UFC Rochester: Dos Anjos vs Lee - May 18 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Saturday 18th May. Rochester, New York gets this;

ESPN+ MAIN CARD
Rafael Dos Anjos vs Kevin Lee 

Antônio Carlos Junior vs Ian Heinisch 

Megan Anderson vs Felicia Spencer 

Vicente Luque vs Derrick Krantz 

Charles Oliveira vs Nik Lentz 

Davi Ramos vs Austin Hubbard  

 

ESPN+ PRELIMS
Aspen Ladd vs Sijara Eubanks 

Desmond Green vs Charles Jourdain  

Danny Roberts vs Michel Pereira  

Mike Trizano vs Grant Dawson 

Patrick Cummins vs Ed Herman

Zak Cummings vs Trevin Giles

Julio Arce vs Julian Erosa 

 

There’ll be a few more fights added yet but that’s the meat and potatoes of it. MMAJunkie bout order, but I’ve got a feeling it’ll be reshuffled. 

 

Rafael Dos Anjos vs Kevin Lee is a quality fight. Two top lightweights fighting at 170. Seems odd but I like it. It’ll probably be a better actual fight because they won’t have had to cut so much weight. Both kind of have something to prove as well, so we should be getting healthier, more energetic, motivated and fired up versions of both men here. RDA in particular has had a rough go of it lately. He started off strong when he first moved up to welterweight in 2017, going 3-0 over Tarec Saffiedine, Neil Magny and Robbie Lawler. But he went winless in 2018, going 0-2 to Colby Covington and Kamaru Usman. And Lee comes into this fight off a pretty clear December points loss to Al Iaquinta in their rematch. The interesting thing here for me is, RDA’s recent losses have been when he’s come up against that grinding wrestler style. It seems to be the only chink in his armour. Now you have to be a pretty exceptional grappler to a) outwrestle and outwork RDA, and b) stay out of trouble when you get him down. But that’s where the intrigue is in this matchup for me because Lee has shown he can fight that way if he needs to (see the Barboza fight). The question here is can he make it work the way Covington and Usman did? I’m not so sure but him going up to 170 could factor into that as well. He might be coming in stronger and his already strong grappling might be even more effective. Interesting fight. I’d like to see RDA win though. Someone as good as him shouldn’t be losing 3 on the bounce. 

 

Neil Magny vs Vicente Luque is reportedly the co-main. I like it. Magny got stopped by Santiago Ponzinibbio in his last fight in November so he’s trying to redeem himself here. He’s a good fighter, solid all-around technician and has wins over Carlos Condit, Johny Hendricks, Hector Lombard and Kelvin Gastelum. With a resume like that you’d think he’d be in the contender mix by now but he’s been derailed a couple of times in crucial fights (Ponzy/RDA). It seems like every time he gets a big win, he falls at the next hurdle. It’s Luque that draws me to this one though. I’ve been singing his praises for a bit in these threads as a bit of a darkhorse and he’s finally starting to make a bit of noise in the division now. He’s still only 27 years old, BJJ purple-belt and has knockout power in his hands. He’s exciting to watch, has a 15-6-1 MMA record and has won his last 4 inside the distance. Most of his wins have been over tough guys who aren’t big names though like Niko Price, Chad Laprise, Jalin Turner, Belal Muhammad. These aren’t top level guys but they’re all hard, durable scrappers and Luque stopped them all. And he has a stoppage win over Thiago Santos earlier in his career! He comes into this fight on a high, having just beat Bryan Barberena in a absolute war that is, IMO, currently sitting as the 2019 FOTY so far. This is a really good fight and I’m chuffed that Luque is getting a little  bit of spotlight shined on him. 

 

Antonio Carlos Junior vs Ian Heinisch will be worth checking out just to see Junior in action. Got to love Shoeface. One of my favourite grapplers to watch in MMA at the moment. He was the TUF Brazil 3 winner as a heavyweight, now fights at middleweight. He’s 10-2-1 in MMA and has won 5 in a row with submissions over Eric Spicely (whose grappling Eddie Bravo was raving about on Rogan’s podcast before), Jack Marshman and Tim Boetsch. He’s a BJJ black-belt with a load of gold medals to his name and seems an all-round lovely chap to boot. A lot of these high level Brazilian BJJ masters seem like top blokes, don’t they? Yeah there’ll be exceptions like Palhares but Maia, Jacare, the Nogueira brothers, Shoeface, all gents. Heinisch I’m less familiar with. He was supposed to fight Tom Breese on the London show but Breese pulled out last minute. He’s 30, 12-1 with a win over another ex TUF Brazil winner Cezar ‘Mutante’ Ferreira in his last fight. Not too shabby that. 

 

Aspen Ladd vs Sijara Eubanks 2 could be decent. A rematch of a 2017 fight in Invicta, which Ladd won by decision. Ladd has some real potential, IMO. She’s 24 years old, a BJJ purple-belt, undefeated in MMA at 7-0 with 6 finishes. Absolutely battered veteran Tonya Evinger on the Khabib-McGregor undercard in October. Finished her in around 3 minutes. Bare in mind Evinger survived into the 3rd round against fucking Cyborg! It was quite an impressive statement and bagged her a Performance Of The Night bonus. She’s also 8-1 as an amateur with 6 finishes. So she’s 15-1 with her amateur and pro fights combined, with 12 finishes. Only loss was a decision in the amateurs to Cynthia Calvillo. She’s got something about her. She was supposed to fight Holly Holm at UFC 235 in March but Holm was pulled to face Amanda Nunes for the belt. I wasn’t sure she was quite ready for someone as seasoned as Holm so I actually prefer this. Eubanks is a 33 years old, a BJJ black-belt with a 4-2 MMA record, 3-0 as an amateur (her fights on TUF). Not too high on Eubanks myself. She’s not terrible but I don’t see her climbing too high. And she’s already missed weight on 2 occasions that could’ve cost her big opportunities - once taking her out of the TUF tournament finals and the other her last fight where she beat Modafferi but came in heavy and probably fucked herself out of a potential title shot. She’s got to sort that out. She’s back at 135 here so hopefully that won’t be an issue. 

 

Zak Cummings vs Trevin Giles doesn’t feel like it should be on the main card but we’ll see. I don’t mind Cummings. Nothing flashy or spectacular about what he does but he’s a good ground fighter with a respectable 22-6 record. Most of his losses are to tough opposition as well like Ponzinibbio, Gunnar Nelson, Tim Kennedy etc. He’s a decent gatekeeper type. Experienced and it takes a certain quality of fighter to beat him. If this fight stays on the main card though, Giles will be why. He sounds a bit of a prospect. 26 years old, 11-0 with 10 finishes, 2-0 in the UFC so far. He hasn’t fought since December 2017 though. He took time out to become a police officer. Now he’s back. Bossman Giles. 

 

Patrick Cummins vs Ed Herman feels like a real old school throwback fight, even though Cummins hasn’t been around that long. It’s Ed Herman. There aren’t many guys left on the roster from that early TUF, Spike TV Fight Night era. ‘Short Fuse’ was on TUF 3, for fuck’s sake. The Tito Ortiz vs Ken Shamrock season. That’s how long this bastard has been around. His career is circling the plug hole now though. He’s 38 with a 23-14-1 record and he’s lost 4 of his last 5. Hasn’t won a fight in over 3 years and the headkick KO he suffered against Krylov was one of the most brutal you’ll ever see. I thought he might be dead when it happened. Legit. I’m not joking. He looked deceased. Cummins is also 38 and on a 2 fight losing skid but, at 10-6, he doesn’t have the miles on him Herman does. Still been stopped a bunch though. Could be an ugly, hard to watch fight this. 

 

Mike Trizano vs Grant Dawson is a fight where I’m vague on both men. I know Trizano slightly more due to him winning TUF, the season with DC and Stipe coaches that I did actually stick with for a bit. He’s 8-0 with 4 finishes. New Jersey guy so he’s a local on this card. Seemed alright from what I recall (not much). Dawson I’m drawing a total blank on but he’s 13-1 with 12 finishes, mostly subs. 25 years old, was on Dana’s Contender thingybob and won his UFC debut on the JDS vs Lewis undercard in March. 

 

Megan Anderson vs Felicia Spencer is an interesting one. We haven’t seen enough of Megan Anderson yet but what we have seen, I think there’s reason to be optimistic. She’s 9-3 with 7 finishes, former Invicta 145lb champion. She got exposed a bit in the grappling in her UFC debut by the more experienced Holly Holm but she was giving Holm all kinds of issues early on the feet, which I was kind of taken aback by as that’s usually Holm’s realm. You don’t usually see Holm turn into a wrestler but she was that night. Anderson is so tall and lanky, she’s huge for that 145 weightclass and I think Holm was having trouble with that. In her next fight, Anderson was all over Cat Zingano but that ended abruptly with her toenail TKOing Cat’s eyeball. We need to see more. Hopefully we get a proper read on her in this one. Felicia Spencer is making her UFC debut here. 28 years old from Montreal. She’s unbeaten at 6-0 with 4 finishes. Black-belts in both Taekwondo and BJJ and won the Invicta featherweight title in her last fight in November.

 

Charles Oliveira vs Nik Lentz 3 is listed on MMAJunkie but I can’t find it confirmed anywhere else. I hope it’s happening, Junkie are usually always reliable. These guys have already had 2 fantastic fights, got FOTN both times, and it’s currently 1-0-1 to Oliveira. The first fight in 2011 ended in controversy. Oliveira tapped Lentz with a 2nd round rear naked choke but it was overturned to a No Contest due to an illegal knee which led to the finish. They rematched in 2015 and had an even better fight and Oliveira got him with a guillotine choke in the 3rd round. Should be another corker. They just seem to match up perfectly. And they’re both on good form at the moment too. Lentz has won his last 2, and Oliveira has rattled off 4 submissions in a row. Can they go 3-0 for FOTN bonuses? 

 

Danny Roberts vs Michel Pereira is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. I can’t wait to see this. Roberts is British, 16-4 record. Decent enough with knockout wins over Jim Wallhead and Oliver Enkamp on his record. It’s UFC newcomer Michel Pereira that makes this must-see though. If the name doesn’t ring bells this might...

Yeah, he’s that lunatic we were on about before. The real life Tekken character. The UFC signed him and this is his debut. He’s Brazilian, 25 years old and Sherdog has him at 21-9-0-2. MMAJunkie has his record at 7-3 though for some reason? Whatever. This could be a lot of fun. Not expecting him to become a contender or anything but there’s always room on the roster for a nutter like this. 

 

Julio Arce vs Julian Erosa is another vague one for me. Arce is 15-3 and has a submission win over Daniel Teymur and a decision over Dan Ige. Not bad at all. Erosa goes by the nickname ‘Juicy J’. OK. He’s 22-7 with 19 finishes but is coming off back-to-back defeats and also has a loss to Paddy Twatface Pimblett. He’s no good to me then. Team Arce! Yeah, the Arce team. 

 

Davi Ramos vs Austin Hubbard might be alright. I’ve quite liked the little I’ve seen of Ramos. He’s Brazilian, 9-2 record, a BJJ black-belt and has submitted John Gunther, Nick Hein and Chris Gruetzemacher in his last 3 fights and looked impressive doing it. Hubbard is making his UFC debut. He’s 27 years old, 10-2 record and trains at Elevation Fight Team. 

 

That’s about it. 

Edited May 18, 2019 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

That Michel Pereira nutcase is debuting on this card. Fighting Danny Roberts. 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

That Michel Pereira nutcase is debuting on this card. Fighting Danny Roberts. 

Will it make the main card?

I'm happy to see Ed Herman on the card. TUF 3 is the reason I first got into the UFC as I was channel hopping and saw Ken Shamrock was on a weekly show on Bravo, I've been following UFC ever since, as a result, I have a soft spot for anyone from that season.

[wandshogun09]

I’d like to see the Danny Roberts vs Michel Pereira and Megan Anderson vs Felicia Spencer fights bumped to the main card, replacing Cummings vs Giles and Cummins vs Herman. Actually, Oliveira vs Lentz 3 deserves higher billing as well. Like I say, the bout order might be jumbled up yet. 

Probably doesn’t matter really though. We usually get most of the prelims on BT anyway. 

[Egg Shen]

nice little 1 minute highlight package of newcomer Charles Jourdain thats on the undercard, looks handy.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah think that fight got added late, didn’t it? Or Jourdain stepped in to replace someone. 

In bigger news Neil Magny is out of the co-main against Vicente Luque. Been got by USADA. Luque is now facing Derrick Krantz (23-10 with 21 finishes) and the whole bout order has been reshuffled. I’ve edited the opening post. 

[Egg Shen]

.

Edited May 17, 2019 by Egg Shen

[TildeGuy~!]

 

[wandshogun09]

Thought that was a pretty solid show all in all. 

Dos Anjos vs Lee was pretty good. Really happy to see Dos Anjos back in the win column. He needed a performance like this badly. Some of the thinking when Lee lost to Iaquinta in December seemed to be that Lee was struggling with the weight cut to 155 and that might be partly why he was finding it hard to get over that hump against the elite. But this loss kind of suggests it’s more than that. On paper he had the tools to give RDA big problems. The blueprint to shut RDA down with a heavy grappling game was laid out by Usman and Covington. But while Lee has very good grappling, he isn’t quite the grappler those 2 are and he clearly lacks the conditioning and stamina over a long fight at a high pace. I don’t want to completely write him off but it does feel like he’s reached his ceiling at this point. 

Lee is taking the loss hard as well;

It’ll be interesting to see what his next move is. He’s been shut out of the title picture at 155 and now his fresh start at 170 has been ruined as well. 

Ian Heinisch beating Shoeface surprised me a bit. But I didn’t know too much about Heinisch going in. Really rate Shoeface though so was impressed by Heinisch managing to outpoint him here.

Felicia Spencer submitting Megan Anderson in a round was a mild surprise. Maybe it shouldn’t have been though. Spencer came in unbeaten and is a BJJ black-belt and we didn’t really know too much about Anderson but her grappling looked suspect in the Holm fight. Hindsight being 20-20, this result isn’t such a shock. Spencer is a nice addition to the 145 division too. And a much needed one. 

Vicente Luque stopping Krantz and avoiding the old ‘late replacement’ curse was good to see. This was a tough situation for Luque. The Magny fight was supposed to be his big break and Magny went and got himself USADA’d. So this was a bit of a case of more risk than reward. And Krantz had him in some real bother at the start. But he did the job and hopefully he gets a big fight next. Actually, I wouldn’t be at all against giving him that Lawler fight. That would be a hell of a fight. 

Oliveira vs Lentz 3 was entertaining as these 2 always are. I think you could book these 2 against each other 10 times and there wouldn’t be a dud to be found. They just match up for chaos. Honestly I think I could watch an Oliveira vs Lentz fight once a year and never tire of it.  Oliveira has won the series though so I doubt we’re getting a Part 4. If Lentz had won this fight they’d be 1-1-1 and a 4th fight would’ve been needed. With Oliveira at 2-0-1 though, it’s done. Especially with him stopping Lentz twice. It’s a wrap. Oliveira really deserves a big fight next. He’s looked fantastic of late and won and finished his last 5 fights. He’s earned something big. 

Michel Pereira stole the prelims, and the whole show really. What a debut. What a nutcase. He’s like a mini Johnny Walker. I need to see Pereira vs Lando Vannata. I know Lando’s a 155er but it needs booking. Now. 

Aspen Ladd vs Sijara Eubanks 2 was a good ruck. The grappling battle was good stuff. The striking from Ladd was sloppy but they made up for that by just going for it. Proper button mashed it at the end there. I’ve never been high on Eubanks but this was probably her best showing yet for me. It was a close one and Ladd might’ve been fortunate to get the decision actually. 

Even the Ed Herman vs Pat Cummins fight, which I never had especially high hopes for going in, was a fun scrap. Nice to see Herman get the win. He’s never been close to being a contender but he’s been on the roster since TUF 3 in 2006, for fuck’s sake. Proper veteran.

Oh yeah, and for those who didn’t catch/don’t bother with the early prelims, you missed the ridiculous headkick KO Julio Arce took Julian Erosa out with. 

Jaysus. Arce looked really good before that as well, I thought. Really sharp in the striking, particularly with the counters. We should probably start taking notice of him. 

Edited May 19, 2019 by wandshogun09

[WeeAl]

A really good, much needed win for RDA there. Lee kind of confirmed with this one that it wasn't just the cut, his conditioning is not good enough to match his gameplan. The options there could be to go hell for leather on changing his conditioning levels, or becoming more of a counter fighter, if he can, and using his wrestling abilities to neutralise others and put more time in on his counter-striking. Nice to see RDA get back on track here. 

Krantz took the fight to Luque right away. It nearly worked too as he had Luque in trouble. Luque weathered the storm though and kept his train rolling, and he's really earnt a fight against a highly ranked opponent. I'm not sure about giving him the main event in Uruguay, as other than whatever main event it gets, it's likely to be a pretty weak card, but if they get the right opponent then maybe. Luque against Ponzinibio if they want to main event the Uruguay show or as Wand says, against Lawler if he is good to go on short notice would both be great fights. 

Megan Anderson's UFC career so far has been a bit of a bust. Holly Holm showed clear flaws in her game. She then had that fluky win against Cat Zingano, and now getting completely out grappled here in a fight that she was 'supposed' to win. If the UFC want to keep this 145lb division, then Anderson will be about forever and a day with how few women there are at that weight, but if Nunes doesn't want to continue at 145 in any form, and there's trouble with trying to re-sign Cyborg, then the rest of the fighters at that weight will be up the creek without a paddle. 

Charles Oliviera at lightweight is definitely trouble for a lot of people. Maybe him Vs James Vick or Alexander Hernandez might be interesting ways to go next?

Michel Pereira? What in the name of God did he just do to that man. An absolute bulldozing. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this chap. I just seen the fight from the start of the opening bell, what weight was this held at? 

[wandshogun09]

Pereira fight was at welterweight @WeeAl

As for the women’s 145 division, yeah it’s a wasteland. Sadly for Felicia Spencer, I can see them feeding her to Cyborg next. She was asked in an interview after the show about fighting Cyborg and she said she’d be up for it. Cyborg then tweeted her saying she accepts the challenge and wants to do it at UFC 240 in Canada in July. You know when you wish you didn’t open your stupid mouth? Felicia probably feels like that right about now. 

[WeeAl]

Ha, I bet she does! Cyborg, with something to prove in her next fight, will be an absolute force to be reckoned with. 

Welterweight just got even more interesting in that case. 155 and 170 are just loaded, right the way through. 

[wandshogun09]

Speaking of Felicia Spencer, I saw a pre-fight interview with her the other day. Apparently 6 inches “doesn’t impress her much”. 

 

....her loss. 

[Egg Shen]

skipped the show, but that Pereira KO was tremendous, what a debut.