UFC on Fuel TV: Gustaffson vs. Silva

[The Natural]

**SPOILERS**

 

 

 

 

Very good main card. Pickett vs. Page was Fight of the Night, Maguire countering the Kimura applied on him by Johnson into the fight winning armbar was a fine move, Silver/Nunes was close and Paulo Thiago face planted as he was knocked out cold by Bahadurzada. In the co main event Brian Stann knocked out Alessio Sakara while in Sakara's guard. Stann stopped knowing Sakara was out, class act and Alexander Gustaffson beat Thiago Silva with ease in the main event. UFC on Fuel is 2/2 for good shows.

[twelve_grand]

Was the Pickett fight on facebook? Expected it to open up the ESPN broadcast but nowhere to be seen?

[wandshogun09]

Was the Pickett fight on facebook? Expected it to open up the ESPN broadcast but nowhere to be seen?

 

It wasn't on ESPN? That's an odd move. It was defo on the main card so it should have been on ESPN. I watched it on ufc.tv cos I was in anyway and didn't wanna wait till ESPN showed it later. Pickett vs Page was on the FUEL and ufc.tv versions.

 

If you wanna watch it you can still see it on ufc.tv for free. It's the first fight on the stream on there.

 

As for the show itself, I'll go ahead and declare this my favourite card of the year so far this year. At the very least joint first with the Brazil show in January.

 

Gustafsson vs Silva

I thought Gustafsson looked really good, he really looks comfortable in there now. I agree with Chokeout that Goldberg's Gustafsson/Jones comparisons were annoying after what seemed like the 20th reference in one round.

 

Only thing that concerns me with the Swede is he holds his chin very high sometimes. Apart from that, I like everything he does.

 

He's certainly an interesting match for Jon Jones, if for no other reason than his similar frame and reach. I'd say he's actually a better striker than Jones too. But Phil Davis showed that he is beatable and as much as Gustafsson's improved since then, with Jones' wrestling I still think he'd struggle there.

 

Thiago Silva looked pretty good too I thought. I didn't give him a round but he had his moments and he wasn't totally steamrolled. Considering the layoff I thought he looked alright and like they mentioned on commentary he was moving a lot better than we've seen in a few years. I think the time off has done him good both in healing injuries and hopefully scaring him off the PEDs.

 

Good fight.

 

I for one don't wanna see Gustafsson rushed into a title shot though. And he likely won't be with Hendo lurking for his shot. I'd throw him at Bader. They're both coming off the biggest win of their careers and Gustafsson can train for and fight a wrestler in preparation for either Jones, Evans or Hendo.

 

As much as I get why people are intrigued by Gustafsson vs Jones I'd hate to see them rush it before he's ready. I'd compare this win over Thiago to Jones' win over Bonnar. A dominant performance, showing lots of skills but a learning fight. A fight with a Bader or the original opponent Little Nog next makes sense to me.

 

Stann vs Sakara

This wasn't the comeback Sakara hoped for. Shame cos I've always liked him. His boxing is pretty good, offensively at least. His defence not so much and his chin hasn't always been the best either. That's a recipe for disaster against Stann.

 

Stann looked good, he usually does in a stand up fight though. Sakara had a perfect style for him to look good imo.

 

 

Classy move by Stann there. He stopped way before the ref jumped in. The KO just shows the kind of power Stann has, to put a guy out with that little distance is scary.

 

Siyar Bahadurzada vs Paulo Thiago

What can you say about this one?

 

 

Now that's how you make a UFC debut.

 

There's been a load of debuting guys that got quick KO's but to do it over someone like Thiago, who's KO'd Koscheck and been competitive with the likes of Fitch, Kampmann and Sanchez and never been even really rocked. And in 40 odd seconds, that's really impressive.

 

Siver vs Nunes

Thought this was an excellent fight. Great technical striking from both and it was pretty hard to pick a winner in all 3 rounds. Wouldn't have argued against either getting the nod.

 

Siver looked sharp at the weight too, it was a tough opponent to debut at 145 against aswell. Great fight.

 

Maguire vs Johnson

I fucking loved this. DaMarques has come a long way since his TUF days imo. He won't be fighting for the title anytime soon but his fights are always fun to watch and his grappling has come on a lot. That omaplata escape from Maguire was fantastic stuff.

 

I was glad to see Maguire win. I'd never seen him before UFC 138. Him and Justin Edwards was the fight I was least arsed about when I bought the ticket, but I thought it was the FOTN that night by the time I left the LG Arena.

 

Awesome grappling from both and I loved the finish. The old Hughes/St Pierre 1 finish, surprised they never mentioned that on commentary, especially as they said Hughes was one of Maguire's idols.

 

Brilliant fight, unless I'm forgetting something spectacular that was probably my favourite grappling match in MMA since Maia/MacDonald.

 

GYPSY JIU JITSU!!

 

Pickett vs Page

Perfect way to open the main card and a great way to bounce back for One Punch. A tremendous performance from him, probably the most complete of his career. His hands looked powerful, his takedowns were strong and then topping it off with a submission finish.

 

Page got off to a solid start as usual and seemed to be giving Pickett all he could handle for a bit. But Pickett had too much for him as the fight got deeper.

 

Glad to see Pickett pick his shots more carefully in this fight too. He looked pretty reckless against Barao and went into brawler mode.

 

Couple of other things;

 

-Thought the crowd were good on the whole. They were well into it. Wish they didn't boo so quickly at some points though.

 

-Rogan looks weird with no hair.

 

-What was up with the refs? Early stand ups galore. And not just the new refs either, I seem to recall Marc Goddard split the action up a bit prematurely in one fight (I forget which). And he's usually one of the better refs I reckon.

 

Really enjoyed the prelims aswell. Thoresen/Yousef, Carmont/Cedenblad and Madadi/Izquierdo were all really good. I'd never seen 5 of them 6 guys before either.

 

A fucking corker of a card. Just what the doc ordered after a long spell with no shows. Full of great fights, finishes, new fighters, a lively crowd. What more can you ask for?

 

Roll on next week. TEAM RASHAD.

[Bus Surfer]

Was the Pickett fight on facebook? Expected it to open up the ESPN broadcast but nowhere to be seen?

 

It was the first fight on the main card. ESPN might have just left it off because the football over-ran. I'm glad I watched the stream now.

 

Gustafsson looked good, but all these Jon Jones comparisons are a bit crazy. Goldberg was acting like he was the second coming of Jones. His footwork was great though, Doesn't he train with Dominick Cruz? You could see alot of it in his movement.

 

Stann's KO was something out of a UFC Undisputed game. Just weird. Scary, scary power. What a nice chap for apologising for battering Sakara senseless though. Ditto for Bahadurzada, I can't wait to see more of this guy. Pickett and Maguire both had some fun fights too.

 

Props to the crowd as well, they made a hell of alot of noise.

 

 

Edit. - Sorry Wand, those pics weren't up before I started my post.

[wandshogun09]

Bonuses were

 

KO Of The Night - Siyar Bahadurzada

Sub Of The Night - John Maguire

Fight Of The Night - Pickett vs Page

 

All got $50K. All deserving. Glad Maguire picked up SOTN, I thought that fight was just as good if not better than Pickett/Page myself.

[Kaz Hayashi]

Bonuses were

 

KO Of The Night - Siyar Bahadurzada

Sub Of The Night - John Maguire

Fight Of The Night - Pickett vs Page

 

All got $50K. All deserving. Glad Maguire picked up SOTN, I thought that fight was just as good if not better than Pickett/Page myself.

 

Me too, and at the time i though it would be tricky to beat it. Its the first time ive seen Maguire, and im looking forward to seeing more. Even the fact that he wears black and pink due to bret hart has pricked my ears up.

 

 

Class card overall, i wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was.

[The Natural]

Bonuses were

 

KO Of The Night - Siyar Bahadurzada

Sub Of The Night - John Maguire

Fight Of The Night - Pickett vs Page

 

All got $50K. All deserving. Glad Maguire picked up SOTN, I thought that fight was just as good if not better than Pickett/Page myself.

 

Can't argue with them. I liked Stann but I like him even more after his fight with Sakara knowing he was done, he stopped punching.

[Kaz Hayashi]

Bonuses were

 

KO Of The Night - Siyar Bahadurzada

Sub Of The Night - John Maguire

Fight Of The Night - Pickett vs Page

 

All got $50K. All deserving. Glad Maguire picked up SOTN, I thought that fight was just as good if not better than Pickett/Page myself.

 

Can't argue with them. I liked Stann but I like him even more after his fight with Sakara knowing he was done, he stopped punching.

 

 

See thats another thing, i 'try' not to like Stann. I have a tendancy to dislike the whole 'all american, pure patrionism' stuff, it just rubs me up the wrong way. I know its my problem, but it makes me cringe.

 

Anyway, Stann is the model of this persona, ex-marines, his nick name, and the way the commentators go on about him. When i hear he is fighting,i go in to auto mode and want his opposition to win, but fucking hell, as soon as he starts fighting, i cant help but buy in to it and get behind him. His post match interviews are always very well worded and... gasp... he seems like a good bloke.

[Snake Plissken]

Brian Stann is that good he can ref his own matches now lol. Also the last time Goldy did this second coming referencing was labelling Terry Etim the next Anderson Silva & looked how that turned out.

[hbk4life]

Gustafsson looked great. I hope they don't rush him into a title shot, let him have another couple of fights and grow even more as a fighter. I was thinking they should have the Nog match or if they want to push him up another level then maybe see how he does against Machida. But the Bader fight that Wand mentioned would be perfect. Davis showed the holes in Gustafsson's wrestling game, so it would be interesting to see how he far he's came in that aspect of his game against a really good wrestler like Bader. It's a fight Gustafsson should win and will give him extra experiance against a wrestler, which he'll need if he's going to be a real challenge to the top guys in the division. Personally I couldn't see him beating guys like Jones, Evans or Rua, but he's very talented and should be around a long time.

 

I really enjoyed the Maguire fight. I've never really liked Johnson, but he put in another good performance, the submission was excellent.

 

Bahadurzada bust my acca for the night, but I had a feeling he would. Hard to say much about him after such a short fight, but to do that to Thiago is impressive. I hope Thiago wins his next couple of fights, he's lost 3 of his last 4 so another loss could see him cut and I really like Thiago so hope that doesn't happen!

[Rey_Piste]

That was a pretty go show overall, Gypsy John's fight was good, with a great ground grappling game. The all american ex marine thing with Stann is annoying, but he's a great fighter, just the jingoistic stuff from Goldberg boils my piss. Gustaffson reminds me of Stefan Struve more than Jones and the continued comparisons were annoying as fuck. I'll have to check out the other fight that wasn't on the ESPN showing.

[METAL ON METAL]

Couldn't help but laugh at Simeon Thoresen on the prelims, said his idol was Jon Jones - a man four years younger than him.

[jimufctna24]

Good show.

 

Maguire was excellent against a solid contender in Johnson and a rareity in a British fighter whos main strength is the ground game, I look forward to seeing him again. Pickett also impressed me, very well rounded and looked a notch above Page everywhere the fight went. I think both will be on the Fuel card in the UK and will look forward to seeing them both, now Hardy is on the chopping block and Hathway's star not shining as brightly it is nice to see the UK having some new faces breaking through.

 

Gustaffson looked very good, Silva had his moments hurting Gustaffson in the second with a punch and landing some hard leg kicks but I had it 30-27 for Gustaffson in the end. Only Machida looked better against Silva than Gustaffson, Silva gave Rashad a scare and no one else has looked good against him. I look forward to seeing who Gustaffson fights next, maybe Shogun or Machida?

 

Stann vs Sakara was kinda procedure as it went exactly as I thought. Siyar Bahadurzada had a perfect debut, he has serious power.

 

EDIT: I agree on Bader being next, think that is perfect at this point. Gustaffson should beat him handily, also it would give us a look to see if Gustaffson TDD is up to par.

[wandshogun09]

I really hope they decide to do Thiago Silva vs Rampage next. That could be a great fight and it was meant to happen last year. I was gutted when it was cancelled.

 

I'd go

 

Jones/Rashad vs Hendo

Gustafsson vs Bader

Rampage vs T Silva

Shogun vs Machida 3

Little Nog vs Bonnar

[KingOfMetal]

I thought all UFC main events were 5 Rounds now. have I missed something? Or is it down to the Sweden sanctioning body?