Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 13, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted November 13, 2016 We've got a double header next Saturday with the Mousasi vs Hall 2 show from Belfast then this from São Paulo, Brazil later on... FOX SPORTS 1 MAIN CARD Ryan Bader vs Antonio Rogerio Nogueira Thomas Almeida vs Albert Morales Claudia Gadelha vs Cortney Casey Thales Leites vs Krzysztof Jotko Warlley Alves vs Kamaru Usman Sergio Moraes vs Zak Ottow FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS Cezar Ferreira vs Jack Hermansson Marcos Rogerio de Lima vs Gadzhimurad Antigulov Manny Gamburyan vs Johnny Eduardo Luis Henrique vs Christian Colombo FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Justin Scoggins vs Pedro Munhoz Francimar Barroso vs Darren Stewart I think you'll forgive me for completely overlooking this one with all the hype around UFC 205 over the last week or two. I completely forgot this was even happening, much less next week! You can see why though, it's not the strongest of cards, is it? Bader vs Little Nog 2 is your main event. It was supposed to be Gustafsson vs Nogueira but Gus fell out injured. That's 3 times they've attempted the Gus vs Nog only for it to fall apart. Anyway, Bader vs Nog 2 it is then. No surprises who I'll be pulling for in this one. Love the Nogs, can't stand Bader. The two first met back in September 2010 at UFC 119. At the time Bader was undefeated at 12-0. Nog had obviously made a name for himself in Pride where he beat the likes of Alistair Overeem, Dan Henderson and Kazushi Sakuraba and had an epic with Shogun in the 2005 Grand Prix tournament. He'd finally made his UFC debut in late 2009 and was 2-0 in the UFC coming into the Bader fight. I don't remember much of the first fight. In fact, I've blocked out most of UFC 119 as it was pretty cack all round. When I think of UFC 119 (and I must admit, I don't much), I remember it as the show where Frank Mir knocked out Mirko Cro Cop at the arse end of one of the worst fights I've ever seen. My recollection of Bader vs Nog 1 is that it was fairly close, with Bader just shading it by scoring takedowns at crucial points and having just enough time in top position to squeak out a decision. I might actually dig the fight out again sometime this week to refresh my memory. Because, even though it's been 6 years, I think it might give an idea as to how this rematch will go because neither guy has really changed in the time since they first met. Ahh hopefully it'll be good, but since Bader's involved it probably won't be. Neither guy's troubling the title picture at this point, nor are they causing the likes of Cormier or Jones to sit up in bed at night in a cold sweat. It's a fight between two guys who are being thrown together again because they're going nowhere. Man, that sounds negative but what can you really say about a Bader vs Nog headliner? I just hope Nog batters him. Can't be doing with Bader at all. Even now with him coming off scoring one of the best knockouts of 2016 against Ilir Latifi, I just feel apathy towards the beige cunt. Come on Nog! Almeida vs Morales is an interesting one. Mostly to see how Almeida looks coming off his first loss. He was really gaining a lot of hype and momentum as a young undefeated prospect but the first round KO loss to Cody Garbrandt has cooled that off big time. He's only 25 so he's still got time to come back from that, but it's always interesting to see how a fighter responds to their first defeat. And in Morales he's facing another unbeaten (6-0-1) fighter. Gadelha vs Casey just feels like a 'keep busy' fight for Gadelha. Can't see Casey giving her any hassle. Gadelha should piss through this fight and be back in the title mix in the new year. It's slim pickings on this show but Leites vs Jotko is ***WAND'S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. I've always liked Leites. He's 26-6 overall, 6-2 in his current UFC stint and his only recent losses are decisions to Bisping and Mousasi. He's basically a high level gatekeeper at 185. Excellent BJJ, pretty handy on the feet and he's durable. Jotko is a solid opponent though at 18-1. He's coming off 4 UFC wins in a row and he just KO'd Tamdan McCrory in a minute in June. Decent under the radar fight this. Rest of the card leaves me cold, to be totally honest. I like Sergio Moraes, enjoyed him on the undercards ever since he was on the first TUF Brazil. Quite like what I've seen of Warlley Alves as well. And Scoggins vs Munhoz might well be the FOTN. That would've been my 'one to watch' but seeing as it's on Fight Pass (I think), I probably won't end up watching it myself! That's it. Very thin lineup but you never know, I guess it could surprise us. If not at least we've got the Belfast show the same night, that one looks pretty strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 14, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted November 14, 2016 Bader's on the final fight of his contract too, he's said he'a testing free agency after this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted November 14, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted November 14, 2016 Good, he's boring as fuck so hopefully he heads elsewhere. How much he is really worth to other companies though I'm not sure as they'll know he's boring as sin too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 Good, he's boring as fuck so hopefully he heads elsewhere. How much he is really worth to other companies though I'm not sure as they'll know he's boring as sin too. UFC, Rizin and Bellator will probably have a bidding war over him. The lowest bidder has to sign him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chunk Posted November 15, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted November 15, 2016 Let's not forget that Bellator signed Phil Davis and he's now their champ. Compared to Davis, Bader is thrilling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 15, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted November 15, 2016 don't fully disagree with that, i imagine Bellator will snap Bader up if he's available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Bifkin Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 205 is so thin though, they almost need Bader. I wonder if Weidman might try his luck there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 15, 2016 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 15, 2016 Let's not forget that Bellator signed Phil Davis and he's now their champ. Compared to Davis, Bader is thrilling. Nah. At least Davis has a bit of a personality. I actually really liked him when he first came into the UFC. He was likeable in his interviews and he looked like a proper raw talent with bags of potential. He wasn't as boring either. His anaconda choke finish of Gustafsson was great and his inverted kimura thingy (later dubbed 'the Mr Wonderful' after Davis, or maybe Paul Orndorff) was even better. But somewhere along the line he became awful to watch. Still got skills, but he's just not enjoyable from an entertainment perspective at all. He's got to have the oddest physique in the sport as well. Look at the shoulders! It's like he's had some NFL shoulder pads surgically implanted. 205 is so thin though, they almost need Bader. I wonder if Weidman might try his luck there. That's a thought. Weidman's out of the title picture at 185 for the time being. And he's a big middleweight who's flirted with the idea of 205 in the past. He even offered to step in against Jon Jones at the cancelled UFC 151 PPV. He might try his luck and see how he does with an easier weight cut. He'd be an instant injection of new blood in a division that, as you say, is not exactly heaving with quality fighters. He could probably get back in the title mix at 185 fairly quickly. He's good enough and, like (I think) Jim said, the top 4 or 5 at middleweight are so good that they can probably all beat each other on any given night. The margin for error is so thin at the top of 185. But as we've often seen with fighters coming off bad losses, he might just want to make a fresh start in a new division. And he's never making 170 so light heavyweight it would have to be! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chunk Posted November 15, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted November 15, 2016 I think I'm only familiar with him following his transition to Mr Boring then. You're right about his physique - looks like a Gundam character: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 16, 2016 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 16, 2016 Ha! One of them but with Arsenio Hall's face; That reminds me, I fucking loved 'Coming To America' when I was a kid. I'll have to revisit it. Edit - shows the interest in this card when I've descended into Eddie Murphy film talk on page one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted November 17, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted November 17, 2016 If Weidman might move up to MW, surely there are arguments for Jacare, Romero and Rockhold too? I'd like to see if Romero could freakshow Jones into oblivion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 17, 2016 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 17, 2016 Yeah it goes back to what I was saying a while back. It seems like in general most of the divisions are bigger men's weight classes than they used to be. You look at the top 205ers of a decade or so ago. Guys like Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz are around the same size as today's top middleweights like Yoel Romero, Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold. If not smaller, actually. Everyone's cutting more weight these days, I suppose. As for those 185ers moving up, they all could I guess. But at the moment, why would they? The only reason we're talking about Weidman at 205 really is because he's out of the race at 185 for the forseeable future. I've no doubt he can get back there but with the depth of the division and the logjam of contenders currently, Weidman coming off back to back stoppage losses probably means he'll be waiting a while. Whereas at 205, as a fresh face in a division lacking them, he could probably see himself in title contention quicker. Guys like Romero and Jacare are on the cusp of ruling the 185 division so a move up in weight isn't on the agenda right now. Saying that, I could see Rockhold going up at some point as he gets older. He's got to be one of the biggest middleweights in the history of the UFC's 185 division. There's a picture of him standing with Cain Velasquez, Daniel Cormier (when he was a heavyweight) and Lavar Johnson and no joke, Rockhold looked bigger than all of them. I've never heard of him struggling too much with the cut to 185 but it can't be much fun at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 17, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted November 17, 2016 anyone know much about Albert Morales? he's had one fight in the UFC which resulted in a draw but he's 6-0 other than that. I've not seen him fight, feels like he's being bunged in the deep end against Almeida. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members GlennCullen Posted November 19, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted November 19, 2016 Always like to bring this one up before a Rockhold fight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 19, 2016 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 19, 2016 With added Lavar Johnson... That's the picture I mentioned before. Look at the size of him there. Easily bigger than Cormier, just as big, if not bigger than Cain and he's close to the size of fucking Lavar Johnson! Remember the days when Forrest Griffin was considered a giant light heavyweight? Rockhold's got to be around Forrest's size and he's a middleweight. I've never heard that he's struggled too much to make 185 though, so whatever he's doing he's doing it right. He's definitely a guy you could see going up to 205 and being just fine size wise though. I think the likes of Jacare and Romero might be a bit small for today's 205 division. They're jacked but they're not huge in height and reach to go with it, I don't think. They could probably have some success there but at the very top where you've got huge fuckers like Rumble, Gus etc I could see them having problems. Whereas I think Rockhold has the size and frame that he could move up tomorrow and slot into that division pretty smoothly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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