UFC Fight Night: Werdum vs Volkov - Mar 17

[d-d-d-dAz]

Woodley’s shoulder is fucked apparently.

Unless he gets offered Nate. I bet his shoulder would heal for that.

[WeeAl]

I think RDA is still next in line. They are just waiting for Woodley to get healthy by the sounds of what I've listened to. RDA isn't taking a fight with Darren Till. Till could be turning down fights as much as others turning down fights with him. Although I did read that he had a bout of sinusitis. Although I don't know if that was recently, or in the wake of the Cerrone fight, but that may have been part of the hold up.

[David]

If RDA is smart he sits his ass on the sidelines until Woodley is fit.

[wandshogun09]

From RDA's point of view, definitely he should wait for Woodley. He's more than earned his shot. 

From my selfish fan who wants to see the best fight point of view, RDA vs Till in Rio is the one. 

[WeeAl]

RDA Vs Till in Rio would be glorious. Unlikely, but I'd love it. If it doesn't happen, as I imagine it won't, then Till Vs Wonderboy/Ponzinibhio in the meantime and RDA Vs Woodley, with the winners pairing off and the losers pairing off sounds like a nice idea to me. 

[wandshogun09]

I forgot all about Wonderboy. Any combination of him, Till and The Ponz would be a must see. 

Really hoping they book Lawler vs Perry now as well just because who wouldn't want to see that shit? 

[the_mole]

Wobderboys dad wants him to fight someone higher ranked than Till, he probably won't get a title shot with Woodley still champ but he doesn't need to fight newcomers. Till did say he would like to fight Covington in Brazil but A there's a chance Coby says more stupid things and he actually gets threatened by actual nutters and Covington could bore his way to a decision, Cowboy took Till down for a second and he isn't nearly as big or as good of wrestler as Coby.

Till can get over big in Brazil & over here and a win puts him in title contention, more casuals will watch PPVs than Fight Pass events I would have to guess and makes a decent co-main and with his charisma or Covington being annoying they probably have a future contender.

As far as the cards hopefully their new US & UK deals mean more European dates with Russia and former Soviet countries, Scandinavia & Poland, they just need to get stars in bigger European countries and the US company shouldn't mind afternoon cards in the US, NBC puts on the Premier League which doubles the MLS ratings and they start at before 6am in the West Coast for the early afternoon games over here. Fox signed that TV deal before Fight Pass launched and they've added 5 weight classes since.  I also hear fans moaning the cards are too late in the East Coast and some months its every week, at least with Afternoon cards, they would have occasional late weekends off.

[Egg Shen]

reading something on twitter about Till aiming to return at the next Irish show (when is that?) and highlights Gunnar Nelson as a potential opponent.

[Egg Shen]

The Marshman/Wheeler fight is off. Marshman has been pulled due to issues with his weight. He was cutting to 170lb for the first time. I actually thought Marshman looked a bit off on his social media all week, notably thinner at 170, the weight cut must have been killing him.

Still on the Welsh front. Looking forward to John Phillips debut, been a long time coming. Like Marshman i think he has a limited skillset but has matched up correctly he can have a decent little UFC run, guy has a ridiculous KO ratio (86% of 21 wins).

[wandshogun09]

Massive win for Volkov there. Easily had him 3 rounds down going into the 4th but Werdum was starting to proper gas out and Volkov did well to make the most of his small windows of opportunity on the feet. To stop Fabricio Werdum like that after the way those first few rounds went says a lot about Volkov. I'm a Werdum fan but Volkov is a much needed injection of fresh blood into the heavyweight title picture. 

Manuwa vs Blachowicz 2 was much better than I expected. By far the most I've enjoyed a Blachowicz fight and he looked good, to be fair.

Crazy that we got two fights finished at 4:59 of the third round as well! What are the chances of something like that? Haven't seen it but the Paul Craig one in particular sounds nuts. Apparently he was down 2 rounds on the cards and was getting battered and well on his way to losing the third 10-8. Then slapped on a triangle in the dying seconds of the fight and got the tap at 4:59! Unbelievable. 

From reading bits and pieces about the prelims it sounds like this was a much better card overall than it looked on paper. 

[jimufctna24]

Quote

 

Ariel Helwani‏Verified account @arielhelwani 3h3 hours ago

Been a while since we’ve had so many fresh faces at heavyweight: Volkov, Blaydes, Tuivasa, Ngannou (not writing him off for a sec). UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard deserves a lot of credit.

 

 

[Paul2j]

Fun card.

Huge win for Volkov who could get a Title shot out of that. Big win for Blachowicz too whose striking had been really under-rated going in to the fight.  If you make Gustafsson revert to takedowns then you are pretty handy.  Speaking of under-rated, whilst he won't get Till, Edwards deserves a step up now.

Good finishes in the prelims. Phillips looked awful unfortunately. Gave Ray 1 and 3 myself.

[wandshogun09]

I admire Edwards for calling out Till but yeah, 1) he most likely won't get that fight. 2) he most likely gets fucked up if he does get that fight. And 3) of all the great fights out there for Till, Edwards isn't really one that does a lot for me. 

Edwards definitely deserves a step up though. He's beat some good fighters. But this was far from his most impressive performance so I'm not sure what he'll get next. Him being more vocal after the fight is good though. I just think, coming off crushing Cerrone, Till's onto something bigger. 

[David]

2 hours ago, Paul2j said:

Phillips looked awful unfortunately.

When one of the mentioned highlights of a fighter is "training partner of Conor McGregor" you know that he's unproven and that there's every chance he's going to fall hard.

[the_mole]

Yeah Edwards against Gunner Nelson makes sense rather than Till both outside the top 10 and likely on a European card.

Volkof looked good, was dominated on the ground but never in serious trouble. There is him Vitali Minakov (undefeated former  Bellator champ who fights in Russia with win over Volkof) & Blagoi Ivanov (guy who first beat Fedor in Sambo and only loss coming from Volkof, came back from being stabbed in the heart and is WSOF champion or whatever it's named now) these are all guys from the Bjorn Rebney Bellator era all would be up there in the rankings if given the chance I believe.

Manuwa-Blachowicz was great  neither are going to get a title shot anytime soon despite 205 being as weak as piss but still good decent fighters but neither should co-main unless it's Blachowwicz on a card in Poland.

Tom Dequnoey looked good in parts but didn't seem to have much power in his shots or his opponent wouldn't be able to stand with the amount of leg kicks he took, he always looked good whenever I seen him on BAMMA but that's mainly just British or European guys, don't agree moving up would help, he looked much smaller than his opponent last night at 135, perhaps the weight cut hurt his stamina as they said he mainly trained in France for this fight, who knows though.