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UFC Fight Night: Cerrone vs Edwards - Jun 23


wandshogun09

Who wins and how?   

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On Saturday 23rd June the Octagon lands in Singapore.

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FIGHT PASS MAIN CARD
Donald Cerrone vs Leon Edwards 

Ovince Saint Preux vs Tyson Pedro 

Jessica Rose Clark vs Jessica Eye

Li Jingliang vs Daichi Abe

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Teruto Ishihara vs Petr Yan 

Felipe Arantes vs Song Yadong

Rolando Dy vs Shane Young

Song Kenan vs Hector Aldana 

Jake Matthews vs Shinsho Anzai 

Viviane Pereira vs Yan Xiaonan

Naoki Inoue vs Matt Schnell 

Jenel Lausa vs Ulka Sasaki

Ji Yeon Kim vs Melinda Fabian 

 

Bit of a bare bones card, eh? I'll admit I don't know much about a lot of the Asian names on there though, so maybe there are a couple of standouts I'm overlooking. There is still some stuff there that should make tuning in for this worthwhile. The cards in Asia usually start late morning/early afternoon our time as well so this could be on at a nice time for us. 

 

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Donald Cerrone vs Leon Edwards headlines. I really like this fight. Edwards has been calling for something like this for a while now so now is his chance. I've taken a bit of an interest in Edwards, mostly because he's billed as being from Erdington in Birmingham which isn't far at all from me. But it's not just that, he's actually good at this stuff as well. He's been quietly racking up wins for a while now. He's 15-3 overall, 7-2 in the UFC and has won his last 5 in a row. Even his 3 career losses, one was to Kamaru Usman (won't hold that against him), one was a split decision so might've been close, and the other he was DQ'd for an illegal knee. He's never been finished. And he's looked pretty impressive in his wins so far. His submission over Albert Tumenov in particular got my attention. He's also beat Vicente Luque (another good fighter who gets no love) and Bryan Barberena (who took Super Sage's O). He TKO'd Peter Sobotta at 4:59 of the third round in his last fight in March. He'd not been the most vocal previously but he called out Darren Till after that one. Of course, the UFC had other plans. I think it's worked out better for Edwards this way. He gets his first UFC main event against a big name, but I'd say it's more doable than a fight with Till would've been. 

Cerrone is going to be his hardest test to date though. Everyone knows the story where Cowboy's concerned by now. He'll fight anyone. Full camp, short notice, striker, grappler, whatever. It's probably part of the reason he's got so many losses on his record. He's kind of his own worst enemy at times. He's 33-10-1 now. This'll be his 45th fight. On top of that he's had 29 kickboxing fights earlier in his career. Lot of miles on Cowboy at 35 years old. He's had a patchy old record. Beat Yancy Medeiros in his last fight, lost 3 in a row before that but won 4 in a row before that. Thing with Cerrone is though, you don't beat him unless you're legit. You look at Cerrone's record and all of his losses were to quality fighters of the time. He doesn't lose to just anyone. If Edwards can beat him he's in good company and it sets him up for another big fight. 

 

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OSP vs Tyson Pedro is the co-main event and the ***WAND'S ONE TO WATCH*** on this card. Interesting fight. Used to find OSP a bit dull but he's grown on me over time. Got choked unconscious by Latifi in his last fight but he was on a great little run prior to that with two Von Flue's over Okami and De Lima, and a highlight reel headkick KO over Corey Anderson. He's not going to be making any noise in the title picture but he's a solid fighter and a good gatekeeper at 205, and I don't mean that as a knock at all. You beat OSP you're probably onto a contender next. Not sure Tyson Pedro is ready for this step up yet, to be honest. I like Pedro a lot. He's one of a small group of new blood 205ers coming through who I like the look of and I genuinely think he could be one of the guys who's the future of the division if things go his way. But the lack of depth currently in the division means these prospects get rushed up in levels a bit quicker than they probably should be. Pedro is 7-1 and only 26 years old. His one loss was his last step up, and Latifi fucking schooled him. Just dominated and outmuscled him to a decision. I said at the time it was the kind of loss Pedro will probably learn and improve from but one win later and here he is again making another step up. I just don't think he's had enough time to make improvements and close some of the gaps on his weaker areas. I get that you can't fight the also rans forever but I think they might have something with Pedro in the long run. It'd be a shame to see him getting Von Flued into oblivion just down to inexperience and not being ready. But we'll see. If he wins then it's a big stepping stone for him. 
 

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Jessica Rose Clark vs Jessica Eye might be decent. I've liked the little I've seen of Clark so far. She beat Bec Rawlings on really short notice in her UFC debut then beat Paige VanZant in her last fight. She's only 9-4 which isn't the best but she's won her last 3 and she's starting to get some names on her record. Jessica Eye, I've been saying for ages now, I think is one of the best women fighters on the roster with the shittest UFC record. Seriously, her record is a bit misleading. She's 12-6-1 overall, and an awful 2-5-1 in the UFC. She mostly lost to good fighters and some were really close  decisions but the L column is the L column and she was stuck there for ages. She dropped back to flyweight for her last fight and actually won! Snapping a 4 fight losing streak. If she'd lost that fight she'd almost certainly have been gone. So a fresh start for Eye here. 

 

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Jake Matthews vs Shinsho Anzai could be worth a gander. Matthews is a guy who I never took a lot of notice of until very recently, despite him being in the UFC since 2014. He's 13-3 and a BJJ black-belt at just 23 years old. Never really grabbed my attention but I really enjoyed his last fight against Li Jingliang at UFC 221 in February. It was a fun scrap and a proper little hidden gem. And Matthews instantly became a babyface with me just for putting up with Jingliang's blatant and clearly deliberate eye gouging and not resorting to biting. He's a better man than me. He's been a slow burner but Matthews might be someone to keep tabs on going forward. He's got some losses but two of them were to Kevin Lee and James Vick, he's still young enough to bounce back from that. Anzai I know fuck all about other than he looks funny. Don't think I've ever seen him fight. He's 32, 10-2 record and from what I can tell has a predominantly wrestling based background. 

 

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Teruto Ishihara vs Petr Yan is not a fight of any relevance to anything but it jumped out to me in the sea of unfamiliar names on this card. I quite like Ishihara. Weird little character. He's nothing special as a fighter (10-5-2) and hasn't beat anyone good but he's usually entertaining to watch. It's this Petr Yan I'm intrigued by though. He's 25 years old with a 8-1 record and has a boxing style. He's listed as Russian but of Chinese and German descent. That's some mix. Fought most recently in ACB where he was bantamweight champion. Don't recall seeing him before but my interest has been piqued. 

 

Can't say the rest of the card does much for me but I'll give it a whirl. 

 

 

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Huge win for Leon Edwards that. Thought he looked good, especially early on. And he got that 5 rounds in and the main event experience etc. Cerrone's saying he was sick going in and that he nearly pulled out of the fight. I did think watching the fight that he didn't look right but still, to come out right after losing a fight and saying this stuff, it smacks of excuse making, even though I'm sure there's legitimacy to what he's saying. Whatever the case, at this point it seems the door is closed for Cowboy as far as runs at the title go at 170. Where he goes from here, who knows? Maybe back down to 155 for another crack at trying to get a title shot there, or maybe he's just in that phase of his career where he's just going to take fun/interesting fights at whatever weight now. I liked the callout of Masvidal from Edwards. Great fight. I don't see Edwards having it at the very elite level at 155 but we'll see. He's looking good on the climb but it's shark infested waters from here on out. 

OSP vs Tyson Pedro was good while it lasted. How on earth Pedro lost this from such a winning position is crazy though. Cracks OSP with a headkick, follows up and drops him with a right hand, then the guillotine attempt...just the worst start imaginable for OSP. Then Pedro cocked up on that takedown attempt and OSP was on that arm quick and that was that. 

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Apologies for the double post but I'm just catching up on a few of the prelims for this. Like I said in the OP, I had an eye on the Petr Yan vs Teruto Ishihara fight during the run up to this show. Read up a bit on Yan and was very interested to see his debut. Well, he didn't disappoint. There didn't appear to be any 'Octagon jitters' at all. I can tell he's going to be someone I'm going to enjoy watching. He took the first minute or so off, basically reading Ishihara's reactions and the range and timing or whatever, then once he let loose the writing was on the wall. John Gooden had barely got done telling us that Ishihara had never been knocked out when Yan floored him for the first time. A few well timed strikes later, including a nifty spinning elbow thingy, Ishihara was done. Yan by stoppage inside a round. 

Really liked this. Yan was calm and relaxed, took his time but also jumped on the openings Ishihara left him. Dan Hardy was talking him up a storm on commentary as someone to look out for as well. Be fun to see how he progresses. Bantamweight is a tough division but it's one that's kind of lacking in depth of interesting title contenders. This was only Ishihara so we can't get too carried away but with performances like this it won't be too long before he's getting big fights. 

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I half-watched the main event, wasn't impressed with either fighter really. I'd been told Edwards fights pretty dull and he seems to have gone to a lot of decisions.  What with him, Usman and Covington rising up the rankings, welterweight could well become pretty dull to be honest.  Thank fuck they have Darren Till (if he doesn't have to move up!

 

 

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On 6/23/2018 at 3:22 PM, Marshmallo said:

Wonder if Joe Rogan still thinks that Cowboy going to 170 and completely stopping sparring is the best thing he ever did? 

skipped this show and didnt see anything of the fight but that was one of those classic things Rogan hooked onto and spewed out at every oppurtunity.

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