UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs Arlovski - May 8th

[wandshogun09]

I think his arse went when he couldn't control McGregor in the clinch against the fence. Conor's balance was excellent there and the way he reversed the momentum to wind up on top probably really discouraged Brandao. Especially when Brandao's shown signs of cracking mentally before (missing weight/threatening to stab people at weigh ins, that shit). Thousands of pissed Irish people screaming for your demise would probably be discomforting as well.

 

I've actually read a couple of comments saying the fight was fixed because of how easy McGregor made it look. Can't win. If he'd have gone the distance and not looked that great he'd be overhyped, he wins quickly and violently and it's a fix. Whatever.

 

Gunnar vs Rory? Never even thought about that one. Interesting. Apparently Tarec Saffiedine has asked to fight Rory as well.

[lambyUK]

I've got to admit Wand, a little part of me felt something wasn't quite right with how it ended. It really did seem Brandao collapsed to the floor a little too easily.

 

However that really is me playing conspiracy theorist.

 

Also, apologies Herbie for having a go at your beard comment. It was more me feeling that you were about to trudge the beard bollocks again.

[TibBo]

I think it looks odd because Brandao just kinda keeps sidestepping to the left rather than making any kind of effort to counter/dodge/evade or even run away...
Maybe that bodyshot caused more damage than it seemed at the time, but he just looked lost in there after that

[herbie747]

Also, apologies Herbie for having a go at your beard comment. It was more me feeling that you were about to trudge the beard bollocks again.

 

All good, man. I was harping on a bit - but in fairness, this instance was aimed at the McGregor lookalikes - and not the "epic" beard crowd. I did see a fair few McGregor wannabes on camera last night!

[wandshogun09]

I think it looks odd because Brandao just kinda keeps sidestepping to the left rather than making any kind of effort to counter/dodge/evade or even run away...

Maybe that bodyshot caused more damage than it seemed at the time, but he just looked lost in there after that

Yeah it looked weird the way he just crumbled to the floor but I saw it as him doing the Frank Mir looking for a way out more than 'oh he threw the fight'. His attempts to get the fight to the ground failed, McGregor was able to land some good shots on him and I think maybe he mentally broke at that point. It's impossible to know and it's easy for us to say sitting in our livingrooms watching on telly, but that's how it looked. Like he wasn't liking how it was going so he started looking for a place to fall. That's different to a fix though. I think Brandao went in fully intending to win, probably believed it too, but it went tits up for him in the cage.

 

Apparently Dustin Poirier has called out McGregor to fight at UFC 178 which is the late September PPV headlined by Jones vs Gustafsson 2. I'd be well up for that. Sounds like McGregor is as well.

 

Poirier quote

"My next fight will be my 11th in the UFC, and it would be his fourth. That said, I'm a fighter and don't like to pick who I fight. If I had my choice, I'd be fighting for the belt. But I can't sit back and say I want to fight Aldo, Mendes or Cub, because I've already said all of this stuff, and the UFC is going to do what they want to do. For me as a fighter, I want to whip McGregor's ass for talking so much. I don't like that. I work hard and I take this very seriously. This is my life and it would be a pleasure for me to beat a guy who believes in himself like that.

 

"Besides my wrestling and jiu-jitsu being better, I believe my boxing and kickboxing are better than his. He just talks a lot and gets a lot of publicity. And good for him, but I would love to whip him. Like I said, this is my life and any challenges like this excite me."

McGregor's response

"That would be perfect for me. His teammate Cole Miller, he pulled out. You're trying to tell me that Dustin Poirier, Nik Lentz, both top 10 guys, no fights scheduled, didn't know about Cole's injury? They would've known before the UFC would've known. And yet nothing. They didn't campaign for this. This is a main-event slot. It's a big, big event. And yet there wasn't a peep out of both of them.

 

"So I know he doesn't want that fight. He can pretend that he wants the fight and send out tweets and this and that. Let's do it. One by one, I'll take every single one of them out."

[wandshogun09]

You know you've achieved something when fucking Arnie knows who you are.

 

Arnold @Schwarzenegger

Congratulations @TheNotoriousMMA on a fantastic victory yesterday. You are the McGregor-nator.

Brilliant!

[lambyUK]

Wand, does UFC on Fox belong in this thread? Are you doing a fight line-up/breakdown whatchmacallit as this monster card is coming up THIS SATURDAY!

 

Good god it looks good. I'm not bothered about the prelims but that main card just makes me moist in the keks! The main event between Brown/Lawler has fight of the year written all over it, and it's a real shame one of these guys will miss a title shot. They shouldn't have been matched up together, but damn, it's going to be good.

Then the living legend step back into the Octagon (Bermudez of course!) where I'm hoping to see him in beast mode again and destory Guida.

 

For anyone interested, here's the full episode of the road to the octagon for UFC on Fox 12.

 

http://mmajunkie.com/2014/07/full-episode-ufc-road-to-the-octagon-ufc-on-fox-12

 

Edit: and perhaps even bigger news, it looks like little Nog is actually showing up for this one!

[wandshogun09]

Yeah I was a bit busy/couldn't be arsed yesterday

 

Edit: and perhaps even bigger news, it looks like little Nog is actually showing up for this one!

Don't jinx it! Still five or so days for Nog to stay healthy yet.

 

Anyway.

 

Fasten your seatbelts for this bastard;

 

 

FOX MAIN CARD

Robbie Lawler vs Matt Brown

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs Anthony Johnson

Clay Guida vs Dennis Bermudez

Josh Thomson vs Bobby Green

 

FOX PRELIMS

Jorge Masvidal vs Daron Cruickshank

Kyle Kingsbury vs Patrick Cummins

Tim Means vs Hernani Perpetuo

Michael De La Torre vs Brian Ortega

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS

Akbarh Arreola vs Tiago Dos Santos

Steven Siler vs Noad Lahat

Gilbert Burns vs Andreas Stahl

Juliana Lima vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk

 

This for me is the card of the year so far. It's not got the starpower of some of the PPVs this year like 175, but it's absolutely loaded with tremendous shit.

 

Robbie Lawler vs Matt Brown is a ball-tinglingly awesome fight. Can't see any possible way it disappoints. It's either going to be a brutal KO or five round blood and guts, Gatti-Ward style battle. Two of the most exciting, attacking, tough and vicious fighters in the sport, in any weight class. And it's coming at the perfect time. Neither guy has ever been in better form than they are right now. It's two wrecking balls meeting at the perfect time.

 

Lawler was up and down for years in Strikeforce as a middleweight. Then came back to the UFC as a welterweight and started wrecking shop. He's 4-1 since returning and the loss was a mega close decision to Johny Hendricks. Some thought Lawler won that one. Aside from that he beat Josh Koscheck and Rory MacDonald, two fights he was expected to lose, knocked out Bobby Voelker and in his most recent fight, beat down Jake Ellenberger, since returning to the UFC.

 

 

Matt Brown's career turnaround might be an even more incredible story than that. In 2010/11, Brown went on a disastrous run of results. He fought five times over that two years and went 1-4. At one point he was on a three fight losing streak, getting submitted three fights in a row. If not for a points win over John Howard, he'd probably have been sacked. He lost to Seth Baczynski after that. Then something happened, fuck knows what, but from early 2012 to today, Matt Brown has gone a staggering 7-0, with 6 finishes! If someone asked you at the end of 2011 what Brown's future would be, you'd probably have said Bellator. And it's not just the seven fight streak that's impressive, it's the way he's done it, he's really looked like a beast. That streak includes a brutal KO over TUF 1 vet Mike Swick, a 29 second KO of the underrated Mike Pyle, he derailed the Wonderboy Thompson hype train and handed him his first loss, stopped Jordan Mein in a war, and battered Erick Silva in a total dogfight to the point Silva rolled up and basically quit and had to be stretchered out of the Octagon.

 

 

This is a hell of a fight. And with high stakes as the winner of this is most likely getting the next crack at Johny Hendricks' title.

 

Lawler vs Brown trailer

 

Co-main event, Anthony 'Rumble' Johnson vs Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. As we've touched on above, there's still a decent chance this doesn't even happen yet. It's fight week now so it looks like a go-er, but with Nog's track record with injuries you just can't count your chickens.

 

Assuming it goes ahead though - I honestly think this is a terrible match up for Nog.

 

You look at Nog's skills and you think - he's surely the better boxer here. He represented Brazil in the Pan-Am Games, and medalled! Won gold in other tournaments. First to knock down Shogun in MMA, stopped Overeem, stopped Sakuraba, destroyed the unbeaten Luiz Cane a ruined him as a prospect. His striking is no joke. On the ground, he's a Nog. BJJ black-belt, him and his brother even trained Anderson Silva to black-belt level. He's added a solid takedown defence the last few years as well. Nog has skills. People forget that with all the layoffs, but Nog is a really good fighter.

 

But then you think, or at least I do, despite all those skills - how in the fuck does he handle this?...

 

 

Rumble can shut your shit down quick with one punch or kick. He's bigger, stronger, faster, younger, more explosive, less shopworn, hard to takedown, doesn't get hit a great deal. And now he's at 205 and not ridiculously trying to boil down to 170 all the time, he's got more energy and stamina. What does Nog do with that? That stick and move, jab heavy boxing he used against Rashad would be like playing Russian Roulette with a power hitter like Rumble, and I don't think Nog has the reflexes or speed to pull that off anymore. And he's got the BJJ, but how does he take Rumble down when Phil Davis didn't even come close? He doesn't, does he? This isn't going to end well for Nog, I'm thinking.

 

On top of all that, Nog's coming off a 17 month layoff. Hasn't fought since February 2013. He's coming off two wins but when you look at the dates, he's only fought twice in almost three years. He's just been plagued by injuries in recent years. Plus he's 38 years old. The Pride era guys are sadly dying off rapidly now.

 

Clay Guida vs Dennis Bermudez is an awesome fight. I'm almost as excited for this as I am the main event. Usually on a card with Robbie Lawler vs Matt Brown you'd be pretty sure who's getting FOTN, but this one could be wild.

 

Guida has been involved in some of the craziest fights in UFC history. His wars with Diego Sanchez, Roger Huerta, Tyson Griffin and Benson Henderson were all edge of the seat classics. He's gone off the boil a bit as far as having the really awesome fights go, but his last fight with Kawajiri in April was fun. He also holds wins over Anthony Pettis, Nate Diaz and Takanori Gomi. Not too shabby.

 

If anyone can drag the old caveman out of Guida again, it's Dennis Bermudez. There mightn't be a more exciting fighter pound-for-pound in the UFC at the moment. He'd be top 5 for me if such a ranking existed anyway. Six fight win streak since losing the TUF Finals in 2011. Had a fucking fantastic FOTY contender with Matt Grice last year, beat Max Holloway, threw Steven Siler around like a frisbee, smashed the once highly touted Jim Hettes last time out. He stopped Hettes as well, which has finally bagged him that main card spot we've been asking for. This is Bermudez's big break. Guida is the biggest name he's fought to date and it's on the main card on FOX.

 

A big win here could put Bermudez right into the mix of title eliminators. It'd probably land him one of the top five. If he then won that as well, he'd be on an eight fight streak. It'd be tough to deny him a title shot at that point. Guida might well spoil the party though.

 

 

Ultimate Warrior Jr vs Roberto Duran Jr. Great fight.

 

Like I said before, I wouldn't be surprised if they match up McGregor vs Poirier and have the winner of that fight the winner of this fight by late 2014/early 2015.

 

I'll have to rush through the rest because this post is getting way too long.

 

Thomson vs Green rounds out the main card. Should be an excellent fight. Originally was supposed to be Thomson vs Michael Johnson which I think would've been even better, but this is still good.

 

Some good stuff on the prelims as well. Masvidal vs Cruickshank is a tremendous fight on paper. That could be a striking clinic with Masvidal's boxing vs Cruickshank's ninja style attack. Really excited about that one. Even Kingsbury vs Cummins intrigues me. I didn't see Cummins' last fight so I'll I've seen of him is Cormier thrashing him in about a minute. I've always liked Kingsbury since TUF 8 ("Who will eat my shit?"). Weird bastard. He hasn't fought in nearly two years, since he fought Jimi Manuwa and came out like this...

 

 

I thought he'd retired actually (did I dream that?), so I was surprised to see his name on this card. I didn't know he was fighting Cummins until right now. There's that many shows now I'm completely missing some of the fight announcements. Look at for Gilbert Burns as well. Three time BJJ world champion, 7-0 all finishes in MMA, was Belfort's assistant coach on the first TUF Brazil.

 

Can't wait for this one. Lawler vs Brown is right up there with Jones vs Gustafsson 2 and Pettis vs Melendez for me as far as anticipated fights go this year. And the best part is, we can't lose with either one vs Johny Hendricks.

[wandshogun09]

As you can see I've had to change the thread title from 'The Fight Night Thread' because there's no option to add a subtitle since the forum got its facelift. Hopefully people avoiding the Dublin results will click that this is the same thread

 

Also, I had some trouble with the poll so it looks like we'll only be voting on main events. I'm probably just being thick but I can't seem to add more than one question (fight) to the poll now. Well, it lets me add them, I just can't fill the bastards in for some reason. That's why I've just put Lawler vs Brown in the poll.

[lambyUK]

Didn't even realise Patrick Cummins was on the card!? I would check out his last fight Wand, he actually looked very good and quite a powerful 205er. Despite being relatively green, I think Cummins takes this fight against old bollock eyed Kingsbury.

Still can't believe the guy is nailing Natasha Wicks!!

[Noah Southworth]

Lawler vs. Brown should be a war; if they can, UFC need to show highlights of Brown against Silva throughout the night as a means to build the main event up to an audience that should, in theory, be larger than the one who watched Brown against Silva live. And it might even get more people tuning in if they think they’re going to see a war for the ages, which Brown vs. Lawler should be. I’d like to see Lawler win this because I think he’s far more likeable and likely more marketable, but it would be a great story of Brown pulls off what would be something of an upset. Brown is tough and won’t be easy to put away so I think this probably goes a few rounds, but anything is possible.

 

Nogueira vs. Johnson could be a massacre; Johnson is bigger, strong, hits harder and Nogueira, even if he does make it to fight time, is notoriously brittle. Unless Nogueira somehow gets the fight to the ground and ends up on top, this could be a very bad night for him. Johnson should win this and probably will do so in a manner where he could looking at a title fight eliminator

 

Guida vs. Bermudez is a fight that I also think could end up with a popular fighter having a very bad night. I think Bermudez is hungrier for it, knows he has a real chance to get a title shot, and this could be the night he makes his statement for wanting a title eliminator. I like Guida but I think he’s a little off his peak form and we’re probably going to find out whether his KO loss to Mendes was because Mendes is that good a puncher or if Guida can’t take the big shots anymore. This could very good and there is a strong chance that Bermudez makes a name for himself.

 

Thomson vs. Green could be a career defining fight for Green. A win here over a name like Thomson, with Green already on a seven-fight winning streak, would really announce Green’s arrival in the top-10 and make him someone to really start taking seriously. Conversely, a win for Thomson against a fighter on a great fun of form would certainly be a nice way to rebound from a narrow loss to Henderson and could put Thomson’s name back in the contender mix. Whoever wins this, I think, would make a great opponent for Donald Cerrone.

[Egg Shen]

well the Irish show was all kinds of special, the reaction to all the Irish fighters on the card was just unreal. There's no doubting Conor was the potential to be the biggest name in the game, Saturday just confirmed it, he breezed through Brandao with little trouble and again looked like a million bucks in doing so. The next move is a tough one because you wanna capitalise on his momentum but at the same time protect him a little, the UFC has too. The Poirier fight is the biggest fight they can make without throwing him in with a powerhouse wrestler so that's the fight i'd set up, that co-main eventing a PPV in Vegas? i'm down with that.

 

The card delivered though, fight-wise it didn't compare to the mid-week show but the atmosphere made up for that.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah there was no fight quite like Lineker vs Ozkilic or Cowboy vs Miller on the card (main card at least, Pendred vs King looked fun on the highlights) but the atmosphere took the show up a few notches. And I'm basing it just off how it came off on telly. I can only imagine the buzz of actually being in that crowd. I really wish I'd have put a bit of money aside a while back and gone to this.

 

Speaking of attending, just saw this.

 

UFC Dublin Fanpic

 

Find yourself in there, Supremo, Ross and whoever else went, and apparently you can get a month free on Fight Pass.

 

Lawler vs. Brown should be a war; if they can, UFC need to show highlights of Brown against Silva throughout the night as a means to build the main event up to an audience that should, in theory, be larger than the one who watched Brown against Silva live. And it might even get more people tuning in if they think they’re going to see a war for the ages, which Brown vs. Lawler should be.

Yeah, show clips of Brown vs Silva throughout the prelims, and highlights of Lawler vs Hendricks wouldn't hurt either, and it could attract more viewers if they catch a glimpse of those fights. Couldn't do any harm. And like you say they're fights didn't have quite the reach FOX does, one being on FS1 and the other being PPV only.

 

They could really build this up as a must-see Gatti vs Ward type thing, by just showing them both smashing fuckers throughout the show. Not the usual old montage with Goldberg and Rogan chatting shit over it, something different. It doesn't need describing by two pink faced middle-aged men, just show clips of them both being badass set to some eery music or some shit. Basically a jazzed up version of the trailer I posted above, but on FOX to a (hopefully) big audience. Show Brown eating that brutal body kick off Erick Silva then smashing him. Lawler actually laughing like a lunatic as Johny Fucking Hendricks throws bombs at him. It's a crazy fight.

 

They won't do anything different though. It'll just be Goldberg, Rogan, their new FOX fitted suits, and their cliches about "murderers row" and "sick fights". Like every other show.

 

Regardless, the fight will deliver.

 

Speaking of Matt Brown vs Erick Silva, if anyone missed it or fancies watching it again, the UFC have put it on YouTube. You can watch it here

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Wow, that Brown/Silva fight was even better than I remembered. I thought for some reason that it slowed down in the second round, but those guys were berserker zombies out there.

 

As for UFC on FOX... dat main card tho. 

 

Lawler vs. Brown has FOTY potential. They just don't have boring fights. As for Bermudez vs. Guida... I think the last time Guida was in a fight I enjoyed was against Bendo (I'm pretty sure I missed the Kawajiri fight). So, I see Guida running as Bermudez tries his best to engage- hardly FOTN material.

 

And they're basically wheeling out Old Nog for Rumble to batter- don't get me wrong, that's a positive, I can't stand Old Nog. He'll probably break a hip at the weigh ins though.

 

Josh Thomson back in action! This should be a really fun opener, Bobby Green is a million miles away from the excitement vacuum that is 2014 Benson "I can do all things through Christ, Amen!" Henderson.

 

Plus the Detroit Superstar headlining the prelims, I love that guy! (no homo) ... And Kyle Kingsbury- had no idea that guy was on a 3 fight losing streak! Pat Cummins isn't exactly Glover Teixeria or Jimi Manuwa though.

[lambyUK]

I've re-watched that Brown/Silva fight, and I've come out of it thinking Lawler will absolutely wreck Matt Brown. There were some occasions where Silva was giving Brown trouble with the body kicks, and Lawler kicks like a mule. On top of that Lawler has unreal KO power and I think Brown will be on the receiving end of a brutal KO.

I was reading somewhere that Brown hasn't faced anyone on the level of Lawler, and they are right. Not taking away from Brown at all, he deserves this position, but the guys he beat on this current streak aren't world beaters. He's beaten 2 top 15 guys, and jumps right to the no 2 in the world.

 

Tough ask, but I'm pretty confident Brown is going down.