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UFC on FOX: Weidman vs Gastelum - Jul 22


wandshogun09

Who wins and how?   

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Saturday 22nd July in New York. The UFC is back on Big FOX. 

 

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FOX MAIN CARD
Chris Weidman vs Kelvin Gastelum 

Dennis Bermudez vs Darren Elkins

Gian Villante vs Patrick Cummins

Jimmie Rivera vs Thomas Almeida 

 

FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS
Lyman Good vs Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos

Rafael Natal vs Eryk Anders

Alex Oliveira vs Ryan LaFlare   

Damian Grabowski vs Chase Sherman

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Jeremy Kennedy vs Kyle Bochniak 

Marlon Vera vs Brian Kelleher

Timothy Johnson vs Junior Albini

Godofredo Pepey vs Shane Burgos

Frankie Perez vs Chris Wade

 

The bout order hasn't been officially announced yet so this will probably change a bit. There's been stronger FOX cards but I do like this one. There's some really good fights and fighters on this. 

 

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Chris Weidman vs Kelvin Gastelum is a fight I can't wait to see. Both are on completely different runs of form so it's kind of a strange piece of matchmaking but I like this fight a lot. 

Weidman has had a weird few years. From being undefeated and being the man to end Anderson Silva's reign to this. He's lost his last 3 fights in a row now. And was stopped in all 3 losses. They were losses to Gegard Mousasi, Yoel Romero and Luke Rockhold, so it's not like he's losing to bums. These are elite middleweights. But still, 3 losses in a row are 3 losses in a row. Another one here, going 0-4 would be just brutal. It speaks volumes about how stacked the 185 division is that someone as good as Chris Weidman is in this position. 

Gastelum is on a completely different career trajectory. He's 13-2-1 but the 2 losses were razor close split decisions at 170. He's never lost at 185. He's coming off a big first round TKO over Vitor Belfort in Brazil but it's been overturned to a No Contest because Gastelum failed the test for weed. That's the 1 on his 13-2-1 record. All 3 blemishes on his record either could've been wins or avoided with better choices. He's never been soundly beaten. 

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All things considered you'd fancy Gastelum to get it done in this one. He's on his game, firing on all cylinders and riding momentum and you have to wonder where Weidman's head is after these losses. But you also have to think that Weidman is going to be really fired up to prove a point here that he's still a force in the division. A win over a surging, in form Kelvin Gastelum would go a long way to doing that.


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Dennis Bermudez vs Darren Elkins could be a hell of a fight. Bermudez will be looking to rebound after getting KO'd by the returning Korean Zombie in February. Elkins is coming off 4 wins in a row and his performance in his last fight was fucking awesome. He fought unbeaten Mirsad Bektic at UFC 209 and was getting totally fucking battered the whole fight then somehow rallied back and TKO'd Bektic in the third round. Then walked around the cage, covered in blood, screaming. That's where the above picture is from. It was an absolute stunner of a comeback and one of my highlights of MMA in 2017 so far. Joe Rogan agrees. He's always bringing this comeback up on his podcast. 

 

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Jimmie Rivera vs Thomas Almeida should be good as well. Rivera could be a future contender. He's 20-1 and the 1 loss was a split decision very early in his career. He scored the biggest win of his career in his last fight, a decision over Urijah Faber at UFC 203 in September. Almeida is 22-1 with the one loss being to Cody Garbrandt. He's rebounded since and I can still see him getting in the title mix. Ridiculously exciting fighter to watch and a rematch with Garbrandt down the line could be good fun if Almeida can string some wins together. 

 


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Gian Villante vs Patrick Cummins is almost a throwback to the old SEG era style vs style days of the sport. Villante likes a good brawl, he's a heavy hitter and likes to throw down. It's lead to some wildly entertaining fights and some big knockouts - both him dishing them out and being on the receiving end. I like Villante though. Seems a nice fun loving dopey lump of a man. He's facing Cummins who is as close to a pure wrestler as there is in the UFC. Don't really like Cummins so I'm hoping Villante catches him with one on those whiskers. 

 

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Cowboy Oliveira vs Ryan LaFlare could be an nice ground battle if they choose to go the grappling route. Oliveira likes to mix it on the feet a lot too though. Both solid fighters but Oliveira is a bit of a dick so I'd like to see LaFlare win this one. 

 

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Godofredo Pepey vs Shane Burgos is this card's ***WAND'S ONE TO WATCH*** because Pepey is awesome. Here's a guy who doesn't get enough love. He's so much fun to watch and has been a real highlight of any card he's been on for me. He's one of those prelimers who always shines. Like Bruce Leroy. He's 13-4 and made the finals of the original TUF Brazil back in 2012. And after a patchy start to his UFC career results wise, he's doing pretty well now. Since 2013 he's only lost once (to Darren Elkins), he's gone 4-1 in his last 5 and has been tearing shit up in pretty much every fight. From his highlight reel flying knee KO on Noad Lahat to his flying triangle on Andre Fili to his last fight - a mental 3 minute barnburner against Mike De La Torre which I think we described on here at the time as a 'wild button mashy' video game type fight. He's tremendous and it's time for people to get on board with that. As D'Lo Brown used to say, you better recognise! Not saying he'll ever win titles or even challenge for them, but for me he's legitimately one of the most consistently entertaining fighters on the entire roster. I can't even remember much about Shane Burgos. He's 9-0 and stopped Charles Rosa last time out in a fight I saw but can't really remember. But whatever, this is my ONE TO WATCH purely because of Pepey. 

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excellent card this! especially the main card.

Im fully on the Darren Elkins bandwagon, hope he beats Bermudez and continues his run.

Really surprised the UFC have put Tysom Pedro on here when they had a New Zealand card last night, shows the UFC have some high hopes for the guy that they saved him for a Fox card.

 

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The main event is a cracker. A real coin-flip.

Chris Weidman is a fantastic fighter, who on the right day has the tools to beat anyone at 185lbs. Despite him dropping 3 on the bounce, my opinion on him has only dropped slightly in recent times. A 4th successive defeat would reflect badly on him. I respect how he does business - repeatedly taking on the best - but part of me wishes he would take an easier fight. Just to stop his current skid. I've also got a soft-spot for Kelvin. However, I don't think a loss to Weidman will do him much harm. He's got a lot of time - and talent - to bounce back.

For those reasons, I hope Weidman takes this one. 

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As Egg and Jim have both said, fair play to Weidman for getting straight back on the rogue Stallion in this one. He isn't shrugging the really difficult challenges even if it may be a good idea. This looks a great fight on paper and I expect it to play out as such on the night.

I hope Weidman can get the job done as well as I wouldn't like to see him go 0-4, but if that were to happen, a run at LHW, starting at the base of the top 15 could be an idea. I think he beats almost all the LHW's, apart from the current top 3. By the time he could string a few wins together that may be a top 2 as I only see Cormier fighting a couple of more times, unless they start a 225lb division. 

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1 hour ago, WeeAl said:

I hope Weidman can get the job done as well as I wouldn't like to see him go 0-4, but if that were to happen, a run at LHW, starting at the base of the top 15 could be an idea. I think he beats almost all the LHW's, apart from the current top 3. By the time he could string a few wins together that may be a top 2 as I only see Cormier fighting a couple of more times, unless they start a 225lb division. 

Weidman would be a very undersized light heavyweight. His walking around weight is around 200lbs, maybe just under. Most light heavyweights walk around at much bigger and Weidman would be giving up weight, power and strength against most of them once they step into the octagon. However Weidman fares against Gastelum, his best weight class remains middleweight.

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Is he really that undersized though? I remember looking up his stats back when he was undefeated to see if there would be anything in a Jon Jones superfight. He's close to the same height and reach.

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Just now, Carbomb said:

Is he really that undersized though? I remember looking up his stats back when he was undefeated to see if there would be anything in a Jon Jones superfight. He's close to the same height and reach.

Heading into UFC 194, his walk around weight was about 193lbs. That was before he started his weight cut. If he fights at light heavyweight, he'd be given up 15lbs or more come fight time. And even if Weidman did put on extra weight, there is no guarantee it would actually help. Fighting with that added weight may even be a hindrance.

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True. It's difficult to know what impact extra weight will have on a fighter, especially if he's never fought at that weight before. Still, have to admit I would've been intrigued to find out.

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This Weidman slide is one of the more fascinating side stories, this year. A huge reason is Weidman seems like a top man, which only hurts the old heart a little more seeing him lose.

I think if he loses this, no shenanigans, you have to question his abilities at the very top of the division. At one point he was the best, but he's probably out of his prime and others have overtaken him.

If he does lose this, then I hope he has a look at the way Gustafsson handled himself after his back-to-back title losses; 2 fights in nearly two years, lets his body recover and decides on a "tune up" after nearly a year out - I think Weidman took the year off and came back to fight Yoel bloody Romero. IIRC, Weidman's knees are a bit of shambles too.

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I think Weidman is going to regret rushing into this fight. I know he wanted to fight in front of his home town, but three months between fights is not the smartest of ideas, especially at the top of the division. The sad part is that if he wins, Weidman is going to want to fight again as soon as possible, to try and break out of the packed in what is a stacked division, and I think that's the last thing he needs. Win or lose, Weidman should take a year off, rest up, and refocus.

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I like Weidman actually, used to struggle to stomach him as champ but having listened to him more, he seems like a good bloke. But I can't help but think he's got a death wish stepping in there with Gastelum who is hot as fuck right now.  Why not swallow some pride and build some momentum by tearing through one or two easier fighters before going back to the upper echelons? IMO. 

Tyson Pedro is fighting Ilir Latifi at UFC 215 I believe, wand?  

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8 hours ago, OzExile said:

Tyson Pedro is fighting Ilir Latifi at UFC 215 I believe, wand?  

You're right. When did that change? He was definitely fighting Corey Anderson on this card when I did the opening post. These bastard card changes. I'll fix it later if I can be arsed. 

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Shame about that fight, a win for Pedro against Anderson would have catapulted him into the top 10.  But I am glad they're not pulling the trigger on him too soon - some of these 205ers are swimming in the deep end before they should be taking their armbands off. 

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