UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs Arlovski - May 8th

[Egg Shen]

nice! has anyone actually watched a fight companion live with the fights? i've always listened to them afterwards without actually having the fights on at the same time, still a great listen.

[wandshogun09]

I've never done it live. I don't think I'd want to either. The first time I watch a fight I want to just watch to the fight. I don't want to hear middle-aged men screaming, Rogan going off on mad tangents, Schaub going on about 'dime pieces and chicken heads' and Callen being shit. I'd rather just watch the fight.

 

But I like to go back after the fact sometimes and synch up the Fight Companion podcast with certain fights. I did that for McGregor vs Mendes, Aldo vs Mendes 2 and Cro Cop vs Gonzaga 2. It's good to catch their reactions to the big moments. But I don't want their reactions when I'm watching live. I think it'd be too distracting.

[ColinBollocks]

I've synced both up a few times. I don't mind it so much, but that's mainly because I save it for the weaker shows. For the reasons wand mentioned, no chance will I do the same for cards I'm invested in.

 

It's a more entertaining option if you've got a bit of a nothing card, I find. Instead of sitting in your pants and willing a dull fight to end, Rogan and co help pass the time much quicker talking about Reebok, weed, yoga and Brock Lesnar.

[Egg Shen]

Yeh im not sure i could do it live, they spend very little time talking about the actual fights. They are very entertaining though.

 

...and wand. you're wrong about Callen, he cracks me up.

[ElCece]

It lightens up the weaker cards for me. I fully intend to use fight companion for this card for instance sometimes it can be quite off putting but I do find Schaub really entertaining

[d-d-d-dAz]

Oliveira has a complete tear of his oesophagus.

 

Fucking hell.

 

Biggest winner of last night is that Perez lad for me. Knocks out Sam Stout and says 'fuck this. I've got enough money and a good family. I just wanted to win one. Peace bitches.'

 

If he didn't think he could compete in the top 5 in the world then what a smart move. Why kill yourself if you make more money elsewhere.

 

As much as I love fighting, and the people crazy enough to do it for a living, the rare occasions when someone's clever enough to see it for what it is does make me smile.

[METAL ON METAL]

Yeah, good for him getting out of the game (seemingly) unscathed. More people could learn from that.

 

Bisping was an absolute idiot about it on the panel though, he said Perez was cowardly or scared if he's retiring this early.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, stuff like this is refreshing to see.

 

Thought Bisping came off as a bit of a dick with his comments about it, saying Perez has no 'cojones' and 'maybe he should just retire and let the real men do this' or some bollocks. Like Cruz said, we don't know what's going on in Perez's life away from the cage, fighting isn't going to be everyone's number one priority in life, in fact it's more healthy if it's not. And frankly, it's none of our business and he doesn't have to answer to anyone. If he feels the time is right for him to retire, good for him. Personally, I thought it was a really nice moment seeing how happy he was with the win and screaming 'I did it mom' into the camera.

 

Cruz handled Bisping brilliantly.

 

"I don't know when to call for someone to quit. Nobody has that right. Sometimes it takes more cojones to stop than to keep going. And that's something Michael Bisping can learn from Perez".

Bisping didn't like that.

 

Bisping was chatting shit anyway. Mocking Perez for stepping away yet saying Sam Stout should definitely fight on despite - his words - "suffering three heavy knockout losses in a row".

 

Oliveira has a complete tear of his oesophagus.

 

Fucking hell.

Jesus. How the fuck did that happen from that transition? I just assumed it was a dislocated shoulder or a collarbone injury. How do you rip your oesophagus apart like that? Sounds absolutely horrible. Poor bloke.

 

Really deflating ending to an otherwise fun show. And all the more disappointing because Holloway vs Oliveira is a great matchup of styles and was shaping up to be a really exciting fight. I know Holloway called for a big fight with Frankie Edgar in Hawaii, and I do love that he has the balls to make that challenge. But my immediate thought was I'd rather see this fight re-booked. Then again, Oliveira's injury means he'll probably be out a good while anyway.

 

Loved the shit out of Cote vs Burkman! What a fun fight that turned out to be. Burkman has been great value since his UFC return, and actually a bit before that in other companies. His chin is ridiculous, he ate some vicious bombs off Hector Lombard in January and saw the final bell. So for Cote to stop him was impressive. Especially coming back from the brink of defeat to do it. That last 90 seconds or whatever it was was tremendous. Burkman had him on the ropes and Cote just returned fire and smashed him.

 

Really enjoyed Letourneau vs Moroz as well. Had no idea Moroz had such an extensive boxing background. I had her down as a grappler for some reason (probably the quick sub on Calderwood). The fight lost some steam late on but the first two rounds were excellent. Really good striking from both. Good win for Letourneau. She didn't make Jon Anik's job easy in the post-fight interview though did she? Bloody hell that was like pulling teeth.

 

What else? Trinaldo looked great. Best he's looked in a long time. That Misha Cirkunov looks decent. Kelades vs Beal was pretty good too.

 

Quality show really. Just a shame how the main event ended.

[d-d-d-dAz]

http://mmajunkie.com/2015/08/when-a-fighter-retires-young-and-were-happy-for-him-what-does-that-say-about-mma

 

Great little article about Perez's retirement.

[wandshogun09]

UFC is back in Japan for the next Fight Night. Hopefully BT will be showing this, although it'll no doubt be on delay.

 

 

FOX SPORTS 1 MAIN CARD

Josh Barnett vs Roy Nelson

Gegard Mousasi vs Uriah Hall

Kyoji Horiguchi vs Chico Camus

Takeya Mizugaki vs George Roop

Katsunori Kikuno vs Diego Brandao

Mizuto Hirota vs Teruto Ishihara

 

FOX SPORTS 2 PRELIMS

Keita Nakamura vs Li Jingliang

Nick Hein vs Yusuke Kasuya

Naoyuki Kotani vs Kajan Johnson

Shinsho Anzai vs Roger Zapata

 

Not stacked or anything but I quite like the look of this. There's a few pretty good fights on there. Didn't know anything about this Road To Japan thing, like literally never heard one thing about it. Apparently it was some reality show and the tournament final will be on this card. OK then.

 

 

Barnett vs Nelson is a fine main event. Josh Barnett is back! The last we saw of him was his loss to Travis Browne all the way back at UFC 168 in December 2013. To put that in perspective, that was the night Anderson Silva smashed his own leg on Chris Weidman. Anderson's since rehabbed his shattered leg for a whole year, returned, fought Nick Diaz and won, got popped for steroids and had his win overturned to a No Contest, then taken part in a weird as fuck hearing where his defence was that he took Viagra and that must've made him test positive. Well I suppose Viagra IS a performance enhancing drug. All that happened in the period of time since Barnett last stepped into the octagon. So it'll be great to see him finally back in there.

 

 

I really like this matchup as well. Both are granite tough, both great grapplers, both don't mind getting into a bloody brawl if need be. It should be a fun one to watch. Don't really know what to expect out of either at this point, to be honest. But I'm interested to see how this fight unfolds. Plus it's heavyweight MMA, despite these guys not being on a roll, all it takes is a spectacular win or two and you're back in business.

 

Mousasi vs Hall could be good. I've never really been that sold on Hall. I've said it a few times on here. He's got undeniable skills and physical gifts but something just doesn't click about him for me. He seems to lack something I can't put my finger on. I think Mousasi is a step up Hall won't be able to handle. Mousasi for me is just too seasoned and too good all-round for Hall. Just my gut feeling. Unless Hall connects on some crazy strike, I see Mousasi running away with it.

 

Horiguchi vs Camus is my pick for FOTN. Horiguchi is coming off the loss to Mighty Mouse in April. It was a title shot he didn't seem ready for but I'm high on Horiguchi. I think he's got real promise and will one day be a legit title contender. He'll be wanting to rebound in style here and Camus is a scrapper in all areas, he'll meet Horiguchi head on.

 

Mizugaki vs Roop is a darkhorse potential show stealer too IMO. Mizugaki needs to look good here to wash away some of the memory of the absolute pasting Dominick Cruz handed him. I think he beats Roop but Roop's tough and always aggressive so it should make for an entertaining fight.

 

And...

 

 

KID Yamamoto returns!

 

He actually fought in February at UFC 184. It was his first fight in three years and he actually was looking pretty good in there but the fight unfortunately ended as a No Contest due to an eye poke. Before that, KID had gone 0-3 in his UFC stint.

 

Doesn't tell the whole story though. For anyone unfamiliar with him or if you're a newish fan, you missed the best of KID Yamamoto. The man was an animal in his prime. What we're seeing now in the UFC is a shadow of a shadow of the shell of what he once was. He's 38 years old and has a list of injuries as long as Stacy Keibler's legs.

 

In his prime though, he was the shit. At one point in around 2005/06, he was maybe the best featherweight on the planet. It was either him or Urijah Faber and it's a crime that fight never happened. He'd probably have ranked pretty fucking high on most peoples' pound-for-pound rankings around that time period as well actually. He was that good.

 

 

That's his full fight against Kazuyuki Miyata there. A four second knockout by flying knee! Ridiculous.

 

KID also comes from a fighting family. His dad is Ikuei Yamamoto. He represented Japan in the 1972 Olympics in wrestling...

 

 

His sisters, Miyu and Seiko, were also successful wrestlers...

 

 

A family of badasses.

 

In his first 19 MMA fights, KID went 17-1-1. The one loss was early in his career and was stopped on a cut by the doctor just 30 seconds in. The No Contest was due to an accidental groin strike. So KID had never truly been beaten in MMA at that point. The blemishes on his record both had controversies to them.

 

In that unbeaten streak he beat Jeff Curran on points, brutally one punch KO'd Royler Gracie, stopped Caol Uno, knocked out the legend Genki Sudo, scored that four second flying knee KO in the gif above, decisioned Bibiano Fernandes and finished Rani Yahya.

 

He looked unstoppable in this period. And unlike typical Japanese fighters, he had a swagger about him not unlike Prince Naseem Hamed. Dancing his way to the ring and all sorts. He was a bit of nasty little bastard as well, truth be told. A couple of times he caused controversy for continually hitting opponents after the ref waved fight off. Thankfully he's matured since but back then he was a wildman.

 

It all started going downhill for KID post-2007. He decided he was going to follow in his old man's footsteps and go back to amateur wrestling, his aim was to win Olympic gold at the 2008 Beijing Games (the same Olympics where Ronda Rousey won bronze in judo). But in the qualifiers he suffered a horrendous elbow injury that took him out of the game. Then on returning to MMA, he badly injured his knee in training.

 

He never ended up fighting again until mid 2009. He was never the same fighter after those injuries;

 

- KID pre-2008 was 17-1-1.

- KID post-elbow/knee injuries has went 1-5-1.

 

And he's only fought 7 times in 6 years. He's just been shagged by injuries. I'd love to see him get just one win in the UFC before he hangs up the gloves. His 0-3-1 UFC record doesn't really do him justice. He was on his way to winning his last fight before the eye poke and he very nearly knocked out Vaughan Lee in his fight before that. We could easily be looking at a 2-2 UFC record if he'd had a bit better luck.

 

Anyway, I've rambled enough. I'll leave you with this KID Yamamoto highlight...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=9CPkOn2OVvM

 

Sayonara.

[Egg Shen]

going back to Sunday's show (sorry, fell behind with the weekend's wrestling stuff to catch up on). Turns out Oliveira didn't have a full tear, they are now labelling it as a possible micro-tear and that he sufferend no serious injury. Hmmmm...

 

Cote/Burkman exceeded all expectations though, Burkman's excellent takedown defence forced Cote into getting into a bit of a war which he clearly was looking to avoid. Worked out for him though, as well as the fans! Crazy stat though when they mentioned that being only Cote's 3rd finish in 18 UFC fights.

 

Erick Silva looked completely out of sorts against Neil Magny. I dunno if he tried to conserve energy and couldn't get going but it was very un-Silva like...of course it could be down to Neil Magny being a bit of a nightmare opponent. It just illuminates how impressive that Demian Maia performance was though.

[David]

going back to Sunday's show (sorry, fell behind with the weekend's wrestling stuff to catch up on). Turns out Oliveira didn't have a full tear, they are now labelling it as a possible micro-tear and that he sufferend no serious injury. Hmmmm...

 

Hmmmm?

[d-d-d-dAz]

It is a little weird.

 

The guy from the UFC originally said Charles 'had regained feeling in his extremities', then Oliveira himself said he had an existing neck injury from training and it flared up during the fight and he became numb from the neck down.

 

Then it became a full tear of his oesophagus with an indefinite a healing period. Now, it's a possible micro-tear with no long term damage, and he'll be back ASAP.

 

Makes you wonder if Schaub had a point and he got a stinger and freaked out because of an existing injury rather than it being an actual injury.

[METAL ON METAL]

If true, I kinda called it

 

 

 

Should be a fight Holloway can take advantage of.

 

Oliveira is the ultimate choke artist when put under a spotlight, looks great against the lesser opponents of the division but when he's against a higher ranked guy he tends to look unnaturally awful. There's definitely a question to be asked about his willpower when put under pressure, which he will certainly be put under against Holloway.

[Egg Shen]

Yeh, it might because im thinking of his history but it all seemed a little weird to me.

 

It feels wrong to question the balls of a pro fighter but given this is the 3rd time i can recall Oliveira getting out of a fight in weird circumstances it does make me wonder.