same age as Moreno but with much less miles on the clock. He’s 14-2 with 10 finishes, won TUF last summer and subbed Matt Schnell in a round in his last fight in November. Can’t say I’m massively familiar with him, think I saw the Schnell fight and that’s it. But this is one of those fights where it’s both a step down on paper for the veteran but also kind of feels like a bit of ‘out with the old, in with the new’ matchmaking. Not sure how good Morales actually is but if Moreno loses again here, against a guy hardly anyone knows, it’s really not looking good for him. Tommy McMillen vs Marwan Rahiki. I had no idea this fight was booked until looking up the card to do this thread. Easy choice as ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** for me this. I’ve seen a bit of complaining that they’re throwing two young, undefeated prospects against each other so early, rather than building both up. I do get that criticism to an extent, of course, but at this point I just wanna see fun fights. I don’t trust the UFC to ‘build guys up’ anyway these days and it rarely works out even with the best intentions. Fuck it. I’m in. McMillen is 28 years old, he’s a teammate and protege of Sean O’Malley and he’s 11-0 with 10 finishes. He got a points win on DWCS last September and has gone 2-0 in the UFC so far this year. Made his debut on an Apex card in April, stopping ham and egger Manolo Zecchini in a round. Then on the Oklahoma City card in July, he put Alberto Montes away with a third round TKO. Both really fun fights. I’ve said a few times that I don’t really like when the UFC start trying to force the ‘this guy’s a superstar’ narrative and there’s definitely been some of that with McMillen. Bisping in particular has been a bit OTT with it. There are certain fighters that come into the UFC and you can just tell they’re one of the gaffer’s favourites. And whenever it happens, it feels like the commentators are almost reading from a script in their fights and have been told to give it the old hard sell. It’s annoying. But it’s not McMillen’s fault and, to be fair, if he keeps delivering wild scraps like his first two then he’ll get a following anyway without the need to manufacture anything. There’s definitely holes in his game though. He’s very hittable, for one. It’s part of what makes his fights exciting but it does feel like it’s gonna blow up in his face at some point. ‘Freaky’ Rahiki is Moroccan but fights out of Australia. He’s 24 years old and 9-0 with a 100% finish rate. He got a TKO finish on DWCS last October which got him in the door. He made his first Octagon appearance at the Apex in March and beat the absolute dogshit out of Harry Hardwick, breaking his jaw in the process and forcing the doctor to stop the fight between rounds. He was supposed to fight Jack Jenkins on the Perth card in May but Jenkins dropped out and Rahiki ended up facing last minute replacement Ollie Schmid instead. Not ideal and we’ve seen late replacements can be risky but Rahiki casually smashed him inside the first round. Schmid was clearly outmatched and can’t have been fully prepared but Rahiki handled him how any legit prospect should. Yeah, this should be a lively one. Someone’s gonna taste defeat for the first time, which will be a shame really that one of them’s gonna get derailed so early. I do get some of the negative response to this choice of matchmaking. But there’s so much dead content now from the UFC and so many lacklustre cards, so much shite on the roster, I can’t be arsed with the ‘save fights for later’ mentality. Give me good fights now. And these two are young enough where a loss at this stage won’t be the end of the world. Manon Fiorot vs Alexa Grasso. Ah man, as a fan of Grasso, I don’t really like this for her. I get why the fight has been made. They’re #2 and #3 in the Flyweight rankings. Fiorot challenged for the title last year, Grasso was actually champion not too long ago. Both are coming off a stoppage win after losses. It’s perfectly logical matchmaking. But my gut feeling is that Fiorot is all wrong for Grasso. Fiorot’s 36 now, so a bit long in the tooth, but I still feel like she can be a force at 125. Not the most exciting fighter to watch but she’s big for the weight class, strong and physical. She’s 13-2 and was on a 7 fight streak including wins over Rose Namajunas and Erin Blanchfield before being outclassed by Valentina Shevchenko in their title fight last year. Fiorot bounced back in style though, knocking out Jasmine Jasudavicius in just over a minute on the Vancouver card back in October. Fiorot had become a bit of a decision machine in the UFC so I wasn’t expecting her to just steamroll Jasudavicius like that. As for Grasso, she’s coming in fresh off one of the craziest finishes you’ll ever see… That’s what she did to Maycee Barber in their rematch on the Seattle card in March. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a finishing sequence to a fight quite like that. Barber was basically already out from the punch but Grasso was on the choke so fast I don’t think she even realised it. Grasso sunk the choke in, the fight got stopped, then it got really weird and uncomfortable. After briefly trying to grapple the referee in her zombie state, Barber then rolled to her back and just lay there with her eyes popping out of her head for what felt like 10 minutes but was probably actually only about 30 seconds. Still, it was barmy. Haven’t seen or heard anything from Barber since and, given her health issues in the past, hopefully she’s alright. All that said, it was a win Grasso badly needed. After she shocked the world by taking the title off Shevchenko in 2023, it all went a bit wonky for her for a while there. She had a draw and a one sided loss to Shev in their second and third fights and then lost clearly against Natalia Silva. That Barber win, and especially how decisive and impactful it was, couldn’t have came at a more urgent time. I remember seeing all sorts of talk about Grasso being “back” after that win and stuff about her challenging for the belt again. Kind of understandable that fans get carried away after a finish like that but I’m not convinced. As much as I like Grasso, I’m not sure that win translates to her problems being behind her now. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of her fighting Shevchenko a fourth time at some point. They are tied at 1-1-1 in their trilogy. But I’m not convinced she gets there. Got a bad feeling Fiorot puts her back in the loss column here sadly. Waldo Cortes Acosta vs Curtis Blaydes isn’t doing much for me really but as Heavyweight fights go I don’t hate it. We’ve had much worse. Still reckon this has high stinker potential but I’ll give it a chance. I still don’t particularly rate Waldo all that highly. I get that he had that little win streak at the back end of last year and he was active. Cool. It just wasn’t enough for me to forget the series of absolutely awful fights he had early in his UFC run. Also got pretty sick of fans jumping on the bandwagon and suddenly talking like Waldo was some killer and future champ based off wins over Ante Delija, Shamil Gaziev and a completely checked out Derrick Lewis. Conveniently forgetting that just last August, Waldo lost a plodding decision against Sergei Pavlovich and looked like shit in the process. He’s far from the worst Heavyweight on the roster but he’s definitely no world beater either. Thankfully, Alexander Volkov reminded everyone of that when he beat Waldo in another dud in May. Blaydes is coming in off that brutal war with Josh Hokit on the Miami card in April. I’m not on board with the talk that it was “THE greatest Heavyweight fight ever” and all that bollocks. A lot of MMA fans either have short memories or they just make statements like that without doing their homework. Just parroting whatever Rogan’s latest take is. But it was a stupidly entertaining fight, I can’t deny it. Definitely one of the best Heavyweight fights we’ve seen in years. Blaydes lost though and, while he didn’t get finished, he took a lot of punishment in that 15 minutes. And at 35 and after nearly 30 fights, including being on the bad end of some devastating knockouts, you wonder what Blaydes even has left. I’d love to see him win this fight. Blaydes seems like one of the few genuinely good guys left on the roster. But he was already inconsistent and not in the best form going into that Hokit fight, he’d already been knocked out a few times, having a slobberknocker like that at this stage in his career was the last thing he needed and I suspect it might’ve just sapped whatever he had left. David Martinez vs Dan Ige opens up the main card. Solid fight. Can’t really go far wrong with the Bantamweights. Martinez is Mexican born and trained, 28 years old and 14-1 with 10 knockouts. He’s currently riding a 10 fight streak and has been quietly sneaking up the rankings. He’s either #7 or #8 now depending on which rankings you’re looking at and he’s taken decisions off Rob Font and Chito Vera in his last two fights. Martinez looks decent but there’s been little to no fanfare around him even with those Font and Chito wins. I remember the Chito fight last time was pretty frustrating to watch with Chito doing his usual can’t be arsed, taking big chunks of rounds off bit. And Martinez wasn’t forced to do anything so just coasted to a points win. I’m hoping Ige can make more of a fight of it and he really needs to but I’m not convinced. He just turned 35, he’s 19-11 and he’s gone 2-5 in his last 7. He’s had some good wins over the years over Edson Barboza, Nate Landwehr and Andre Fili. But he’s struggling now. We last saw him getting stopped by the spinning back kick of Melquizael Costa on the Houston card in February. He desperately needs to make something happen. He’s dropping to 135 for the first time here as well, at 35, which definitely feels like a desperation move. Desperate Dan. It’s pretty clear the matchmakers are looking at him as a stepping stone for Martinez here. Tim Elliott vs Edgar Chairez. I like this. Neither are really going anywhere in the Flyweight division and Elliott especially is surely on borrowed time now as a 39 year old Flyweight. He turns 40 in December. He’s 21-14-1 but he’s certainly had his moments over the years and when he’s ’on’ he can be a tough night’s work for a lot of guys. He won TUF with the prize being a title shot and actually gave Demetrious Johnson a decent fight back in 2016. And even as recently as last year, he scored back-to-back submissions over Sumudaerji and Kai Asakura. Mexico’s Chairez is the much younger man at 30 and he’s 14-6-0-1 with all but one of his wins ending inside the distance. He’s pretty consistently entertaining to watch and his only UFC losses have been his debut against Tatsuro Taira and Joshua Van on the Sphere card. He’s coming into this fight off three straight wins and just subbed Bruno Silva in a round last time out. Ignacio Bahamondes vs Muslim Salikhov is another potential banger. A fight with no stakes whatsoever but it’s perfect prelim filler. Bahamondes is from Chile, 29 years old and has a record of 17-7 with 13 finishes. Never gonna be a contender in the UFC but he’s definitely capable of some fantastic fights at the right level. He was on a nice little three fight streak not too long ago with consecutive finishes of Christos Giagos, Manuel Torres and Jalin Turner but he’s hit a wall recently and dropped decisions to Rafael Fiziev and Tofiq Musayev in his last two fights. The Musayev fight last time was an absolute bloodbath as well. Really good fight. Russia’s Salikhov can’t have many fights left. He’s 42 years old now, 22-6 and, if his Wikipedia page is accurate, also has 199 Kickboxing fights under his belt! He’s still been getting it done in the UFC to a certain level and had back-to-back awesome KO wins in 2024/25. A spinning wheel kick finish against Song Kenan and then a vicious one punch kill shot against Carlos Leal last July. He got chinned himself in just over a minute by Uros Medic in his last fight though. Yousri Belgaroui vs Djorden Santos will be worth a look. This was scheduled to be Kelvin Gastelum against Belgaroui originally but Gastelum called in sick a few weeks out. Belgaroui has been a pleasant surprise to me. He’s quickly become one of my favourite new faces in the UFC since his debut late last year. He’s Dutch, 34 years old and 10-3 with 8 knockouts. Also had a 30 plus fight Kickboxing career and fought both Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira in that game. He lost 1-2 in a trilogy against Pereira. Made the switch to MMA in 2021 and now trains with Pereira and Glover Teixeira. He’s already becoming a bit of a spoiler and hype train derailer in the UFC. His debut in October was against Azamat Bekoev, who had a bit of buzz about him going in. Belgaroui stopped him. Then Mansur Abdul-Malik, who was undefeated when Belgaroui faced him in March and was being hyped by the commentators to the point you could tell they expected him to win. Didn’t go to plan. Belgaroui was having none of it. Not sure what his level is but it was an encouraging performance. The fear with Kickboxers making the transition to MMA is naturally always how are they gonna deal with grappling. But Belgaroui showed some pretty decent takedown defence against Malik. Not enough for me to think he’s got that completely covered but it was enough to show he’s definitely been putting the graft in to close that gap. I like him so far. Santos stepped in replacing Gastelum. He’s 29 years old and 11-3 with 7 finishes. He’s gone 1-2 in the UFC and he’s clearly outgunned on paper here. But from what I’ve seen he’s a tough guy. He’d never been finished before Baisangur Susurkaev got him with the late sub last time out. Before that he won a bit of a dogfight against Danny Barlow that pretty much nobody seemed to see. He’s a scrapper. Although I feel like his willingness to scrap is gonna be his downfall here. Drakkar Klose vs Tommy Gantt. Not much of an opinion on this. Nothing negative to say but it doesn’t really move me either. Klose is 38 years old now, 16-3-1 and coming off a decision win over a shot to bits Edson Barboza on the DDP vs Khamzat undercard last August. He got stopped by Joel Alvarez before that and was on a little four fight win streak before that. A year layoff at 38 though? Seems like he’s winding down. Gantt is 33 and undefeated at 12-0 with 11 finishes. He made his UFC debut at the Apex in May, putting Artur Minev away with ground and pound in the second round. I don’t think I saw that actually. That was the card that was the same night as Rousey vs Carano on Netflix so I literally just skimmed through that one. Doesn’t seem right to call a 33 year old a ‘prospect’ but I’m kind of intrigued. Rafa Garcia vs Rongzhu is another fight that could be a sleeper. Garcia’s 32 years old, 18-4 with 10 finishes and on a three fight winning streak beating Vinc Pichel, Jared Gordon and Alexander Hernandez. I can’t remember the Hernandez one but that Gordon fight was a bit of an unexpected gem. Two tough veterans just throwing down until Garcia found the late finish. And Rongzhu has been making a bit of a habit of putting on belters that no-one sees on the prelims. He’s 26 years old, 28-6 with 22 finishes and has won his last three fights. The Kody Steele and Austin Hubbard fights were real hidden gems, especially the Steele fight, and then he walloped Victor Martinez in just over a minute in his last fight in May. If you haven’t watched him before, give Wrong Shoe a chance. Jessie Rosas vs Sean King got added to the card just a week out from show time and both are making their UFC debuts. Rosas is the older brother of Raul Rosas Jr. He’s 23 years old and 8-1 with 6 finishes. He actually won his last fight by fifth round submission back in June. He was briefly scheduled to debut at the Apex in August but pulled out and was surprisingly released by the UFC outright, which is a bit odd. Of course, within a matter of just weeks, now they need Mexicans for this card and he’s back. The UFC in 2026 for you. King’s 22 years old with a perfect record of 6-0 and 4 finishes. Not a lot else out there on him. JJ Aldrich vs Regina Tarin kicks off the prelim stream. Neither here nor there on this really but Tarin might have some potential. She’s still only 21 so plenty of time and she’s undefeated at 8-0 with 6 finishes. She made her UFC debut on the Mexico City card in February and beat Ernesta Kareckaite on points in a bit of a sloppy but very entertaining fight. I saw Tarin get some criticism after the fight but it’s worth remembering she stepped in on stupidly short notice for that one, think it was literally a matter of a few days. So that wasn’t exactly her at her best. Interested to see how she does with a full training camp here. Aldrich turns 34 just after this fight, she’s 15-7 and coming off a couple of decision wins over Andrea Lee and Jamey-Lyn Horth. She’s actually been on the UFC roster since 2016. Ten bastard years. Yet I can’t remember shit about her and I must’ve seen a bunch of her fights over the last decade. Hopefully Tarin shines here. The women’s game badly needs new blood. Viva Mexic…Glendale, Arizona.

Didn’t expect this kind of argey bargey out of this fight 🤣

Why anyone even bothers to book Danis anymore I don’t know. And who’s buying tickets? He rarely ever actually shows up. Just talks a load of shite, books a fight, pulls out just before the fight, rinse and repeat. And even if he does show up who cares?

It’s early September so you know what that means. Back to Paris we go… PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD Dan Hooker vs Salahdine Parnasse Fares Ziam vs Axel Sola Michael Venom Page vs Nursulton Ruziboev Punahele Soriano vs Daniil Donchenko Kurtis Campbell vs Trevor Peek Losene Keita vs Muhammad Naimov PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Morgan Charriere vs Felipe Lima Mario Pinto vs Ryan Spann Oumar Sy vs Modestas Bukauskas Nathaniel Wood vs Pavel Andrusca Fabia Sintes vs Michael Aljarouj Nora Cornolle vs Klaudia Sygula Luis Felipe Dias vs Matthieu Duclos Delphine Benouaich vs Sofia Montenegro Fair bit of no name filler lower down the card but there’s just about enough on this one to hold my interest. I love the main event and I’m looking forward to finally seeing Parnasse in the UFC. Couple of other fights that look like they could be fun and I’m hoping for much better performances from Pinto and Keita after their disappointing showings last time. Only thing really dragging that main card down is MVP. You just know that, once again, he’s gonna find a way to suck the fun out of the arena. Not bad for a Fight Night though and at least we get the Euro start times. Prelims are at 5pm, main card at 8pm. Dan Hooker vs Salahdine Parnasse headlines. This one’s came around quick, hasn’t it? Doesn’t seem like five minutes since the news of Parnasse signing with the UFC broke, now here we are. I love that they’re just throwing him straight into a main event in front of his home crowd in his UFC debut. The way things are these days you’re always half expecting them to just stick new signings in the Apex. This is a great opportunity for him to hit the ground running against an established but beatable name. I really like this as main event. Dan Prostitute has been chosen to welcome Parnasse to the Octagon. He’s ranked #10 or #12 depending on which rankings you’re looking at and, like I said, an established guy who’s been pretty much part of the furniture in the Lightweight division for about a decade now. At 36 years old with a 24-14 record, he’s not gonna be reaching champion status in the UFC at this point. He’s never had the consistency or the required skill set really to put himself ahead of the top guys at 155. But he’s always been a scrappy sod and he’s given us some incredible fights over the years. You can go back to 2015 and his stoppage win over Hatsu Hioki, a win I don’t think many expected him to pull off at the time. He knocked out the likes of Ross Pearson, Jim Miller and Gilbert Burns. Beat Al Iaquinta on points. Beat Paul Felder by decision in a forgotten war in front of his own people in New Zealand in 2020. Had that crazy FOTY contender against Dustin Poirier in his fight after that. In 2023/24, he narrowly won back-to-back bangers against Jalin Turner and Mateusz Gamrot. When it comes to that group of Lightweight warriors people talk about, most people rattle off names like Poirier, Gaethje, Chandler, Alvarez etc, and rightly so. I think Hooker deserves to be mentioned in that mix as well though. He has been floundering a bit lately. As I said, he’s never been the most consistent. There’s been losses sprinkled throughout his entire career. But his last two fights saw him get dominated and finished by Arman Tsarukyan and Benoit Saint Denis. Just got squashed in both basically. And now they’re throwing him in with a highly touted debuting guy in his backyard? Apparently he’s been getting all kinds of shit off Parnasse’s fans since the fight was announced as well… “The death threats have been outrageous. I didn’t get them when I fought Benoit Saint Denis. French people have been speaking French and telling me I’m going to die. Whoever this cunt’s fans are, they’re outrageous. It’s going to feel pretty sweet to shut this kid’s lights out.” - Dan Hooker “French people have been speaking French” has taken me out. The cheek of them to speak their native language! Hooker must know he’s being positioned as the sacrificial lamb by the matchmakers here. He’s surely gonna be coming in fired up with a point to prove. Whether that translates to success in the fight itself, we’ll have to wait and see. One thing I’ll say for Hooker, I don’t think anything is gonna phase him mentally. He’s probably gonna lose but the hostile territory and the crowd all being against him and all that, I don’t think that’s gonna be a factor in why. He’s been around the block enough and I think if anything he’ll lean right into playing the heel. The arrival of Salahdine Parnasse to the UFC has been a long time coming but I’m glad he took his time. So many fighters jump at the chance and just take whatever the UFC’s first offer is, and I get why because it’s a foot in the door and can be the opportunity they need to potentially go on to bigger things. But it’s quite refreshing to see a guy like Parnasse build himself up outside the UFC first and come in when he’s ready. That used to be the norm but obviously in this era of DWCS and the insane schedule of cards the UFC put on, they’re generally snapping fighters up at a much earlier stage in their development these days and I don’t think it’s always a good thing. Parnasse has gone about it the more traditional way. He’s 23-2 with 15 of his wins coming inside the distance. He was the Featherweight and Lightweight champion in KSW and actually competed for their Welterweight title as well in 2023 but came up short. He was one win away from becoming a three weight champ. Notable wins on his record include Marcin Held and current UFC fighters William Gomis, Morgan Charriere and Robert Ruchala. We last saw him on the big Rousey vs Carano card for MVP on Netflix in May, and he bashed up Kenneth Cross for the first round stoppage. He’s looked the business for a while but, the issue any top prospect outside the UFC faces is that there just aren’t a whole lot of big names you can add to your resume outside the UFC anymore. There’s only so much you can do. In July, Ariel Helwani teased the signing of Parnasse and mentioned the possibility of this Hooker fight specifically. The response from Parnasse basically confirmed it without actually confirming it… Wasn’t long after that it was made official. Obviously MVP didn’t lock him into a deal and the UFC swooped in. Clearly a bit of a tactical signing because Parnasse was one of the more credible younger fighters on that Netflix card and he brought real legitimacy to that show, which was needed to kind of counterbalance the freakshow feel of some of the other matchmaking on the card. But Parnasse would’ve been a great signing whenever they got him. This wasn’t the first offer the UFC made to him either. He talked about it earlier this year and said he was better paid in KSW than what the UFC were offering him so he wasn’t interested at that time. I guess they sweetened the deal after the Netflix show because here we are. “After my fight with MVP, the UFC contacted me and it was a really simple opportunity. To be part of the main event in my hometown of Paris. This time, the deal was better, and they offered me the opportunity to be part of the rankings by taking a fight against Dan Hooker. It’s a really good opportunity for me.” - Salahdine Parnasse Just goes to show that competition is always a good thing in MMA. Not that MVP are anywhere near closing the gap on the UFC and I’m not saying Parnasse is on monster money now, nor is he claiming to be. But I’d be pretty sure he got a better contract than he would’ve before MVP got into MMA. The UFC clearly wanna stick it to them and take one of their best young fighters away. There’s a reason they made him a better offer that he was happy to accept now, when he’d declined previous offers, and it’s not because the UFC saw Kenneth Cross as some huge, game changing win. It was to mess with MVP. No doubt Parnasse is a great addition to the roster regardless, but this was a ‘fuck you’ to MVP make no mistake. If Parnasse was able to gain from the pettiness in some way, fair play to him. That’s that then. Big opportunity for Parnasse to come in with a bang here. Feels like a great time for him to come in when the Lightweight division feels like it’s kind of in a transitional period. Gaethje can’t have many fights left and a lot of that old guard who have given us all those battles over the years are ageing out now. Parnasse is only 28 years old. The timing could be perfect for him. I’ve got a good feeling about him. Not necessarily saying he’s gonna be UFC champion or anything but I think he can make an impact in the top end of the rankings. I think/hope he’s gonna be much more Yaroslav Amosov and less Patchy Mix, put it that way. Hooker’s gonna be game as he always is, he’s gonna bring it. But I think Parnasse wins this one. After that, it’s gonna get interesting. Because he’s coming in with the UFC actually giving him a bit of a push right off the bat, which they don’t always do. While a win over Dan Hooker in 2026 isn’t setting the world alight, it’s a decent name win and you’d think the crowd is gonna give him the star treatment. It’s gonna look and feel like a big deal and it’s something they can use to catapult him into bigger fights after. If he does win, a lot is probably gonna depend on how he wins. If he scrapes a decision, the hype is gonna cool off. If he steamrolls Hooker though, he’s probably getting the rocket strapped to his arse. Fares Ziam vs Axel Sola is a pretty solid France vs France co-main event. Should be a good fight. Ziam’s 29 years old and 18-5 with 11 finishes. Up until his last fight, he was on a nice six fight streak which included wins over Jai Herbert on points, a brutal knee KO against Matt Frevola, a bloodbath decision over Mike Davis and an elbow TKO over Nazim Sadykhov. Then he dropped a decision to Tom Nolan at the Apex in June. I missed that fight, that was a couple of months ago when I had some shit going on and I basically missed two or three entire cards. I remember being a bit surprised when I saw the result, to be honest. Is Ziam shitter than I thought or is Nolan better than I thought? Anyway, Ziam’s gonna have to get his shit together here because Sola’s no pushover. He’s 28 years old and 12-1-1 with 8 not making it to the scorecards. Former Ares FC Lightweight champ, made his UFC debut on last year’s Paris card and beat up Rhys McKee for the late TKO. Most will remember him from that barmy slugfest against Mason Jones on the London card in March though. We’re two thirds of the way through 2026 now and it’s still easily one of the best fights of the year for me. It was also Sola’s first loss. He bounced back in style with a first round D’arce choke sub over Ismael Bonfim on the Abu Dhabi card in July. So a quick turnaround for Sola here but he rolled over Bonfim so quickly I guess it makes sense. Michael Venom Page vs Nursulton Ruziboev. Oh boy. Here we go again. Gear up for another MVP stinker. From what I’m reading, this is the last fight on his UFC contract. Would anyone be surprised if they don’t renew it or re-sign him? Even if he wins? The bloke’s been rotten to watch in the UFC. He had his snoozers in Bellator years ago but at least back then you’d get him creating highlight reel knockouts in squash matches in between the duds. Now you don’t even get that. For what it’s worth, he seems to be blaming it on the matchmaking… “In all honesty, it’s been frustrating. I feel like it’s crazy that I’ve reached the pinnacle of MMA and getting a fight with someone in the Top 10 seems incredibly difficult. It’s excuse after excuse. Then we send another slate of names and the same thing happens. I’m genuinely asking for everybody. It just feels crazy that I’m competing in the toughest combat sport in the world, surrounded by the toughest guys, and it’s this hard to get those fights. I don’t want it to be my last UFC fight. I just want to push for bigger fights. I don’t wanna get too stressed about the politics and everything. Let me go in there, put on a performance and make them want me to come back and do it again.” - Michael Venom Page Where do you start? I get that he wants bigger fights and bigger names. I also get why those bigger names have no interest in fighting him. And I also get why the matchmakers don’t wanna put those guys in there with him. Because even if they beat MVP, he’s probably gonna drag them into the worst fight of their career in the process and then what? Nobody really wins. Again, I’m not saying he’s a bad fighter or unskilled, far from it. But he’s fucking awful to watch. I won’t hear any different. And while some blame the matchmaking for his fights being arse, they put him in with Sam Patterson last time out on the London card, admittedly a weird choice names-wise but Patterson was also coming off four first round finishes and was pretty wild and aggressive in those fights. It honestly felt like the matchmakers were trying to give MVP a guy he could have a watchable fight with. And he still plopped out one of the worst fights of the year and then moaned about the choice of opponent. It doesn’t matter who they put him in with, it’s the same old shite. Ruziboev’s got a record of 37-9-2-2 with 34 finishes, 21 by submission and damn near strangled the soul out of Andrey Pulyaev in his last fight. Call me a cynic but this feels very much like the matchmakers trying to set MVP up to lose on his way out the door to me. Whether it plays out like that, fuck knows. One thing MVP is really good at is freezing opponents up and almost hypnotising them into fighting his kind of fight. But if Ruziboev can get the grappling going, this could get ugly for MVP fast. Punahele Soriano vs Daniil Donchenko should be lively however long it lasts. Donchenko has quickly become one of my undercard favourites since his UFC debut last September. He’s Ukrainian, 25 years old and 14-2 with 11 finishes. Hasn’t beat anyone of note yet really. His first 12 months in the UFC has consisted of wins over Rodrigo Sezinando, Alex Morono and Theodor Berggren. Two of which I couldn’t pick out of a lineup and Morono is the one I’d recognise despite him looking like the plain, bland CAF template on the UFC games and he’s never been much cop. But Donchenko has been entertaining to watch. Whether he goes far or not, he seems like one of those fighters who are always gonna be worth tuning in for. And Soriano used to kind of be that guy when he first came into the UFC for me. He came in undefeated and delivered some nasty knockouts early in his run but it fizzled out and he found his level quite quickly. He’s 13-4 now and, to be fair, he’s on a four fight winning streak which includes a 31 second KO over Uros Medic. That’s a better win than anything on Donchenko’s record so far. I think this should be a fun one. Kurtis Campbell vs Trevor Peek isn’t doing a great deal for me but it might be a laugh. Liverpool’s Campbell, AKA ‘The Pink Panther’, made his UFC debut on the London card in March and got pinged all over the cage to a second round TKO loss at the hands of Danny Silva. Campbell was unbeaten going in and it seemed like he was gonna be a guy the UFC and the matchmakers were looking to push. He immediately got put on the main card and even got to wear the silly pink shorts. Silva really twatted him though and any buzz there was around Campbell swiftly evaporated. Peek debuted in the UFC back in 2023, has gone 2-3 since but hasn’t fought in two years for some reason. From what I remember he was quite fun to watch in a goofy, throwback way. I recall one fight where he was just winging haymakers and standing hammerfists and all sorts. Got a feeling this isn’t gonna be pretty but it could be wildly entertaining. Losene Keita vs Muhammad Naimov kicks off the main card. Interesting fight on paper but not sure what to expect really. Keita’s Guinean/Belgian, 28 years old and 16-2 with 10 knockouts. He was a two weight champion in Oktagon, Lightweight and Featherweight, and his UFC debut was long awaited. It had been talked about for a while and was actually supposed to go down on last year’s Paris card against Patricio Pitbull but Keita missed weight and the fight got binned. He finally debuted on the London card in March against Nathaniel Wood. I was buzzing for that fight, made it my ‘one to watch’ and everything. But while it wasn’t a bad fight by any stretch, it was a bit flat and disappointing in the end. And Keita ended up losing a split decision. Not ideal at all after all the waiting for his UFC arrival. Hopefully we see better from him here but Naimov isn’t a cakewalk and from what I’ve seen he’s not easy to look good against. He’s from Tajikistan, 32 years old and 13-4. My main memory of him is his decision win over Nathaniel Wood back in 2023 where Naimov cheated and fouled his way to victory. He’s had mixed results since but he’s coming into this fight off a third round TKO loss to Mairon Santos in December. Hoping Keita can get a win on the board here. Morgan Charriere vs Felipe Lima. Something about this fight jumped out at me so it’s ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** on this card. Think this has real show stealer potential. Charriere’s the home fighter, 30 years old with a record of 21-12-1, 16 finishes. Decent fighter with a fun, fan friendly style to watch, former Cage Warriors champ etc. He’s had a right mixed bag of results in the UFC but I’ve enjoyed watching him. The highlight so far has to be his TKO win over Nate Landwehr last July. Unfortunately for him, he followed that up by getting headkicked into oblivion by Melquizael Costa in December so he’s looking to redeem himself on home soil here. Lima’s Brazilian, 28 years old and 14-2 with 7 inside the distance. He was the Oktagon champ before the UFC picked him up in 2024. He submitted Muhammad Naimov on short notice in his debut and beat Miles Johns on points in his next fight. He lost a decision to Payton Talbott in his last fight though and that was last June. So a year plus layoff for him here. That was at Bantamweight, he’s back at Featherweight here so we’ll see how it goes. Should be a good fight regardless. Mario Pinto vs Ryan Spann. Heavyweights. You know the score. Don’t expect much. Pinto was actually one of the few new Heavyweights I had some hopes for, to be fair. He’s Portuguese born, from London, and he’s undefeated at 12-0 with 8 finishes. Still only 28, a puppy by Heavyweight standards, and he seems to have a bit of personality about him from bits I’ve seen. All sounds promising. But he looked pretty shite in his last fight on the London card in March. He faced a debuting Felipe Franco and all I was reading going in was that Franco was terrible and one of the worst UFC signings in years. So it felt like a mismatch going in. Yet somehow it went the distance, was a crap fight to watch and Pinto really didn’t look great even in victory. I’m hoping it was just an off night. He’s still young enough to improve. But man, just when I was starting to feel good about him. And Spann’s been plodding around in mediocrity for years now. He’s 35 years old, 24-11 and has never been much good. He moved up to Heavyweight last year and has gone 2-1 since. He’s finished Lukasz Brzeski and Marcus Buchecha in his last two, whatever that’s worth. Pinto needs to be winning this fight or all hope is lost. Oumar Sy vs Modestas Bukauskas is alright. Can’t say I’m counting the days or anything but it’s perfectly fine prelim fodder. Sy’s Paris born, bred and trained so you know whose side the crowd is gonna be on. He’s 30 years old with a record of 12-2 and 9 finishes. He came into the UFC unbeaten back in 2024 and had a couple of OK wins before suffering his first loss against Alonzo Menifield last June. Menifield isn’t a bum but he’s not great either so Sy losing that one pretty much killed the talk of him as any kind of serious prospect. He did rebound with a first round TKO over Brendson Ribeiro but then got subbed in a round by Ion Cutelaba in his last fight in March. Bukauskas is Lithuanian/British, 32 years old and 20-7 with 14 finishes. Former Cage Warriors champion and has looked decent at times in the UFC but has never quite put it all together. He got knocked out by Nikita Krylov back in January but bounced back (kind of) with a split decision over some sod called Christian Edwards at the Apex in May whatever that’s worth. Don’t think I saw it. Yeah, I don’t hate the fight and they seem quite well matched so it could be a pleasant surprise. But I’m not expecting a lot from it really. Nathaniel Wood vs Pavel Andrusca is an almost last minute card change. Man, Nathaniel Wood just can’t catch a break, can he? He never seems to make any progress up the card no matter what he does. He’s on a four fight streak which includes wins over Morgan Charriere (who’s higher up this card than him), Jose Delgado (who’s bagged a main event spot against Jean Silva the week after this) and Losene Keita (who came in with some hype, Wood beat him and Keita is still higher up this card than him). Hunter Campbell’s wife must call him “Nathaniel” in bed or something. Here he was supposed to fight Mairon Santos but Santos has pulled out just four days out from the show. In steps Moldovan 24 year old Andrusca. Don’t know anything about him but looking him up I see he’s undefeated at 8-0 with 7 finishes and he just won by first round TKO on a UAE Warriors card in late July. Fair play to Wood for accepting this late replacement because it really doesn’t do much for him other than him not wasting a training camp. Definitely feels like a fight that’s more risk than reward for him. Fabia Sintes vs Michael Aljarouj. Going in completely blind on this. Never seen or heard of either of them. Sintes is Spanish, 32 years old and has a record of 11-3 with 7 finishes. Literally nothing else to say but he’s on a 7 fight winning streak. Aljarouj is Syrian born but fights out of and represents France. He’s 29 years old and 13-3 with 10 finishes. That’s your lot. Nora Cornolle vs Klaudia Sygula then. Nothing to this really. France vs Poland. Cornolle’s the home fighter, 36 years old and 9-4 with 6 finishes. She’s coming into this fight off back-to-back losses to Karol Rosa and Joselyne Edwards. Sygula’s nearly a decade younger at 27 years old and she’s 8-2 with only 3 finishes. She got stopped in her UFC debut by Melissa Mullins but has won a couple of decisions over Irina Alekseeva and Priscila Cachoeira in her most recent fights. Can’t pretend I give a bollocks about this. Luis Felipe Dias vs Matthieu Duclos. It’s a full on Tapology job again here. Couldn’t tell you anything about either of them otherwise. Dias is Brazilian, built like a brick shithouse, 31 years old and he’s 17-5 with 16 of his wins not making it to the judges cards. He got a submission win on DWCS last October and then made his UFC debut on the Macau card in May, stopping some fucker named Yi Sak Lee in a round. Duclos is making his Octagon debut here. He’s French, also 31 and has a record of 10-3 with 9 inside the distance. Delphine Benouaich vs Sofia Montenegro. Yeah. Again, not a single clue and it’s another couple of Octagon newcomers. All I know of Benouaich is that she was on TUF, and that’s only because of that pic there. She’s French and has a 7-2 record with 5 finishes. Tapology doesn’t even have an age or reach listed for her but apparently she’s 31 years old. She won her last fight by first round submission but she’s 1-1 in her last two. Montenegro’s Argentinian, 27 years old and 6-2 with 4 finishes. She lost her last fight via split decision against Jeisla Chaves on DWCS last September, yet here we are. La fin…

Seriously, they could pay me £15 and I wouldn’t watch a Dillon Danis fight. Also… Isn’t this shitbag a nonce?

Mama Mir (here we go again) comes across as a massive twat just like her husband. Even Frank has kept his gob shut from what I can tell on this. Shame his wife didn’t do the same. Bollocks to the Mirs. I don’t even dislike Bella herself, haven’t seen enough to form an opinion, nothing at all against her and I don’t wish any ill will on her. But her Dad’s a weird shaped head having prick and it turns out her mum’s a knob as well. If fans were telling Bella to “kill herself” like Mama Mir says then that’s obviously rotten and out of order. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if there were comments like that given the pond life that makes up a lot of today’s MMA fan base. I’ve seen fighters post all sorts of deranged DMs because some dickhead lost a bet over the years. At the same time, I don’t know if the comments actually happened in this case either, or whether it’s Mrs Mir trying to save face and justify her actions after making a massive tit of herself going after a young woman who won the fight fair and square and did absolutely nothing wrong. Even if the pathetic fan comments did happen, and again it wouldn’t shock me, how the fuck is that Alex Apodaca’s fault? Why give her shit for something a few faceless incels typed with Wotsit dust fingers in their mum’s basement? All this has done is make me wanna root for Apodaca going forward and root against the Mirs even more than I did already.

Really sad to hear this. Both my wife and mum loved her, they’re really upset. For me, more than anything she did in her career, she just seemed like a genuinely lovely woman with a heart of gold. If the world was full of people like Dolly Parton we’d be in much, much better shape.