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UFC 211: Miocic vs Dos Santos 2


wandshogun09

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OK, May 13th. Dallas, Texas. Let's get the ball rolling on this beast of a card...

 

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PPV MAIN CARD
Stipe Miocic vs Junior Dos Santos - Heavyweight Title

Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs Jessica Andrade - Strawweight Title

Demian Maia vs Jorge Masvidal 

Frankie Edgar vs Yair Rodriguez

Krzysztof Jotko vs David Branch 

 

FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS

Eddie Alvarez vs Dustin Poirier 

Chas Skelly vs Jason Knight

Chase Sherman vs Rashad Coulter

James Vick vs Marco Polo Reyes

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Jessica Aguilar vs Cortney Casey

Gabriel Benitez vs Enrique Barzola 

Joachim Christensen vs Gadzhimurad Antigulov

 

Just fucking look at that, will you? Easily the most stacked card since UFC 205. That main card is amazing. One of the best they've ever put together on paper. Hopefully it all stays intact.

 

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Miocic vs Dos Santos 2 is a hell of a main event. I can't wait to see it. Two of the scariest heavyweights there's ever been in the UFC. Both mega dangerous, both powerful, both pretty fast for big men, both granite tough. And they've met before.

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The first fight was an epic five round war in December 2014 on FOX. Seriously, if you haven't seen this fight you need to fix that. One of the best heavyweight fights in UFC history for me. It was a back and forth for the full 25 minutes. JDS won the decision that night but it was razor close and many had Miocic winning. It felt like there needed to be a rematch and that there was unfinished business but it just never lined up until now.

Miocic has gone unbeaten since then. He bounced back with a string of four stoppage wins over Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum and Alistair Overeem. Three of the four were first round finishes and today he's the UFC heavyweight champion. JDS has only fought twice since that 2014 fight. A loss to Overeem and a win over Ben Rothwell. A mixed bag and he's spent a massive chunk of the last three years battling injuries. He did look excellent in the Rothwell win but that was a year ago now so fuck knows what form the big man's in now.

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Don't expect much in the way of trash talk between these two. There seems to be nothing but respect there, as JDS confirms here...

"He's a great champion. I really like him because he's a fair fighter. I don't see him cheating or doing any crazy things. I see him as a good example to other fighters. But I have to tell you there is just one No.1 in the world."

"There's just one heavyweight champion. Just one baddest man on the planet. And that one guy is myself" - Junior Dos Santos

Can't see any way this fight doesn't deliver. It's either going to be Miocic by KO, JDS by KO, or we're getting another 25 minute slugfest. I'm hoping JDS wins. I don't dislike Miocic but I just can't warm to the big goofball for whatever reason and I love JDS. It'd be lovely to see him with the belt again.

 

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Jedrzejczyk vs Andrade should be a wild fight. I really like this pairing. Should make for a nice contrast in styles. Jedrzejczyk is as technical a striker as there is in MMA. She's probably hands down my favourite striker to watch in the sport at the moment. It's just a joy to watch her fight. She's been pushed to the limit in her last two title defences by tough girls in Claudia Gadelha and Karolina Kowalkiewicz. I see this being something similar because Jessica Andrade is no fucking joke. She's a scrappy and super aggressive little fireplug of a woman. She's basically the female John Lineker. Can't go wrong with these two.

 

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Edgar vs Rodriguez is another awesome clash of styles. Edgar's no nonsense, non flashy mix of slick boxing and high level wrestling combined with insane toughness vs Rodriguez's fearlessness, Tekken striking offence and lizard grappling. I absolutely love the sound of this. Part of me is thinking this is a test Yair Rodriguez isn't quite ready for but we'll see. Yair smashing up the shell of BJ Penn doesn't convince me he's ready for Frankie. But you never know. Yair might be the type who rises to a tougher challenge and Edgar's got a ton of miles on the clock. Should be a fantastic fight.

 

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Maia vs Masvidal is ***WAND'S ONE TO WATCH***. Could've gone with any of the main card fights but there's something about this one that has my nipples so hard you could grate cheese with them. Again, a complete clash of opposite styles. This card is full of that and it's pretty cool and refreshing. Here you've got Maia, probably the best pure grappler in the game vs Masvidal who's got nasty striking, good wrestling and a mean streak a mile long. And for me there's another layer because it's a real babyface vs heel fight IMO. Maia is the ultimate nice guy of MMA. There mightn't be a more classy or genuinely nice bloke in the sport than Demian Maia. And Masvidal has always seemed a complete helmet to me. I hope Maia throttles him. This is surely a number one contenders fight as well. I can't think of anyone at 170 who'd deserve a crack at Tyron Woodley more than the winner of this fight. So yeah, it's got a bit of everything this fight. An interesting styles clash, I'm invested in it from a face/heel POV, and it's got the title shot stakes. Incredible fight.

 

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Alvarez vs Poirier is the PPV opener from what I can tell. And what a way to kick off the PPV! This might just steal the show. I really hope Alvarez wins this one. He needs to bounce back and look good here after the manner in which he lost the McGregor fight in November. Losing another fight here wouldn't be good at all. Poirier is going to give him hell, he's a handful for most lightweights. Really looking forward to this.

 

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Cejudo vs Pettis could be fun. Cejudo recently saw his undefeated streak go tits up with back to back losses to Mighty Mouse and Benavidez. No shame on losing to those guys and the Benavidez decision was wafer thin but a loss is a loss and Cejudo can't afford a third one on the bounce. Who can? Pettis is coming off 3 wins in a row after a shaky start to his UFC career. Good fight. Flyweight could do with Sergio Pettis going on a run, the division badly needs fresh challengers so I'm hoping he busts out something special here. But I suspect Cejudo will win.

 

Looking forward to seeing what David Branch can do with his UFC return. He was 2-2 in his last stint and the only thing that was memorable about that run was him getting KO'd off a slam from Gerald Harris. Since leaving the UFC in 2011 though he's gone 12-1 and the only loss was to Rumble Johnson in 2012. So he hasn't lost in 5 years and he's had a good stint in WSOF where he was a champion and beat the likes of Yushin Okami, Vinny Magalhaes and Paulo Filho. Jotko's no pushover though, he's on a good run himself. 

 

And Chas Skelly vs Jason Knight is the highlight of the prelims for me. That could be a tremendous fight but it'll get overlooked for sure on this card. I like Skelly a lot. He's got that dopey likeability that reminds me of Matt Riddle. His quick submission choking out Maximo Blanco was probably the best submission of 2016 IMO. And Jason Knight looked great in his submission win over Bruce Leroy in January. He's got that nasty side to him like Masvidal too. Really like this fight. Two of those under the radar prelimers who usually bring the goods.

 

A gem of a card this is. We should probably be talking about it already.

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Awesome card, yeah. It's a weird one though, they're all great fights but I really feel like I know how each one is going to go. Feels like there's been a real run of very closely matched fights recently and that this breaks that.

 

Miocic

Jedrzejczyk

Edgar
Maia
Alvarez

 

All clear favourites for me.

 

Incidentally, apparently Joe Duffy / Reza Madadi on Saturday was the last Joe Silva booked fight. Obviously he left a while ago but he'd booked fights for after he'd left.

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Gone JDS by KO, Jedrzejczyk decision and Maia decision in the poll.

 

Don't know what it is but I've got a strong feeling JDS is going to pull this one out the bag for some reason. Don't know if it's just wishful thinking on my part or what. I'm usually a pessimist when one of my favourites is fighting, I generally expect the worst. But I've got a gut feeling JDS is going to surprise a few people and wallop Miocic early. He hasn't scored an early KO for a long time but I think he's got a few of them left in him.

 

Maybe I'm underestimating Miocic again though. I don't know why the fuck it is but I always seem to predict him to lose and he always ends up winning in spectacular fashion. I had a similar gut feeling that Overeem was going to stop him and we saw how that turned out. Reem did drop him though.

 

Fuck knows. Sticking with big Junior by KO. It feels right for some reason. Which probably means Stipe's going to steamroll him :(

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Jorge Masvidal reckons he's going to surprise Demian Maia with his grappling. 

"Just how people were surprised about my striking against Cowboy, they're going to be even more surprised by my grappling in this fight. You can't beat a guy like Maia unless you can grapple at that level. And most of the dudes - especially the guys he's fought - are not at that level of defensive wrestling or defensive jiu jitsu to beat him. I know that I am. I know that in every position we could come to in MMA, I'm going to out-position this guy. I'm going to out-will him, and then he's going to give in to the fatal blow." 

"I'm going to kick his ass, really bad. It doesn't make it through the third round. I don't know if it's the first, I don't know if it's the second, but it doesn't make it through the third."

 

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Im backing Jorge to win but i dont think he wants any part of Demian on the floor, he just has the ability to shut folk down. I do feel Jorge's movement on the feet wins him the fight though.

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I'd love to see someone have that immense Jiu-Jitsu battle with Maia, but I don't see anyone in that division, let alone Masvidal being the guy to do it. We just saw how good Nelson was on the ground against Jouban, and Maia completely bossed Nelson in that regard. Maia is just a different animal in comparison to anyone in the UFC at the moment. He took Matt Brown to pieces in Brazil, and tapped out Condit in just over a minute. When it comes to grappling, I don't think anybody has the ability to hang with Maia. 

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Yeah, I wouldn't count him out. I think he'll be Maia's trickiest fight in a while. 

I could actually see Masvidal surviving on the ground with Maia (which is why I picked Maia on points rather than submission). But that's all he'd be doing, surviving. I think he's good enough to just defend but he doesn't want that kind of fight obviously. Why would you? 

I just don't know if he can keep it standing enough to where his striking advantage really matters. Maia's not a wrestler but his takedown game is tremendous for a BJJ guy. It's one of the more overlooked aspects of his game. Without his ability to take his opponents down, he'd be just a modern day Royce Gracie. The reason he's been more effective is because he's so good at the takedowns and trips and dragging guys to the ground. He's done it time and time again, and to really strong wrestlers like Sonnen, Fitch and Story too. 

It's a really fascinating fight. Probably the toughest to call on the entire card for me. 

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22 minutes ago, AdamTH17 said:

I'd love to see someone have that immense Jiu-Jitsu battle with Maia 

We did once, Jake Shields out-grappled Maia, and it bored the fuck out of everyone. 

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That was a weird fight. If I'm remembering right it wasn't even that bad (for a Shields fight anyway) but the way it was going you just knew there wasn't going to be a finish so it took away from the fight big time. It wasn't like Shields schooled Maia. He just seemed to edge him on positioning at a few crucial points and that was enough to take the decision. That's how I remember it anyway, can't say I'm in a hurry to rewatch it or anything. 

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I can't ever recall two BJJ specialists ever having a great MMA fight together? One that springs to mind is Sakuraba/Newton back in the old Pride days but in modern day MMA i don't recall one. 

 

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Maia vs Jason MacDonald from UFC 87 was fantastic. 

And not strictly BJJ but Nog vs Barnett in Pride was another classic grappling heavy fight. 

It it doesn't happen that often though for whatever reason. Usually when you get two killer grapplers together it tends to either result in one guy just taking over and dominating or it's a stalemate. There are exceptions but it does seem pretty rare you get two grappling specialists go out there and have a grappling classic. I guess the difference is that if you get two good strikers out there, even if one is significantly better, the other guy always has that punchers chance. With grappling though, if your opponent is a better grappler you're pretty well fucked if it becomes a grappling match. You're much more likely to land a punch or kick on a better striker than you are to catch a submission on a better grappler. 

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