UFC 227: Dillashaw vs Garbrandt 2

[jimufctna24]

Just watched the top 2 fights. Wow. 

I had Cejudo winning 48-47. It was very close. Mighty Mouse was in with a shout in all three rounds that Cejudo won (2, 4. 5). But Cejudo just did enough in all 3. The last round in particular, Cejudo stole in the dying moments by landing the better shots in the final exchange. 

I was quite surprised that TJ won again. I felt that Cody would have learnt from last time. Not the case. TJ had the better temperament and it paid dividends. Is TJ the best 135lbs fighter ever? He certainly has a claim to that title. But I still think it is Cruz for now. 

 

[ColinBollocks]

Yeah, he needed to be the measured and elusive Cody that fought Cruz, instead (as the commentary pointed out) Cody was looking to kill TJ with every shot. In fact, his approach in this was exactly how most of guessed the Cruz fight would go.

TJ made the point in the post-fight press conference that Cody has no chin. Maybe a tad harsh, but he obviously needs to adjust how he fight TJ if he wants to beat him. 

Again, "everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth".

[wandshogun09]

This show badly needed those two title fights to deliver and they really did. 

Man, Dillashaw fucked Cody up. Decisive, brutal and now he's 2-0, Cody is in the rear view. Really exciting and dramatic while it lasted. Kind of a shame that we'll probably never see a third fight now but overall I'm happy with the result. Wonder where Cody goes from here. He's already pretty much fought everyone at 135, but he's down 0-2 to the champ. Maybe a change of weightclass is coming. 

Mouse vs Cejudo 2 was really good. I always rated Cejudo but I never saw him as 'the one' like a lot of people seemed to. I was never quite on board with it. I was wrong. I just didn't think he'd have enough about him to deal with DJ's game. And when I saw Cejudo roll his ankle in the first sodding minute of the fight, I thought 'That's it. He's fucked it already.' He fought out of his skin here though. Really put his heart and soul into getting that win. And it was still a painfully close decision. That's how good DJ is. I had Cejudo edging it though. Had them even going into the 5th and had Cejudo just about taking that last round. 

DJ deserves another crack for me. I'm not usually with the immediate rematch stuff but I'd be fine with it here. If anyone warranted an immediate rematch it's Demetrious Johnson given his incredible title reign, the fact that he'd defended his title more than any champion in history and the fact this decision was so tight. But if they go with TJ vs Cejudo, I'm good with that too. 

Renato Moicano looked tremendous. Just went straight through Swanson. That jab knockdown was nasty and the nanosecond Cub hit the canvas, Moicano was swarming all over him. He was on that choke fast as fuck. Bit of an awkward moment post-fight with him getting on his hands and knees and bowing down to Swanson for ages. I think even Cub was a bit embarrassed by that. Moicano could be an issue for a lot of guys at 145. He's snuck up on everyone really but he's fucking good. They touched on it on the commentary that, to date, Moicano has given Brian Ortega his hardest fight yet. But it was more than a 'test', people forget Moicano was actually winning that fight before he got guillotined. 

When did the Thiago Santos vs Kevin Holland fight get added to this card? I only knew this was happening in the last week or so. Good fight as well. Really enjoy watching Santos. One of my favourite UFC midcarders. Everything he throws is with murderous intent and when his strikes land they sound like gunshots. He's quality. Holland gave a good account of himself as will given the step up in levels. 

Pedro Munhoz vs Brett Johns was by far the highlight of the prelims. Fun fight. The second round especially was brilliant. Johns is tough as shit. He took a lot of damage and rallied back to stay in the fight. Munhoz was just that bit better all-round though. 

Very enjoyable show, I thought. 

[ColinBollocks]

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

When did the Thiago Santos vs Kevin Holland fight get added to this card? I only knew this was happening in the last week or so. Good fight as well. Really enjoy watching Santos. One of my favourite UFC midcarders. Everything he throws is with murderous intent and when his strikes land they sound like gunshots. He's quality. Holland gave a good account of himself as will given the step up in levels. 

Dana said two weeks ago. Dana apparently asked all the contender fighters and all of them turned down the fight apart from Holland.

Dana was really high on him after it. Claiming all the celebrities wanted to talk about after was Holland. Definitely one to watch.

[wandshogun09]

Oh yeah, meant to mention it was great seeing Bas Rutten in the cage after the fight. What was that about? I know him and Ludwig have been friends for years so I'm guessing that's why he was in there.

Was I seeing things or was that 'Rampage's Man Slave' Tiki Ghosn with Team TJ at the end as well? What was that wrong'un doing in there? 

[Egg Shen]

Outside of a rotten womens Flyweight fight (seriously, how much longer have we got to endure these fights?) I thought the main delivered pretty big. Lots of stories, potential stars coming out of it and thats what you want. 

[David]

On 8/5/2018 at 11:13 AM, ColinBollocks said:

Where you at David? 😜

 

Even the greatest prediction minds in the game can't account for multiple injuries such as DJ suffered 😉

In all seriousness though, I think it actually took a loss for me to begin to show interest in this division, and I truly feel bad for saying that, because as a fan I should be appreciative of everything DJ has done thus far.

And I am, don't get me wrong, but there comes a point where watching technical brilliance becomes "the norm" and it really shouldn't.

I fully believe he should be given a rematch for the title based on his accomplishments, and I'm sure he will. It may not be an immediate rematch, but I'm okay with that as he suffered a fairly serious injury during the fight by all accounts and will need time to heel up. In the interim, we can't have a champion sitting on the shelf, despite that becoming the fashionable thing for champions to do these days.

TJ Dillashaw made Garbrandt look silly, yet again. He took his anger and his pent-up rage and used it against him, taking advantage of the fact that Cody simply would not allow TJ to look more like "the man" than him during the fight, and it ended up being his downfall.

The guy just doesn't seem capable of fighting smart against TJ, and it's lost him the fight twice now. 

Decent little event from what I watched of it (the main card only) but aside from the main event nothing really to write home about.

[Egg Shen]

I think DJ's getting an immediate shot whether its against Cejudo or not, if Cejudo goes up i dont imagine he's going back to 125 so he'll likely vacate. Id imagine the main motivation behind Cejudo moving up is that he doesn't want to make the weight cut again, being able to go straight into a 135lb title shot is a perfect way to hide and at the same time set himself a lofty goal that people can get behind. Its a very boxing-thing to do though, win a belt then immediatly vacate to move up and challenge for a title above but i like it. The fact that you hold a belt allows you to cut the line too (right or wrong) Cejudo's win and subsequent promo on Saturday was fucking brilliant. I dont want to knock DJ because he was an incredible champion but Cejudo endeared himself to the fans more in them few minutes than DJ ever did with his cut and paste/stock answers post fight. Dare to dream and all that.

[David]

Just now, Egg Shen said:

I think DJ's getting an immediate shot whether its against Cejudo or not, if Cejudo goes up i dont imagine he's going back to 125 so he'll likely vacate. Id imagine the main motivation behind Cejudo moving up is that he doesn't want to make the weight cut again, being able to go straight into a 135lb title shot is a perfect way to hide and at the same time set himself a lofty goal that people can get behind. Its a very boxing-thing to do though, win a belt then immediatly vacate to move up and challenge for a title above but i like it. The fact that you hold a belt allows you to cut the line too (right or wrong) Cejudo's win and subsequent promo on Saturday was fucking brilliant. I dont want to knock DJ because he was an incredible champion but Cejudo endeared himself to the fans more in them few minutes than DJ ever did with his cut and paste/stock answers post fight. Dare to dream and all that.

I wasn't particularly impressed with Cejudo's post-fight chat to be honest, a lot of his schtick seems sickly sweet to me, all this "dare to dream" bollocks.

I may be a cynical old prick these days, but you're punching another man in the fucking face for a living, there's not much noble about that really. At least fighters like McG call it for what it is really. It's a way to earn money.

DJ, for all his blandness, keeps it real at least. He fights to make money, break records and improve the life of his family. Cejudo seems to have a somewhat over-inflated sense of self from what I've seen.

[Carbomb]

I like DJ because he knows himself. He knows he can't do the trash-talk schtick, so he doesn't try, and makes it clear he's not going to be pressured into doing so, despite the cost to him financially. He's made an honest attempt to do it his way, which is to show just how damn good he is. 

Would be a shame if Cejudo moves up without doing the rubber match, as I think DJ definitely deserves better than that. 

[David]

42 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Would be a shame if Cejudo moves up without doing the rubber match, as I think DJ definitely deserves better than that. 

Personally, I think Cejudo will move up. He probably knows that he captured lightning in a bottle at the weekend, on a night where he performed very well, DJ ran into some injury problems during the fight, and he managed to scrape through with a split decision.

He'll know that he fought a man who was operating with a torn lateral collateral ligament for around 15 minutes of their fight and a broken foot and still could only get a split decision.

What does a rematch do for Cejudo? He's already beaten DJ, it's not going to get any better than that for him at this stage. It could get a lot worse though, as a loss in a rematch would see him back knocked back a fair bit.

He's got the belt, he can make the jump and try to get a money fight with TJ. It sucks for DJ, but if Cejudo is smart he won't be looking to run that back unless he really has to.

[Egg Shen]

Dave loves an excuse.

But you never know, a 3rd fight with DJ might offer the financial reward now to justify Cejudo sticking around. If anything the win has lit a fire under 125 that has been missing since the division began.

As for Cejudo wanting to avoid a 3rd fight (which is what you are hinting at). Was there any hint during Saturdays fight that DJ was nursing any kind of injury that Cejudo might have picked up on? I dont think so. Cejudos post fight speech sounded calculated like he'd already planned on it before the fight. He beat the best fighter in the world and then set himself a bigger challenge that will lead to even bigger financial reward (unless they bust out the cheque book at 125). If you beat the best guy in the world, why challenge him to an immediate rematch anyway? Move onward and upward. When DC beat Miocic did he say "well Miocic is the best ever so i guess i'll fight him again", nope, he called for something bigger. Its something DJ failed to do during his whole run and its why hes been met with complete audience indifference.

Im not in anyway saying DJ does not deserve an immediate rematch though, he does 100%.

[David]

29 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Dave loves an excuse.

It's not an excuse, things happen in fights, but to dismiss these factors completely is absurd. 

[wandshogun09]

I don't think Cejudo vs TJ or DJ are 'money fights'. I don't think there are any big money fights below 155 at the moment, to be honest. It's what tickled me when everyone was giving DJ shit for 'being an idiot' and missing out on that monster payday vs Dillashaw. TJ vs DJ would've been an awesome fight but a money fight it wasn't. Is there any actual evidence that DJ would've made more money fighting Dillashaw than he would've for a standard title defence against Random Flyweight #12? People assume a champ vs champ fight automatically means big $$$, and it should do really, but your pay and PPV cut (if you have one) is what it is and the PPV cut only generates truly big bucks if it's a fight that shifts a lot of buys. I doubt TJ vs DJ would've pulled in too many buys. And Cejudo vs either of them might do even less. 

It's a shame because there are loads of great fighters in the lower weight classes but, truthfully, there hasn't been a 'big money' fight even possible south of 155 since McGregor left featherweight and the Rousey era came to a crashing halt. Even Holloway vs Ortega, for me personally that's easily one of my most anticipated fights of the year, but unless it's on the Khabib vs McGregor or Cormier vs Lesnar PPV or something and they get a PPV %, they're probably not making much more than their base pay. 

[Carbomb]

It might actually be more worthwhile if Cejudo does vacate the belt, move up to 135, fight the big names there, and then, when DJ gets the 125 belt back, come back down to challenge him for the rubber match and the belt he never lost.