UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs Arlovski - May 8th

[Egg Shen]

Thought Paul Felder came off great in the Countdown show, just a tough ass Philly kid who likes to scrap...the Cowboy friendship doesn't hurt either.

[Supremo]

CM Punk did a Q&A after the weigh ins. It was the usual weird, embarrassing awkwardness for the majority of it, but then at the end Daniel Cormier gate crashed it just to ask Punk about Seth Rollins' phone number.

 

Punk supposedly gave Seth's number to Dan yesterday, so Dan wanted confirmation that it was real. When Punk confirmed it was real Dan declared "then I'm calling him!" and walked off with the biggest smile on his face.

 

As a fan of both pro wrestling and MMA, it's physically impossible not to love Daniel Cormier.

[Egg Shen]

true that, i'll always say it but i never understood how anyone ever disliked Daniel Cormier.

 

oh and weigh in results...

 

MAIN CARD (FOX, 8 p.m. ET)

• Champ T.J. Dillashaw (135) vs. Renan Barao (135) – for bantamweight title
• Jessica Eye (136) vs. Miesha Tate (135.5)
• Edson Barboza (155) vs. Paul Felder (155.5)
• Takanori Gomi (155.5) vs. Joe Lauzon (155.5)

PRELIMINARY CARD (FOX, 6 p.m. ET)

• Tom Lawlor (203) vs. Gian Villante (205)
• Danny Castillo (155.5) vs. Jim Miller (155)
• Kenny Robertson (170) vs. Ben Saunders (170.5)
• Bryan Caraway (135.5) vs. Eddie Wineland (136)

PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 4:15 p.m. ET)

• Daron Cruickshank (155) vs. James Krause (155.5)
• Andrew Holbrook (155.5) vs. Ramsey Nijem (156)
• Jessamyn Duke (135.5) vs. Elizabeth Phillips (135)
• Zak Cummings (170.5) vs. Dominique Steele (170.5)

bit of confusion in the main event weigh-in, they ok'd Barao at 135.5 then realised that he needed to be on the dot at 135lb so he had to re-weigh. I actually think it was Dana who realised that he'd need to re-weigh.

[Supremo]

God bless Tom Lawler. Given no choice but to wear Reebok, he ended up coming out wearing five Reebok T-Shirts and three pairs of a Reebok shorts.

[Egg Shen]

I tuned in for the weigh-in to see what Lawlor would do. At first i was disappointed then i realised he was wearing his whole kit bag. Nice subtle way of sticking it to the UFC, well played sir.

[Fox Piss]

-

[Egg Shen]

if you have Fight Pass there's a Barao/Dillashaw Fight Flashback and a new min doc. on Dillashaw if your interested. They ain't gone up on the standard youtube channel.

[wandshogun09]

How do you lot see the main card going then?

 

Dillashaw - points

Tate - points

Felder - KO/TKO

Gomi - KO/TKO

 

Them are my picks. Gut feeling on all of them though really. I'm not confident in any of them and could easily see me going 4-0 or 0-4 there. It's one of them cards. The poll reflects that too really, all three fights are running fairly close vote-wise.

 

I don't know what it is, all logic style wise says Lauzon probably subs Gomi. But ever since that fight was announced I've just had this image of Gomi cracking him with one of those loopy haymakers.

 

Barboza vs Felder is a coin flip on paper. Both dangerous strikers. Just never too confident in Barboza's chin. I fancy Felder to catch him.

 

Tate vs Eye is a bit of a 50/50 too. Miesha probably should win. She's got the stronger overall game and she's definitely mixed at a higher level than Eye. If she grapples a lot I see her taking a decision. But she quite often gets dragged into slugfests and Eye's boxing is pretty solid. She already Mick Foley'd Leslie Smith's ear, Miesha should probably opt for the takedown IMO.

 

Dillashaw vs Barao I'm thinking TJ again but again, fuck knows? Whatever happens I think it'll be a lot more competitive this time. Barao got rattled early last time and looked out of sorts the rest of the fight. There could also be a case that he underestimated Dillashaw the first time (everyone did). I think we're in for a great fight tonight.

 

Really hoping Barao evens the score. A Dillashaw vs Barao trilogy is about all the division has going for it at the moment. Until Cruz comes back anyway. If he ever does again.

 

I'd love to see Barao win tonight setting up Barao vs Dillashaw 3 and Cruz vs Faber 3 in 2016. With the winners facing off ideally. Would be ace.

[Egg Shen]

Im hoping Eye wins. As much as i'd love to nail Meisha Tate her overly sexual approach to selling herself is starting to annoy me. It's smart but it's beginning to grate.

[wandshogun09]

What's she been doing that's overly sexual, other than just generally being fit? I'm not her biggest fan personality-wise but she's never really struck me as playing up the sexual stuff that much. She's done the photoshoots but that's part and parcel of Women's MMA, unless you're a munter.

 

Felice Herrig and Angela Magana - now there's two examples of trying too hard to go the 'sex sells' route. And neither is much to look at IMO.

 

I haven't kept up with the build up to this show at all sadly. Haven't watched Road To The Octagon or any Embedded yet. I should get a move on with that actually.

 

It's a shame we haven't discussed this show much because it's really good. I guess we're all still coming down from UFC 189.

[jimufctna24]

I only caught the main event, as my power went off for a few hours.

 

The only positive Barao can take from this evening  is that it gives him a perfect excuse to move up to Featherweight (which is the money division). Even with Aldo still operating at 145lbs, it must be time for Barao to move up.

 

I was reading a tweet from Jordan Breen which stated that Barao looked terrible during open workouts, and was clearly struggling with the weight-cut. According to Breen, he was "bone dry" and had no "energy"

[textonly]

TJ looked the absolute business there. Barao looked like a massively faded force, so either he's lost it completely (I doubt it), the weight cut has gotten way too much for him (probable) or TJ's just a horror match-up for him (also probably true). Either way, congrats to TJ for making a great fighter look second class. The slick movement, the accuracy of the strikes: it was a beautiful display.

 

I have to give it up to Miesha Tate. Six months ago I couldn't have been less interested in seeing her fight Ronda again, but she's done a bit of a Mendes, gone back and improved as a fighter, and now it's hard to begrudge her. She's doing what JDS was doing a while back and making herself the clear second best to the elite level champion. She made Jessica Eye look unbelievably green in there. Better Miesha goes on and loses in the fourth minute of the first round or something than Eye goes in there and loses in 12 seconds.

 

I loved watching Edson Barboza. It was a good fight, but I have to admit I was much like Joe Rogan in going ga-ga over the speed and power of his body kicks. Felder's side looked like minced meat. Felder was obviously gutted he lost the decision but I felt it was right. Probably a good lesson for the guy and his toughness showed. He'll be back to press on, you'd imagine. Nice to see Barboza asking for an opponent higher than him in the rankings. For a guy who's seemingly been up there for a while, he does seem to fight below himself a lot. It'd be nice to see him given a chance to slingshot himself up the rankings. Eddie Alvarez? Pettis maybe? I'd love to see either.

 

How about Joe Lauzon with a walk-off ground-and-pound knockout? I don't know what Herb Dean was doing but top stuff from Joe.

 

The prelims were pretty good too. Overall a very nice night of fights.

[Egg Shen]

TJ looked the absolute business there. Barao looked like a massively faded force, so either he's lost it completely (I doubt it), the weight cut has gotten way too much for him (probable) or TJ's just a horror match-up for him (also probably true). Either way, congrats to TJ for making a great fighter look second class. The slick movement, the accuracy of the strikes: it was a beautiful display.

yeh i think it's a combination of all of that and the fact that Dillashaw is just better than Renan Barao. Not quite sure how Renan comes back from that? surely he has to move to 145 now, that finish...jesus, what was Herb Dean waiting for?

 

I like Dillashaw's approach (despite me always routing against him), for so long (and still) lots of MMA fights resemeble bad kickboxing matches, the beauty of MMA is that you don't have to fight like that, i love an unorthodox approach. I could imagine Dillashaw/Cruz being a super frustrating fight to watch though.

 

Jessica Eye looked great until she got cracked in round 1, fight changed from that point on. Tate/Rousey 3 might not interest some but it sells based on who's involved. I don't see how Meisha wins that fight though.

 

Barboza/Felder was quality. It was technical but it was brutal. Felder seemed to run out of ideas as it went on and telegraphed too much of his shit, i love his attitude though, i expect him to come back better.

 

As much as i love to see Joe Lauzon fight, i don't like seeing Takanori Gomi go out like that classy move from Lauzon to stop punching though, that thing was done.

[Guy Bifkin]

Not a huge fan of TJ Dillashaw but you have to concede he looks as good as about anyone in the UFC at the minute. He absolutely pulled Barao's pants down in this fight and maybe performed even better than the first fight. He made Barao look average, flat footed, slow and shit. Very disappointed in Barao, he didn't have a gameplan, gassed in round two and just learned nothing from the first fight. I agree he should probably move up because I can't see any way he beats Dillashaw.

 

Not a bad card. Barbosa v Felder was loads of fun and loved Joe Lauzon deciding enough was enough for his hero, who I think he sparked out and then woke up with consecutive punches. 

[wandshogun09]

Fucking Dillashaw. Why does he have to be so good?

 

Barao is probably going to have to move up to 145 after that. It's not even that he's necessarily declining IMO, I don't think anyone else bar maybe Cruz beats him at 135. But it's clear Dillashaw has his number and the cut to 135 isn't doing him any good either. Why keep flogging a dead horse? He had a hell of a run at bantamweight but it's over. He's skilled enough and still relatively young enough that I think he could be a force at featherweight.

 

Dillashaw's combination of speed and accuracy plus his awkward and unpredictable striking style is a nightmare for pretty much anyone in the division, I reckon. I'd be VERY interested to see Dillashaw vs Cruz if Cruz ever gets back in position to make it happen. It'd be absolutely fascinating to see how that fight would play out.

 

Tate vs Eye was pretty good. And yeah, Miesha looked impressive. She has improved but I'm not sure how much really. I thought she looked quite shit against Rin Nakai but her last two fights (McMann and Eye) were strong performances. She's still having those slow starts though and that's a recipe for disaster against Ronda.

 

At this point though, there aren't many other options for Rousey. She's close to cleaning out the division at this point. If she beats Correia then it's basically Tate or Holm. And Holm looks like she could do with a couple more fights. It's got to be a last chance thing for Miesha though surely? If Ronda goes 3-0 then they can't go to that well again.

 

Loved Barboza vs Felder. Great fight. Spinning shit galore and both landed some quality stuff. Felder getting arsey at the decision was a tad surprising to me. I know it'd be hard to know how you've done points-wise sometimes when you're actually in there fighting but surely he can't have thought he won that? The only round I could've possibly given him was the first. Barboza was busting him up good with the kicks for most of the second and third. It wasn't like Felder wasn't competitive or in the fight or anything, but for me Barboza was landing in higher quantity and quality after round one.

 

How about Barboza vs Ferguson next?

 

Lauzon vs Gomi was short and sweet. Always sad seeing Gomi stopped but it was nice that Lauzon stopped when he did knowing Gomi was done. Class act. Wish the fight was a bit longer but fun while it lasted.

 

I quite enjoyed Saunders vs Robertson on the prelims too. Saunders is so much fun to watch because he's always on the offence wherever the fight goes. Robertson's standup is ugly as fuck but I loved his aggression, fearlessness and refusal to take a backwards step against a more skilled striker who had the reach on him. Fun fight.

 

Loved Tom Lawlor's KO. He won't make much noise at 205, I don't think, but it's good to see him back. Just a shame they've cut his legs off with the outside the cage stuff. He was one of the few fighters who made weigh ins and ring walks fun. So they stop it and make him like everyone else.

 

Herb Dean had a bit of an off night. Thought he dropped a bollock with both the Gomi and Barao stoppages. Thankfully Lauzon stopped punching but the Barao stoppage was pretty rough. Dillashaw was in full flow so I don't blame him. But Barao was so clearly done at one point when his knees buckled. He was offering nothing back and seemed to be being held up by the fence. And Herb just stood there staring off into space or whatever he was doing, resulting in Barao taking at least another ten unanswered flush punches he shouldn't have. Horrible.