UFC 194: Aldo vs McGregor

[seanz25]

Grosvenor casino Southampton is airing this live with a deal. Id imagine same nationwide in their casinos for anyone interested.

[GlennCullen]

Been a busy, stressful week at work and as such have not had a chance to watch or read any of the lead up to this fight. Looking forward to getting stuck into it all tomorrow. ITS FINALLY HERE!

[wandshogun09]

Right, apologies in advance for the ridiculous length of this post. I didn't intend it to be this fucking long but got carried away and can't be arsed to go through it and edit it down.

 

Just watched UFC 189 again. I was going to post this in the MMA Past Fights thread but seeing as only about three people seem to read the fucking thing and seeing as the show basically served as a kind of preview to UFC 194, I'll whack it in here.

 

As a few of us have said many times now, UFC 189 might've been the best MMA show of all-time. In my opinion, it's certainly the greatest UFC PPV ever. So I'm watching the PPV again for the first time since it aired live and thought I'd give it a bit of a review.

 

The date is Saturday 11th July 2015. The venue is the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

The utterly cringetastic 'Face The Pain' remix opens the show. The skip function is a wonderful invention, isn't it?

 

 

After the usual PPV opening rundown of the top fights by Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan, we hear the usual...

 

"Let's get this started" - Mike Goldberg

 

And we're off.

 

 

"Thomas Almeida's a great matchup for me to showcase my fighting style. It's gonna be one hell of a war. And that's the type of fight I wanna be involved in" - Brad Pickett

 

 

BRAD PICKETT VS THOMAS ALMEIDA

This is a return to bantamweight for Pickett after a lacklustre run at flyweight. Almeida is coming in unbeaten at 19-0, with 18 stoppages, 15 in the first round. He's 23 and enters the octagon with a lot of hype.

 

Big John McCarthy says "LET'S GET IT ON" and the fight is underway. Complete with boring as fuck black and white Reebok uniforms.

 

ROUND 1:

Less than a minute in and the crowd breaks into a loud "Olé, Olé, Olé" chant. It's the opening fight of the PPV and it already feels like the show is in Ireland instead of Vegas.

 

Almeida seems the quicker of the two but he's opting to stand and trade with Pickett early. Pickett already looks more aggressive and energetic than he ever did at flyweight and is finding some success with a left hook to the body. Almeida already marked up around the eye.

 

Pickett drops Almeida on his arse with a big left hook!

 

Almeida pops back up, defends a takedown then Pickett floors him AGAIN with a hard knee to the face. Fuck me. Worst start possible for Almeida but it's great to watch. Almeida still very much in the fight and trying hard for a leg lock but no joy.

 

"This is the kind of fight you want to see a young fighter like Almeida participate in. Deep waters against a real veteran. This is a real crossroads fight" - Joe Rogan

 

NOW ALMEIDA DROPS PICKETT!

 

This is awesome! It was a big elbow over the top that decked Pickett there but Pickett fought through it and scrambled around on the floor just enough to clear the cobwebs. This is just a wild as fuck fight. Spinning shit from Almeida now. Lovely spinning elbow. Both throwing bombs as the round ends.

 

I don't even know how you score that one. Pickett started the round strong but Almeida ended it stronger. Probably Pickett's round though as he was 2-1 in the knockdown battle.

 

ROUND 2:

They pick up right where they left off. Pickett tries a flying knee. Bad, bad mistake because it seems to remind Almeida 'oh yeah, I can do that as well'...

 

 

And he does. Bloody hell, he does. Nearly takes Pickett's head off with a beautiful flying knee and Pickett is done. He tries to get up but he looks like me crawling into bed after a night shift. His night is over. He's no use to anyone. Big John has seen enough.

 

 

Official time is 0:29 of round two. Almeida by KO and he improves to 20-0 with 19 finishes. They replay the knee and the sound is fucking nasty. Like someone threw a raw steak out of a third story window onto concrete. Splat!

 

**WINNER - THOMAS ALMEIDA BY KNOCKOUT, ROUND 2**

 

Tremendous fight. Like 123 Kid vs Hakushi from SummerSlam '95, you really couldn't ask for a better way to open a PPV than this. It was exciting from bell to bell, didn't overstay its welcome and had a killer finish. Honestly, THE perfect PPV opener.

 

*****

 

They show the two headliners entering the arena. McGregor, who Goldy describes as "the face of a fighting nation" looks sharp as fuck in a purple suit and sunglasses, and he tops off the ensemble with a swagger Vince McMahon would be proud of.

 

Now there's a promo for UFC 190 on, hyping up Rousey vs Correia. The promo is all about how Ronda is 'THE WORLD'S MOST DOMINANT ATHLETE'. Remember them days?

 

*****

 

From there we move to the welterweight division.

 

 

"I don't really pay attention to what his plans are. I focus on my plans. And my plan is to finish this fight. And I believe I will. Simple as that" - Gunnar Nelson

 

He makes Lance Storm look like The Rock in his deadpan delivery of that quote. But I love the bastard. Some guys just carry the emotionless assassin thing off perfectly.

 

GUNNAR NELSON VS BRANDON THATCH

Gunnar is coming in off the first loss of his career against Rick Story.

 

Rogan comments on Thatch's size during the entrances.

 

"Looking at him in there, he really does, no exaggeration, look like a light heavyweight" - Joe Rogan

 

I don't disagree. He looks massive for 170!

 

Goldberg informs us that there are nine octagon girls for this card. Nine!

 

 

Bit excessive, no? They couldn't even fit them all in this picture.

 

ROUND 1:

On paper this looked like a straight up grappler vs striker match, with Gunnar's BJJ vs Thatch's power striking. But early on you can see Gunnar's holding his own on the feet.

 

The crowd is very pro-Gunnar here.

 

"Gunnar Nelson is getting the trickle-down Irish ovation" - Joe Rogan

 

GUNNAR KNOCKS HIM DOWN!

 

Cracking left-right combo it was. Caught Thatch a treat and he wasn't expecting it.

 

Thatch is in deep shit now. The deepest of shit. He's on the ground, while dazed and hurt, with Gunnar motherfucking Nelson on top of him. Not good.

 

Nelson is having his way. Transitioning from full mount to side control to knee-on-belly then back to full mount. It's beautiful to watch how seamlessly he moves from one position to another. Thatch is in quicksand and it's just a matter of time...

 

 

"He's just so good. His technique is so excellent. You can't make any errors with him. It's very high level" - Joe Rogan

 

Gunnar locks up a rear naked choke and Thatch has to tap. 2:54 of the first round is all it took.

 

 

**WINNER - GUNNAR NELSON BY SUBMISSION, ROUND 1**

 

They immediately show Conor McGregor's reaction in the dressing room to his teammate's victory. Needless to say, he looks happier than Gunnar himself!

 

"Look at Gunnar Nelson. He's so stoic. He doesn't even look like he fought. He looks like he just woke up. He doesn't even look happy" - Joe Rogan

 

*****

 

Off to featherweight for this next fight.

 

 

"All of a sudden Dr Dre is a G thing but on his old album covers he was a she thing" - Eazy E

 

Jeremy Stephens wins the walkout music battle, coming out to 'Real Muthaphuckkin' G's' by Eazy E.

 

DENNIS BERMUDEZ VS JEREMY STEPHENS

From the nanosecond it was announced I think everyone had this pegged as a frontrunner for Fight Of The Night. Two of the most aggressive and exciting fighters in the 145 division, and that's saying something.

 

 

ROUND 1:

Fight's underway and they're not fucking about. Stephens drops Bermudez to a knee within the first like 30 seconds during a wild exchange. Bermudez recovers quickly and fucking CRACKS Stephens with a big overhand right that stuns 'Lil Heathen' (terrible nickname, btw) for a sec. This is all in the first minute of the fight!

 

Bermudez initiates a clinch against the fence but they're constantly active. Somewhere along the line Stephens got busted open. He's wearing the old crimson mask and they're both swinging for the fences as the round comes to an end. Bermudez's round despite the early knockdown.

 

ROUND 2:

Within ten seconds Stephens has buckled Bermudez with a nasty leg kick and they trade strikes again.

 

FUCK! Stephens with another knockdown!!

 

This time it's a left hand and he's fucking assaulting him with knees from the Thai clinch and loopy haymakers to follow up.

 

 

Stephens having success with the leg kicks again and he scores ANOTHER flash knockdown on 'Dennis The Menace' (better than 'Lil Heathen'). Now it's Bermudez's turn, with a flash knockdown on Stephens with a teep to the body! Nutty fight, this. More mad striking exchanges to end a fantastic round. Probably give this one to Stephens but it was close.

 

ROUND 3:

Crowd going bananas as the final round begins. And it's clear these two intend to end the fight as they started it - swinging strikes hell for leather. Unfortunately for Bermudez he gets a little bit too aggressive and Stephens fucking wipes him the fuck out with a breathtaking jumping knee KO...

 

 

He shouldn't have stepped to that Real Muthaphuckkin G.

 

**WINNER - JEREMY STEPHENS BY KNOCKOUT, ROUND 3**

 

Amazing finish. I actually think it was even more impressive than Almeida's flying knee on Pickett. Almeida's was great too but Stephens not only timed his to perfection, he didn't have much space to work with and he was moving fucking backwards as well! A fade-away, counter jumping knee that landed just perfect.

 

 

One of the best knockouts of 2015. Easy.

 

"THESE FIGHTS JUST KEEP GETTING BETTER!" - Mike Goldberg

 

*****

 

LIVER SHOT!

 

Bas Rutten is on screen now. Goldberg tells us he's the newest addition to the UFC Hall Of Fame. Along with BJ Penn, Jeff Blatnick and the Hughes vs Trigg 2 fight.

 

Another Rousey vs Correia promo now. Little did we know that this would be the last win of Ronda's unbeaten streak.

 

*****

 

We move on to the co-main event. But not before a cool little light show with music and graphics popping up on the octagon canvas and stuff;

 

 

Nice touch. I like that they tried to really set this show apart. It shouldn't have been treated like a Mighty Mouse PPV and, thankfully, it wasn't.

 

 

Lawler vs MacDonald 2 was a fight that got overlooked in the build-up to UFC 189, because of the whole Aldo-McGregor-Mendes drama in the main event. It went under my radar for that reason as well and I didn't give the fight that much thought. The first time I really thought 'ooh hang on a minute, this could be something special' was when I saw the staredown at the weigh in.

 

 

Nothing major happened, there was just something about the face-off. You could tell they were both really up for the fight and when Rory put his fist against Lawler's face and Lawler pushed his arm away and they had a little face-off, it was intense as fuck.

 

"I always go in there trying to demolish my opponent. I have a will to win that won't be broken. I really don't see anyone in the division stopping me. I just feel that I'm the best right now and no-one's on this level" - Rory MacDonald

 

"I wanna go out there and dominate and show that I'm the best fighter in the world. I'm looking to finish. I'm looking to knock you out, submit you if possible. Really, I just wanna go out there and beat you up" - Robbie Lawler

 

ROBBIE LAWLER VS RORY MACDONALD 2

UFC Welterweight Title

After the first three fights on the PPV, the crowd is fucking white hot for this fight.

 

ROUND 1:

They start off very slowly. To the point where I remember that I was actually starting to fear that it was going to become a staring match and kill the momentum of what had been a brilliant show up to this point.

 

Rory tries a takedown which Lawler easily stuffs. But Rory's looking good in the striking here. Neither are doing a whole lot but Rory is probably landing slightly more. Very much a feeling out round.

 

"The only problem with a round like this, they're feeling each other out but who the hell knows who won that round? You really can't go back to your corner confident" - Joe Rogan

 

Johny Hendricks is shown on screen. Fuck off, Johny. And while you're there learn how to spell Johnny.

 

ROUND 2:

Again, not a great deal of action early in this round but you can feel the pace picking up. Both guys are moving with more urgency.

 

Now they're starting to let loose a bit. With 90 seconds or so of the second round to go, Lawler's starting to let his hands go. And he's really starting to bust up Rory's face with his straight punches. Much better round. And it's Lawler's 10-9.

 

I'd have them at 1-1 after that round.

 

ROUND 3:

And they're straight to business now. I think the feeling out process is about done. Lawler with some brutal straight lefts that snap Rory's head back. Rory's all bloodied up and Lawler doesn't give a single fuck.

 

"Rory's face is a MESS! He's bleeding from several cuts now" - Joe Rogan

 

Beautiful takedown defence on display from Lawler here as well. Crazy balance.

 

Now Rory firing back. He's still very much in this. Keeps eating those Lawler jabs but he's still dangerous. And just as I type that...

 

 

Boink!

 

Rory fucking clobbers Lawler with a big headkick and Lawler's wobbling all over the shop. Proper rubber legs. He actually got his arm up to block it but the force of the kick still rocked the shit out of him.

 

Lawler's in trouble but he's still throwing big shots as they both tee off. The crowd's not booing now. Rory tries a flying knee!

 

Lawler's fucked. Fucked. Rory just blasting away with punches, knees and elbows against the cage...

 

 

Lawler's barely clinging on but he keeps moving and throwing back just enough for Big John to let it continue. He survives the round, just about, and stumbles back to his corner. Unbelievable!

 

ROUND 4:

Rory senses the finish and he's going to town on Lawler right off the bat this round. Lawler's on the fence again and Rory's fucking battering him to a pulp. Punches, elbows and a HUGE knee which I'm amazed didn't drop Lawler.

 

Rory keeps landing headkicks which Lawler is somehow shaking off. More elbows from Rory now.

 

 

Jesus H Christ!

 

Another fucking headkick from Rory. Seriously Lawler has to be in the 'Best Chin' discussion for MMA/Boxing/Kickboxing, whatever. Ridiculously tough. His face is swollen up and bloody now as well.

 

Just noticed that Rory's right foot is all fucked up and red raw as well. Looked it up and apparently he fractured his foot in this fight. Probably against Lawler's bonce. Brutal. And the loon's STILL throwing headkicks with it. Nutter!

 

Lawler's firing back again now!! This is total insanity. Rory still can't take Lawler down. They trade strikes and then as the buzzer goes to end the round they just stand their ground and stare at each other...

 

 

Badass yet chilling at the same time. One of my favourite in-fight moments ever in MMA.

 

Chaos going on between rounds in the respective corners. Both men look like they're falling to bits. All the king's horses and all the king's men wouldn't bother trying to sort these two out.

 

Rory looks all kinds of fucked up as round five is about to start, like proper disturbingly broken up. Look at the poor get...

 

 

And that's the guy who's UP on the scorecards at this point. I think anyway. I had him edging the first round close, then winning the third and fourth pretty big. Possibly a 10-8 for the third. So I have Rory up either 39-37 or 39-36 going into the last round.

 

Whereas Rory looks buggered though, Lawler is amped up in his corner going nuts to the cheers of the crowd. Imagine seeing that shit if you're Rory? You've thrown everything you've got at this cunt, you've bust your foot on his head, obliterated his face with punches and elbows...and he's screaming to the crowd, waving his arms and clearly can't wait to get the next round started.

 

Robbie Lawler is a terrifying, terrifying man.

 

ROUND 5:

So, the fifth round begins. And as expected, Lawler's fucking going for it. Balls to the wall. He's walking through headkicks to land punches. What do you do against that? He's rocking Rory with nearly every left hand now. Rory's at the end of his rope.

 

About a minute into the fifth Lawler finally lands the finishing blow. A straight left right into Rory's already smashed nose. Rory just crumples to the floor and Big John mercifully stops the fight.

 

**WINNER - ROBBIE LAWLER BY KNOCKOUT, ROUND 5**

 

Lawler, lip hanging off and all, goes mental!

 

 

"IT IS ALL OVER! ROBBIE LAWLER REMAINS THE WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPION!!" - Mike Goldberg

 

"What an incredible fight. And a fight where both men were really pushed to the limit. But Robbie Lawler, like champions do, found a way to win" - Joe Rogan

 

One of the best fights I've ever seen. It starts off slow and just gradually gets more and more intense and violent as it goes on. Watching it again, it's even better than I remembered.

 

 

Amazing.

 

"One of the sickest fights...THE sickest fight you will ever see. Not one of them, THE sickest fight you will ever see" - Dana White

 

That would've been enough right there. But we still had the main event to come!

 

 

"Conor's never fought a guy that knows he's the baddest man on the planet. I have that mentality. This is a guy that I'm gonna love to punch in the face" - Chad Mendes

 

"Chad's a little twerp. He's a little short-ass 5'2" bantamweight running his mouth. I see many shots landing on Chad. Anywhere on the soft part of the face and it's done" - Conor McGregor

 

The weigh in, like all McGregor weigh ins, was an event in itself. With Conor and Chad nearly coming to blows. It also produced this epic picture...

 

 

Then there were the entrances. Fuck me, the entrances. The UFC really pushed the boat out to make this feel like a proper event rather than just another bog standard fight card.

 

 

 

Sinead O'Connor performing McGregor's entrance was a great idea. I'll be honest, I thought she sounded pretty crap myself but what do I know? Simon Cowell, I ain't. I'm still glad they did it though. It just made the fight feel that bit bigger.

 

"The story of this fight is not just Conor McGregor. It's Ireland. This is a fight about how much pride these people have. I, I, I can't...I mean we've had a lot of Brazilians come to see Brazilian champions fight and compete but there's never been anything like this. The Irish people have come out tonight in a way that just defines them as a nation. And this man has incredible weight on his shoulders right now. The pressure that he's experiencing right now, the hype behind all of this, very few human beings will ever experience anything remotely similar to what's going on inside the mind and the body of Conor McGregor as he steps into the octagon right now" - Joe Rogan

 

Chad Mendes coming out now with Aaron Lewis performing some country music bollocks. To think we would've got Rihanna singing 'Run This Town' if it was Aldo vs McGregor. We got some old bloke droning on about jeans and t-shirts instead.

 

CONOR MCGREGOR VS CHAD MENDES

UFC Interim Featherweight Title

Crowd going mental now as Herb Dean gives the instructions and McGregor is talking shit to Mendes during the staredown.

 

ROUND 1:

Spinning back kick to the body within like three seconds of the fight starting.

 

 

Sweet.

 

Mendes puts McGregor on his back straight after but Conor pops right back up. They get into a striking match and both are landing good shots. McGregor's are doing more damage but both are connecting pretty clean.

 

Crowd singing the "Olé, Olé, Olé" again as McGregor works Mendes' body with kicks and punches, softening him up. Mendes is noticably breathing heavy already from the body shots.

 

 

Mendes gets a takedown with about a minute left in the round. Not doing a ton of damage but he's controlling Conor and getting to rest himself as he slows the fight down. He does land a big elbow that cuts Conor as well. The round ends with Mendes on top.

 

McGregor isn't fazed though. He's still talking shit between rounds...

 

 

 

ROUND 2:

Conor kicking a lot again to start round two. But Mendes again with a big takedown. And that's the story of the next few minutes. Mendes in McGregor's guard, landing some solid elbows and controlling position. McGregor is landing some elbows from the bottom but unable to get up.

 

Then it happens. Mendes tries to secure a guillotine choke from top position but McGregor rolls and manages to slip out of it and get back to his feet. Big! And Mendes looks tired. McGregor smells blood and immediately starts boxing Mendes up.

 

There's a great moment here which I never noticed before. Mendes tries for a takedown and McGregor stuffs it and pulls a little face and nods at Mendes as if to say 'you've scored your last takedown on me tonight dickhead'.

 

You could sense in that moment that both McGregor and Mendes knew that failed takedown attempt was Mendes' last-ditch effort. It was all downhill from there. 15 seconds left of round two and McGregor's got him backing up. He lands one last kick to the body, then a right jab followed by a flush straight left...

 

 

**WINNER - CONOR MCGREGOR BY KNOCKOUT, ROUND 2**

 

Mendes is done. With just three seconds left in the second round.

 

Goldberg does his "AND IT IS ALL OVER" bit again. Seriously, come up with a new one, Mike.

 

"WOW. WOW. WOW. WOW. WOW. WOW. WOW. WOW. Unbelievable! He did it" - Joe Rogan

 

I don't know if that's the right number of 'WOWS' but there were a lot of them.

 

Emotional scenes post-fight with McGregor literally crying into the Irish flag and hugging his coach John Kavanagh.

 

 

His family is in the cage now as well as Buffer declares him the interim champion and Dana straps the gold on him.

 

He then goes on to cut a great post-fight interview with his family in the background, the flag draped around him and the crowd going nuts.

 

 

An incredible moment. Couldn't have scripted a better ending to the show.

 

 

"Can you even imagine what a Conor McGregor-Jose Aldo title fight is gonna be like now? Wow!" - Joe Rogan

 

Wow indeed. And we only have to imagine for another 24 hours.

 

Best. PPV. Ever.

 

 

Well, maybe until tomorrow night.

[Supremo]

 

I like those odds.

[GlennCullen]

TL;DR

Just kidding, that was epic Wand.

[Egg Shen]

Great post wand. what a fucking show it was, top to bottom i don't think it'll ever be beaten.

[wandshogun09]

Just watched that new updated 'McGregor Effect' episode of Beyond The Octagon. Brilliant. It is just an updated version of the old one and big chunks of it are just lifted from that but they've added the Mendes fight stuff plus more footage from the Aldo buildup like the World Tour, Go Big presser etc. It was really top draw stuff.

 

Oh yeah, it was mentioned earlier in the thread but just a reminder - the 194 weigh ins are live on BT Sport 2 at 11pm tonight.

[seanz25]

Just watched that beyond the octagon update and echo your thoughts Wand!

[Supremo]

 

Irish fans are fucking brilliant.

[herbie747]

Amazing!

[herbie747]

Both weighed in - we got ourselves a fight, boys!!

[Supremo]

I shat myself during those few seconds before they announced Aldo's weight. I was terrified he wasn't making it.

 

I can't believe this card has stayed in tact. It's a miracle.

 

Christmas Eve multiplied by a billion.

[Rey_Piste]

Looking at how Drained McGregor looked at the weigh-ins I don't think he can keep on at 145 for too long. Seeing Jose mock Conor by posing during the face off was good. I'm just so fucking priapic right now waiting for this fight.

[GlennCullen]

Just watched the weigh ins with some casuals who are coming round for the fight tomorrow.

Saw Connor weigh in: "is he alright? He's almost unrecognisable". That weight cut is not nice, has to move up sooner rather than later.

[lambyUK]

Yep, if Mcgregor wins it's 1 more fight max at featherweight.

 

Right fellas, this fucker begins. Setting alarm for 4.15 to catch the last couple of fights from the tuf finale, then up at 6am when my son wakes up, get some rest whilst he goes for a nap later in the day, bed early, alarm set for 2.30am to catch Faber and the main card, and repeat the 6am get up.