TUF Finale: Mighty Mouse vs Some Ham 'n' Egger - Dec 3

[wandshogun09]

Completely missed that this was even happening. But this is this Saturday. It's not a bad little card either.

 

 

FOX SPORTS 1 MAIN CARD

Demetrious Johnson vs Tim Elliott - Flyweight Title

Joseph Benavidez vs Henry Cejudo

Jake Ellenberger vs Jorge Masvidal

Ion Cutelaba vs Jared Cannonier

Alexis Davis vs Sara McMann

Brandon Moreno vs Ryan Benoit

 

FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS

Gray Maynard vs Ryan Hall

Rob Font vs Matt Schell

Kailin Curran vs Jamie Moyle

Devin Clark vs Josh Stansbury

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS

Anthony Smith vs Elvis Mutapcic

Dong Hyun Kim vs Brendan O'Reilly

 

Obviously, we've still got Mighty Mouse's opponent to be announced yet. Not that it fucking matters. I'll edit this when the official card is finalised.

 

 

So Mighty Mouse vs some poor prick headlines. This is what it's come to. People talk about champions "clearing out their division", well when they're having to dedicate an entire season of TUF to find you a new challenger I'd say you've done that.

 

I admit I haven't been watching this season. I haven't seen a minute of it. I've heard the fights are good but I just can't be arsed with TUF anymore and I get more than my fill of great fights anyway with a show on pretty much every week these days. Is there anyone on the show you genuinely think can trouble Mighty Mouse? Honestly?

 

 

Love him or hate him, that's an image we've all had to get used to. And it's one I don't think is going away anytime soon. He's the ONLY flyweight champion in UFC history. He's held that belt since 2012. Nobody has come close to taking it off him. He's beat all the top contenders in his division. Some twice. It's ridiculous. And he makes it look so effortless I think it gives people the wrong impression that he's ruling over a shit division. But the guys he's beating are really good technical fighters. He beat Joseph Benavidez twice. And the second win was more impressive than the first. He beat John Dodson twice. And the second win was more one sided than the first. He bodied unbeaten Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo inside a round. Dominated Kyoji Horiguchi for 24:59 and tapped him with a picture perfect armbar in the very last second of the fight. Schooled a juiced up Ali Bagautinov to a shutout decision. He's absolutely one of the best fighters MMA has ever seen.

 

Personally, I'm a big fan of DJ. I can see why others would be indifferent to him. He's not exactly an interesting personality or anything. But he's such a great fighter. I think it's a myth that he's a boring fighter as well. A big fat dirty lie. He's fantastic to watch, IMO. Seems a good guy too. So what he doesn't kill it on PPV? They can't all be Conor McGregor, people!

 

So yeah, so confident am I in Mighty Mouse that I'm putting a poll up now, without even knowing who his opponent is. I'm confidently predicting he totally and decisively mollywops whoever this poor unfortunate soul is that ends up in the cage with him. Some prize eh? You win TUF but your prize is a one sided beatdown from the Mouse. Smashing.

 

 

Benavidez vs Cejudo pits what I consider to be the silver and bronze holding flyweights against each other. Dodson was up there but now DJ's gone 2-0 over him and ran him out of town, he's scurried off to bantamweight. So Benavidez and Cejudo are the distant second and third best 125lbers in the UFC now. And this fight will determine who's second best and who's third best. That's all this is. A battle for silver in a race where gold is forever out of the reach of their little stunted arms.

 

Should be a fun fight. Benavidez is a hell of a fighter. He's 24-4 but his four losses were all to Mighty Mouse and Dominick Cruz. Only those two men have been able to beat him up to now. And Benavidez is coming into this one riding a 5 fight winning streak. So Cejudo is up against it here. It's easy to forget that Cejudo is still very young to MMA. He's only been fighting since 2013. He's very talented but I can't help thinking he might've been chucked into the deep end too quick in MMA. With DJ clowning the whole division they needed a new body to throw him and with Cejudo's unbeaten record at the time plus his Olympic gold medal, I can see why they gave him a shot. But looking back, he wasn't ready. Now he might never be ready for a wizard like Mighty Mouse but he definitely seemed out of his depth when they fought. And I'm not sure he's ready for Benavidez either.

 

 

Ellenberger vs Masvidal could be good. I reserve the right to be wrong on this because you never know what you're getting when Ellenberger is involved. Remember when Ellenberger genuinely seemed like a future title contender? What happened? He dropped off massively. He is coming off a big first round win over Matt Brown though. So hopefully he's turned the corner. That was huge for him because he was coming off losing 5 of his last 6 and apparently the UFC were all ready to sack him but he practically begged them to give him one more shot. They said 'OK then', then gave him Matt Brown. That was nice of them. Somehow he pulled it off and here we are. Masvidal is going to be a hard fight for him though. I don't really fancy Ellenberger's chances. I'd like to see him win again though. Can't stand Masvidal.

 

 

Davis vs McMann. In the month where Ronda Rousey returns to the octagon, here we get two of her victims facing off. Should be decent. On paper it looks like a case of Davis' BJJ vs McMann's wrestling. But Davis has some solid striking, especially from the clinch. And McMann, while not the most technical of strikers, has some power.

 

 

Moreno vs Benoit is ***WAND'S ONE TO WATCH***. You might wonder why. Well Brandon Moreno has only fought once in the UFC. It was in October and he took it on short notice. And he ended up submitting Louis Smolka in about 2 minutes. That's enough to have gotten my attention because Smolka's a beast. Moreno is only 22 as well so there's a ton of potential there. Ryan Benoit I'm neither here nor there on but he does hold a TKO win over Sergio Pettis. It's a good fight this.

 

 

Maynard vs Hall on the prelims there. Yes Gray Maynard is still around. But what a fall he's had. It's mad to think that he came through TUF 5 with Nate Diaz and was considered neck and neck with Frankie Edgar a few years ago. Yet you look at what Nate and Frankie went onto do and then look at Maynard's last few years. He's lost 5 of his last 7 fights for fuck's sake. He did win his last fight though. A decision over Fernando Bruno in his featherweight debut. That was his first visit to the win column since 2012! They're giving him Ryan Hall. A real submission machine who you might remember from the McGregor vs Faber season of TUF. Nice clash of styles here. Got a feeling Hall's going home with one of Maynard's limbs though.

 

Oh and the Dong Hyun Kim here isn't the more well known Dong Hyun Kim you're thinking of. This isn't 'Stun Gun'. Stun Gun's fighting Tarec Saffiedine at 207 a few weeks after this. This DHK is nicknamed 'The Maestro' and he's fighting at lightweight.

 

That's all folks. I'll leave you with the one thing Demetrious Johnson isn't good at...

 

 

Dodging sick. Baby Mouse by vomit to the head TKO.

[the_mole]

Moreno was number 16 pick (out of 16 guys) on TUF and lost his opening fight to the guy ranked number 1, since then their has been some good fights but I think I know the winner and I don't see him doing much against Mighty Mouse, although I couldn't see any of them beating him but who knows GSP did lose to Matt Serra.

[Dead Mike]

This has been the best TUF in ages tbf. Pretty much all the fights have been great. I totally get why people haven't watched as TUF ran it's course ages ago.

[Chunk]

Is the Ion Cutelaba vs Jared Cannonier fight a bit high up on the card? I've never heard of either of them. It's above Alexis Davis vs Sara McMann, both of which have fought for the belt.

[wandshogun09]

It's definitely a bit higher up the card than it should be. They do this sometimes though. Don't know if it's the UFC card version of wrestling's 'piss break match' or what. I've heard both names but I think that's only from doing these opening posts. I couldn't pick either guy out of a lineup.

[David]

I actually think this is a pretty good idea, provided they don't run with it again any time soon. 

 

It's basically a longshot underdog who's being given the chance to come in and fight for a title in his first fight in his contract. Imagine if he wins? It'll be huge for the division.

[lambyUK]

I agree with David.

For me, it's made this event a must watch. Whilst it may go tits up and become embarrassing for his opponent, there's a mystery around his opponent and the what if scenario it creates.

So whilst I've only watched about 10 seconds of this series, I guess it's done it's job of getting me (and David at least) more excited for this event. 

[David]

And let's be honest, whoever he fights won't put in a more embarrassing show than Cejudo did.

[BigJag]

TUF goes out tonight correct? I'm assuming that Mighty Mouse's opponent will be revealed tonight. How long ago would Mighty Mouse have known who he would be fighting?

[Guy Bifkin]

I think the UFC have high hopes for Cutelaba. He's the Russian LHW who weighs in painted like the Hulk. 

 

 

Yeah, I'm looking forward to this card. I might check out the bouts from TUF, I've heard nothing but praise for them. 

[lambyUK]

TUF goes out tonight correct? I'm assuming that Mighty Mouse's opponent will be revealed tonight. How long ago would Mighty Mouse have known who he would be fighting?

He would have known in more than enough time to have a full training camp.

 

It's taped way in advance.

[the_mole]

I'm pretty certain he watches the final, don't know just think I seen him, he knows who is all in the house.

 

Apparently several cable networks gave out spoilers as UFC X Demitriious Johnson Vs Whoever it was.

[wandshogun09]

I actually think this is a pretty good idea, provided they don't run with it again any time soon. 

 

It's basically a longshot underdog who's being given the chance to come in and fight for a title in his first fight in his contract. Imagine if he wins? It'll be huge for the division.

Yeah I kind of like the mystery opponent thing here. As long as it doesn't turn out to be fucking Savio Vega this time. The fact that I haven't watched any of TUF makes this even more intriguing for me because I'm going into this completely blind. I don't know anything about any of these TUF guys this time. Chances are DJ smokes whoever it is but it's weird that I'm probably more interested in this than most of Mouse's title defences where I actually knew who the opponent was. That unknown element adds to it for me.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Spoiler for who Mighty Mouse's opponent is:

 

 

It's Tim Elliott. Bit ridiculous that the worldwide flyweight division is so thin that a guy who got fired from the UFC a year ago can walk back in to a title shot, but such is life.

 

 

 

[Egg Shen]

Be aware, there's TUF spoilers everywhere today.