UFC Fight Night: Nelson vs Ponzinibbio - Jul 16

[wandshogun09]

Ok then, who's going to this? Sunday 16th July is the date. The octagon makes its return to Glasgow, Scotland. 

 

FOX SPORTS 1 MAIN CARD
Gunnar Nelson vs Santiago Ponzinibbio 

Joanne Calderwood vs Cynthia Calvillo 

Stevie Ray vs Paul Felder

Jack Marshman vs Ryan Janes

Paul Craig vs Khalil Rountree

James Mulheron vs Justin Willis

 

FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS
Danny Roberts vs Bobby Nash

Neil Seery vs Alexandre Pantoja

Charlie Ward vs Galore Bofando

Daniel Teymur vs Danny Henry

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Brett Johns vs Albert Morales

Lina Lansberg vs Amanda Lemos

 

I like Nelson vs Ponzinibbio. Nice contrast in styles on paper with Gunnar's grappling vs Ponzinibbio's striking. But Gunnar has shown some good standup himself at times with his tricky southpaw karate style. He's won 3 of his last 4 and his last loss was a decision to Demian Maia. No disgrace there, obviously. He's since rallied back with submissions over Albert Tumenov and Alan Jouban. Ponzinibbio has won 6 of his last 7 and is coming into this one riding a 4 fight winning streak. Ponz is a fun fighter to watch and I think he's a tad underrated myself as well. I expect Gunnar to win as I'm not convinced Ponzinibbio will have answers for Gunnar's ground game, but if he loses he'll go out swinging in an entertaining scrap. He's that type. 

 

I think Calderwood vs Calvillo is going to be like most of Calderwood's UFC fights. Where I'm really hoping she wins but I'm expecting the worst. The UFC seem really high on Calvillo, Dana can't praise her enough. She's 5-0 with 4 finishes and made her UFC debut in March. She then took a second quick turnaround fight on short notice the next month at UFC 210. And she's now 2-0 in the promotion with 2 submissions. It's how she did it as well. She didn't look fazed at all by being on the big stage and she rose to the occasion in the cage both times. 

Calderwood looks up for it. She was getting in Calvillo's face at the Summer Kickoff presser, which is a bit unlike her, and she said recently on Helwani's MMA Hour that Calvillo was smirking at her in the face off which is what amped her up. But I don't like this matchup for Calderwood. She's a good striker but she's always been iffy on the ground and that's where Calvillo is strongest with her slick transitions and submissions. I think the UFC have set this up with the idea of fast-tracking Calvillo up the rankings with a win over a popular name. I hope it backfires but I envision a very disappointed Scottish crowd at the end of this one. 

 

Ray vs Felder is the no brainer for me as this card's ***WAND'S ONE TO WATCH***. As soon as this was announced I think most people pegged it as the frontrunner for FOTN. Ray's 5-1 in the UFC. And now he's starting to get W's against some recognisable names like Joe Lauzon and Ross Pearson. They were close decisions (think I had Lauzon winning actually) but they still go in the record books as good wins. Paul Felder is going to be another tricky challenge for Ray though. I don't think Ray has fought a striker like Felder before so it'll be interesting to see how he approaches it and how he handles Felder's unorthodox standup. Really looking forward to this. 
 

Craig vs Rountree stands out on the prelims. I really like Paul Craig from the little I've seen of him (just his 2 UFC fights). He looked great in his debut, submitting Henrique Da Silva, and he came across great in the media too I thought. He suffered his first career defeat in March at UFC 209. He was stopped by another exciting prospect Tyson Pedro. Always like to see how a guy responds to his first loss. 

 

• Looking forward to seeing Jack Marshman back in there. He's coming off a TKO loss to Thiago Santos in March but he gave a good account of himself in that one and many thought the stoppage was a little bit premature. Can't remember much of it but I think I thought that as well at the time. Exciting fighter to watch. 

• Brett Johns vs Mitch Gagnon is a sleeper on the prelims actually. Good fight. I liked Johns' UFC debut but Gagnon is a tough little cookie himself. Should be one of those all over the place fights. 

• Seery vs Pantoja could be good. Seery is always game, a real scrapper. This Pantoja might be decent though. Don't recall seeing his UFC debut but he's 17-2, mostly finishes, trains out of Black House and was RFA champ. Is Seery still on about retiring? 

And Lansberg vs Smith at first glance is just a battle between 2 of Cyborg's UFC victims. But getting bulldozed by Cyborg doesn't mean they can't have a good ruck with each other. And I expect they will. Lansberg has an extensive striking background and Smith is the female Diego Sanchez. Ultra aggressive and absolutely granite tough. I mean, she Mick Foley'd her ear against Jessica Eye and was furious because the ref stopped the fight FFS! This'll probably be fun. 

 

Nice little card. It will be on at a good time as well being in Scotland. 

[Egg Shen]

thought id bump this as its only a few days away. 

What time is this on if its in Scotland? do we get it Sunday teatime/evening? that'd be nice.

Like the card too, low on start power but high on fighters i like to watch, including a couple of Welshmen. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah it's live on BT. Prelims at 6pm Sunday evening, followed by the main card. 

[David]

Was gonna get tickets, but the card isn't anywhere near worth the amount for a decent seat. Should be okay though, but not worth the money.

[Guy Bifkin]

That's a bad matchup for Calderwood I reckon.

[wandshogun09]

@Guy Bifkin Definitely. Bit surprised Calderwood is winning the poll, to be honest. I don't think Calvillo is some world beater but she's looked good so far and especially on the ground. And that's Calderwood's worst area. I don't think she's got the power on the feet to keep Calvillo off her so it's probably going to the ground at some point. And I don't fancy Calderwood's chances there at all. 

Dana's been quite vocal that they're high on Calvillo and I get the feeling they chose this fight carefully for her. Calvillo is a strong ground fighter and Calderwood is pretty much the easiest to submit with the biggest name in the division. 

I'd love to be proven wrong but I've had a bad feeling about this one since the second it was annnounced. 

[Marshmallo]

I quite fancy it but feel like I'd be justifying the UFC giving us a really dire card. First time it was here was a novelty aspect but that's not the case now. 

[Carbomb]

In fairness, surely it could be argued that this is exactly what a Fight Pass card should be? I remember saying a while ago that the UFC should have smaller shows to move things along in the lower rankings and get contenders lined up, as those sorts of matches can't all be put on PPV, especially when there is a weight of expectation on PPV cards. I was told that that was what the FOX shows were for, and this one sounds the same.

It seems to me that this sort of card is supposed to be for the MMA hardcores who will watch all things MMA, and that the regular and/or casual fan isn't expected to tune in.

[David]

1 hour ago, Carbomb said:

In fairness, surely it could be argued that this is exactly what a Fight Pass card should be? I remember saying a while ago that the UFC should have smaller shows to move things along in the lower rankings and get contenders lined up, as those sorts of matches can't all be put on PPV, especially when there is a weight of expectation on PPV cards. I was told that that was what the FOX shows were for, and this one sounds the same.

It seems to me that this sort of card is supposed to be for the MMA hardcores who will watch all things MMA, and that the regular and/or casual fan isn't expected to tune in.

Yeah, but the problem is that they're charging PPV level ticket prices.

[OzExile]

Even some of the FS1 cards are wearing thin at the moment. It might deliver in terms of entertainment that said. Be lucky to draw 5,000 if they're charging full whack. I' went to 200 and 205, as well as a Fight Night here in Australia.  Paid some serious money to be there. The cost of UFC tickets is shit to be honest. They're pretty crap at drawing live crowds, so I don't know why they're not doing anything about it to bring more fans in and improve the product for PPV sales / tv viewers.  Actually, another point is that it is very rare you get crowd atmosphere with the UFC. As in they'll drown out the crowd noise, particularly during entrances.  

Tangent. 

Anyway. 

I think Rowntree was the guy Tyson Pedro beat in Melbourne - but he did get knocked down in the first round himself. So that should be a good one to watch. You really think the 205 division is waiting for someone to come and rip it wide open. Can't see I've seen a lot of Gunnar's opponent but hoping for the big W for the Viking and push him in to those upper echelons of the division - 170 is becoming very interesting indeed particularly if GSP comes in to the mix. 

 

[Carbomb]

13 hours ago, David said:

Yeah, but the problem is that they're charging PPV level ticket prices.

True. They're clearly still operating on the assumption people will see them as a special attraction because of the comparative rarity of shows they do outside the US.

[WeeAl]

As much as I agree the price is off putting for me personally, they seem to be correct to still be charging those prices for the time being. They are moving the tickets when they do shows over here and in Europe. Possibly with slightly cheaper prices they could do larger crowds/run more often and draw more money in total, but that's not a lock. Until they chase people away and only half fill a building, they may as well do what they are doing until it stops working. 

[David]

They've waited to announce them, but the weigh-ins are on Saturday at 3:30pm in the Hydro for anyone interested. Free entry, obviously.

[wandshogun09]

19 hours ago, OzExile said:

You really think the 205 division is waiting for someone to come and rip it wide open.

Definitely. At least there finally seems to be some real promising new blood coming through now though. It's extremely early days of course but Tyson Pedro and Paul Craig look good. And although it was really quick, I liked what we got to see of Dominick Reyes in his debut recently. Hopefully they'll become something in the division. Because Cormier probably doesn't have bags of time left. And Jones is always one fuck up from committing career suicide. They need some new legit contenders to emerge or we might have a situation soon where Gustafsson is champ and left on his own at the party holding his nuts with no-one to play with. 

[Marshmallo]

On 12/07/2017 at 7:37 PM, David said:

They've waited to announce them, but the weigh-ins are on Saturday at 3:30pm in the Hydro for anyone interested. Free entry, obviously.

Anyone who's been to the weigh ins before able to guess if they'll be dishing out free tickets tomorrow? I'll forego the football and take a wander down if I can get some comps for the Sunday.