UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs Arlovski - May 8th

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, that'd work.

 

At the very least, I like that there's a few ways it can go. If Cain gets injured at least you've got Overeem. Of Overeem's not available/injured/loses to Arlovski you've got JDS and Hunt coming off wins.

[Egg Shen]

Guess i underestimated what JDS had left. He looked sharp and made a bit of a mug of Ben who's a notoriously difficult guy to fight.

 

 

I dunno whether to give all the credit to JDS or double it with the fact that Rothwell was piss poor. He had a decent first but spent the rest of the fight following JDS around, you can't do that against a guy light on his feet like Junior. He stuck and moved all night. The Rothwell Revolution is over

[ColinBollocks]

Nah, that was all JDS. His movement and shot selection were very cleverly well thought out to negate the skills of Rothwell. A big one was him being very aware whenever Rothwell was about to trap and quickly charge him when he got close to the cage. Once JDS got his timing and range worked out after the first, poor Rothwell seemed to fade.

 

In terms of executing a game plan, JDS was very nearly flawless. Proper happy for him, as he needed something like this badly.

[Zebra Kid Mark]

I love JDS but I was also enjoying the run Rothwell had going so I was quite open minded about who won. However, after JDS's interview, seeing how happy he was made me remember why I loved that big smiley bastard in the first place. Team JDS!

[wandshogun09]

A big one was him being very aware whenever Rothwell was about to trap and quickly charge him when he got close to the cage.

I noticed that as well. That was always a bit of a weakness in JDS' game previously. In some fights he seemed to have trouble with being backed onto the cage and caught with punches before he could circle out of danger. Cain exploited that the best but Junior got caught in the Hunt and Miocic fights the same way as well. You could tell watching this fight that his camp have made a conscious effort to fix that and work on JDS' defence and him being more careful choosing his shots and not leaving himself so vulnerable to the counters. There was a lot to like about JDS' performance. It really surprised me as my hopes weren't high going in.

[Egg Shen]

Yeh, he did a great job of getting out of dodge when Rothwell did manage to get him up against the cage.

[wandshogun09]

April 16th. Tampa, Florida. Big FOX.

 

 

FOX MAIN CARD

Rashad Evans vs Glover Teixeira

Tecia Torres vs Rose Namajunas

Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Darrell Horcher

Cub Swanson vs Hacran Dias

 

FOX PRELIMS

Beneil Dariush vs Michael Chiesa

Bethe Correia vs Raquel Pennington

Court McGee vs Santiago Ponzinibbio

Randy Brown vs Michael Graves

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS

John Dodson vs Manny Gamburyan

Cezar Ferreira vs Oluwale Bamgbose

Omari Akhmedov vs Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos

 

Pretty good looking card, this. Would've been even better as well had the original main event - Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Tony Ferguson - stayed intact. Still, should be a good set of fights.

 

 

Rashad Evans vs Glover Teixeira has been bumped up from co-main to main event. This is one of those fights that I like but I don't because I hate to see either of these two lose. Two of the more likeable guys in the division, well, on the roster really.

 

 

Rashad Evans is the bollocks. It's weird because he's not the typical type of fighter I usually like. He's not exactly known for being exciting to watch but his personality makes up for that to me. He's cool as fuck. I hope he gets a full-time pundit gig for UFC and/or FOX when he retires because he's great at that. In fact, I'd like to see how he does as a colour commentator as well. He was great as TUF coach back in the day as well.

 

And don't get me wrong, the man can certainly fight. He was basically an overblown middleweight, but he won Season 2 of TUF as a heavyweight in 2005. He won the UFC Light Heavyweight Title in 2008. He has career wins over Chuck Liddell, Rampage Jackson, Dan Henderson, Forrest Griffin, Tito Ortiz, Michael Bisping and Chael Sonnen. But in recent years he's been plagued by injuries and, at 36 years old and coming off a loss in a shitty fight against Ryan Bader in October, he needs to make something happen now to show he's still got something in the tank and can be relevant in 2016.

 

 

Glover Teixeira is also 36. He hasn't accomplished what Rashad has in his career. There's no TUF plaque, no UFC title. But Glover is a fucking handful for any man weighing 205lbs. He has KO power in his hands, he's got really strong grappling, he's tough, aggressive, physically strong, confident. He lost handily but he had his moments against Jon Jones. He knocked out Ryan Bader. He beat Rampage. He beat OSP. He's no joke. And he hasn't been through the run of injuries Rashad has. They're the same age but I'd say Glover is less banged up.

 

One interesting twist here, although I don't think either fighter will look at it like this, this is kind of a revenge fight for Glover. I think he's too nice to go into a fight with any malice but, somewhere, deep down, I think there'll be a little bit of him that will be motivated to avenge Chuck Liddell's crushing KO defeat to Rashad back in 2008.

 

 

That KO, IMO, was the finishing blow that killed Chuck's chin off for good. He ate bombs off Wanderlei Silva before that fight. After Rashad KO'd him, he was never able to take a good shot again. Like I say, I don't think there's any ill will between Glover and Rashad, or Chuck and Rashad. But I do think Glover will get an extra level of satisfaction if he's able to beat Rashad here. Glover and Chuck go way back.

 

 

Machida vs Hendo 2 is a rematch no-one was really calling for. But at this point, with where both guys are at in their careers and with the current landscape of the middleweight division - fuck it, why not?

 

 

The first fight took place in February 2013. They were the co-main event on a historic PPV. It was UFC 157. The event headlined by the first ever women's fight in UFC history - Ronda Rousey vs Liz Carmouche. There was actually a bit of a (stupid as fuck) backlash at the time with some fans complaining that two big names like Machida and Hendo were playing second fiddle to a couple of bints. The horror! Well, Rousey vs Carmouche turned out to be an excellent one round fight. Machida vs Hendo was pretty shit. Machida won a decision that night but it was one of those fights where neither guy's stock was raised. It was a big disappointment.

 

Hopefully this time it'll be different.

 

 

Machida is coming into this fight off two back-to-back losses. He had a shite 2015. But in fairness, the two losses were to Yoel Romero and Luke Rockhold. And he fought them both within a two month span. He hasn't fought since June and, at 37, the sand timer is running down.

 

 

Hendo doesn't give a fuck. He's 45 years old (seems to be a bit of a theme for this show - older fighters trying to cling onto relevancy). He's 2-6 in his last 8 fights. He's banged up beyond belief. To the point he can't move his head without moving his entire upper body. He's a legend and a great, great man but he's finished. Yet there's no inkling that he's even entertaining the idea of retiring. He's coming off getting knocked out by Vitor Belfort, losing their trilogy 1-2.

 

I don't know what to make of this fight. I'm quite uncomfortable actually that Hendo keeps getting booked. I don't like his chances at all here. I don't think Machida's as far gone as his recent record might suggest, like I say, he's only lost to beasts. He's way quicker than Hendo, very accurate, brilliant at controlling distance and he's hard to hit. I'll be surprised if Machida doesn't take him out within a round.

 

 

Khabib Nurmagomedov remains on the card, despite his opponent Tony Ferguson pulling out. Usually it's Khabib pulling out injured. In fact, Khabib hasn't fought since April 2014! Amazingly, that last fight was a completely one-sided decision victory over the current lightweight champ, Rafael Dos Anjos! In the two years since Khabib beat Dos Anjos, RDA has gone 5-0 beating Jason High, Benson Henderson, Nate Diaz, Anthony Pettis and Donald Cerrone to become King Of 155.

 

As the last man to beat RDA, and especially how dominant he was over RDA, you have to assume it won't take long for Khabib to bag a title shot. IF, and it's a huge IF, he can stay healthy. Which he hadn't the last two years.

 

It's no wonder the cunt can't stay injury free. This is Khabib as a child, grappling with a FUCKING BEAR!...

 

 

 

...As you do.

 

 

Old pals.

 

Khabib is fighting last minute replacement Darrell Horcher at a catchweight of 160lbs. Horcher is 28 years old, 13-1 MMA record, has fought in Bellator.

 

Not a lot else known about Horcher really but it's a bit of a no-win situation for Khabib in a way. All risk, very little reward. If Khabib wins he was supposed to, and he'll have only beat an unknown who took the fight on short notice. If he loses though, he's lost to an unknown who took the fight on short notice. I guess he just wants to get back in there so badly now he doesn't care. These last minute replacements can be a right banana skin though. And it's a massive opportunity for Horcher where, win or lose, he'll get some brownie points with the UFC for stepping up and he'll be guaranteed at least one more fight in the UFC.

 

 

I can't wait for Namajunas vs Torres 2. Seriously, if you've got Fight Pass and you've never seen their first fight, do yourself a favour.

 

The first fight took place on July 13th 2013 at Invicta 6. It was a fucking phenomenal fight. To this day, might just be the best women's fight I've ever seen.

 

 

And the mad thing was, they were both inexperienced rookies. They both came into the fight with only two pro MMA fights to their name each. Yet the fight was incredible. The wild striking exchanges, the submission attempts, some of the absolutely crazy submission escapes. It's non-stop.

 

 

Torres got the nod from the judges that night but there really wasn't a loser there. It was that good. I'd say this fight was probably a big part of the reason the UFC ended up bringing the strawweights in in the first place. It was very shortly after this fight happened that UFC announced the all-strawweight TUF 20. I don't think that was a coincidence.

 

Since then they've been up and down. Torres has been successful but hasn't had a fight anywhere near as exciting as the Namajunas one. Namajunas has won some and lost some but she's been consistently exciting to watch, and she's coming off a big win over the heavily hyped Paige VanZant. High hopes for this fight. Probably won't live up to the standard set by the first fight but it should be a great way to kick off the main card.

 

Undercard looks good.

 

- Dariush vs Chiesa could be the darkhorse to steal the show. Love watching both. Could be a proper ground war as well.

 

- Correia vs Pennington should be decent. Be interesting to see how Correia looks coming off the Rousey loss. And Pennington's always good for a scrap.

 

- Cub Swanson's looking to rebound from the losses to Holloway and Edgar.

 

It's a strong card, despite a lot of the names being on their last legs.

 

[Egg Shen]

Dodson back at 135lb too. I know he's been soundly beaten by the Flyweight champ twice but i cant see him getting far at Bantamweight.

[lambyUK]

Dodson back at 135lb too. I know he's been soundly beaten by the Flyweight champ twice but i cant see him getting far at Bantamweight.

Can't or can? The way the sentence is written it looks like you mean to write 'can'?

 

If it's 'can' then I agree, I actually think Dodson could cause more trouble at Bantamweight than flyweight. Reason being is his knockout power and speed. He's shown he can transfer that power at 135llbs, and his speed and movement could cause the bigger guys at Bantamweight serious problems.

 

At Flyweight, Johnson was the only one of his opponents who could hang with him, and Johnson is just too slick and quick for Dodson.

[Egg Shen]

It was meant 'cant' (excuse my shitty sentences). I just don't know if Dodson will be a little undersized at 135lb. Im excited to see how he does though. I had forgotten Dodson stopped TJ Dillashaw at 135 though.

 

Manvil's a good measuring stick though, physically he's probably one of the strongest men in the entire division.

[jimufctna24]

This is a nice little card.

 

I would normally favour Rashad to a number on Glover. I think it's a very good style match-up for Rashad. He's very slick on the feet and has the option to mix up his wrestling. His toolkit against Glover is quite big, he doesn't have to take one route. However, given how flat Rashad looked against Bader, I'm not that confident. I hope he rolls back the years like JDS did this past weekend. 

[lambyUK]

It was meant 'cant' (excuse my shitty sentences). I just don't know if Dodson will be a little undersized at 135lb. Im excited to see how he does though. I had forgotten Dodson stopped TJ Dillashaw at 135 though.

 

Manvil's a good measuring stick though, physically he's probably one of the strongest men in the entire division.

 

Yeah, Gamburyan is a big big test at 135llbs for Dodson. If he can KO him, or at least win convincingly, I think Dodson could do good stuff at 135llbs.

 

As I mentioned, it's his speed. Imagine those bigger and slower guys trying to actually hit Dodson? 

 

To continue on from Jim above, I sincerely hope the Rashad of old shows up. Hell, even the Rashad who dismantled Phil Davis. I hope he goes back to his wrestling roots to be honest as standing he just looks completely gun shy. His performances against Bader and little Nog were terrible and he just looked like he didn't want to fight. 

 

I worry to be honest, as Glover isn't scared to get into a fight and is incredibly tough to take down. Hopefully Evans' prediction of a ground and pound win comes to fruition. 

[wandshogun09]

You just know Rashad and his team have been studying the fuck out of Glover's fight with Phil Davis. Davis showed that it is possible to pretty much shut down Glover's game with a very wrestling minded approach. It won't be easy, and it's never risk free with a bomber like G-Tex, but it's doable for someone of the skill level of Rashad.

 

Remember as well, Rashad's original opponent for this card was Shogun. And you have to assume his tactics for that one were going to be extremely wrestling-heavy. So his camp probably wasn't disrupted much at all gameplan-wise. A lot of the things he'd have been planning for Shogun are probably transferable to a fight with Glover.

 

Hard to call. I can see a situation where Rashad just keeps scoring takedowns and maintains enough control to take the points. But Glover's power can change things quick.

 

I'm fancying a Rashad decision though. I think. Today anyway. Tomorrow I'll probably be liking a Glover KO. It's one of them.

[jimufctna24]

From a pure performance perspective, the Davis win is one of Rashad's most impressive. While it was dull, Rashad shut down a much bigger man that night. Only Rumble Johnson has been able to do that to Davis since, and he's a massive Light Heavyweight. Rashad should be at least one division below Rumble. 

[Guy Bifkin]

Only just caught up with the other night. Delighted for Junior, although a Rothwell win might have made for a sexier HW title picture.

 

It's all academic though as Derrick "The Black Beast" Lewis is coming for that belt. He's pure filth. I'd like to see him go on a legend killer run of Heavyweight fatties like Nelson and Hunt now.