Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 27, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted October 27, 2014 The UFC finally makes its debut in Mexico on November 15th with this lot...   PPV MAIN CARD Fabricio Werdum vs Mark Hunt - UFC Interim Heavyweight Title Jake Ellenberger vs Kelvin Gastelum Ricardo Lamas vs Dennis Bermudez Augusto Montano vs Chris Heatherly Edgar Garcia vs Hector Urbina  FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS Leonardo Morales vs Yair Rodriguez - TUF Featherweight Final Alejandro Perez vs Jose Quinonez - TUF Bantamweight Final Jessica Eye vs Leslie Smith Humberto Brown vs Gabriel Bentiez  FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Henry Briones vs Guido Cannetti Marco Beltran vs Marlon Vera  If you're thinking the card looks too thin, then remember this is also serving as the TUF Latin America Finale. So rest of the card will be made up of Mexicans most of us won't know from Adam, or Manuel.  The card's taken a massive hit. Losing Cain Velasquez, Diego Sanchez and Joe Lauzon in the space of a few days last week was a complete disaster. Especially the loss of Cain. When you think back not long ago, Dana himself was saying that without Cain they probably couldn't even go to Mexico. They're there but it's got to hurt the impact of their debut to lose the poster boy for MMA in Mexico. Losing a sure-fire war like Sanchez vs Lauzon didn't help either. That's a fight that Mexican fight fans in particular would have loved.  Still, even with the pullouts, I quite like this card. It's not got any one massive blockbuster fight but it's got a couple of really well matched and potentially very exciting fights. It's definitely got some more quality to it than 179.  Werdum vs Hunt is a fun replacement fight. At first glance it looks like the classic grappler vs striker match. But Werdum has shown time and time again that you can't sleep on his striking either. He's very much a complete fighter these days. Evidence of that was his last fight with Travis Browne. A fight everyone overlooked Werdum in, yet he came out and schooled Browne for five rounds, in a fight that was mostly on the feet.  Hunt's last fight...   He became only the second man in MMA history to knock out the rock headed Roy Nelson.  You know what you're getting with Hunt. He'll basically just try to take your head off your shoulders until he either succeeds or gasses horribly trying. His defensive grappling has come on big-time over the course of his UFC career. Hard to believe he was submitted in about a minute by Sean fucking McCorkle a few years ago. Now he's pulling out of Struve's armbars and surviving Bigfoot's terrifying mount. I mean, he's not going to be stuffing Cain's takedowns or outgrappling Josh Barnett or anything, but compared to his Kimbo level lack of grappling before it's clear he's put the work in to get better.  Still, if they end up on the ground and Werdum can keep him there for any substantial length of time, chances are Werdum's probably going to tap him pretty easily. Werdum's probably got the best pure jiu-jitsu of all heavyweights in MMA. Better than Nogueira, better than Mir, better than Barnett, better than Nelson. But he's not a big takedown guy really. He's good, I actually think his takedown game is a bit underrated. But he's not really that strong an offensive wrestler. And Hunt's takedown defense is much better now.  You never know. I think that's what it comes down to though. Is Hunt's defensive wrestling better than Werdum's offensive wrestling?  Ultimately I think Werdum probably wins this. He's been out in Mexico for a long time acclimatising, whereas Hunt's taken the fight on a few weeks notice, has a fair bit of weight to drop and the fight will be at high altitude. If Hunt can't score the KO within the first few minutes, it doesn't look good.  Rest of the card, I know nothing about the two TUF Latin America finals. I haven't even seen five seconds of the show. Anyone who's been watching care to fill in the blanks you're more than welcome. I'm going in blind on these.  Ellenberger vs Gastelum could be a terrific fight. I really like Gastelum. I think he's got a lot of potential. There's been the odd hiccup with weight but hopefully he's got that under control now. He's still only 22 years old, 9-0 and he's exciting as fuck to watch. The pace he sets, the aggression, always goes for the kill. I've said before he reminds me of a mini Cain Velasquez. He had a cracking fight with Rick Story in March. And in light of how great Story looked against Gunnar Nelson recently, that makes Gastelum's win over him look all the more impressive.  Ellenberger needs to make something happen. For the skills he has you feel like he should be doing better than he is. But he's been inconsistent. His last four fights tell the story. He'll blitz and KO a Jay Hieron or Nate Marquardt. But put him up against a Robbie Lawler or Rory MacDonald and he just can't pull the trigger. It's almost like Ellenberger doesn't believe in himself against that level of opposition.  It'll be interesting to see how this fight goes. It should tell us a lot about where Gastelum stands right now, and if he's ready for that big step into the very top of the division at such a young age.  Lamas vs Bermudez is yet another excellent fight. Bermudez is finally climbing the ranks. He's been one of the most exciting fighters on the entire UFC roster for a few years now.   This could be another war. We're all on the Bermudez Bandwagon on here but Lamas is no cakewalk for him. I think people are going to overlook him here because he got completely shut down by Aldo in his last fight, and Bermudez is coming off crushing Guida. But Lamas is a handful for most. Losing to Aldo doesn't mean he's not still really good. I'm not sure how this goes. I might pick Bermudez but it's a bit of a tossup for me.  Eye vs Smith could be a fun one. Smith is coming off absolutely wrecking Jessamyn Duke, Eye's coming off a suspension for weed. I'm hoping Smith wins this one. Her style isn't pretty but it can be fun to watch and I like her constant effort to finish fights, even if it means putting herself in harms way. She doesn't give a fuck. She's got a frantic and aggressive style that the Mexican fans will probably love.  So yeah, UFC in Mehico then.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 27, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted October 27, 2014 for a PPV it looks thing as hell with the TUF Mexico finals...strange move to put them on a PPV when the show isnt even airing in the US. The remaining 3 main card fights im all over though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted October 27, 2014 Share Posted October 27, 2014 for a PPV it looks thing as hell with the TUF Mexico finals...strange move to put them on a PPV when the show isnt even airing in the US. The remaining 3 main card fights im all over though Pretty much my thoughts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 27, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 27, 2014 It's definitely thin. I like what's there but there's not enough. And it's really going to be Some Fucker central once the TUF guys fill out the card. Werdum vs Hunt, Ellenberger vs Gastelum and Lamas vs Bermudez could all be fantastic though.  As thin as the card is though, I'm not going to be as harsh on them as I was for 177, because they've really been fucked by the injury bug.  This is how the card was looking...  PPV MAIN CARD Cain Velasquez vs Fabricio Werdum - UFC Heavyweight Title TBA vs TBA - TUF Featherweight Final TBA vs TBA - TUF Bantamweight Final Jake Ellenberger vs Kelvin Gastelum Ricardo Lamas vs Dennis Bermudez  FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS Diego Sanchez vs Joe Lauzon Edgar Garcia vs Hector Urbina Jessica Eye vs Leslie Smith Augusto Montano vs Chris Heatherly  Just adding Sanchez vs Lauzon and having Cain headlining gives the card a completely different look to me. The whole thing of Cain returning in Mexico, after this year long layoff, and finally fighting someone other than JDS or Bigfoot (seriously, look at Cain's record. You have to go all the way back to Brock Lesnar in 2010 to see him against someone other than those two), it felt big. The atmosphere would have been something special. The Mexicans get behind their fighters and Cain being the first ever Mexican heavyweight champion, he's someone who could be massive there. If he could just stay healthy.  There's still stuff to like about the card. I think Werdum vs Hunt is a cracking clash of styles, Gastelum and Bermudez are the potential breakout stars and they're getting tough tests. It's just a shame that it's lost Cain. This show was all about Cain carrying that Mexican flag and making a triumphant return to continue his reign. And he and the Mexican fans have been robbed of that moment. Sucks.  It was different when the UFC returned to Brazil for UFC 134. They have way more options in Brazil because they have so many top fighters from there. If Anderson had to pull out of the Okami fight it wouldn't be good, but you'd still have had Shogun and Nog on there. And possibly could've stuck an Aldo fight in place of Silva vs Okami. With Mexico they don't have that luxury. They've got a few fighters with Mexican heritage like Sanchez, Melendez etc, but they're relying on Cain to carry the load. And unfortunately, right at the time they're trying to blow the doors off Mexico, Cain's body seems to be completely falling apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 27, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted October 27, 2014 i still expect it to be a pretty special night based on the fact that it's the first show in Mexico. It'll be interesting to see if the Mexican fans respond to their own similar to how the Brazilians do, i expect they will. The actual TUF winners are in a position to become big stars in Mexico here, there's only a few active Mexican fighters in the UFC so they are gonna be looking for guys to cling too, so it that respect the TUF finale's are huge...if id watched the season (and i may still do before the PPV) i'd probably be way more excited for it. Â It's another big to have Erik Perez not on the card, given he was the first Mexican born UFC fighter, i bet he'd gutted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 28, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 28, 2014 Yeah, I forgot about the Perez pullout. He was meant to fight Marcus Brimage. That was another blow to the card. Yeah, Perez isn't a huge name or anything but being the first Mexican born UFC fighter I'm sure the crowd would've been mega into his fight. I mean, look at the reactions guys like Neil Seery got in Dublin. Perez would've got a superstar reaction in Mexico. Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Bifkin Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 I'm quite looking forward to this one. Lamas vs Bermudez should be a good one.  It's a shame that Cain's out but it does give the Heavyweight division some semblance of competitiveness in his absence. That is until Jon Jones cleans out Cormier, Gustafsson, Rumble at LH and steps up a division Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Dead Mike Posted October 28, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted October 28, 2014 Looking forward to this, the new main event is a no lose situation for me as I really like both Werdum & Hunt. Hunt winning would be an amazing career story & a joy for an old Pride fan like me. Got to feel bad for the Mexican fans though losing Cain & Sanchez, what a shitter if you shelled out for top price tickets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted October 28, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted October 28, 2014 Not being sarky at all here, but you know things are bad when we havepay per view main cards with people Wandshogun hasn't heard of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members lambyUK Posted November 3, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted November 3, 2014 I can't find the mma thread,and I can't be arsed to create one so I thought I would post this here. Â I've fucking missed you all...more than a married man with a child really ought to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 3, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted November 3, 2014 same here man, MMA just hasn't felt the same this past week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 This place is a godsend for keeping up to date. Â I went to bed on Saturday expecting to watch Bisping vs Rockhold in the morning. I was only 6 days out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 7, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 7, 2014 I love Mark Hunt. Â On fighting grapplers; Â "I hit 'em in the head and there goes your fucking black belt." And his prediction for the fight; Â "First round walk away knock out." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 I was slightly surprised to read that Werdum is 37  Then again, when I thought about it, he has been around for a heck of a long time. Werdum turned up in Pride in early 2005, so he has been in the big leagues for almost a decade. (Pride-UFC-Strikeforce-UFC).   He has aged better than most other MMA HW's. How many HW's from 2005 are better now then they were then? (other than his opponent on Saturday) I know Werdum had more room to improve than most,  as he was a novice striker at first, but his body has not shown much wear and tear.  I am not even sure that beating Hunt for the interim title would be Werdum's career highlight. Being the man to finally end Fedor's streak is going to take some topping, even if others beat Fedor after Werdum. That was a special moment. I was gobsmacked at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted November 12, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted November 12, 2014 I loved the Countdown for this show. Mark Hunt comes across tremendously. I'll be over the fucking moon if he somehow wins. It's one of the greatest stories in years. Â Embedded Episode 1 Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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