UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs Arlovski - May 8th

[wandshogun09]

Wasn't going to watch this live but couldn't sleep so I got up and caught the last two fights. Glad I did.

 

Brown vs Silva is my FOTY so far. Easy. Incredible stuff. Matt Brown is just hard as fuck. Erick Silva is granite tough as well. Silva's body kicks were brutal. Brown's pace just seemed to do Silva in. He couldn't hang with Brown's pressure and constant attacking. That first round was unbelievable as well. Silva dropped him with the body kick and had his back for half the round working a choke. You'd have thought that round was a write-off for Brown at that point but he somehow came back so strong he stole the round back. Scary how many flush shots Silva ate though. Guys who are that tough are more worrying to me than the so-called 'chinny' fighters. Guys like Erick Silva, JDS, Roy Nelson, Struve, Penn, Diego Sanchez, they just take an insane amount of punishment. They're praised for it but what cost will it have in later life? Silva's young still but he's already had a couple of these hard fights now. Struve's the same.

 

Amazing fight though and a fantastic moment for Brown. Hometown, his first main event, FOTY candidate, a spectacular win, gets his brown belt, family in the cage. Great moment.

 

EDIT -

 

This is a bit worrying. Some tweets from a guy who was in attendance;

 

Huge Mantis @HugeMantis

Silva does not look real good and a whole crowd of people around him on the ground. Crowd cheered when he sat up. But this is concerning.

 

Silva slumped against cage and they've got multiple people examining.

 

They just gently laid Silva back down flat.

 

He was definitely moving and they were talking to him but he hasn't moved out of that corner at all, he's flat and half a dozen people there

 

They're bringing in a board and looks like they might stretcher Erick Silva out. Emts in there now I think

 

Remaining crowded claps as he's lifted out of cage while this remix of Happy plays when it needs not to be. He held up a fist on way out.

 

Hopefully just precautionary and nothing too serious.

 

Update from the press conference;

 

Mike Chiapetta MMA @MikeChiapetta

Dana White says they're transporting Erick Silva to hospital for possible concussion, possible fractured jaw

[METAL ON METAL]

I hope he's alright. Very selfishly I'm a bit pissed off though, had a fiver on Johnny Eduardo (4/1), Cruickshank (3/1) and Erik Silva (5/11) - typical it being the shortest price to let me down.

 

Good to see Brown win though, always guaranteed a good scrap.

[wandshogun09]

Erick Silva is OK apparently;

 

Dana White @danawhite

Erick Silva came back with a clean bill of health and can fly home 2 morrow!!!

 

Glad to hear he's alright.

 

At this point though, for all his talent and potential, it's hard to see Silva becoming too much more than a very exciting lower card guy. I wouldn't write the guy off but he's faltered every time he's stepped up a level so far. Fitch, Kim and now Brown. He's probably going to have to really shake something up in his training or something to fix whatever holes are in his game.

 

I really, really, fucking really want to see Matt Brown vs Nick Diaz after that performance. Just imagine that fight.

[wandshogun09]

Watching some of the undercard from last night. Horiguchi vs Montague and Cariaso vs Smolka were both really good fights. Salas' KO on Fox Piss was brutal. Eduardo making short work of Wineland was a bit of a shock. Philippou vs Larkin was great fun while it lasted. Shit to see Larkin get laid out though. Philippou probably saved his job with that. Wouldn't mind Philippou vs Bisping now. Or Bisping vs Mousasi and Philippou vs Yoel Romero. Yeah, I think I'd go with that.

 

Jon Anik finally seems to have laid off the "hurtin' for certain" catchphrase. Now he seems to say someone is "jonesin' for..." something every single show and now that's annoying me. And his "there's the lovely Vanessa...DOIN' WORK on the outside." I hate that 'doin work' shit. Especially when the 'work' consists of holding up a card and walking in a circle. I do like that Vanessa though.

 

I'm knackered.

[Egg Shen]

was a crazy main event, as advertised...there was just no way it wasn't going to deliver. Both guys deserve massive praise for leaving it all out there but Matt Brown is just a fucking beast, in close he's just devastating, his inside elbows are just brutal. It's tough to see who Brown beats in the top 5 but you can't doubt the guy. Brown's resurgence is one of the most remarkable in the sport, can you think of anyone else who's basically gone from journeyman status to being a legit title contender?

 

Rest of the show was abit hit and miss, Darren Cruickshank looked awesome again though, standing-wise he's a handful for anyone at 155. I know it'd be a long way off but style-wise i'd love to him fight Anthony Pettis.

 

Phillipou/Larkin delivered in the co-main as well, no feeling out process, both guys just hunting for that KO, Phillipou just happened to be the guy that landed the big shot first. I'd be down for Phillipou/Bisping.

 

I really, really, fucking really want to see Matt Brown vs Nick Diaz after that performance. Just imagine that fight.

[The Cum Doctor]

Cummings/Cabral and Horiguchi/Montague on the prelims were great. On most shows, I'd have had Cummings/Cabral as the FOTN, but fuck sake, Silva and Brown delivered as well. It wound up basically being Silva getting completely destroyed but it didn't make for any less compelling viewing because of that. The one sidedness of it kind of takes it out of the FOTY running for me though.

[Egg Shen]

yeh after the first half of round 1 it was fairly one sided, but it was gripping stuff and the audience were lapping it up.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

The reactions helped make the fight too. Everyone was going banana in that arena! The one sided beatdown portion wouldn't have been as compelling if not for the raucous crowd. Round 1 was MMA at its finest though. Loved it all really. Dana tweeted that Silva has a clean bill of health and can fly home, very good to hear.

 

Costa got a nice win. That'll probably demote him to Fight Pass.

 

The Detroit Superstar (cbf spelling his last name), what a finish of Koch! Love a sick head kick.

 

Soa Palelei is interesting. He's slow, bad cardio and on the wrong side of 30, but that finish showed ridiculous power. He's like the new Bigfoot.

 

Fun show

[Guy Bifkin]

Wild main event, especially that first round where it could have gone either way. Not seen much of Matt Brown but was very impressed with that showing, the guy looks hard as nails. It reminded me of the beating Cain put on JDS, not pleasant to watch at times and it didn't look great for Silva at the end there. Very pleased he's OK.

 

Would love to see Brown vs Diaz, failing that I think Hector Lombard would be a good fight for him too.

[David]

I really, really, fucking really want to see Matt Brown vs Nick Diaz after that performance. Just imagine that fight.

Now, that's a fight where I could believe the trash talking. I genuinely believe that both of those guys could legit hate each other by the time fight night came around.

[Arch Stanton]

Have only recently got back into watching UFC, after an absence of a couple of years. With more shows than ever to watch now, I was going to give this one a miss. Fucking glad I didn't! That main event was easily the best fight I've seen since I started watching again.

[wandshogun09]

Brown vs Diaz is never going to happen is it? Just don't see Diaz coming back for that. He seems happy enough just going to boxing shows and stuff these days. I saw an interview with him from the Pacquiao fight the other week and it was about the most relaxed and happy I've seen him. Well, not happy, but by his standards, happy. I guess content is a more fitting word. Looks like he's determined to stick by this thing that he'll only return if he's in a title fight or a huge fight. We all know he doesn't deserve a title shot but if that's his asking price, then that's up to him. Sadly, it means a fight like Diaz vs Brown probably won't ever happen now. Diaz vs Lawler 2, Diaz vs Alves, Diaz vs Erick Silva, Diaz vs Condit 2...so many great fights are off the table at the moment. I still think Diaz will fight again at some point, but fuck knows when. Probably when his fat paycheck from the GSP fight dwindles away.

 

Funny you mention the huge amount of shows, Arch. Because the Fight Night schedule rolls on. Two fucking shows in one night on May 31st!

 

First up in Germany..

 

 

FIGHT PASS MAIN CARD - 8PM UK - BT SPORT 2

Mark Munoz vs Gegard Mousasi

Francis Carmont vs CB Dollaway

Luke Barnatt vs Sean Strickland

Tom Niinimaki vs Niklas Backstrom

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS

Drew Dober vs Nick Hein

Magnus Cedenblad vs Krzysztof Jotko

Vaughan Lee vs Yuri Alcantara

Peter Sobotta vs Pawel Pawlak

Maximo Blanco vs Andy Ogle

Ruslan Magomedov vs Viktor Pesta

 

Then later on, in Brazil, the TUF Brazil 3 Finale...

 

 

FOX SPORTS 1 MAIN CARD - 3AM UK - BT SPORT 2

Stipe Miocic vs Fabio Maldonado

Vitor Miranda vs Antonio Carlos Jr - TUF Heavyweight Finals

Warlley Alves vs Marcio Alexandre Jr - TUF Middleweight Finals

Demian Maia vs Alexander Yakovlev

Rony Jason vs Robbie Peralta

 

FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS - 1AM UK - BT SPORT 2

Rodrigo Damm vs Rashid Magomedov

Ernest Chavez vs Elias Silverio

Paulo Thiago vs Gasan Umalatov

Kevin Souza vs Mark Eddiva

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS

Richardson Moreira vs Marcos Rogerio de Lima

Wagner Silva vs Ricardo Abreu

Pedro Munhoz vs Matt Hobar

 

Fuck that. I think I'll have to just catch all this on the Sunday. Two shows in one night is too much for me. Plus the Germany show will probably clash with Froch vs Groves 2 and I'm not missing that.

 

Besides, both shows are pretty slim. I mean there's some good stuff, don't get me wrong. Between the two shows combined that's a decent(ish) night of fights. But there's a bunch of stuff I couldn't give a toss about on both shows. The Brazil lineup will change a bit yet, once TUF ends. But they'll only be adding the TUF guys now. No big fights.

 

Shit luck with JDS dropping out of the Miocic fight, because that would have been the highlight of both shows for me going in. Still, Miocic vs Maldonado could be fun. If Maldonado can drag big Stipe into a boxing match it should be competitive and a real battle. But I see Miocic going to his wrestling.

 

I like the Mousasi vs Munoz fight a lot. And it's really a redemption fight for them both with them both getting Machida'd in their last outings. I think it's an interesting match. Mousasi's weakest area is the wrestling so Munoz will no doubt look to exploit that. Mousasi should have a big edge in the striking but Munoz packs a hell of a punch. It's a good one.

 

What else? Both cards are really thin. Err, I like Vaughan Lee. Don't know the guy Maia is fighting. Jason vs Peralta could be good. Brandao is a wildman. From what I remember Ernest Chavez looked impressive last time. But there's nothing grabbing me really on the undercards. Hopefully they'll be better in practice than on paper.

 

I've totally lost track of TUF Brazil 3 as well. I started but I've fallen too far behind with it. Anyone who's been keeping up give a heads up on who to keep an eye on, if anyone, off the show?

 

I'll whack a poll up in a sec.

[Rey_Piste]

I really, really, fucking really want to see Matt Brown vs Nick Diaz after that performance. Just imagine that fight.

Now, that's a fight where I could believe the trash talking. I genuinely believe that both of those guys could legit hate each other by the time fight night came around.

I could actually see Brown winning that one. He showed one hell of a chin against Silva and if the Diaz Brothers have a weakness is it's a lack of overall power and Brown definitely has that. Put in the fact that as emotional the Diaz Brothers get they tend to get so worked up about shit they fail to get so emotional they lose the ability to keep to any sort of gameplan.

[Egg Shen]

as im in London on May 31st, i'll probably just watch both main cards for the two fight nights on the Sunday and treat it like one big show there's some good stuff spread across the two. Prelim wise it'll be a case of cherry picking a few fights from both shows.

[The Cum Doctor]

Am I the only one who thinks Miocic/Maldonado is just one of those fights that can't not deliver? It's just got soooo much potential. The main card for that show on the whole has me a bit giddy actually.

 

Looking forward to seeing if Barnatt can continue to impress. I hope he can. He's been really good.