wandshogun09

They do count as pro fights yeah. With TUF they go down as exhibitions until the finals which is a pro fight but on DWCS it’s pro all the way. Is there a reason why Bella Mir was that big of a favourite other than her last name? I know she’s a legit grappler but she’d only had four MMA fights going in? Seems a bit stupid to have anyone as that much of a favourite or underdog with that little experience.

Back in China this week… PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD Umar Nurmagomedov vs Song Yadong Yan Xiaonan vs Denise Gomes Aoriqileng vs Kai Asakura Alex Perez vs Sumudaerji Liu Ce vs Levi Rodrigues Jr Bilal Hasan vs Nilson Rojas PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Andre Lima vs Namsrai Batbayar Rei Tsuruya vs Kevin Borjas Jack Jenkins vs Sean Woodson Xiao Long vs Francesco Nuzzi Lawrence Lui vs Hector Santiago Xiong Jingnan vs Julia Polastri Ding Meng vs Cam Nelson Standard China Fight Night we’ve come to expect really. Not the best but it’s not the worst card in the world either. Always helps that these things are on live in the morning for us over here though, I think. I’d have probably skipped a few of the China cards over the years if it wasn’t for the fact I can just get up on Saturday morning and whack the shows on over breakfast. As you can see from the thread tags, the prelims for this get underway from 8am with an 11am kick off for the main card. Umar Nurmagomedov vs Song Yadong is a perfectly fine Fight Night main event and it obviously makes sense to have Song headline a card in China. But I don’t know if it’s just me but Song just doesn’t move me one way or the other. He’s got some skills and he’s not what I’d call boring but, I don’t know, for whatever reason I just don’t feel any excitement for his fights. Don’t hate them, don’t love them, just kind of indifferent. It’s not a bad fight by any means though and being able to watch it live on a Saturday morning won’t hurt. And I’m never gonna complain about the Bantamweights getting these main event spots on the Fight Nights. Least it’s not Heavyweight, 205 or women’s 135. Depending on which set of rankings you look at (and again, I hate that there’s two lots now), Umar currently sits in the #2 or #3 spot, Song’s at #6 on both. So they’re very much in the mix. Umar turned 30 early this year. In theory he’s smack bang in the middle of his physical prime right now. He has a record of 20-1 with 9 finishes and the only blemish so far has been that decision loss to Merab Dvalishvili in their title fight in January last year. And even that, Umar fought well in defeat. I feel like that’s kind of been forgotten, misremembered or in some cases rewritten now. Partly because the moments that really stay in your memory from that fight are mostly Merab’s meme worthy showboating and piss taking. Merab definitely took over and I had him winning, but it wasn’t the one sided whitewash many make it out to be. Since then Umar’s won a couple of decisions over Mario Bautista and Deiveson Figueiredo. I think Bautista is underrated and that was a very good win. I don’t put much stock in the Figgy win though sadly, because Figgy hasn’t looked at the races in a while. Still, another win here would be three in a row and at that point he could be in prime position to be the next challenger for the winner of Yan vs Merab 3. Despite my personal apathy towards Song, of course he’s gonna be the big crowd favourite here. He’s still only 28 years old, which seems mad considering his long tenure on the roster, and he’s 23-9-1-1 with 13 of his wins not requiring the judges. He’s also coming off a win over faded Figgy, on the Macau card in May. Although, unlike Umar, he did manage to finish Figgy with the patented Team Alpha Male guillotine choke in the second round. He’s had an up and down last couple of years. Before that win over Figgy he’d gone 1-2 in his previous three - a weird win over Henry Cejudo which ended on an eye poke, and points losses to Petr Yan and Sean O’Malley. You don’t wanna be too harsh on a guy who’s still the right side of 30 but I feel like he found his ceiling a few years ago - upper mid level of the division but will always come up short against the elite. I’d be surprised if he ever gets over that hump. Yeah, not a bad fight at all but it’s the same story with Song. I think this fight is beyond his limit, Umar’s most likely gonna win and Song will go back to beating someone lower down the pecking order before doing this same song (no pun intended) and dance again and losing to another one of the top guys. Wouldn’t be the biggest shock in the world if Song pulled off the win, we’ve seen much bigger upsets. But I just don’t see it myself. I’d like to see Umar really put a stamp on this fight and force a finish. Given his high ranking and his surname, three wins in a row might be enough for another crack at the gold regardless. But a really strong performance and/or a finish would make him hard to deny or pass over. If he wins a snoozer they might just gift O’Malley another title shot. I think with a decisive win here, Umar would be the most deserving though and Umar vs Yan or a rematch with Merab would be class as a title fight in the first quarter of 2027. Yan Xiaonan vs Denise Gomes is co-main. Yeah, not arsed in the slightest about this and it’s clearly only got such high billing because Yan’s Chinese. I get it but it just feels weak as piss even on a Fight Night. Yan hasn’t fought in well over a year either which doesn’t help. We last saw her in April 2025, losing a decision to Virna Jandiroba. She’s 37 now, 19-5-0-1 and she does have some good wins on her record over the likes of Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Claudia Gadelha years ago, a five round decision over current champ Mackenzie Dern in 2022, a first round knockout over Jessica Andrade etc. And she did challenge Zhang Weili for the title at UFC 300. But given her age and recent inactivity, I don’t know what we’re getting here. Brazil’s Gomes is over a decade younger at 26 and she’s 12-3 with 7 knockouts. I do recall her being quite heavy handed for a Strawweight. She’s coming into this one off a four fight win streak and beat Tecia Pennington on points in her last fight at the Apex in November. She’s not bad from what I remember but she has fought a lower level of competition overall compared to who Yan’s been in with over the years. Aoriqileng vs Kai Asakura. It’s slim pickings on this card but this is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** for me this time. Yeah there’s no stakes to it but are there ever stakes to any fights on these Fight Night cards, besides maybe the main event in some cases? This fight stands out to me though as the one most likely to be a bit of a fireworks display. Aoriqileng, AKA ‘The Mongolian Murderer’, is 33 years old and he’s 26-13-0-1 with 10 finishes. Wildly mixed results in the UFC, his Octagon record is 4-5-0-1, but he usually brings it. I’ve been recommending it for years and I’ll do it again here, if you never saw his UFC debut against Jeff Molina from 2021, get it watched. He lost that fight but it was a banger and made me take notice of his fights from that day forward. Win or lose, when he fights I’m watching. He’s coming off a TKO loss to Cody Haddon here. As for Asakura, he finally got in the UFC win column on the Macau card in May when he stopped Cameron Smotherman in the first round. He badly needed that win after going 0-2 in his first couple of UFC fights against Alexandre Pantoja and Tim Elliott. Love this matchmaking, to be honest. Aoriqileng is the kind of fighter who’s gonna stand and trade with Asakura so it should make for a fun scrap with high KO potential either way. Alex Perez vs Sumudaerji 2 then. This one’s an immediate rematch. They fought on the Macau card at the end of May and I remember kind of looking forward to it. It all went to shit on the night though. Not gonna bother doing a full rewatch and review like I usually do but I just skimmed through the fight now to refresh my memory and it started off alright. Sumudaerji got the better of most of the first round with his leg kicks and jabs, then Perez had a little bit of a moment with a guillotine attempt at the end of the round. Second round, Sumudaerji drops him early, Perez survives and is trying for takedowns, then Sumudaerji misjudges an inside leg kick and clips Perez in the bollocks. It’s a bad one. It wasn’t a full on, flush, shin to the spuds. The toes just sort of whipped into Perez’s sack. But that’s no fun either is it? I remember fans giving him a load of shit for ‘faking it’ and ‘acting’ but I’m not having that. If he was that good an actor he wouldn’t have been wasting his time doing a much more dangerous job for the last 15 years for relatively shite pay. He’s clearly in agony here, immediately asking for the sick bucket and spends a bunch of time with his head in it retching what’s left of his bollocks up. After a long period of him writhing about in pain, it becomes crystal clear Perez can’t continue and the fight is called off and ruled a No Contest. Really unfortunate. They’re both respectful after the fight and Sumudaerji is apologetic. Clearly was unintentional on Sumudaerji’s side and no-one wants to go through a whole training camp and weight cut only for the fight to end like that. Running it back ASAP is the right call. They’ve both had their ups and downs but Perez was coming off a really strong first round stoppage win over Charles Johnson going into this fight and Sumudaerji was on a three fight winning streak. Hopefully this one goes off without any issue and they have a good fight. Liu Ce vs Levi Rodrigues Jr. Not familiar with either of these two. Liu Ce is Chinese so it’s cool for him to make his UFC debut in front of a home crowd. He’s about to turn 30 in September but he’s only 3-1 in MMA and hasn’t been that active. First couple of fights were in 2023, then he lost in 2024, then never fought again until May this year when he won by first round TKO. Most of his combat sports experience is in Kickboxing though. His Wikipedia page has him listed at 18-3 with 14 knockouts in Kickboxing. Fought a bunch in K-1 apparently. I don’t know what the scene or talent is like over there these days, I’m completely out of the loop, but when it comes to K-1 there’s definitely not the sizzle these days that there was in the 90s heyday. Rodrigues is 29 with a 5-1-0-1 record. He’s already fought once in the UFC, on the Du Plessis vs Usman card in July, and he got stopped by Felipe Franco. That card was only a few weeks ago and I’ve already got no memory of that fight so I’m hoping I skipped it, otherwise my memory’s more shot than I thought. Bilal Hasan vs Nilson Rojas kicks off the main card. A battle of UFC newcomers. Hadn’t heard of either but did a little bit of digging and I’m quite interested to see Hasan now. He’s Indonesian but is based and trains in America as far as I can tell, he’s 25 years old and he’s undefeated at 9-0-0-1 with 8 finishes. He literally just fought on DWCS on August 11th and scored a 45 second TKO, complete with moonwalk celebration. Just gave it a watch now. Didn’t take long… Quite a way to introduce yourself. Apparently he was a significant favourite going in and I’m guessing they expect big things from him. All his wins except his MMA debut have ended inside the distance and he was also the Cage Fury Flyweight champion and successfully defended the belt three times with three knockout wins. Not bad. Peru’s Rojas is 27 years old and also unbeaten at 9-0 with 7 knockouts. He’s coming off a points win in a promotion called Inka in late July. Andre Lima vs Namsrai Batbayar. Not a clue. Seen Lima a few times, he’s fought in the UFC a bunch of times since his debut in 2024. But the only thing I really remember is that fight with Igor Severino which Lima won by DQ when Severino started chomping on his arm like Hannibal Lector. Lima’s 27 years old and 11-1 now. He won three fights after the Severino biting incident but suffered his first defeat in his last fight in June when he dropped a decision to Kevin Borjas. Think Lima was a big favourite going into that fight as well so it was an upset. Batbayar is making his UFC debut here. He’s Mongolian, 25 years old and 10-1 with a 100% finish rate. Looking down his record, the only name I recognise is current UFC fighter Nyamjargal Tumendemberel (a name that sticks in the memory obviously), who beat Batbayar back in 2022. Batbayar’s won six in a row since then. Rei Tsuruya vs Kevin Borjas could be fun or could be just a Tsuruya steamroll job. We’ll see. Tsuruya is one of those Japanese Flyweights who came in over the last few years with high hopes of potentially becoming the first Japanese UFC champion. With him, Tatsuro Taira, Kai Asakura and Kyoji Horiguchi all on the roster in the same division, it did seem like if Japan were finally gonna get a UFC champ, Flyweight would be their best chance. Hasn’t worked out for any of them yet though. Tsuruya’s still only just turned 24 years old, hardly on the scrapheap, and he’s only had one career setback so far. There’s no reason he can’t get there eventually. He’s got some work to do though. He’s 11-1 now with 9 finishes. Went 10-0 at the start of his career before taking his first loss against Joshua Van (that loss hasn’t aged too badly) by decision back in March 2025. He didn’t fight again until the Macau card in May this year, and he bounced back in style with a first round neck crank submission over Luis Gurule. Borjas is from Peru, 28 years old and 11-5 with 8 by KO/TKO. He’s gone a shite 2-4 in the UFC and he’s clearly never gonna be a player in the division but I’ve always quite enjoyed watching him, to be fair. Even in defeat I remember really enjoying his fights with Josh Van and Alessandro Costa. He beat Ronaldo Rodriguez, who was starting to get a bit of hype and push from the UFC, and he scored the upset over previously unbeaten Andre Lima last time out. I suspect Tsuruya’s grappling will be too much for him here but we’ll see. Hopefully Borjas can make a bit of a dogfight out of it. Jack Jenkins vs Sean Woodson is probably one of the better fights on the card for me, so of course they bury it right near the bottom of the prelims. Of course they do. Aussie Jenkins is 33 years old, 14-4 with 9 finishes and he beat Ramon Taveras on the Perth card in September last time out. He’s had a very up and down run in the UFC, win one/lose one rinse and repeat stuff, but I’ve found him quite enjoyable to watch. Woodson hasn’t fought since April 2025, when he suffered a late TKO loss against Dan Ige. Looking back at the thread for that card, I said I thought the stoppage was a bit dodgy/harsh. And Woodson was on a four fight win streak before that loss. He’s 34 now and 13-2-1 overall. Not gonna be creating any waves in the rankings or anything but a decent fighter at his level. He lost the fight but I remember loving his scrap with Julian Erosa back in 2020. If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth firing up Fight Pass for. It got forgotten because they’re not big names and also because Poirier vs Hooker headlined that card and understandably took all the glory, but it was a cracker in its own right. Xiao Long vs Francesco Nuzzi. Yeah, me neither. Don’t know, don’t particularly care. I’ll quickly go through the motions. Long’s 28 years old with a record of 27-11 and 14 finishes. He’s gone a dismal 1-3 in the UFC so far and is coming into this fight off back-to-back losses. We last saw him in March dropping a decision to the empty shell of Cody Garbrandt in what I described at the time as “a foul filled mess of a fight”. Smashing. Nuzzi’s making his first Octagon appearance here. He’s Italian, 30 years old and 11-2-0-1 with 8 of his wins not making it to the scorecards. Nothing jumping off the page from his record but his last three fights have gone Loss, Win, No Contest. Bit odd signing a guy off a No Contest but whatever. It’s the UFC in 2026. No point trying to make sense of anything. Lawrence Lui vs Hector Santiago. Another couple of UFC newbies. Lui is from New Zealand, he’s 30 years old and he’s 8-1 with 4 finishes. Apparently he did actually technically fight in the UFC last time out. He fought on the Volkanovski vs Lopes 2 undercard in January but he was the very first prelim of the night and it was a ‘Road To UFC’ tournament final. I didn’t see it but he won by split decision. Brazil’s Santiago is 33 years old and 6-1 with 5 finishes. He won by first round TKO in his last fight in May on a ‘Money Moicano MMA’ card. Had no idea Moicano had started up his own promotion but there we go. Xiong Jingnan vs Julia Polastri is whatever but I’ll probably give it a bash as background noise at least if I’m up early on Saturday morning. Jingnan is a former ONE Strawweight champion and won a trilogy against ONE’s poster girl Angela Lee years ago. At least two of those fights were belters, don’t think I saw the third. ONE’s MMA league seems to have been circling the drain for a while now and they sacked off the Strawweight division recently. Jingnan ended up making her UFC debut on the Macau card back in May and lost to Angela Hill on points. Shame she never made it over to the UFC years ago. She’s 38 now and had been very inactive before making the jump. Even as shallow as the women’s divisions are in the UFC at the moment, it just feels way too late for her to make any kind of significant impact. Brazilian Polastri is a decade younger at 28 and she’s 14-6 with 8 finishes. No world beater and she’s lost two of her last 3 but she still might beat this version of Jingnan sadly. Hopefully Jingnan’s shitty performance against Hill was mostly down to inactivity and ring rust, in theory now the cobwebs are off maybe this ends up being a pleasant surprise. Not getting my hopes up though. Ding Meng vs Cam Nelson jerks the curtain. Meng’s back! Insert your own Haku joke here. He’s 31 years old with a record of 35-10 and 30 of his wins coming inside the distance. Sounds good until you go through his record and recognise none of the 40 names on there. He made his UFC debut on the Macau show in May and lost a split decision against fellow debutant Jose Souza. Nelson makes his debut here, he’s Canadian, 28 years old and 7-1 with 5 finishes. That’s about it on him. Fancy a Chinese?

I read this as Giant Gonzalez and it’s the most interested I’ve ever been in maybe wanting to listen to Meltzer’s stuff.

Yeah I don’t think ‘Heavyweight Penn’ would’ve happened anywhere other than the bizarro world of Japanese MMA.

Found the bit about Lawler from Penn’s book. Didn’t go any further than a conversation with Dana but it was talked about briefly. For context, this would be just after Penn went to a draw against Uno in Feb 2003, when the Lightweight division got scrapped.

This has to be THE latest I’ve ever got a thread up for a UFC card. Life’s just got in the way of everything lately. They’re going back to Cali tonight… PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD Anthony Hernandez vs Gregory Rodrigues Serghei Spivac vs Vitor Petrino Reinier De Ridder vs Roman Dolidze MarQuel Mederos vs Mason Jones Carli Judice vs Jeisla Chaves Anthony Wint vs Terrance Chatman PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Jamall Emmers vs Lerryan Douglas Shamil Gaziev vs Kennedy Nzechukwu Nasrat Haqparast vs Chris Padilla Ryan Kuse vs Marcio Barbosa Gauge Young vs Stan Dorsainvil Jackson McVey vs Wes Schultz Shanelle Dyer vs Elise Reed Not a killer card or anything but it’ll do. I love the main event, I’m hoping De Ridder can get back on track so I’m invested there, Mason Jones delivers better than Amazon Prime and there’s a couple of guys on the prelims who made an impression in their debuts last time (Douglas/Barbosa) so I’m looking forward to seeing them back out there. Worth a skim over your Sunday fry up. ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez vs ‘Robocop’ Rodrigues is a cracking main event. You can never guarantee how any fight is gonna play out but I’d be surprised if this isn’t at least fun and it has the potential to be more than just that. Really like this pairing and I forgot it was even booked until earlier this week. Now it’s upon us. Glad these two are getting a headline spot and especially on a card in front of a proper crowd. All the ingredients for a banger are here. Let’s see how it plays out. Bit of a home game for Hernandez here. He was born in California and trained out of there most of his career. He’s 32 years old, 15-3-0-1 with 12 of his wins ending before the final buzzer and has notable wins over Brendan Allen twice, a submission win over BJJ world champ Rodolfo Vieira and finishes of Edmen Shahbazyan, Roman Kopylov, Michel Pereira and Roman Dolidze. Not too shabby. But he’s coming into this fight off the back of that TKO loss and all around awful showing against Sean Strickland on the Houston card in February. The loss itself wasn’t the end of the world, and it really hasn’t aged too badly considering Strickland went on to win the title and beat Khamzat in his very next fight. But Fluffy’s performance itself was complete dogshit and that felt much more damaging than who he lost to. He was on an eight fight winning streak going into that fight and had some real momentum but the way he just sort of wilted so rapidly under Strickland’s pressure was alarming. It was clear he needed to drastically change something up after that loss. He’s decided to switch his training up. And look who he’s working with now… Yep. Fluffy is apparently going by the phrase “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” and has been training with his old buddy old pal Strickland at Xtreme Couture in Vegas for this fight. Interesting. It’s certainly a different look for Hernandez but I’m not really sure what it’s gonna do for his overall game. Fluffy strikes me as almost the ultimate front runner. If he can get his game going early, it’s hard to stop him. But if you can halt his momentum and put him on the backfoot before he can get the ball rolling, he kind of loses heart. I don’t think that can be trained out of him. We’ll see though. Maybe the change of scenery will do him good. “I had to make some adjustments. Train with better guys, sharpen some shit up and make sure that I’m not doing dumb shit. It was great, man. It was a fucking blast. It kind of re-sparked that love for martial arts for me. I was kind of getting sick of Sacramento anyway. So going out there was fucking exciting, it was new, it was fun. A lot of the guys I fought and there’s a lot of new hungry guys and they’ll take your head off if you fucking let them. So for me it was about jumping in the fire and having to sharpen all my tools with guys with multiple layers, you know what I mean?” “I’m focused on Gregory Rodrigues right now, that’s all I can think about. He called me out, so it’s like, if you think you can take me out, perfect. Let’s fucking do it. I know he’s dangerous. I’m not sleeping on him. I know he’s a really cool guy, I’ve met him before. But at the end of the day, this guy’s got to take care of his family and so do I. So let’s fucking get it.” - Anthony Hernandez Brazil’s Rodrigues is 34 years old with a record of 19-6 and 15 inside the distance. Oddly enough, he’s a BJJ black-belt and supposed to be a really good grappler but you wouldn’t really know by watching most of his fights. Only 3 of his 19 wins have came by submission, yet he’s scored 12 knockouts. The bloke just loves to throw hands. He’s been on the roster since 2021 now and amazingly this is only his second UFC main event. In an era when there’s a card almost every weekend and when we’ve seen some absolute dross headliners, why would you not have guys like Rodrigues, who are pretty damn reliable for delivering slobberknockers, regularly headlining these things? He did lose his last main event, he got stopped in the fourth round by Jared Cannonier in February last year at the Apex. But it was a good old scrap and Robocop certainly had his moments. Since that loss he’s rattled off three straight wins. He brutally knocked out Jack Hermansson last June, beat Roman Kopylov on points at MSG in November, then in March this year he sparked Brunno Ferreira in under two minutes, avenging his 2023 loss to Ferreira. And we’re set. Both made weight. We’re good to go. Looking forward to this one. Not sure how it’s gonna go but I’m kind of leaning towards Rodrigues myself. Grappling is Fluffy’s go-to main strength but I’m not sure he’s better than Rodrigues there or how effective he’ll be. And on the feet, I think Robocop wins that battle all day. I think he’s the better striker and he’s definitely got the power advantage. The most likely path to victory I see for Fluffy is if he can drag it into the later rounds and maybe just outlast Rodrigues. Like I say, we did see Robocop start strong against Cannonier but then Cannonier finished him down the stretch. Problem is, Fluffy’s probably gonna have to take a beating to drag it late and that’s never a smart gameplan. Plus, again, I’m not sure Fluffy is wired to gut through and weather that initial storm to get to the later rounds. Then there’s his weakness to the body shots. Yeah, I’m talking myself into a Robocop win here. Hopefully it’s a good fight either way though. Serghei Spivac vs Vitor Petrino is co-main event. For some reason. These bout orders since the Paramount deal kicked in are always head scratchers to me. I’d have thought the De Ridder fight would be in this spot but no. Whatever. Can’t say I’m feeling this one. Spivac is far from the worst Heavyweight in the UFC but that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement either. He’s 31 years old, 18-6 with 15 finishes and he’s more of a clincher/grappler. He was one of the guys who squashed Greg Hardy during his failed UFC run so I kind of have a soft spot for him. But it’s been very hit and miss overall. He’s got submission wins over Derrick Lewis and Marcin Tybura but he’s came up short when he’s stepped in with an Aspinall, Gane, Jailton or Waldo. He’s coming off a decision over Ante Delija in a rotten fight now. Petrino is on a three fight win streak but I’m not convinced. He certainly looks the part. He’s probably the best example of “if a look/physique won you a title this guy would rule the world” since Cheick Kongo years ago. But you watch him and it’s really nothing special. He’s gone 3-0 since moving up to Heavyweight but it’s a ‘streak’ over Austen Lane, Thomas Petersen and Steven Asplund. The Asplund win was alright but it’s hardly a reign of terror is it? Yeah expectations aren’t high for this. Reinier De Ridder vs Roman Dolidze is an interesting one but it’s crazy how quick all the buzz around De Ridder completely evaporated isn’t it? He came in with a bit of hype from his run in ONE and then immediately blasted through four straight wins in the UFC within less than a year in the promotion. With that kind of activity and then the fourth win being over Robert Whittaker, it wasn’t a surprise when people started talking about him being close to a title shot. It felt like a Du Plessis vs De Ridder title fight was inevitable and it would’ve arguably been the most spectacularly goofy title fight in UFC history. Then it all went tits up. DDP got rinsed by Khamzat and then De Ridder somehow lost to Brendan Allen of all people. I think we all chalked that one up to De Ridder being burnt out from the constant back-to-back fights, plus Allen was a late replacement. OK. But then De Ridder looked shite in his next fight, losing on points against Caio Borralho in March. At this point the train has come right off the track and De Ridder has some serious work to do. Dolidze isn’t a bum but he’s nothing special and he’s coming off back-to-back losses himself here. I think De Ridder should beat him but I thought he’d school Brendan Allen and look how that turned out. MarQuel Mederos vs Mason Jones is gonna have to be ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. And no disrespect to the man but it’s nothing to do with Mederos. He’s 29 years old, 11–1-1 with 6 by KO/TKO and he’s coming off a draw against Chris Padilla on the Miami card in April. He’s fought in the UFC four times now, I probably saw all four fights and I can’t remember shit about any of them. Never a good sign. Yet still, I’m highlighting this purely because it involves Mason Jones. We last saw him on the London card in March and he beat Axel Sola by decision in a batshit FOTY contender. I’m not sure I’d have it at number one but it’d be right up there at the top of the list, if I had such a list. And even his fight before that, he stopped Bolaji Oki in another corker. He’s just one of those rough, scrappy, hard nosed sods whose style doesn’t really allow for boring fights. It’s almost MMA blasphemy to compare anyone to Robbie Lawler or Dustin Poirier but Jones is kind of in that mould for me as far as just being so aggressive that you’d really have to go out of your way to somehow have a bad fight with them. Jones was exciting to watch in his first UFC stint but results didn’t go his way. This time around he seems much better prepared. Not sure how far he can take this run but it’s definitely gonna be fun to watch. Carli Judice vs Jeisla Chaves. Again, looks a bit odd on the main card. Judice is 27 years old and 6-2 with 5 by KO/TKO. She’s had her moments from bits I’ve seen, to be fair. She had a couple of really nice back-to-back finishes last year with a headkick over Yuneisy Duben and a beautiful knee to the body against Nicolle Caliari. But as much as they looked cool, they were over low level opposition. Then she beat Juliana Miller last time out but only managed a decision. I don’t know. Chaves is Brazilian, 29 years old and undefeated at 8-0 with 4 via strikes. She won a split decision on DWCS last September then made her UFC debut in June against Duben and again won by split decision. Not filling me with anticipation this but I might give it a chance. Anthony Wint vs Terrance Chatman opens up the main card. No clue. Octagon debuts for both. Wint is 30 years old, unbeaten at 7-0 with 6 finishes and he looks like he’d be really good at opening jars. Seriously, seen a couple of pics on Twitter of his photo shoot in the UFC shorts and he’s built like a Hasbro. He literally just fought on DWCS in early August and got a TKO in just 34 seconds. Chatman doesn’t even have an age listed on Sherdog or Tapology. He’s 5-1 with 4 finishes and coming off a win by TKO via leg kicks in July. He lost his fight before that by split decision. Don’t know enough about either to give any real insight but my hunch is that Wint is the guy they wanna highlight here. Just a hunch. Jamall Emmers vs Lerryan Douglas could be worth a look. Emmers is 37 years old now, so no spring chicken. He’s on decent form recently, he’s 22-8 and beat Gabriel Miranda and Hyder Amil in his last two fights. He’s had a right mixed bag of results overall though. As for Douglas, this’ll only be my second time seeing him but the first was definitely memorable… He fought Julian Erosa on the Seattle card in March and, as you can see there, he went to town on Erosa and stopped him inside a round. Whole thing lasted about three minutes and it’s really not much to base an opinion on. We obviously need to see much more of Douglas. But Christ, as a first impression, it did the job on me. If he keeps swinging like a lunatic like that going forward he’s probably gonna 1) end up with a 50/50 win/loss record and 2) be must see TV regardless. Wild little bastard. Shamil Gaziev vs Kennedy Nzechukwu. Sick of moaning about the Heavyweights at this point but I’m really not looking forward to this bollocks. Maybe it’ll be a pleasant surprise but don’t hold your breath or anything. Gaziev’s 36 with a record of 14-3 and he’s been knocked out in his last two fights by Waldo Cortes Acosta and Brando Pericic. Just a big plodding, lumbering slug of a man. Nzechukwu is 34 and 14-6-1. I didn’t mind him for a while really, I think that started with that come from behind KO win over Carlos Ulberg years ago, which is still Ulberg’s only loss. But the goodwill on that ran out a long time ago and the fact is big Kennedy’s just not very good. When he moved up to HW I thought that might be a better fit for him but in his last two fights he’s been heel hooked by Valter Walker and then went to a draw with a useless Marcus Buchecha in an abysmal fight in December. Wank. Nasrat Haqparast vs Chris Padilla is just making up the numbers. Not particularly arsed about it but it’s not a bad fight. We haven’t seen Haqparast since the Aspinall vs Gane undercard back in October, when he got absolutely wasted by a Quillan Salkilld headkick. One of the scariest knockouts in recent memory easy. Haqparast was out for ages, an uncomfortably long time, one of those knockouts when it’s genuinely a relief when the guy is finally able to get up and walk out of the arena on their own power. It’s good he’s taken some time off after that one but, man, it was such a terrifying KO you always worry about a fighter coming back from that. Padilla’s 17-6-1 with 14 finishes and he’s unbeaten in the UFC so far. He beat Jai Herbert and Ismael Bonfim but went to a draw with MarQuel Mederos last time out. Ryan Kuse vs Marcio Barbosa is gonna have my attention. Never heard of Kuse. Looking him up he’s making his UFC debut, he’s 32 years old and he has a record of 10-2 with 7 finishes. A quick scan through his record and I see he lost a split decision to Cameron Smotherman (the guy who did the Flair Flop on the stage at the UFC 324 weigh ins earlier this year) back in 2024. Since then he’s only fought twice but he’s won both and he’s coming off a TKO win in April. It’s Barbosa I’m interested in. If you didn’t see his UFC debut on the Winnipeg show in April, he did this… One of the best one punch knockouts of the year by far for me that. A beauty. Poor Dennis Buzukja was out cold before he hit the deck and then his head bounced off the canvas a couple of times which is always rough to see. Barbosa is 28 years old and 18-2 with 17 finishes. We didn’t get to see him long last time but he came in the door with a bang. Definitely looking forward to seeing more of him if his debut was typical of his style. Could be a great addition to the Featherweight division. Gauge Young vs Stan Dorsainvil is a late change. Was supposed to be Young against Kody Steele but that went down the pan. Stan ‘The Drill’ Dorsainvil jumps in on short notice. Never seen nor heard of him before but apparently he’s 26 years old and 5-0 with 4 inside the distance. Not much out there on him but he’s coming off a third round TKO on a LFA card in May. Gauge ‘Gee Money’ Young is also 26 and he’s 11-3 with 7 finishes. He actually fought Quillan Salkilld on DWCS back in 2024, lost but did manage to go the distance. He lost his UFC debut against Evan Elder but has bounced back with a couple of wins over Maheshate Hayisaer and Thiago Moises. Jackson McVey vs Wes Schultz goes down in a clash some (me) are describing as ‘the most Wayne’s World fight in UFC history’. McVey AKA ‘The Moose’ is 27 years old and 7-2, all finishes. He went 0-2 and got subbed both times after debuting in the UFC but he did finally get in the win column and did us all a favour when he strangled Sedriques Dumas in about two minutes last time out in April. Schultz is 30 years old, 9-3 with 8 finishes and he’s 1-1 so far in the UFC. Got chinned by Damian Pinas in his debut, then subbed Ben Johnston on the Perth card in May. Party on Wayne McVey, party on Garth Schultz. Shanelle Dyer vs Elise Reed kicks off the night on the prelims. Nothing to really go out of your way to see but Dyer’s British and I vaguely recall thinking she looked decent in her UFC debut on the London card in March. She’s 25 years old and 7-1 with 5 wins coming by KO or TKO. Her only loss was on DWCS last September but she got straight in the UFC off the back of it anyway. She stopped Ravena Oliveira in the second round on the Evloev vs Murphy undercard at the O2. Reed’s been knocking about on the roster since 2021 now and she’s going nowhere. One of those fighters who just alternates between wins and losses nearly every fight and sticks around for years for some reason. She’s 33 years old, 8-5 and she lost to Denise Gomes by TKO in May 2025 and hasn’t fought since. Dyer needs to be winning fights like this without much bother if she’s gonna go on to bigger things. Better late than never. That’s UFC Sacramento…

Way late but finally caught up on everything 330. Happy to see Makhachev hold onto the belt. Wasn’t a FOTY contender or anything but I don’t think anyone with realistic expectations thought it would be. I enjoyed it for what it was although it’s definitely not a fight I’d be in a hurry to rewatch. I had Makhachev winning three or four rounds. Think I gave Garry the fourth and maybe one other round. The right man won. Not sure what to think though. It’s undeniable that Makhachev hasn’t been as exciting to watch since moving up to Welterweight. How much of that is the size factor or was this more a case of Garry just being an awkward guy to look good against? Remember, Shavkat couldn’t finish Garry either. Garry’s the only fighter in Shavkat’s career who wasn’t finished by him. But then Islam couldn’t get Maddalena out of there either, despite completely dominating him. So that does suggest he’s struggling a bit with the bigger guys at 170. He can still win obviously, just on his skills he’s good enough to beat these top Welterweights and hold onto the gold. He’s a special fighter. But it feels like we’re seeing him at the absolute limit here of what he can do and, unlike at 155 where it felt like nobody on the horizon could beat him, at 170 it feels like that first big loss isn’t too far away now. Garry didn’t embarrass himself but he didn’t exactly grab the bull by the horns either. It was one of those performances where he’ll watch it back and kick himself because it felt like he definitely could’ve done more. All the high fiving and glove touching and hugging was doing my bastard head in, to be honest. And this. Fuck me. Throw ‘em both in the bin. Wonder what’s next for Makhachev. It’s gotta be Carlos Prates or Michael Morales surely. They’re the two highest ranked fresh challengers at 170 now. Prates is ranked higher and probably deserves it more based on the quality of some of his wins. But then Morales did weigh in as the backup for this show and hit ‘championship weight’ so that has to count for something. It’s a funny situation because what I really wanna see is Prates and Morales against each other. I think that’s a much more exciting fight than either of them against Makhachev. But I don’t wanna see one of them eliminate the other from the title race either. In an ideal world we get to see Makhachev defend against one of them next (probably Prates), with the winner facing the other guy (Morales) after that. Only problem with that is Makhachev isn’t very active so those two would be required to sit out waiting for a while. I can actually see the UFC pushing for Prates vs Morales in the meantime now. It’d be a true number one contender fight and it’d almost be guaranteed to be fireworks. I definitely wouldn’t hate it. But it does feel like Makhachev should be defending against both of them. Wasn’t a fan of the Dern vs Robertson fight at all. Thought it was pretty awful to watch actually but fair play, I guess, Dern got the job done. It wasn’t Esparza vs Namajunas bad or Pena vs Pennington bad, but a bit shit nonetheless. If I can find a positive in it, Dern’s offensive takedowns seem to have improved. But then how much of that was just down to Robertson having nothing for her? I don’t even wanna be harsh on Robertson, she was clearly just out of her depth. I don’t think there’s much else she could’ve done. She was never gonna hang with Dern in a pure grappling match but my hope was that she could find a way to make it ugly and make a bit of a scrap of it at least. She couldn’t do anything though. The post-fight fallout has all been about this Din Thomas situation and it’s fucking weird to me. I always liked Din myself. Going all the way back to TUF 4, I felt like he was one of the more likeable guys on the show. Never made it past a certain level in the UFC but I always kind of rooted for him after TUF. Didn’t mind his analyst work either. But this? He’s came across as a complete and utter dickhead to the point I think I must’ve had him wrong all these years. To go on air immediately after the fight and throw Robertson under the bus the way he did was bullshit. It wasn’t like he was necessarily wrong when he said this was probably as far as she can go. I actually think he’s 100% correct on that. But that’s not something you just blurt out on the post-fight show the same night as your fighter just suffered her biggest loss. Then to retire from coaching so publicly. 1) Why did we need to hear that? And 2) that’s a conversation him and Gillian should’ve had behind closed doors, not him just announcing it live on television. He apologised after and it seemed genuine. But then Gillian was on Helwani’s show saying she didn’t accept his apology because she had reason to believe it wasn’t genuine based on comments he’d made to her team. And now just days later, Din’s already saying he’s considering cornering Sean Brady in his upcoming fight in November. Seriously? So he’s not ‘retired’. He’s just abandoned Robertson at her lowest point. There’s no way to dress it up. He’s handled it like a right cunt. What can you even say about the Jalin Turner fight? Christ. I was expecting a fun standup fight there but it was all done and dusted in 39 seconds. Just bulldozed him quick. Considering Turner actually retired a few years back due to mental health issues, it’s great to see him seemingly back on track now. Undeniably talented and he’s got obvious physical gifts being as big as he is for Lightweight. Not sure what his ceiling is but if his mind is right there’s no reason he can’t potentially go on a bit of a run. Plenty of fun fights to be made with him at 155. Imagine him against Fiziev? Stoltzfus subbing Abdul Malik was a bit of a surprise just because it really felt like almost an ideal rebound fight for Malik after that loss to Yousri Belgaroui last time out. I think it’s clear this fight was put together with the intention of it being a squash match to get Malik back on track. Stoltzfus obviously didn’t get the memo. Yeah, I seem to remember they were bigging him up something fierce in the Belgaroui fight as well and he got messed up. Nothing against Malik but for some reason it seems pretty obvious he was one of those ‘chosen ones’ the UFC were expecting big things from right out the gate and it was almost like the commentators were given the nudge to really push him as something special. It’s harsh but I always find it a little bit satisfying when that goes tits up. Ribovics vs Barboza was sadly predictable. Barboza took a beating and got stopped by a guy who, in my opinion, would’ve been tailor made for a younger Barboza to style on in his prime. And I like Ribovics. Exciting fighter. But a younger, fresher and sharp Barboza was lethal and I think he would’ve capitalised on Ribovics’ aggression and lack of defence in brutal fashion back then. In 2026 though? Hopefully the retirement sticks. Right now he’s making all the right noises that he’s done. He’s confirmed this week that he’s been partially blind in one eye since the Lerone Murphy training camp in 2024. So that explains the dodgy looking eye I’ve been mentioning in the previews for his last few fights. He’s even gone as far as to urge promoters not to contact him or make him any offers. Hopefully the blood sucking ghouls respect his wishes and leave him the fuck alone. He’s saying the only competition he’d be open to is grappling. He’ll probably be more interested in BJJ matches but maybe with the emergence of RAF, that’s another outlet for him. Just don’t take another punch or kick for the rest of your life please Edson. Loved watching him up until these last few years. As far as pure striking in MMA goes, his had to be some of the most aesthetically pleasing and beautiful to watch in the game. Chidi Njokuani vs Joel Alvarez was a bit flat and disappointing, I thought. Nice win for Chidi though but I thought Alvarez looked bad here. He did jump in on short notice so maybe that was a factor but, I don’t know, I expected more from him here. Just felt like he didn’t play to his strengths and Chidi was able to just work at his own pace and comfortably outpoint him on the feet. I say it a lot on here and he’s wildly hit and miss results-wise, but Charles Johnson is fucking quality! Win or lose there almost always seems to be some wacky entertaining shite going on in his fights. This time he goes and busts out the Scottish Twister… Funny how the Twister is becoming a slightly more regular thing now. For years it was stuck at only three in UFC history (Zombie, Bryce, Blackshear). Now we’re at a point where we’ve seen the Scottish variation twice in the space of four months. And this after Charles himself lost via Suloev Stretch in his previous fight in June! Like I said, rarely a dull moment win or lose when it comes to Charles Johnson. This was a good little fight before the finish as well. Thought Chapolin looked a bit of a handful in spells and it’s worth remembering he stepped in on very short notice when Jose Ochoa dropped out. Looking forward to seeing more of him, just a shame his UFC debut ended with him on the wrong end of a highlight reel submission. As a Wandy fan, I appreciated Chapolin walking out to ‘Sandstorm’ as well. Warm fuzzy memories of Thai clinch demolitions and face stomping. Donte Johnson made short work of Eric McConico. Didn’t take him long to iron him out. Poor ref ate a stray elbow there for his troubles as well 🤣 nothing else really to say about this. My only other thought watching it was why couldn’t Johnson have done this to Sedriques Dumas when they fought instead of subbing him? Didn’t pay enough attention to the Tresean Gore vs Vicente Luque fight but it was Gore’s best win of his career to date by far. Even with Luque not being the same fighter, in my opinion, since the brain injury. Because he can’t be can he? Gore losing a couple of teeth from Luque’s knee was grim stuff. Gore indeed. Neil Magny once again refuses to fuck off. What an absolute trooper. 39 years old, shit ton of miles on the clock, takes on anyone the matchmakers throw at him and here he is again putting a whooping on a younger guy after surviving everything he could dish out. I think I said in the opening post that Brahimaj was the kind of level of opposition Magny can usually still beat so it wasn’t a surprise that he won in itself. But you’ve got to respect the man’s durability and gameness to still go out there and finish some of these guys who, in theory, should probably be beating him at this stage. Jeremiah Wells pulled off a hell of a win over Myktybek Orolbai in the Fight Pass curtain jerker. Apparently he was the biggest betting underdog on the card and Orolbai seemed to be cruising to a decision going into that last round. Then Wells pulls out the ninja choke deep into the third and puts Orolbai to sleep. Mad stuff. Not sure why this fight was as far down the card as the opening prelim in the first place. Imagine if this was the main card opener or even the featured prelim before the main card started? Wasn’t a barnburner of a fight as a whole but that finish deserved more eyeballs. Oh yeah, one last thing. Thought this was interesting. The fact they showed him on camera during a big card, with his name on screen and everything, all but confirms they’ve got Usman signed and locked in doesn’t it? I’m expecting his UFC debut to be announced for that Abu Dhabi PPV in October any day now.

This one’s just around the corner. ECW Country. Rocky Balboa Country. ‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier Country. The Octagon is back in Philly… PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD Islam Makhachev©️vs Ian Garry - Welterweight Title Mackenzie Dern©️vs Gillian Robertson - Strawweight Title Jalin Turner vs Kaue Fernandes Mansur Abdul-Malik vs Dustin Stoltzfus Edson Barboza vs Esteban Ribovics PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS Chidi Njokuani vs Joel Alvarez Charles Johnson vs Eduardo Chapolin Donte Johnson vs Eric McConico Jr Vicente Luque vs Tresean Gore FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Rafael Tobias vs Lucas Fernando Neil Magny vs Ramiz Brahimaj Jeremiah Wells vs Myktybek Orolbai Deary me. Not the deepest of cards at all. I was actually holding off making this thread because I thought it couldn’t be the finished card. I thought they must be about to add something significant any day now. But it’s fast approaching now and nothing. I think this is it lads. Michael Morales was teasing a fight on this show and there were rumours of him possibly facing Carlos Prates or Yaroslav Amosov, either of which would’ve been fantastic additions to this card and it would’ve made sense to load up the card with top Welterweights just in case. Doesn’t look like there was any truth to that though and Morales is just training because he’s the official backup for the main event. Sean Brady is actually from Philly and said he was supposed to be on this card but there was nobody for him to fight. Njokuani was supposed to fight Geoff Neal but Neal just dropped out. Fucking shambles. I do like the main event but even then it’s unlikely to be an exciting fight. Hopefully this card surpasses the low expectations everyone seems to have. It’s not looking great on paper. Islam Makhachev vs Ian Garry. Here we go then. I’ll say right now I’m not expecting a barnburner, FOTY contender type thing here. But it’s a really intriguing fight on paper when you get thinking about it. How their styles match up, Makhachev still adjusting to 170, Garry’s size etc. As great as Makhachev is, probably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport at the moment, he’s still new to the Welterweight division and we’ve never seen him have to deal with someone of Garry’s height, overall size and awkwardness. It’s gonna be very interesting to see how this all unfolds on the night. Also, a side note, hopefully we won’t need the official backup but I’m reading that Michael Morales will be making 170lbs just in case one of these two drop out. Makhachev became a two weight UFC champion back in November. His run at Lightweight speaks for itself. Wasn’t the all time best reign because circumstances messed things up at times, like when he had to fight a lesser challenger like Renato Moicano due to Tsarukyan pulling out. But overall, he was a beast at 155. Wins over Arman Tsarukyan, Dan Hooker, Bobby Green, Charles Oliveira to win the title, Alexander Volkanovski twice, Dustin Poirier and then the Moicano squash match. He moved up to 170 on the MSG card back in November and became Welterweight champion with a complete one way traffic decision over then champ Jack Della Maddalena. Exploited his lack of wrestling, took him down repeatedly and just rinsed him on the scorecards to a 50-45, five round shutout. It was an impressive performance given that he was making his Welterweight debut, but it also has to be taken into account that JDM’s defensive wrestling wasn’t up to snuff either. So really, it was a favourable stylistic matchup for Makhachev. This Garry one, I don’t think it’s as straightforward. There was a lot of talk after his win over JDM that we might get the big Makhachev vs Ilia Topuria ‘superfight’ on the White House card in June. It definitely seems like it was in the plans at one point. But for whatever reason, it wasn’t to be. And as much as I liked the idea of that fight, it would’ve been better at 155 if it was gonna happen at all. I don’t think Topuria has any business at 170. There were also a few rumblings of a possible Makhachev vs Kamaru Usman title fight, which baffled me to be honest. I’m glad that silliness didn’t amount to anything. I think Garry’s a much more interesting fight for Makhachev and probably the first serious, true test for him at 170. When the fight was first announced, there was some speculation about it possibly being Makhachev’s retirement fight. Not sure where that came from but he’s shot it down anyway. “I’m not retiring after beating Ian Garry. It’s not going to stop at a 17 fight win streak. It’ll be much more. I have to beat Ian Garry to beat Anderson Silva’s record.” - Islam Makhachev Interesting. He’s obviously referring to Anderson’s 16 fight UFC win streak starting with his complete demolition of Chris Leben in his Octagon debut in 2006 and finishing with the Stephan Bonnar squash on the UFC Rio card in 2012. As I type this, Makhachev and Silva hold the record for the longest winning streaks in UFC history at 16 apiece. So a win over Garry here puts Makhachev at the top of that table. I hadn’t even realised that stat was a thing until now. I’m a huge fan of Anderson but it’d be pretty cool if Makhachev can break that record. And he’s already kind of bettered Anderson’s streak in a way because, while they both went on a run of wins in two divisions during their streaks, Makhachev actually became champ in both weight classes. Like I said though, Garry’s no pushover. 17-1 record with the only loss coming against Shavkat Rakhmonov. Has wins over Daniel Rodriguez, Neil Magny, Geoff Neal, MVP, Carlos Prates and Belal Muhammad. Not bad at all. I’m not a fan really. There’s something off about him personality-wise and I find him quite dull to watch in the cage more often than not. But he’s not an easy man to beat and he’s even harder to look good against. Still only 28 years old as well, six years younger than Makhachev and probably at his physical peak right now. He’s 6’3” to Makhachev’s 5’10” and he has four inches of reach on him. He’s a legit Welterweight who could easily fight at Middleweight. There’s no way he could make 155, which is where Makhachev has fought almost all of his career. So even just size-wise, this is a real test for Makhachev on paper. Then you factor in that he’s not easy to take down. The UFC website has his takedown defence listed as 80%, although for context I don’t think many of his opponents in the UFC have really pushed him in that area. He did defend a few against Belal last time out though. I don’t think Belal actually completed one takedown on him but I don’t remember him shooting that much either. That fight wasn’t good to watch so it’s kind of a blur in my memory already and it only happened in November. As usual, despite being a bit of a bore bell to bell, Garry’s talking a big game. “I was told I was next in January, there were talks in April, then there was an official offer put out for May 9th, which he turned down. It was no, no, no. The UFC spoke to me about how they needed to do their due diligence and put on one of the biggest fights they possibly could, which was Ilia vs Islam at the White House. Islam turned it down to my knowledge. And here we are. The right fight has been made. The fight that should be fought. And we get it on August 15th, my friend. Islam only fights once a year. His next defence might be July 2027. The Welterweight division is the greatest it’s ever been. When I’m the champion, there’s gonna be more activity, more high-level fights. It’s the best thing for the sport.” “I have nothing but love and respect for Islam Makhachev and the body of work that he’s done in the UFC is unbelievable. When I fight Islam on August 15th, I’m gonna dismantle him. And when I do, there’s no doubt I’ll be the greatest fighter on the planet. Islam has never faced anyone as tall, long and fast as me. Bring your takedowns, I’ll prove you can’t submit me, I’ll dominate on the ground and take that title. I want a fourth round finish. I don’t want an early knockout because then there’s ifs, buts and excuses. I want four rounds of domination and in that fourth round I’m going to finish him. I’m going to take his head clean off his shoulders. I’m going to bounce him on his skull. I’m going to take his title, I’m going to take his throne and I’m going to finish that consecutive win streak. I’ll always be the guy that stopped history from happening.” - Ian Garry Christ. Like I said, talks a good game. And I’m not even saying he can’t win this fight. But fuck me, he goes on like this before every fight only to stick and move and do the bare minimum to win on points most of the time. Maybe he’ll up his game here and pull something out of the bag, because let’s face it he’s probably gonna need to. But I’m not buying these wolf tickets from him anymore. The soundbites in the pre-fight promo packages never match what you see once the cage door closes. But all that said, again, I’m not discounting the fact that he could be a tricky fight for Makhachev to actually win. Another little side story that’s worth a mention here, is Garry recently signed with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom’s talent agency. Obviously he’s not gonna be boxing on Eddie’s shows, not for the foreseeable future anyway, but like Tom Aspinall, he’s being represented by Eddie now. It sounds like a different situation to the Aspinall one though. I don’t think there’s any rift between Garry and the UFC. He’s just trying to raise his profile. Either way though, we know Eddie’s doing all this mostly to annoy Dana. Maybe Garry gains from it though. Pinch of salt but Eddie’s claiming that Aspinall has made $1 million outside the UFC since he signed with Matchroom. I’m not sure how but that’s his claim. I know Tom’s started a podcast recently but an extra million? I guess even just having Hearn talking you up in interviews is a plus though. Say what you want about him but he’s always had the gift of the gab and, in just a matter of months, he’s already been promoting Aspinall and Garry better than Dana has in years. “We won’t be having dealings with the UFC regarding Ian Garry. That contract is set, he’s got his fight coming up. It’s very different to the Tom Aspinall scenario. I didn’t feel that this was a confrontational signing. I know people like to run the narrative…this has got nothing to do with it.” “I look at Ian Garry as a potential superstar of sport. And I’m building a representation agency of great athletes with high commercial power and demand. Ian sits within that mould. I looked at this guy for a long time. I love his spirit. I love his personality. He’s a tall, good looking guy who speaks incredibly well and I’ve long felt that this is a guy that I actually think has the attributes to be a superstar. I couldn’t be happier. These guys, they get it. Ian Garry has the potential to be a crossover star.” - Eddie Hearn That’s a lot of words when a simple “Fuck you Dana” would’ve sufficed, Edward. Seriously, it’s pretty mad to think that we might be just weeks away from Eddie Hearn managing both the UFC Heavyweight and Welterweight champions, isn’t it? I’m not sure it means a whole lot in reality and I can’t see him getting too involved in Garry’s affairs. But I’m sure it’s gonna become more of an annoyance to Dana once the Aspinall UFC return is officially set and Eddie’s sticking his beak in. Imagine Eddie at the press conference with Aspinall, with Dana up on the stage? That would be the first UFC presser I’d tune in for in a while. Anyway, I’ve gone on long enough. How do we see this one playing out then? I don’t know what to think. When the talk of it first started up late last year after Makhachev’s win over JDM, my initial, knee jerk reaction was that Makhachev probably grapples Garry into oblivion without much hassle. I’m still leaning towards a Makhachev win but the more I think about it, the trickier and less straightforward it seems. As much as I like JDM, he really was lacking that key ingredient of defensive wrestling which is obviously crucial against Makhachev. And as such, I’m not sure how much of a test he actually was for Makhachev’s debut at 170. Do we really know much more about Welterweight Makhachev now than we did before that fight? And for all my criticism of Garry being a dullard in the cage, he finds ways to win, he’s not a guy who makes a lot of mistakes and part of the reason he’s often dull is because he’s perfectly fine and content with dragging opponents into snoozfests if it means he comes out with the win by hook or crook. For all his serial killer talk, it seems like he doesn’t even necessarily care that much about getting finishes, and certainly not about having entertaining fights, he just wants to get the W, by any means necessary. A guy like that is hard to beat. So yeah, might not be an exciting fight to watch but I can see it being one of those engrossing tactical battles on the night. I really hope Makhachev wins. I just can’t take to Garry and, while the JDM fight wasn’t a thriller, Makhachev in general has been incredible to watch over the years. I’d like to see him make history and for his streak to continue. Mackenzie Dern vs Gillian Robertson is our co-main event. Yeah, not the strongest but whatever. I don’t actually hate the fight itself. I think it could be quite interesting, especially if they both come in with the mindset of proving a point in the grappling. But as co-main on a numbered event, despite it being for the title, it does feel piss weak. Feels like an Apex main event masquerading as a title fight, doesn’t it? Oh well. I don’t mind the fight and we’re not paying any extra for it so it doesn’t really make any odds to me. Mackenzie Dern became Strawweight champion at UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi back in October. She beat Virna Jandiroba by decision to win the vacant belt after Zhang Weili relinquished it to move up a weight class in an attempt to dethrone Flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko. That didn’t work out well for Zhang at all and I was fully expecting her to drop back to Strawweight to reclaim her title but there’s been no updates on Zhang really since the loss to Shev. It was actually nice to see Dern get to hold UFC gold. Circumstances worked in her favour, I don’t think she’d have ever been champ had Zhang stayed in that division. But fair play to Dern. She’s surpassed what I thought she was capable of. She had her moments in the UFC before but there’s always been that lack of consistency holding her back. She’s had her ups and downs but a couple of wins over Loopy Godinez and Amanda Ribas put her back in the conversation, then she made the most of that vacant title opportunity against Jandiroba and here we are. According to Dern, she was expecting her first defence to be against Zhang and she said the UFC were actually talking to her about that fight, with a bunch of possible dates discussed, but obviously nothing came of it and then Robertson got the call. “I don’t know. They were talking about Zhang Weili. They mentioned Macau, then the White House, then New Jersey, so I’m not sure what happened. I’m not sure what the deal with Weili is or what’s going on. I definitely wasn’t disappointed. I’d be excited to fight her but I don’t feel any pressure to do so. It would be an honour and I’d really like to test myself. It would be amazing to beat her. But if I have six more months, or however many title fights I can get in, to keep getting better and be even more prepared to fight her, I’m excited for that.” - Mackenzie Dern She’s also had a fair bit to say about Robertson. I was a little bit surprised, to be honest. When this fight was announced I thought it was decent enough but I didn’t think there’d be any kind of needle between them or anything resembling trash talk. Seems like there’s something brewing there though and it all seems to be about the grappling. “I think she has good submissions against MMA girls. I don’t think she’d be able to hang with my training partners. I don’t see Gillian having that level of Jiu-Jitsu. I don’t even know what belt she is. But she has beaten girls who have beaten me. I’ve lost to white belts before in MMA. But I don’t think it would be smart for her to get involved in a Jiu-Jitsu exchange with me.” “I’d definitely like to submit her. Even before I was champion, she was comparing herself to me, saying she has more submissions than I do and things like that. She’s built this reputation around being the best submission artist, and I feel like she’s thrown a little shade at me or downplayed everything I’ve accomplished in Jiu-Jitsu. Almost like I’m not an elite grappler. So yeah, I’d love to submit her.” “It would be crazy if she didn’t respect me. She has a lot of submissions but I’ve never seen her in IBJJF tournaments, ADCC or the World Pro events. That said, she probably just believes in herself. I think she has more MMA fights than I do, so maybe she believes her Jiu-Jitsu translates better to MMA. That’s fine with me. I’m ready for everything.” - Mackenzie Dern I like it. And yeah, of course Dern is on a different level when it comes to pure grappling. Any woman in the division who finds themselves getting into a full on grappling battle with Dern is probably gonna get tied in knots. And I’m including Zhang Weili in that. But she touches on it there, there’s a difference between pure BJJ and MMA grappling. And that’s where this gets interesting for me because Robertson is good at mixing in effective strikes with her grappling. That can be a game changer. Robertson is Canadian, 31 years old, has a record of 17-8 with 12 finishes and she’s currently on a five fight winning streak. She’s a solid fighter and one of the few I’ve enjoyed watching in the women’s game over the last few kind of dead years. But I’d be lying if I said I ever thought she’d challenge for the title. Credit to her though. She kept grafting away and it’s paid off. Her last five fights have consisted of a TKO over Polyana Viana, decisions over Michelle Waterson and Luana Pinheiro, a TKO over Marina Rodriguez, and a points win over Amanda Lemos in her last fight in March. OK, hardly a murderer’s row but there isn’t the depth for a monster run of wins in this division anyway. And looking at the current Strawweight rankings, if Zhang wasn’t gonna be available for whatever reason, Robertson probably had the strongest case for the title shot. She’s had her own shit to say as well… “I knew that Weili was definitely in the talks if she was coming back and I do think she deserved the spot before me. Obviously, things didn’t work out that way. I expected the call. I’ve been waiting for it to happen. I knew that as long as Weili wasn’t in the picture, it was my shot. I was just waiting for it. It just feels like it’s time. Honestly, the belt doesn’t matter as much as it is about my performance. If I go out there and I don’t perform good, but I win the belt, I won’t be completely content.” “I don’t take anything away from her Jiu-Jitsu accomplishments. I’m sure she trains with a lot of high-level girls that train Jiu-Jitsu. But they’re not elbowing her in the face like I will. Once it starts getting to a higher level, and it’s MMA, she’s had issues. She’s not been able to get the fight where she needs it to be. It’s an issue in MMA in general. A lot of people are training either striking, wrestling or Jiu-Jitsu, which she’s obviously doing, separating the sports so much. She’s not well-versed enough in her striking to set up her shots, and it’s just kind of reckless.” - Gillian Robertson Again, I like it. And I’m more invested in this fight now than I was before I read these quotes. I think Gillian raises some points there that are pretty bang on criticisms of Dern’s game. She’s always wide open to being cracked with something and seems to just rely on creating messy exchanges on the feet and then hopefully ending up on the ground in the chaos. We’ve seen that backfire on her spectacularly in the past, like when she got smashed all over the Octagon by Jessica Andrade. She’s clearly got her flaws. The thing is, I’m not sure Robertson has the skill set to capitalise on it. She’s not the best striker herself and if it ends up being a ground battle, Dern should have a significant advantage. There’s just enough doubt there for me though. I could see a scenario where Robertson makes it a rough, ugly fight and hurts Dern, which could change things in the grappling. We’ve seen decorated BJJ champs get subbed by MMA fighters who, on paper, were inferior grapplers a few times in the past. Throwing elbows and punches into the mix can make a big difference and I’d say Robertson is actually better at that than Dern. I don’t know. Gonna have to lean towards Dern I think. But I wouldn’t be massively shocked if Robertson pulls it off either. Regardless, the winner is dropping the strap to Zhang aren’t they? Jalin Turner vs Kaue Fernandes is gonna go under the radar but I think it might actually be a bit of a sleeper on this card. Turner’s had his ups and downs in the UFC and at one point briefly retired from the sport citing mental health issues. He had some decent wins early in his UFC run over guys like Uros Medic and Brad Riddell but hit a few stumbling blocks after that. He had some bad luck along the way as well. He narrowly lost a split decision in a banger of a fight against Dan Hooker in 2023 and he’s been a bit all over the place since. He’s never boring though. He’s coming into this fight off a first round TKO win over a shot Edson Barboza in December. I don’t put much stock in that win given Barboza’s current form but it got Turner back in the win column and was probably the confidence booster he needed. Brazil’s Fernandes is 11-2 with 8 finishes and he’s on a three fight winning streak. He beat Guram Kutateladze last March, which was a good win for him, then destroyed Harry Hardwick with leg kicks on the Paris card in September. I like this pairing a lot. Mansur Abdul-Malik vs Dustin Stoltzfus. Not sure why this is on the main card but whatever. Might be worth a look just to see how Malik rebounds from his first loss. He’s 28 years old, 9-1-1 with a 100% finish rate and I remember him being quite heavily favoured going into his last fight against Yousri Belgaroui in March. Or at least it seemed that way. Most of the fan talk about that fight that I saw going in was pro Malik and on the night I seem to recall the commentators were hyping up Malik and seemed to be expecting big things from him. Belgaroui fucked him up though and stopped him in the third round. Not the end of the world for Malik and he’s still young enough to get back on track. But it’s all about how he handles it from here. Stoltzfus is definitely the kind of opponent you’d expect any prospect worth a shit to roll over. So, on paper, this feels very much like the matchmakers throwing Malik a bone and trying to rebuild him. Stoltzfus is 34 years old, 16-8, has lost 7 of his last 10 fights and is coming off a loss to past it Kelvin Gastelum. There’s no reason for Malik to lose a fight like this. In theory it’s the ideal bounce back for him. Edson Barboza vs Esteban Ribovics. Ah man. If we somehow had a time machine and could transport the Barboza of 2012 to 2026, this would be my nailed on ‘one to watch’ and my pick to win the FOTN bonus. Even now, it’s not gonna be boring. But Barboza just looks shot to bits to me at this stage of his career. He’s 40 years old now, he’s been at it since 2009, he’s had a bunch of hard fights and he hasn’t looked right to me in a few years now. He’s coming into this fight off the back of three straight losses and I’ve mentioned it before but, look at that picture of him, there’s clearly something going on with his eye. He got bashed up in about two minutes by Jalin Turner last time out and he just looked like a man who had nothing left. Genuinely sad to see a fighter who was so explosive and full of energy in his heyday looking so flat and lifeless. Ribovics is probably gonna stop him. He’s not the best fighter and I don’t think he’d have been able to cope with a young, prime Barboza. But timing is key in combat sports and he’s 30 years old and aggressive. I just feel like this is bad news for Barboza. I like Ribovics too, he’s been pretty consistently entertaining to watch. But I’ve got no desire to see Barboza keep taking beatings out there. Even if he wins this one, it’s not good news because that just means they’re gonna throw him out there again, probably against a tougher opponent. Pull the plug Edson, for fuck’s sake. Chidi Njokuani vs Joel Alvarez got added less than two weeks out from the show. Njokuani was originally booked against Geoff Neal here but Neal dropped out. This is actually probably a better fight, in my opinion. It’s not a fight that’s gonna impact the rankings or anything and both are coming off losses. But the fight itself should be entertaining enough. Njokuani is 37 now, no spring chicken, and he’s 25-12-0-1 with 16 finishes. He was on a little three fight win streak not too long ago but he’s lost to Jake Matthews and Carlos Leal in his last couple of fights. Spain’s Alvarez is 33 years old, has a record of 23-4 and 22 of those wins came inside the distance. He’s not tippy top level and he’s lost when he’s stepped in with that next level of opposition, but he’s a solid fighter, a true finisher and he’s fun to watch. He got absolutely schooled and subbed by Yaroslav Amosov in his last fight in May so he’s out for redemption here. He should win. Only thing giving me doubts is the x-factor of the short notice. Charles Johnson vs Eduardo Chapolin is a last minute switch up. Johnson was supposed to face Jose Ochoa here, which was my ‘one to watch’ on a card not exactly flush with great fights. Typical. Don’t know anything about this Chapolin fella. Looked him up now and apparently he’s 30 years old and 15-2 with 11 finishes. He’s fought in LFA, was on TUF last year and he’s coming off a points win on DWCS back in September. He’s stepping in on literally just a few days notice. On the surface you’d think Johnson should be winning here. He’s been in with a much higher level of opposition overall and actually has knockout wins over Lone’er Kavanagh and current Flyweight champ Joshua Van. But he’s also wildly inconsistent so it’d be just like him to lose a fight like this. Fuck knows? Donte Johnson vs Eric McConico Jr. No real opinion on this, just prelim filler. Johnson’s undefeated at 8-0 with 7 finishes though. He got a quick finish on DWCS last August, made his UFC debut in November and submitted scumbag Sedriques Dumas, then beat Cody Brundage by decision in March this year. That’s the one that made me lose faith in him though. Brundage is arse and Johnson somehow not only failed to finish him, he only scraped a split decision? McConico’s 36 with a record of 11-4-1. He’s gone 2-2 in the UFC so far. He also only managed a split decision over Brundage, got chinned by Nursulton Ruziboev and Baisangur Susurkaev in his two losses and he’s coming off a points win over Rodolfo Vieira in his last fight in April. Yeah, not much to this. Vicente Luque vs Tresean Gore isn’t really grabbing me. Not a bad fight but I don’t know. I’m a broken record at this point but I’m still uncomfortable watching Luque fight after the brain haemorrhage a few years back. He’s taken some punishment since then as well. Just an uneasy feeling watching him. He did get a win last time out, subbing Kelvin Gastelum on the Miami card in April. But Gastelum looks done himself so there isn’t much you can read into a win like that. Gore’s a guy Luque should beat really, even at this stage. He had a bit of hype on him coming off TUF years ago but it hasn’t exactly panned out for him. He’s 6-4 overall now and 3-4 in the UFC. Funny little stat on him is that all three of his UFC wins have came by guillotine choke. He’s had some nasty ones. Definitely his finishing move and he put Azamat Bekoev away with one in his last fight. And Luque loves his D’Arces and anaconda chokes. Pretty high chance this fight ends via some kind of choke either way. Luque should get it done though. Rafael Tobias vs Lucas Fernando. No idea. I only remember Tobias at all because his nickname is ‘Bipolar’. He’s 23 years old and 14-2 with 11 finishes. Made his UFC debut on the Oliveira vs Holloway undercard in March and lost a decision to Diyar Nurgozhay in a fight I know I watched but already have no recollection of. Fernando is making his first Octagon appearance here. He’s 29 years old with a 13-3 record and 9 inside the distance. He’s got a couple of losses to current UFC fighters Cesar Almeida and Azamat Bekoev but comes into this fight off a four fight winning streak in LFA. Neil Magny vs Ramiz Brahimaj is whatever. Not a bad bit of matchmaking but it doesn’t move me one way or the other. Magny’s been a hell of a gatekeeper/litmus test on the UFC roster over the years but it’s gotta be coming to an end soon surely. He turns 39 just before this fight and has a record of 31-14. He’s beat some names over the years as well like Kelvin Gastelum, Hector Lombard, Johny Hendricks, Carlos Condit, Li Jingliang, Robbie Lawler and Geoff Neal. I think people forget he doesn’t just lose to established guys. He’s had his moments. Although of course some of those names were in career slumps at the time, it’s still not a bad list of wins for any fighter to have on their record, is it? In recent years though, the losses have became more frequent and the level of wins he’s been able to achieve have been less impressive. We last saw him at the Apex in December, getting squished by a debuting Yaroslav Amosov. He’s still only losing to top guys. His last few defeats were Amosov, Carlos Prates, Michael Morales and Ian Garry. No shame there. But he’s surely winding down now. How long does he wanna keep doing this? Brahimaj is a guy Magny might still beat though. He’s 13-6 and coming off a decision loss to Punahele Soriano back in February. He’s not terrible from what I remember but my memory of him is hazy. This is the level Magny usually beats though so if he loses this one, I think it’d be a pretty clear indicator that he’s on the slide. Jeremiah Wells vs Myktybek Orolbai is a decent enough fight, to be fair. I don’t particularly rate Wells but whatever. He’s 39 years old and 13-4-1, coming off a decision win over Themba Gorimbo at the Apex back in November. Orolbai is always worth tuning in for though. He’s somehow only 28 years old, despite looking like a grizzled old samurai, and he’s 16-2-1 with 13 of his wins not making it to the scorecards. He’s gone 5-1 so far in the UFC since making his debut in late 2023, with the only loss being by split decision against Mateusz Rebecki in an absolute bloodbath. Aside from that, he nearly twisted Uros Medic’s head off his neck in his debut, beat Elves Brener on points, subbed Tofiq Musayev, ironed out Jack Hermansson and took a decision off Chris Curtis last time out in March. The Curtis one wasn’t much good, Orolbai just dominated. But the rest were all a lot of fun to watch. Hopefully more of the same here. That’s our lot.

Thought I’d whack a separate thread up for this rather than put it in random news or whatever. Looking like Kevin Lee might be headed back to the UFC.

Just seen this and it doesn’t seem right to just lump news like this in with fight announcements and things like that. Khabib’s father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, has sadly died after a battle with COVID. Awful news. He’s been in poor health for weeks but the last I’d read it seemed like he was slowly on the mend. Bit more on it here; https://www.rt.com/sport/493686-abdulmanap-nurmagomedov-dead-khabib-ufc-covid-19/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Don’t think we have a thread for this, do we? Title is self explanatory. Thought we could use this thread to share info on any upcoming docs and also talk about old ones. And of course, feel free to link to videos if you can find them. Thought I’d include Boxing as well so they don’t just get lost in the massive Boxing thread. Anyway, this is what triggered this topic. ESPN are doing a special E:60 documentary on Daniel Cormier. There’s a few little preview clips out already and it looks amazing. Helwani tweeted this... And this bit was tough to watch; Hopefully we’ll get it shown in some form, somewhere.