Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 3, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted January 3, 2016 Feb 6th in Vegas... FOX SPORTS 1 MAIN CARD Johny Hendricks vs Stephen Thompson Roy Nelson vs Jared Rosholt Ovince St Preux vs Rafael Cavalcante Joseph Benavidez vs Zach Makovsky Misha Cirkunov vs Alex Nicholson Mike Pyle vs Sean Spencer FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS Josh Burkman vs KJ Noons Derrick Lewis vs Damian Grabowski Justin Scoggins vs Ray Borg Noad Lahat vs Diego Rivas FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Mickey Gall vs Mike Jackson Artem Lobov vs Alex White What's the crack here? This is four weeks away! Is this it? Got to say that's a pretty weak offering for a PPV. There's probably going to be a couple more fights added but can't see anything significant being added this late in the day. Probably just a couple of filler fights for Fight Pass. Werdum vs Velasquez 2 isn't weak though, that's for sure. This should be a hell of a fight if the first one's anything to go by. It'll be mega interesting to see how this one plays out. The first fight was in June last year at UFC 188. It was a fight the vast majority of the MMA world, fighters, media and fans alike, expected Cain Velasquez to win. Werdum once again, upset the odds. He went into Cain's backyard, Mexico City, and handed him his arse then took his title. It wasn't plain sailing, not at all. It was a right old scrap. Both men got dropped, both were hurt, both bled, both had to fight the stupid high altitude that comes with fighting in Mexico. It was a crazy fight. What blew me away though was how Werdum was able to get the better of the fight in all areas. Everyone knew that if the fight became a ground battle, Werdum would hold an edge there, despite Cain's wrestling. Werdum is just that good a grappler. He's surely the best pure grappler in heavyweight MMA, and one of the best grapplers in the sport in any weight class. But what people didn't expect was that he'd beat Cain up on the feet as well. He stayed in Cain's face the whole time and took the fight to him. He just wouldn't fuck off. Cain landed good shots himself but Werdum always seemed to get the last word in the exchanges. In the end, Werdum's performance in the striking was so good that Cain was left with no option but to take Werdum down. He was getting busted up in the standup to the point that Cain's head coach Javier Mendez could actually be heard telling Cain between rounds that he needed to take Werdum down. Put that in perspective for a minute. You have a top MMA coach telling his fighter to go to the ground with the best BJJ artist in the division who's known for his lethal guard. That tells you all you need to know about how the striking was going for Cain. They were left with nowhere to go. So Cain followed his corner's advice in the second round... And it went about as well as expected. Werdum tapped him out with a guillotine choke to become the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion. Werdum has been overlooked almost his entire career but he now sits on top of the mountain and deservedly so. When you look at his record, he's got to be considered one of the best heavyweights in MMA history. He holds wins over Cain, Fedor, Big Nog, Overeem, Hunt, Nelson, Browne. It's a who's who of heavyweight MMA. And it couldn't have happened to a better guy. Outside the cage Werdum comes across as one of the nicest people in the sport. It says a lot that he never even really got booed when he beat Cain in Mexico. Mexicans are kind of like Brazilians when it comes to fiercely supporting their fighters. Yet they seemed to take a liking to Werdum. And why not? This is going to be good. The first fight was one of my favourite fights of 2015. And I honestly think this one could be even better. This time they don't don't have to contend with the altitude, Cain's knocked the rust off from the layoff he had before their first fight and Werdum will be even more confident now he's coming in 1-0 over Cain. Can't wait for this. Sadly, the undercard is severely lacking IMO. I do like the Hendricks vs Wonderboy matchup. As it stands though, this is the co-main event. Bit weak for a PPV co-headliner. But stylistically it's a great fight. Hendricks is probably going to try to just wrestle this one out if he can though. You don't want to be arsing about with Wonderboy Thompson in the striking if you don't have to. I think Hendricks shuts him down with wrestling here but I'd love to be proven wrong. I hope Wonderboy kicks his fucking beard off. Nelson vs Rosholt, I have a feeling, is going to be fucking shite. Call me a cynical cunt but I can't envision anything but Rosholt taking Nelson down and spooning him for 15 minutes. Big Roy's going to have about a five second window at the start of each round to land that overhand right before he's dumped on his fat back and getting smothered. Hopefully Roy lands a bomb early and sends Rosholt to sleep for once. Burkman vs Noons should be good. I like this fight a lot actually. Burkman has been great value since returning to the UFC. I really hope he wins this fight because he's 0-3 in this UFC stint and, despite being exciting, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they release him if he loses this. His fights with Stun Gun and Cote last year were tremendous. Proper forgotten gems. The Lombard fight wasn't bad either. OSP vs Feijao is another fight I quite like. Can't say I'm counting the days or anything but it should be decent enough. Can't see past OSP winning fairly comfy though. Feijao is always dangerous for about half a round then he just seems to melt away. The rest...I'm not feeling it. Pyle vs Spencer might be alright, I guess. And it'll be good to see Artem Lobov back in action. Thin card though. Thinner than Tamdan McCrory's hairline. And that shit's thin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cousin Jim Bob Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 Mexican fight fans are really funny about Mexican American fighters. De La Hoya took a about a decade of beating the best of the best to win them over. Tbh he never won them all over like a Barrera did either. Add in Werdum talking better Spanish during the build. Mexican fans were skeptical of Cain. It wasent really his backyard by fight time. He had fans but a lot fans there were just Mexican UFC fans. Mexico as a country couldn't careless either it was rather sad for Cain. I think he wins the rematch though. He made great adjustment s after the JDS loss and I think he will do it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 9, 2016 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2016 Few fight additions... Joseph Benavidez vs Zach Makovsky (125) Justin Scoggins vs Ray Borg (125) Misha Cirkunov vs Alex Nicholson (205) Nothing special but I quite like the two flyweight fights. This card really could've done with just one more biggish fight as a co-main. Even if you had something like say Shogun vs Rashad on there. One extra fight like that would give this card that little boost and more depth. But it's four weeks away at this point so this is probably it now. Oh well. Still some decent stuff there, just doesn't feel like a PPV outside the main event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members herbie747 Posted January 9, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2016 He holds wins over Cain, Fedor, Big Nog, Overeem, Hunt, Nelson, Browne. Didn't Overeem beat Werdum? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yakashi Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 He holds wins over Cain, Fedor, Big Nog, Overeem, Hunt, Nelson, Browne. Didn't Overeem beat Werdum? He beat Overeem in Pride but lost to him in Strikeforce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 9, 2016 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2016 Yeah they're 1-1. Werdum submitted him in the first fight in Pride. Overeem won a decision (in a shit fight) in the rematch in Strikeforce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members herbie747 Posted January 9, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2016 I only remember the Strikeforce match - it was abysmal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 9, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2016 Yeh strange fight that. It was a big deal at the time cause it was during the height of Ubereem and people were real excited to see him fight in America, plus it was part of the Heavyweight Grand Prix before it fizzled out. For all the great moments he's had, Overeem is partial to a dud fight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 10, 2016 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 10, 2016 Yeah, Overeem was on a 10 fight unbeaten streak at the time and, aside from the weird low blow fight with Cro Cop, all his wins were by finish. That Werdum fight really felt like it slowed his momentum at the time. I can't remember it that clearly but I'm sure there were a lot of people who thought Werdum might've edged that decision as well. All I remember of that was Overeem being gunshy and Werdum keep flopping to his back trying to get Overeem to follow him. It was proper shit. Think I voted it Worst Fight Of The Year back when we used to have that award in the UKFF Awards on here. Who do you think gets the next title shot at heavyweight after Werdum vs Cain 2? It's definitely going to be either Alistair Overeem or Stipe Miocic. They both deserve it but neither really stand out over the other as the more deserving contender. I think Overeem might end up getting the nod though because his contract negotiations are going down any day now and Overeem's side might push for a title shot as part of the agreement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BigJag Posted January 10, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted January 10, 2016 Did Werdum get knocked out of the cage on his UFC debut? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 10, 2016 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 10, 2016 His UFC debut was against Arlovski at UFC 70 in Manchester (same night Gonzaga Cro Copped Cro Cop). Arlovski won a decision in another crap fight. Werdum's overall UFC record, combining both stints, is 8-2. The two losses are the Arlovski and JDS fights. You must be thinking of JDS knocking out Werdum. Was he knocked out of the cage though? I just remember him getting walloped with a bastard of an uppercut and plopping to his knees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 10, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted January 10, 2016 Yeh he just fell to his knees. That was a huge upset at the time, its one of those weird KO's where i specifically remember where i was when i saw it too. If i remember correctly Werdum was acting cocky and playing around like JDS had nothing for him before he got KO'd. It weirdly led to Werdum being released from the UFC too, anyone remember any details as to why he got cut so quickly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 10, 2016 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 10, 2016 I won a bet with my mate (now brother-in-law) that JDS would pull off the upset. Based purely on a video of JDS murdering the pads on one of Dana's old video blogs and Werdum looking doughy on fight week. My mate's face was fucking priceless when Werdum hit the deck. It weirdly led to Werdum being released from the UFC too, anyone remember any details as to why he got cut so quickly? For whatever it's worth Werdum's Wikipedia says this; In his next fight at UFC 90, Werdum was heavily favored to win but was knocked out in 1:20 of the first round via uppercut by Junior dos Santos. After the loss Werdum's contract was terminated by the UFC.[12] Since Werdum was not contacted directly about the termination he had no idea he had been cut and initially denied the news of him no longer being in the UFC as just a rumor. I always remembered it as Werdum's last fight on his contract and them just choosing not to renew his contract after the loss to JDS. I could be wrong. Still seemed like a strange sacking though because Werdum was thought to be not far off a title shot at that time. He hadn't looked great in that first UFC run before the JDS loss. The Vera stoppage was controversial and he lost that snoozer against Arlovski. His only bright spot was the Gonzaga win. So maybe they just thought he wasn't worth keeping around. Still seemed harsh. In those days you usually had to be on a three fight losing streak for them to cut you. Werdum was coming into the JDS fight off two straight wins. Edit - Werdum quote from just after being fired in 2008; After initially denying his release, Werdum confirmed the news yesterday with Brazilian website Tatame.com. “When I first heard the rumors, I didn’t know anything,” Werdum told Tatame.com. “I had four more fights left with [the UFC] on my contract, which ran to 2010. But they demanded to renegotiate my existing contract by cutting my pay in half.” It gets weirder, he still had four fights left on the contract? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members GlennCullen Posted January 10, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted January 10, 2016 Were they paying him a boatload at the time? Contracts always have that 'can cut on a loss' thing, so maybe they decided to cut him and renegotiate at some point on a smaller show/win? Irrelevant now, obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 10, 2016 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 10, 2016 Fuck knows. I wouldn't have thought he'd have came in on that much money when they picked him up in 2007 though. It wasn't like when they went all out to get Overeem in 2011. Werdum hadn't really established himself as an elite heavyweight at that point. Regardless, yeah it's irrelevant now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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