UFC Fight Night: Thompson vs Till - May 27

[wandshogun09]

The Octagon finally arrives in Liverpool for the first time on 27th May for this Sunday Fight Night. 

FOX SPORTS 1 MAIN CARD
Stephen Thompson vs Darren Till

Neil Magny vs Craig White

Arnold Allen vs Mads Burnell

Jason Knight vs Makwan Amirkhani

Nordine Taleb vs Claudio Silva  

Eric Spicely vs Darren Stewart 

 

FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS
Dan Kelly vs Tom Breese

Lina Lansberg vs Gina Mazany

Brad Scott vs Carlo Pedersoli Jr

Gillian Robertson vs Molly McCann 

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Elias Theodorou vs Trevor Smith

 

Again, I've pretty much guessed the bout order there. I'll change it up when the card is officially finalised. Decent little card, I think. Not a big fan of Sunday Fight Nights usually but this one will be aired at UK time so I'm good with it. 

 

Wonderboy Thompson vs Darren Till is a hell of a fight. This is it for Till. The big test. He's talked himself up a storm over the last year or so and, up to now, he's backed it up. It took a guy like Till to finally drag the UFC to Liverpool. He's definitely got something and he's opened the doors for this no doubt. He's really up against it here though. Wonderboy is a top welterweight. Came fairly close to taking the title off Woodley, has beat Rory MacDonald, Jorge Masvidal, Johny Hendricks and even has a stoppage win over current 185lb king Robert Whittaker. Awkward as fuck style to prepare for and as technical a striker as it gets in MMA, his 57-0 kickboxing record is evidence of that. Till has shown a lot of potential himself though. He's 16-0-1 in MMA but up until recently he's been operating on a much lower level than Thompson. He got his first real test last October against Donald Cerrone in Poland. It was Till's first UFC main event and against a big name. He battered Cerrone inside a round. He's also unbeaten in Muay Thai, he's a big welterweight and he's 10 years younger than Wonderboy. 

Very interesting fight this. Total opposites in personalities with Thompson being mega laid back and Till being outspoken and loud. Opposite striking styles too with Thompson's patient Karate counterstriking style and Till's aggressive Thai style. Part of me is thinking this might be too soon for Till to make this jump in levels but fuck it. He's been asking for it and I like that. Let's see what he's got. If he loses he's still young enough to bounce back. If he wins though it's huge for him and might even bag him a title shot after this Woodley/RDA/Covington thing gets cleared up. 

 

Neil Magny vs Gunnar Nelson is a solid co-main event. Good fight. Magny is a guy I've turned the corner on over the last few years. He bored me early in his run but he's really come on since then. Has wins over Kelvin Gastelum, Hector Lombard and Johny Hendricks. And in his last fight he beat Carlos Condit. I think he's actually one of the more underrated guys at 170 but he kind of gets lost in the shuffle because it's such a strong division. Gunnar is another favourite of mine. He hasn't fought in nearly a year, when he got stopped by Ponzinibbio in Glasgow. He needs to get back on the horse here. Magny is a tough fight but it's one Gunnar will probably fancy as Magny has been outgrappled and submitted a couple of times over the last few years. The losses were to elite grapplers Dos Anjos and Maia but it's a blueprint a submission specialist like Gunnar can try to follow. 

 

Jason Knight vs Makwan Amirkhani is my ***WAND'S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Looking forward to this a lot. Knight is hillbilly as fuck. MMA's Jamie Noble. Can't remember who it was but someone called him 'Hick Diaz' once. Probably the best nickname for him. He's granite tough and always on the attack. Seems a bit of a cock but he's wildly entertaining to watch. Amirkhani, 'Mr Finland', was once thought to be the next breakout star in the lighter weight classes. He burst through the UFC doors with an 8 second flying knee KO in his debut, for fuck's sake! Really likeable and charismatic guy in interviews as well. Between injuries and then a loss to Arnold Allen, he's gone off the boil big time now. But a fight with Knight seems like the perfect chance to go out and have a barburner fight/performance and remind everyone what the fuss was about. 
 

Gillian Robertson vs Molly McCann I'm guessing will make the main card purely because McCann is from Liverpool. She's 7-1 and just won the Cage Warriors flyweight title in February before the UFC snapped her up. Robertson is a very winnable debut fight for her. She's 4-3 and competed on TUF. She looked good on the finale undercard though, submitting Emily Whitmire. And two of her losses were to veteran Barb Honchak and Cynthia Calvillo. She's still only 22 and trains at ATT so there's time to possibly turn it around. 

 

Dan Kelly vs Tom Breese could be decent. I like him but not sure how much Kelly has left at this point. He's 40, banged up after years of MMA and Judo, is coming off two losses and moves like my dad. And yet he still beat Rashad Evans last year  Breese is the much younger man at 26. He's Brummie but trains under Firas Zahabi. BJJ brown-belt, 10-1 in MMA, and suffered his first loss last time out to Sean Strickland in a split decision. He also beat UKFF favourite Cathal Pendred out of MMA and into retirement. Injuries have fucked him over of late though. He hasn't fought in two years. Kind of a weird fight this but I'm interested to see how their grappling matches up - Old Man Judo vs Zahabi BJJ. 

 

Arnold Allen vs Mads Burnell I'm highlighting just because I liked the little I've seen of Allen so far. Good striking, 12-1 record, trains at Tri-Star. Seems a good guy too. Outpointed Amirkhani in his last fight. Mads Burnell I know fuck all about. Other than I like his name. Mads. He's 24 years old and 9-2. 

 

David Teymur vs Don Madge I'm into just because I love watching Teymur fight. He's 7-1 and hasn't lost since his pro debut. He had an awesome fight against Lando Vannata last year as well. 39-2 kickboxing record and still only 28 years old. He's a bit of a beast. Don 'Magic Man' Madge is South African with a 7-3 record. He was the lightweight champ in EFC Extreme Fighting something or other and Cyborg brought him in for her Holly Holm training camp. 

 

Davey Grant vs Manny Bermudez...fucking hell Davey Grant! I forgot he even existed. Quick look at his record shows he did fight in 2016 but man, talk about a guy ravaged by injury layoffs. This guy was on the Rousey vs Tate season of TUF back in 2013. He's fought only twice in the 5 years since. He made it to the finals of TUF and I remember him seeming like one of the nicest guys ever on the show. Shit how injury plagued he's been since. TUF should've been the start of good things for him but it was the start of the injury bug fucking him with no vaseline. Hopefully he stays healthy now and picks up a win here. 

 

Nordine Taleb vs Claudio Silva could be fun. Taleb is usually good for a scrap. He's coming off a quick one minute KO over Danny Roberts in December, has a KO over Erick Silva and took Santiago Ponzinibbio the distance. Silva is 35 years old and 11-1. For some reason he hasn't fought since 2014 but he beat Leon Edwards in his last fight and is a BJJ black-belt. 

 

Rest of the card has the usual UK/European show familiar faces. Brad Scott, Lina Lansberg, Darren Stewart. Nothing jumps out really. Elias Theodorou on there as well, but he bores me shitless. The fights I've highlighted should be good though. And that main event is fascinating in terms of how the fight itself plays out and the ramifications for the winner/loser. 

Anyone going to this? 

 

[Egg Shen]

best UK card in a while, lot of action fights on the undercard and a real buzz worthy main event, tremendous.

How come David Teymur is on this and the Rivera/Moraes card though?

[Ross18]

It's Daniel Teymur, his brother who is on the Rivera/Moraes card. 

He debuted last year on the Glasgow card against Danny Henry.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, I rate David more although I did enjoy Daniel's fight with Danny Henry. They're both worth keeping an eye on. 

[bono]

5 weeks away, looks like the times been and gone for Bisping to be added to the card 

[wandshogun09]

I don't think Bisping was ever likely to be on this card, to be fair. I remember a little bit of noise being made about him possibly fighting on the London show in March but once that ship sailed I've heard nothing about a timetable for his next/last fight. Maybe they'll wait until they next go to Manchester as that's pretty much his hometown.

I've got a feeling he might get either Belfort or Machida depending on how their upcoming fight goes. But personally, I think Bisping vs Shogun would be perfect. 1) it's a fresh fight, unlike Belfort. 2) it's pretty much guaranteed to be exciting to watch, unlike Machida. 3) there's no grudge. Bisping has already said he's not interested in a grudge match for his farewell. And 4) it'd be at 205 so he wouldn't even have to cut down to 185. He could just enjoy his final training camp and fight week without that hassle. Then win or lose, go out in a fun fight against a legend and future HOFer who he respects. It won't happen, I'm sure. It's not the most obvious choice. But I think it makes sense for what Bisping wants and it'd deliver an entertaining fight on the night. Ticks all the boxes for me. 

[jimufctna24]

A bogus news story broke earlier this week that Bisping vs Nick Diaz was in the works. Bisping dismissed the rumours and said that he is probably retired. However, he did add that: 

Quote

 

“Nick Diaz is someone that I definitely respect and if there was a possibility of that fight, then for sure I would accept it. People would want to see that. The only issue is that if I do fight [again] I want it at 205 [pounds] and I don’t think Nick would do 205. Making 185 for the last 10 years has been so hard. Making 185 is not an easy task, not an easy task at all, so if I’m going to fight one more time, it’s gonna be at light heavyweight. Or I’d do a catchweight, maybe at 195 or whatever but making 185 for me is too hard. So if Nick would be willing to come up, I’ll do it. I’ll accept. I’m down. I’m in. Sign me up.”

 

 

 

[Dzeko10]

Anyone know the best place to get a ticket never used Stubhub or Viagogo so not sure if ifs safe/legit?

[wandshogun09]

If you haven't seen it, Beyond The Octagon was good this week. It was a 30 minute sitdown interview with Caroline Pearce and Darren Till. Really good stuff. I just looked for it on YouTube to post the link here but no luck. If you see a repeat listed give it a look. To be honest, I stopped watching Beyond The Octagon ages ago because GAD is all that's wrong with the world. No GAD on this though.

Till says some stuff sometimes that makes you think he's mental or delusional. But I like the confidence. It reminds me of early Conor McGregor before he went full-on cockend. One thing that baffles my head though is when he says stuff that he puts fighting before his daughter. He describes it as selfish himself but I just can't get my head around it. He was talking about it with Helwani once as well, saying his kid lives in Brazil and he hadn't seen her at that point for nearly a year or something mad. I get being focused and driven but you don't get that time back and he'll probably regret it one day. Regardless, it's a good interview. Goes into his stabbing, Brazil, his UFC career and the Cerrone fight, the UFC coming to Liverpool, Wonderboy. Even touches on Terry Etim who's a close mate of his. Well worth a watch.  

[Egg Shen]

cheers wand. thats probably on bt on demand, ill have a look.

[Egg Shen]

On 26/04/2018 at 7:31 PM, Dzeko10 said:

Anyone know the best place to get a ticket never used Stubhub or Viagogo so not sure if ifs safe/legit?

you should be safe with both, you may have to pay over the odds though. Ive had gig tickets through viagogo, no issue.

[wandshogun09]

Stubhub? Stub fucking hub did you say? 

[Dead Mike]

On 26/04/2018 at 7:31 PM, Dzeko10 said:

Anyone know the best place to get a ticket never used Stubhub or Viagogo so not sure if ifs safe/legit?

Try 'Twickets' nearer the event. A 'fan to fan' reseller site where you can't sell above face value. I've bought & sold on there in the past.

[Fox Piss]

The more i hear Till speak the more i get put off him. His BT interview has some real odd moments. 

[wandshogun09]

I like him but there is something slightly Tony Bellew about him for me, and I don't just mean because they have the same accent. Maybe it's the accent plus them both loving the sound of their own voice plus constantly hyping themselves up. The big difference though, is that all Bellew goes on about is 'getting home safe to his kids', while Till seems perfectly happy with his daughter living on the other side of the planet.