UFC Newark: Covington vs Lawler - Aug 3 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Man, these shows are non-stop. Saturday 3rd August in Newark, New Jersey. 

ESPN MAIN CARD
Colby Covington vs Robbie Lawler 

Jim Miller vs Clay Guida 

Joaquim Silva vs Nasrat Haqparast 

Trevin Giles vs Gerald Meerschaert 

Dong Hyun Ma vs Scott Holtzman 

Kennedy Nzechukwu vs Darko Stosic

ESPN PRELIMS
Mickey Gall vs Salim Touahri 

Antonina Shevchenko vs Lucie Pudilova 

Cláudio Silva vs Cole Williams 

Matt Schnell vs Jordan Espinosa 

Mara Romero Borella vs Lauren Murphy

Miranda Granger vs Hannah Goldy 

 

Decent enough Fight Night card that. The main event could have title shot implications (well, if Colby The Cunt wins anyway) and there’s a few bits and bobs on the undercard that I like. 

 

Colby Covington vs Robbie Lawler is about as clear cut a heel vs babyface fight as you’re going to get in MMA. I’ve made no secret that I can’t stand Covington. If you’re wondering why he’s been out of action so long, I heard USADA tested him a few months ago and they said his cringe levels were completely off the charts. His whole schtick is so forced and pathetic. People go ‘he’s working everyone’ as if he’s some genius but it genuinely doesn’t make me want to see him fight more. I just want him to fuck off. The best thing he’s ever been involved with was when he was mouthing off at Fabricio Werdum and Werdum lobbed a boomerang off his swede. I’ll give him his due though, beyond all the bullshit, he’s got skills. He’s got some quality wrestling and his conditioning and the pace he sets is going to be a nightmare for most. He won the interim belt in June 2018, beating Rafael Dos Anjos on points. He’s been AWOL since. Although he’s always doing something outside the cage to get attention.

One of the most vile and despicable cunts in American history there. And Donald Trump. 

So he’s finally back in action. When this fight was announced, a lot of people were scratching their heads. I think everyone expected that we’d be seeing an Usman vs Covington title fight. Matching him with Lawler is an odd swerve that I don’t think anyone saw coming. There is a backstory there though. 

It all centres around how Lawler left American Top Team a couple of years ago. Covington says that when Tyron Woodley (also at ATT at the time) knocked out Lawler and won the title, they put a picture up of Woodley on the ATT gym wall holding the belt. Colby says Lawler got the hump and left the team over that. Pat Miletich and Colby had a little back and forth about it on Twitter recently; 

 

Colby’s since elaborated on the whole Lawler/ATT thing. 

“All the money that Dan Lambert put into him, Dan literally spoon-fed him. Robbie had everything. I had to earn everything at ATT the hard way. Robbie had all the training partners. They were flying in training partners, all the best coaches, paying for whatever. The funding for him and his training camps was out of this world. No-one had ever had that at ATT. Literally, he had it better than anybody in the history of this gym, and then he just takes his ball and leaves the yard.” 

“We had a good friendship. He helped me out with a lot of sponsors. But he turned his back on us, so it’s personal. I really do want to leave Robbie in a pool of his own blood. I’m pissed off what he did to Dan Lambert.” - Colby Covington

Lawler has brushed it off in typical Lawler fashion. Whatever the case, it all seems like a bit of a mountain out of a molehill situation. 

Whatever. They’ll be locked in a cage soon so this is getting settled one way or the other. To be fair, I think Colby is just latching onto this ATT thing as a way to hype the fight. You can see in all the quotes and interviews that, between the shit talking, he’s actually a lot more respectful of Lawler than he usually is towards his opponents. 

Lawler is an animal. Anybody who saw that mental unexpected run he had as champion a few years ago knows how dangerous he can be and how awesome he is to watch. But he’s been in a lot of wars. The Rory MacDonald, Carlos Condit and Johny Hendricks fights in particular were just brutal. He came out on top but he probably took a good few years off his career in those battles. And since then he’s had rough fights with the likes of Cerrone, Dos Anjos etc. He’s a machine. He’s definitely lost a step in recent times but he showed against Ben Askren in March that he can still do the damage if you leave him an opening. 

Sadly, I can’t see past Covington grinding him down to a frustrating 25 minutes of misery. I’d love nothing more than to see Lawler chin him but I just don’t see it happening. 
 

Jim Miller vs Clay Guida is a FOTY contender in 2009. In 2019, I’m not so sure but it should still be entertaining to watch. They’ve both seen better days, at 35 and 37 respectively, as lightweights the sand timer is running out. Miller has gone 2-5 in his last 7 and is coming off a quick submission over Jason Gonzalez. Guida is 4-3 in his last 7 and just beat BJ Penn on points. They’re far from their prime but they’re at the same stage in their career so it might actually still be fun. It’s not like they’re being fed to a 23 year old beast in a mismatch. It’s a well matched fight. 

 

Joaquim Silva vs Nasrat Haqparast I’m neither here nor there. Not massively familiar with either really. Could be alright though. Silva is a BJJ black-belt, 11-1 record and just KO’d Jared Gordon. Haqparast is 10-2 and I vaguely remember being impressed by his last performance but my memory is sketchy. 

 

Trevin Giles vs Gerald Meerschaert is just kind of there but could be OK. Giles took some time out a while back to become a cop. He’s shown promise, going 11-0 with 10 finishes to start his career. But he suffered his first defeat in May, a submission loss to Zak Cummings. At 26, I still think he’s got some legit potential. Meerschaert is an experienced fighter out of the Duke Roufus team. He’s 28-11 and a BJJ black-belt. Tough fight for Giles coming off his first loss. Especially as Meerschaert is going to pose similar types of problems as Cummings did. 
 

Dong Hyun Ma vs Scott Holtzman is a decent little, under the radar fight. Ma is South Korean, a Taekwondo and Judo stylist with a 16-9-3 MMA record. He has wins over Takanori Gomi and Damien Brown in the UFC. ‘Hot Sauce’ Holtzman is a BJJ brown-belt and 12-3 in MMA. I’ll be honest though, my main interest in this is to see what barnet Dong Hyun Ma turns up with this time.

 

Kennedy Nzechukwu vs Darko Stosic is another fight where I’m not that up on either guy. But I don’t know, there’s something about these two that has me looking forward to this matchup. Nzechukwu is known as ‘The African Savage’. He’s 27 years old, 6’5” with a 6-1 record. He got submitted late by Paul Craig in his UFC debut in a fight he was winning, so I’m interested to see him back in there. Stosic is Serbian, also 27 with a 13-2 record. He’s 1-1 so far in the UFC. Expecting an explosive one here, nearly all of both of their career wins were stoppages. More new blood at 205. 

 

Mickey Gall vs Salim Touahri should be worth a look. The hype on Gall has cooled big time. He burst on the scene and did well off those wins over CM Punk and Sage Northcutt but he’s kind of floundered since. He got absolutely beasted by Diego Sanchez at UFC 235 in March. Diego just totally old manned him. He’s still fairly young at 27, and he’s got undeniable talent, but it hasn’t looked too good for him recently. Touahri is Polish, 10-3 and coming off a couple of losses. Feels like they’re trying to rebuild Gall here but Touahri is decent and definitely no soft rebound. 

 

Antonina Shevchenko vs Lucie Pudilova might be alright. Not particularly arsed. I was chuffed when Shevchenko signed because I’m a huge fan of Valentina. But while she’s got skills (former Muay Thai champ etc), it’s clear Antonina isn’t the monster her sister is. She’s got the technique but she seems to lack the nastiness and fight ending venom that her little sister possesses. Still, she’s 7-1 and has a lot of fighting experience. She’s trying to rebound here off losing a decision to Roxanne Modafferi in April. Pudilova is 8-4 and coming off losing to Liz Carmouche on home soil in the Czech Republic. I’d fancy Shev to get back to winning ways here. 

 

Cláudio Silva vs Ramazan Emeev is a bit of a darkhorse on this card for me. I’m giving this the ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** treatment actually. Could be good. I quite like Silva from the fights I’ve seen and I think he’s very underrated. Brazilian but fights out of London. His nickname is ‘Hannibal’. He’s a BJJ black-belt, 13-1 and hasn’t lost since his MMA debut back in 2007, and that was on a DQ. He’s never actually been legitimately beaten. He’s got UFC wins over Danny Roberts, Nordine Taleb and Leon Edwards. It feels like he should be getting bigger fights but he never seems to climb the ladder for whatever reason. Emeev is a solid opponent, just doesn’t really do much for Silva with a win. But Emeev is from Dagestan, 18-3 and has won his last 7 in a row. He’s beat Sam Alvey and also holds wins over ex-UFC fighters Maiquel Falcão, Luigi Fioravanti and ex-Bellator and M-1 fighter Vyacheslav Vasilevsky. This is actually a cracking fight on paper. 

Matt Schnell vs Jordan Espinosa I’m not especially bothered about. Might be OK but it’s not tickling my fancy. Schnell looked impressive in his last fight though, submitting Louis Smolka in a round. Don’t know Espinosa but apparently he was on Dana’s Contender Series and he’s 14-5-1.

 

Mara Romero Borella vs Lauren Murphy jerks the curtain. Again, not arsed. Borella has looked decent at times, to be fair. She’s Italian, 12-5-2 and coming off a win over Taila Santos. Murphy 35 years old and is a bit of a veteran, former Invicta champion with a 10-4 record. 

 

And that’s your lot. 

Edited July 27, 2019 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Is there a reason why this is listed to start so early on BT Sport next Saturday? Just looked at the EPG and they’ve got the prelims down for 6pm and the main card starting at 8pm. 

Not complaining, obviously. But it doesn’t sound right for a US card. 

[Marshmallo]

These are like boxing cards these days - a top class main event, couple of vets as main support then a bunch of no names below that.

[Egg Shen]

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Is there a reason why this is listed to start so early on BT Sport next Saturday? Just looked at the EPG and they’ve got the prelims down for 6pm and the main card starting at 8pm. 

Not complaining, obviously. But it doesn’t sound right for a US card. 

dont know but im happy if thats true

[David]

On 7/28/2019 at 12:59 PM, wandshogun09 said:

Is there a reason why this is listed to start so early on BT Sport next Saturday? Just looked at the EPG and they’ve got the prelims down for 6pm and the main card starting at 8pm. 

Not complaining, obviously. But it doesn’t sound right for a US card. 

I have no idea why, but the prelims are scheduled to start at 12pm New York time, and the main card is a 3pm start. They're five hours behind us, so it's a 5pm prelim and 8pm main card start for us.

[wandshogun09]

Sweet. I thought Sky had cocked it the listings. 

[Brewster McCloud]

The main is an interesting fight rather than one I'm desperate to see - Lawler will always bring it and go all out, but I reckon Covington out wrestles him. If Covington is determined to do the heel thing, it's probably better if he wins. Lawler's probably only got a couple of fights left, and for as much as an asshole as Colby is, I kind of want to see him be a player just now as the UFC lacks star power. I would actually like to see a Lawler/Askren rematch now, though.

Edited July 30, 2019 by Brewster McCloud

[WeeAl]

I'd happily watch Lawler go into killer mode and wreck shop on Covington. Lawler will bring pain to Colby's door. If Covington can hang with it, he'll have earnt the win. I think his wrestling game will probably edge the rounds over Lawler, but Covington is going to have to go through hell first. Here's hoping Lawler smashes him to pieces and stays relevant at the top of the division.

[jimufctna24]

 

[David]

Could you imagine that? The fight taking place while Trump sits beside Dana, grinning like a twat? That would make for awesome television. Even better if they got him into the cage after the fight to strap the interim-interim title on Colby after his win!

[wandshogun09]

I didn’t think it’d be possible for me to want Lawler to flatten Covington any more than I already did but it’d be even better if he sparked the div in front of Big Poppa Trump. 

[jimufctna24]

Just now, wandshogun09 said:

I didn’t think it’d be possible for me to want Lawler to flatten Covington any more than I already did but it’d be even better if he sparked the div in front of Big Poppa Trump. 

FFS, trying to eat a hot dog here Wand 

[David]

Nah, I'd rather see Covington win and then have big Don swagger into the cage like 90's Vinnie Mac with a title belt under a purple velvet sheet, crowning him the American welterweight champion, before telling Usman to take his belt back to Nigeria or something awful like that.

[wandshogun09]

Old school fans will remember this. Robbie Lawler wrecking shit in Hawaii...

The old Wild West days of MMA right there. That mad woman attacking Lawler at the end is Vitale’s sister. 

[jimufctna24]

That looked like one hell of a fight based on the highlights. The crowd were well into it as well. Can't say I followed the SuperBrawl promotion much though.