Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 29, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 29, 2017 It's another Sunday Fight Night on February 19th as the UFC returns to Canada...   FOX SPORTS 1 MAIN CARD Travis Browne vs Derrick Lewis Johny Hendricks vs Hector Lombard Sam Sicilia vs Gavin Tucker Elias Theodorou vs Cezar Ferreira Sara McMann vs Gina Mazany Paul Felder vs Alessandro Ricci  FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS Nordine Taleb vs Santiago Ponzinibbio Carla Esparza vs Randa Markos Reginaldo Vieira vs Aiemann Zahabi Thiago Santos vs Jack Marshman  FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Gerald Meerschaert vs Ryan Janes  I really like the look of this. The headliner was supposed to be a Junior Dos Santos vs Stefan Struve rematch that nobody wanted and Beast vs Browne was originally on UFC 208. When JDS vs Struve 2 fell apart they shuffled the deck and I like the way it's worked out. Now we still get Lewis vs Browne, plus it sounds like JDS is going to challenge Stipe Miocic for the title now. For once the injury bug has actually improved the situation.   So Travis Browne vs Derrick Lewis is now a five round main event. Not that it should need five rounds but it basically just means more time for the KO punch to land. In reality I can't see this going past a round or two tops.   Travis 'Mr Rousey' Browne needs to make something happen to steer his career away from the iceberg. I mention it every time he fights but I really think he's one of the biggest underachievers in the sport. You don't find many near 7fters with his agility and movement. And for a while it looked like he was well on his way to becoming a serious threat to the title. The first time he really got my attention was in 2011 when he scored a highlight reel Superman punch KO on Stefan Struve that just folded the big Dutchman up like a deck chair. Then I remember being impressed with his fight against Chad Griggs. Not because of the opponent, but I remember seeing Travis throw a flying knee that Jose Aldo would've been proud of. From there he looked scary putting away Gabriel Gonzaga with elbows while defending a takedown attempt. He showed incredible heart in taking a vicious beating off Alistair Overeem and coming back to knock him out. And perhaps his most noteworthy win for me was his one minute annihilation of Josh Barnett at UFC 168, again with the elbows of doom. I never warmed to him but it was undeniable that by the end of 2013, he'd served notice to the rest of the division that a new player was in town.  Then it happened...   Sometime in 2014, Browne left Alliance MMA and enlisted the services of Edmond Tarverdyan as his head coach and joined the Glendale Fight Team. The team's only success was Ronda Rousey. And it seemed like upon joining the team, Browne quickly went on a win one/lose one merry go round of inconsistency on Edmond's watch. He also became embroiled in domestic violence accusations from his ex wife. And, reading between the lines a bit, it seemed like he stole Ronda Rousey away from Brendan Schaub then battered Schaub in their fight at UFC 181. The absolute bastard.  He's coming off back-to-back losses now at the hands of Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum. His most recent loss to Werdum also ended with Ed the Twat getting kicked by Werdum. Then in December, Browne's "sugar mama" (as Ben Rothwell recently described her) Ronda Rousey got obliterated into what was most likely retirement by Amanda Nunes. It hasn't been a fun time to be Travis Browne recently.  Then just to piss on his chips a bit more, his phone rang and he was given his next opponent...   He's got to try and tame the 'Black Beast' Derrick Lewis. A mountain of raw power and violence who's on a five fight winning streak. In his last three fights he beat Gonzaga, Roy Nelson and Shamil Abdurakhimov. Nothing he does is pretty but he's the fucking man. Worth a follow on Twitter and Instagram as well, where he's good fun.  Derrick Lewis observes the heavyweight title picture...   Hard to argue. Not that I'd EVER argue with him anyway. Here's a cool little video on Lewis that the UFC usually trot out before his fights...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=AqnA8UV3490  So that's your main event. Hopefully Lewis looks spectacular here. His last fight against Abdurakhimov was pretty awful until Lewis unleashed the beast in the later rounds and put an end to it. This should be a hard fight to call, as Browne is always dangerous. But I just don't know with him anymore. I don't know where his head is at. Thankfully he's at least seen sense and got rid of Edmond. He's apparently joined Black House now so we'll see what comes of that. But I've got a feeling the Beast's taking this one.   Hendricks vs Lombard is the co-headliner. Hendricks is moving up to 185 after failing to make weight for his UFC 207 fight against Neil Magny. This after kicking up a big stink and having a go at the media in a bizarre interview in the days before, and insisting he would make the weight just fine. Bellend. Lombard is no stranger to being a bit of a cock himself but he's the babyface in this fight to me. I can't see past Lombard smacking Hendricks all over the octagon. And it's going to be beautiful.   Sicilia vs Tucker will probably be good and I don't even know who Gavin Tucker is. Sicilia is just one of those fighters who doesn't do bad fights. He's always aggressive, he's tough, he hits hard and no matter what his opponent's style is it always seems to result in something entertaining. Tucker is Canadian, I know that much. 9-0 with 8 finishes. Apparently he's from a place called Ships Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador. What the fuck? Is this guy entering the UFC or Crufts?   Theodorou vs Ferreira is a battle of TUF winners. Theodorou won TUF Nations in 2014 repping Canada. Ferreira won the first TUF Brazil in 2012. Both guys have kind of just floated around on the prelims but they've both shown little flashes of brilliance. I'm quite looking forward to this one. Ferreira took a while but I've liked what I've seen of him recently. And Theodorou, despite looking like Luke Rockhold-lite, has potential IMO. 11-1 and still in his 20s. Could be a star for Canada if he keeps moving up the ladder.   McMann vs Carmouche should be decent enough. Two victims of the Reign Of Rousey. But they're both good fighters. McMann is an Olympic silver medalist in wrestling. I thought she looked really good in her last fight, submitting Alexis Davis. Probably her best all around showing in her UFC career yet. And Carmouche came back off a long layoff to beat Katlyn Chookagian at UFC 205 in MSG. Two of the more likeable women in the game so it's a shame one has to lose, but it should be a good fight.   Taleb vs Ponzinibbio is likely to be a wild scrap. Again, these are two guys who just don't do shit fights. Taleb is the Canadian so the crowd will be with him. He knocked out Erick Silva in his last fight which was big for him. Ponzinibbio is someone I've grown to look forward to seeing on a card. Usually a highlight of the prelims. He's coming off three wins so he's riding some momentum. Pretty good chance this gets FOTN, I reckon.   Esparza vs Markos is this card's ***WAND'S ONE TO WATCH***. It might not be the most exciting fight on the card but it's the one I might actually be the most invested in. This fight has been in the making ever since these two appeared on TUF 20 in 2014. This was the fight I wanted to see back then. It was a pure heel vs babyface dynamic that TUF used to be so great at producing. Like Chris Leben vs Josh Koscheck and Efrain Escudero vs Junie Browning before them, I really wanted to see Randa Markos batter Carla Esparza.  They didn't get on on the show;   And the house was kind of split into two camps. The heel side consisted of a bunch of horrible bully types like Esparza, Felice Herrig, Angela Magana and Bec Rawlings. The babyface side had Randa, Joanne Calderwood, Aisling Daly and maybe one or two others. Randa was one of those TUF contestants I'd never heard of before the show, but she made a fan of me just by being one of the few in the house who seemed mature and cool. And when she submitted Felice Herrig on the show, that was me on board.  Here's Markos and Esparza building their TUF fight that never was...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=jtGxvTpHM4k  If it was pro wrestling, Carla Esparza vs Randa Markos would've been the TUF final. But it wasn't to be. We still got to see Esparza get mauled though, by the future strawweight queen Joanna Jedrzejczyk in 2015. Since then, they've both had up and down careers but I'm glad the fight is finally happening. Hopefully Randa crushes the boring little twat.   Santos vs Marshman is another fight I could easily see stealing the show. Santos was on a nice little run until I started praising him. Seems I jinxed the poor prick because he's gone 0-2 in his last couple of fights, losing to Gegard Mousasi and Eric Spicely. He'll be looking to snap that losing streak. But he's fighting Welshman Jack Marshman, former BAMMA champ who's coming off a successful UFC debut in a great fight against Magnus Cedenblad. Good fight this. Tough second fight in for Marshman, despite Santos' recent losses.  So yeah, plenty to like about this card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cousin Jim Bob Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 Leben was a pretty poor babyface in his fued with Koscheck. Bullying the fuck out of Jason Thacker, pissing on the guys bed and verbally berating him from day one. I thought he was a drunken, moronic, frat boy douchebag. I was laughing my arse of when Kos layed and prayed him into oblivion. That was a heel vs heel match up.  Talking of dickheads fighting Hendricks getting destroyed by Lombard should be fun. Have a feeling Browne might sadly get his shit back together in the main and KO the likeable Lewis though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 29, 2017 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 29, 2017 Leben was a massive twat early on in TUF 1 but Koscheck and especially Bobby Southworth were definitely the heels in that whole thing for me. Southworth calling him a "fatherless bastard" and then Koscheck spraying him with the hosepipe when he'd tried to get away from them and was sleeping - the behaviour of a pair of cunts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 You could tell the producers were on board with the Leben face turn, when they aired footage of Kenny Florian confessing that he'd grown to like Leben. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 29, 2017 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 29, 2017 Oh yeah, meant to mention this in the OP. Aiemann Zahabi is the younger brother of Firas Zahabi. 6-0, all finishes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chunk Posted January 30, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 30, 2017 Great preview, Wand. This is a great little card in my opinion. As a point of comparison, it just goes to show how shitty the London card really is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 30, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 30, 2017 I know everyone loves to rip on Edmund for Travis Browne's downfall but does anything it might have more to do with the fact that his girlfriend is a multi-millionaire superstar? Financially Travis must be sitting pretty living in Ronda's mansion, perhaps he just lost the drive to take the sport seriously, jogging in silk pyjamas and all that. Â ...Edmund is the cherry on the top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 31, 2017 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 31, 2017 The Black Beast on the MMA Hour talking about Travis Browne... Â "I look at him beating his wife and I could look at this as motivation since he like to hit on women." Â Apparently, the Beast saw his dad beat his mum growing up and he's looking to fuck up a (alleged) wifebeater here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted January 31, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 31, 2017 Somebody's gonna' get their wig split. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted February 2, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted February 2, 2017 I would love it if he started saying that in his trash talk. I know it belongs to Menry, but it would be great if somebody was doing it in real fights (although I know wigs are probably illegal in MMA fights). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 2, 2017 Author Paid Members Share Posted February 2, 2017 According to Travis Browne, he hasn't dropped Edmond as coach after all. Silly wife beating sausage. Edmond is still involved in his training camp, but the camp isn't at the Glendale gym this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 3, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted February 3, 2017 Gotta keep Ronda happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 4, 2017 Author Paid Members Share Posted February 4, 2017 The Beast: "What's up Ronda?" Â https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=5Y6afGyyF70 Â Travis Browne is about to get fucked up then cucked up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted February 18, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted February 18, 2017 Is tonight's show Fight Pass exclusive? I have Fight Pass on my phone but I was hoping it would be shown on BT as it's more enjoyable to watch on the TV. I thought that was part of the new agreement with BT to show the fight pass shows, or was the odd exception made? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 18, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted February 18, 2017 Its not an exclusive Fight Pass show, its on FS1 in America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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