UFC Fight Night: Cyborg vs Lansberg - Sep 24

[wandshogun09]

Might as well whack this up as well as the Poirier vs Johnson thread, while I'm having a boring Sunday in on my own.

 

The UFC returns to Brazil on September 24th with a bit of an odd looking Fight Night...

 

 

FOX SPORTS 1 MAIN CARD

Cris Cyborg vs Lina Lansberg

Renan Barao vs Philippe Nover

Roy Nelson vs Bigfoot Silva

Francisco Trinaldo vs Paul Felder

Thiago Santos vs Eric Spicely

Godofredo Pepey vs Mike De La Torre

 

FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS

Gilbert Burns vs Michel Prazeres

Rani Yahya vs Michinori Tanaka

Jussier Formiga vs Dustin Ortiz

Erick Silva vs Luan Chagas

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS

Stevie Ray vs Alan Patrick

Vicente Luque vs Hector Urbina

Glaico Franca vs Gregor Gillespie

 

Like I said, weird little card. It's like they had the Brazil date in the schedule, had Cyborg and Barao but no-one to feed to them so just got the phonebook out and ordered two bodies in. It's definitely got the feel of them bringing in two sacrificial lambs to send the Brazilian fans home happy. But, as we've seen so many times, shit doesn't always go to plan in MMA. Especially this year.

 

 

Cyborg vs Lansberg is probably going to be another mugging. I was scratching my head when this one was announced, like I'm guessing most people were. I'd never heard of Lina Lansberg before this fight was booked. Now she's headlining a UFC show. I guess it's so hard to find opponents willing to go into the cage with Cyborg these days, they're having to bring fuckers in. She's like a female Tong Po in Kickboxer, or Chong Li in Bloodsport.

 

She's got that monster aura. She's 16-1-1 in MMA. She's gone unbeaten in her last 17 fights. Her lone MMA loss was a decision in her MMA debut all the way back in 2005. Her last 15 wins were by KO or TKO. And 9 of those stoppages came in the first round.

 

 

At UFC 198 in May, Cyborg finally made her UFC debut. Leslie Smith was the only woman brave/stupid enough to take the challenge. A decision she probably swiftly regretted once the first round kicked off and she got swept up in the Cyborg cyclone. Some criticised the referee for stopping the fight a bit early but he probably did Smith a favour. She wasn't going to survive that onslaught. And if she did, shit would've only gotten worse for her.

 

That fight was at featherweight. And, as we know, there is currently no women's featherweight division in the UFC. Interestingly, this Lansberg fight is at a catchweight of 140lbs. So maybe Cyborg is giving a drop to 135 a serious go this time? Maybe. Possibly. 135 is where the big fights are for the 'Borg. And if she's doing it gradually, maybe it can work. I hope so.

 

 

Lina 'Elbow Princess' Lansberg is the lamb to the slaughter this time. Or is she?

 

Now, I'm not expecting her to win. But, reading up a bit on Lansberg, she mightn't be the bum I'd initially thought she was. When the fight was announced I thought 'ahh they're bringing in some can for Cyborg to crush'. But Lansberg sounds like a legit fighter.

 

Bit of background on Lansberg...

 

She's Swedish. She's 34 years old. Only 6-1 in MMA, the loss was her MMA debut back in 2012. But she's an experienced Muay Thai fighter with a 37-11 Thai record and close to 100 fights overall under her belt.

 

As you can probably guess from her nickname, she loves using elbows. I liked this quote;

 

“I love elbows. They make everybody bleed so much, and I love that. It will be so much fun. She’s tough, and she’s going to bleed a lot. That’s why I do it. I’m going to enjoy it, and we’re going to have a good time, me and Cris.” - Lina Lansberg

 

 

You don't often hear an opponent sound so excited about fighting Cyborg. You certainly never hear them say that fighting Cyborg is going to be a "good time". She's either delusional or she has a right to be calm and confident.

 

She's not beaten anyone that good as far as I can tell but she fought Valentina Shevchenko in Muay Thai and, if nothing else, she's got that veteran experience. She's probably not going to be intimidated by Cyborg, which is pretty much half the battle IMO.

 

Again, I'm not saying she'll win. She'll probably get steamrolled like the rest of 'em. But maybe she's not the cakewalk we think. I'm open to almost any upset after the year we've had.

 

Lansberg talks a good game, I'll give her that. She's saying all the right things;

 

"Definitely she beats opponents before they get in the cage. When she gets in there, and you see it in her last fight against Smith. You saw it from the start that she was beat walking to the cage. It’s definitely the biggest reason to why she wins all the time.”

 

“I’ve been fighting Muay Thai for so many years now. I have 85 or 90 fights, many of them in the European and world championships. I’ve fought against Valentina Shevchenko, who is fighting in the UFC now. I fought her in the finals of a world championship match. I’ve done it for many years, and I’ve won several gold medals in the European championship and the world championship."

 

“I’ve been preparing for something like this for a long time. I’ve been traveling the world to fight before, and it’s a lot of pressure, but it’s the way I want it to be. That’s the fun part as well. The bigger, the better.”

 

"Everything is mental 100 percent. It’s a mental game. The technique and the physics is just a small part of it. It’s the mental game that’s most important. I’m comfortable with that, and I work a lot mentally right now, as well, and I have for quite a while with my coach and with a psychologist. It’s a mental game."

 

“I’m lucky I’m not Cris in this actually because I know the feeling when you go into a fight and you have everything to lose and nothing to win really. I wouldn’t like to be her in this fight. It’s much better to be me to be the underdog and have everything to win.”

 

"This fight is absolutely a shortcut to the top, and it’s the best way possible. She is beatable. She has beat many good names, but also a lot of names that weren’t that good, and she’s still human. A lot of people win all the time, but everybody is beatable.”

I like her attitude. She's probably getting killed but I'm slightly more into this fight now I've read into Lansberg's background a bit.

 

 

Barao vs Nover is the co-main event. Again, a bit of a strange one but I suppose the UFC have run out of ideas for Barao for the time being. I'm struggling to think of another fighter who's fallen so far, so quickly and as hard as Barao has fallen. Two years ago he was on top of the mountain. He was the bantamweight champ, was riding a 30+ fight unbeaten streak and was being proclaimed the #1 pound-for-pound fighter on the planet by the UFC president Dana White. Now he's in a position where he's 1-3 in his last 4 fights, changed weight class and lost his debut at 145, and now he's fighting a relic from a season of TUF that aired 8 years ago. What happened?

 

Nover's a guy I never expected to see in the UFC again. He was on TUF 8 as part of Team Nogueira and, after a couple of impressive showings, was being called 'the next GSP'. That quickly fizzled out when he lost to Efrain Escudero in the TUF finals, looked painfully lacklustre in his UFC fights following TUF and then vanished like a fart in the wind. He's so irrelevant now that I didn't even realise that he's been back in the UFC for about a year and has fought twice (going 1-1) since coming back. I must've known he was back because I'd have typed his name in the thread opening posts, but I must've forgot him immediately after. Sums him up really. One of the biggest disappointments ever to come off TUF.

 

He's got to win this fight. They've clearly given him Nover as cannon fodder to look good against, rebuild his confidence and score a nice win in front of his home crowd. If Barao loses to Nover, man, that's his 145 quest in tatters before it even gets going.

 

 

Big Country vs Bigfoot. Call me Mystic Wand but I think I know exactly how this one's going to end. Bigfoot's getting sparked again, isn't he? In his last 7 fights, Bigfoot has gone 1-5-1. The draw was the 5 round war with Mark Hunt where he took ungodly punishment, and in the 5 losses, he was knocked out 5 times, all in the first round. He's fucked. He's shot to bits and can't take a punch anymore. So they book him against Roy Nelson, one of the heaviest handed sluggers in MMA history. I think it's time for Dana to have that 'Chuck Liddell talk' with Bigfoot when Bigfoot wakes up from another KO loss after this one. I genuinely get a bit of an uneasy feeling watching Bigfoot these days. He just doesn't seem up to it anymore.

 

Trinaldo vs Felder is ***WAND'S ONE TO WATCH*** here. Really like this fight. Nice clash of styles as well. Trinaldo, to me, has become what Gleison Tibau used to be. Tibau's slowing down now but remember for a few years he was kind of the ultimate gatekeeper of the lightweight division? If you got by Tibau, it meant you were probably ready for a top contender. If Tibau beat you, you'd take a step back down the card. Trinaldo's that guy now for me. You look at his record and he's 6-0 in his last 6 fights. Including wins over solid guys like Ross Pearson, Chad Laprise and Leandro Silva. And Paul Felder's been a joy to watch on the prelims this last year or so. You can tell he trains with Cerrone a lot because there's a lot of Cerrone's style in his fights, I think. It'll be interesting to see how he deals with a tough cookie like Trinaldo and if he can get past the gatekeeper.

 

Elsewhere on the card...

 

I really enjoy watching Godofredo Pepey. He's one of those all action, wherever the fight goes types like Carlos Condit or Tony Ferguson.

 

Gilbert Burns is a world champion BJJ artist. I keep waiting for him to dazzle everyone in the UFC. He hasn't yet but I live in hope.

 

Formiga vs Ortiz should be a frantic, non-stop, motion sickness causing fight. Both really good fighters that I could see challenging for the title in the not too distant future.

 

Scotland's Stevie Ray (not Harlem Heat's Stevie Ray, unfortunately) down on the Fight Pass prelims is always worth a watch. I've enjoyed his fights so far.

 

And Erick Silva is trying to claw his way back up the cards after looking like a potential breakout superstar a couple of years ago. Like Barao, he's another 'what the fuck happened?' case. He's like the Brazilian Roger Huerta. Stupidly exciting, popular, good looking etc. Had the MMA world on it's knees tongueing his balls but his cock stayed flaccid for whatever reason. Shame.

 

 

Cyborg vs Lansberg then. Cyberg. Lansborg. Berg. Borg. Bollocks.

 

Discuss.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Cyborg's fight at UFC 198 was a 140 lb catchweight too, Wand. Although she stated after that fight that 145 was her division and that 135 wasn't happening, perhaps she's reconsidered if the catchweight's happening again.

 

Cyborg murdering another victim is the only interest I have in this card. More than I can say for yesterday's Hamburg card though, where not one fight really appealed to me on paper. Also hoping Barao gets back on track, I like the fucker. He's a weird one, he's slid and taken some losses, but the losses are to guys that have proven to be elite since. Dillashaw was a heavy underdog in their first fight but went on to have a razor close decision with Cruz. A few years ago, a loss to Jeremy Stephens would be a killer, but he seems to have reinvigorated himself at featherweight.

 

I feel like Dana hates Bigfoot. Can't think of any soft punchers at heavyweight, but Nelson in particular is a nightmare. He's a guy that should have been cut like 3 fights ago IMO. I like Nelson, but I'm a bit uneasy about this fight and the inevitable KO.

 

Paul Felder is one of my favourite newer fighters. With so many on the roster, it's getting harder and harder for these guys to stand out, but he's had a few fights in the Octagon and a couple have been FOTN, so always like seeing his name on the card.

[jimufctna24]

Regarding the Nover hype:

 

In retrospect, I think Dana had an ulterior motive when he boasted that he'd found the new "Anderson Silva" just before TUF 8 aired. On paper, there was nothing exceptional about TUF 8. Mir and Nog were decent choices for coaches, but their participation was nothing to get fan's hearts racing. They weren't any bigger than Forrest vs Rampage, or Penn vs Pulver who had directly proceeded them. I don't recall any major changes to the show's format either. Everything seemed quite standard.

 

I think Dana created this mystical fighter to drum up interest. In his heart of hearts, I believe he knew that Nover was nothing special. Dana can be a moron, but I don't think he was that naive. He'd been running the UFC for over 7 years at that stage, and seen many great fighters emerge on the scene. The hyperbole worked to a degree. I remember forums speculating about the identity of the "next GSP"  when the show's participants were first announced. It kept fan's eyes peeled throughout the prelims. They half expected Bruce Lee to turn up every time a new fighter was introduced.

 

In the end, TUF 8 ended up being a critical success, and would have been without Dana's little trick. As discussed in the TUF thread it was a memorable season for various reasons - namely Junie Browning. I can even look past one of the show's winners being Ryan Bader.  However, the Nover hype was one of the biggest slices of grandstanding in UFC history. 

[lambyUK]

I'm guessing the only reason they are doing it at a catchweight of 140llbs is due to Cyborg being the 145llb Invitca champion. She can't be fighting in the UFC at 145llbs, and potentially lose, which technically would mean her opponent would be the invicta champion.

 

On top of that, there's zero chance of her going 135llbs. There's a video out there of her weight cut for her last UFC fight to 140llbs and she's in tears throughout it trying to make the weight. 

[wandshogun09]

Cyborg's fight at UFC 198 was a 140 lb catchweight too, Wand.

Bloody hell it was, wasn't it? For some reason I was sure it was at 145.

 

I've seen that video lamby mentioned of her cutting weight for UFC 198 since. Not nice. I wonder what's going to happen then? If she's never going to make 135, what's the point in these 140 catchweight fights at all? They're either going to have to bring in a featherweight division or just have Cyborg as a special attraction where they bring in 145ers one at a time for her to devour.

 

If the cut to 140 is that bad for her, I just don't see why they can't do what they're doing now but at 145. These fights are meaningless anyway. They're literally just feeding her bodies. So if they're doing that, they might as well let her fight at her weight anyway. And save the 140 catchweights for big fights where a 135er wants to challenge her like a Holm or Tate or something. Going through a horrible cut just for Smith or Lansberg seems silly to me.

 

I just wonder what the plan is long term with Cyborg in the UFC. If she can't make 135 and they're not keen on bringing in the 145 division, what's happening? I mean, this is better than nothing. I'd rather Cyborg in the UFC than not. But it's a funny situation.

[evets_backwards]

Presume Invicta or UFC for some reason maybe don't want her fighting at 145 just in-case she gets beat, with her being the champ at that weight over there.  If she does get beat, she can claim it's not her normal weight division and doesn't devalue the belt.

 

Ideally they'd just start to build a 145 division though. Could use an Ultimate Fighter series to bring in some more fighters at that weight. 

[wandshogun09]

I don't think it'll be an Invicta thing. They wouldn't have any say over what direction the UFC go with Cyborg. I think it might just be a case where the UFC don't see enough depth in women's 145 right now but they want Cyborg. And having her fight at 140 makes it more possible to do some fights with some of their bantamweights who probably wouldn't fancy going up to 145 to fight her. Fights like Cyborg vs Holm, Cyborg vs Tate, Cyborg vs Zingano or whatever are more likely at 140 than 145.

[Ghostface1982]

If Cyborg really wanted to make 135 she would. A slight drop in muscle mass and she'd be set. Only have to look at pics of her near male 145ers to see how big she actually is.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I've always thought that too, but that video of her weight cut was pretty grim. Crying, wailing and looking fucking skeletal.

 

Whether you think it's chicken, horse meat or Mexican whey, I think at this point she's changed her chemistry enough that she just physically can't make that 135 level anymore.

[Ghostface1982]

Unless she lays off the muscle building side of her training. If her strength and conditioning coach can't come up with a program to help her lose some mass then she needs a new coach and probably dietician. Or, lay off the steds.

[wandshogun09]

People talk about Cyborg's build but I don't think she's carrying that much muscle, is she? She's more ripped than muscular. I think the talk of her carrying loads of unnecessary muscle is a bit of a myth personally. Looking at her in recent fights, I don't think she's got much excess weight on her at all. Maybe 140 is the actual limit for her. Judging by that video, I'd say it is.

 

We can't really have it both ways, can we? On the one hand we criticised the likes of Renan Barao and Rumble Johnson for making silly and dangerous weight cuts to fight with a size advantage. But then we're saying Cyborg should cut down 5lbs more than the cut in that horrible video? And I used to think Cyborg was playing silly beggars with the weight thing, as part of a negotiation thing of trying to get the Rousey fight at a higher weight. After seeing that video though, she's not that good an actor.

 

But yeah, I don't buy this thing that she's 90s Lex Luger with a fanny. She's physically imposing and scary looking yeah. But she's not as heavily muscled as people make out. It's weird because I seem to forget that between her fights. Then she steps in the cage and I think 'Cyborg's looking lean'. Then she wrecks some girl and disappears for a couple of months again and I think of her as a female Hulk again. It's like her reputation as this monster makes her grow into some larger than life/last boss in a video game figure in your imagination. When you see her in the cage she's still scary, she's intimidating, ripped, athletic looking, aggressive, what have you. But she's not quite the Godzilla with nail polish we all build her up as in her off season.

[Ghostface1982]

She has more muscle on her arms and shoulders than Frankie Edgar! She could easily lose 5 to 10 lbs of muscle and still fuck up most of the 135ers.

[David]

If Cyborg really wanted to make 135 she would. A slight drop in muscle mass and she'd be set. Only have to look at pics of her near male 145ers to see how big she actually is.

 

I honestly don't think she can. Think about it, she had ample reason to do so a few years back when Rousey was top of the food chain and couldn't manage it then either.

 

Either she simply can't make the weight, or she hates money and bigtime fights.

[d-d-d-dAz]

Also, sometimes muscle becomes really hard to shift, as weird as that sounds.

 

In my late teens through to my mid 20's, I was big on bodybuilding. I haven't done so much as a curl in anger in 5 years, yet my arms have just remained comically big. I've lost weight, I've gained weight, I've been slim, I've been (very) fat... No change. I just appear to have gifted myself stupid arms, particularly massive triceps which make it ridiculously hard to buy suits off the rack.

 

Even if Cyborg is carrying more muscle than her counterparts, it doesn't mean it's going to shift easily.

[Ghostface1982]

 

 

 

If Cyborg really wanted to make 135 she would. A slight drop in muscle mass and she'd be set. Only have to look at pics of her near male 145ers to see how big she actually is.

I honestly don't think she can. Think about it, she had ample reason to do so a few years back when Rousey was top of the food chain and couldn't manage it then either.

 

Either she simply can't make the weight, or she hates money and bigtime fights.

Is it that she can't make the weight or that she isn't willing to give up her ridiculous size advantage she has by cutting the weight in a healthy way, by losing some size? I honestly think it's the latter and she's not right in the head.

 

Also, sometimes muscle becomes really hard to shift, as weird as that sounds.

 

In my late teens through to my mid 20's, I was big on bodybuilding. I haven't done so much as a curl in anger in 5 years, yet my arms have just remained comically big. I've lost weight, I've gained weight, I've been slim, I've been (very) fat... No change. I just appear to have gifted myself stupid arms, particularly massive triceps which make it ridiculously hard to buy suits off the rack.

 

Even if Cyborg is carrying more muscle than her counterparts, it doesn't mean it's going to shift easily.

I'm the opposite. Any gain I make in the gym is gone if I think about stopping training.