UFC Shenzhen: Andrade vs Zhang - Aug 31 ??

[wandshogun09]

Saturday 31st August, the Octagon returns to China. 

ESPN+ MAIN CARD
Jessica Andrade vs Weili Zhang - Strawweight Title

Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos vs Li Jingliang 

Kai Kara-France vs Mark De La Rosa

Kenan Song vs Derrick Krantz

Yanan Wu vs Mizuki Inoue 

 

ESPN PRELIMS
Anthony Hernandez vs Jun Yong Park

Andre Soukhamthath vs Mudaerji Su

Da Un Jung vs Khadis Ibragimov

Thiago Moises vs Damir Ismagulov

Kai Kara-France vs Mark De La Rosa

Batgerel Danaa vs Heili Alateng

Karol Rosa vs Lara Procopio 

 

Probably not the final bout order there, I’ll edit it as it changes. Decent enough Fight Night, I think. There’s a few fights I’m interested in there. And being in China, it’ll be on nice and early for us which is always a bonus. 

 

Jessica Andrade vs Weili Zhang tops the bill. I really like this fight. Big fan of Andrade and have been for a while. She was fun to watch back in her bantamweight days but since dropping to strawweight she’s been a fucking bulldozer. She’s 20-6 overall in her MMA career. And 8-1 since dropping to 115lbs, with the only loss being a decision in 2017 to Joanna Jedrzejczyk, back when Joanna was dominating everyone. She’s won 4 fights since then and in her last fight she knocked out Rose Namajunas with a brutal slam to become the UFC Strawweight Champion. 

She’s on top of the world right now. The question after that win was naturally who’d be next? Who’d be the first to challenge Andrade? The names that were coming up most were Michelle Waterson and Tatiana Suarez. With an outside possibility of an immediate rematch with Thug Rose. But in June, the UFC threw a curveball in the mix when they announced that Chinese fighter Weili Zhang would be getting the shot. 

It shouldn’t really have been a surprise. Zhang is 19-1 with 16 finishes and she’s on a 19 fight winning streak. She hasn’t lost since her MMA debut back in 2013 and that was by decision. She signed with the UFC in 2018 and has gone 3-0 since with impressive wins over Tecia Torres and Jessica Aguilar in her last two. Now granted, timing was a big part of what’s landed her this title shot. The fact that the UFC had this China event coming up had to play a big part. Plus Namajunas’ status in the sport is up in the air with rumblings that she might even be done with fighting. And Suarez looked far from ready against Nina Ansaroff at UFC 238 in May. All that aside though, Zhang deserves this as much as anyone. I think she’s looked the business so far. 

“Nobody wants to fight her (Zhang). She’s on a 19 fight win streak. She keeps saying ‘When do I get to fight again?’ Nobody wants to fight her. We call Jessica Andrade and she says I will absolutely fight her and I’ll fight her in China.” - Dana White

So here we are. Andrade vs Zhang is set. And it should be a hell of a fight. 

It’s a really interesting fight to me. Andrade is a tank at 115 and she’s overpowered pretty much every girl she’s fought at the weight so far. But Zhang has looked strong as fuck in her fights that I’ve seen. And looking at that face-off picture there, you can see she’s physically the bigger woman. Andrade might not have it all her own way in the strength department and and clinch battles and stuff here. That plus Zhang’s got the confidence coming in off that streak plus it’s in her home country. This is a hard first defence for Andrade on paper. You’ve got to give her credit for taking this challenge on with a fairly quick turnaround against a fighter on a streak AND in Zhang’s backyard. Andrade gives not a fuck. She’s also been talking about going up and challenging Valentina Shevchenko in a champ vs champ ‘superfight’ if they both win their fights in August. So there’s that. Zhang is nobody you want to be overlooking though.

 

Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos vs Li Jingliang is a fight I’m quite looking forward to. Dos Santos has become one of my favourite undercard fighters over the last year or so. And he’s gone from that role of curtain jerker to legit prospect now. He’s 21-5 and on a 7 fight winning streak. In his last 3 fights he won by spinning wheel kick and flying knee, then in his last fight he just ran straight through Curtis Millender (who everyone, including me, was high on) in less than 3 minutes and submitted him with ease. I don’t think there are many fighters queuing up to fight this guy after that. Jingliang’s stepped up though. He’s 16-5 with 11 finishes and is a decent fighter. I mostly remember him for him blatantly deliberately eye poking the fuck out of Jake Matthews though. Never liked him since. So this is a babyface vs heel match all the way for me. Home ground or not, I can’t see it ending well for Jingliang myself. 

 

Yanan Wu vs Mizuki Inoue is one I’ll be giving a look. This is Inoue’s UFC debut. She was once considered one of the top prospects in women’s MMA but she’s had some losses since and is currently sitting at 13-5. Still only 24 years old though. She also has a 11-2 Kickboxing record and started her MMA career at just 16! Fought a lot in Invicta. Wu is 10-2 with 8 finishes and has fought a couple of times in the UFC. Be cool to see Inoue in the Octagon. Hopefully she can still make some noise. The more depth these divisions get the better, obviously. 

 

Kenan Song vs Derrick Krantz might well steal the show actually. Haven’t seen a great deal of either but Krantz really brought it to Vicente Luque on short notice last time out. He’s 23-11 so he’s not making waves in the title picture anytime soon but I can tell he’s going to be good value on the undercards. Song’s obviously the hometown guy. He’s 13-4 in MMA, 2-1 in the UFC. Got stopped by Israel Adesanya in 2015. He’s a finisher in his own right with 12 of his 13 wins coming inside the distance. This’ll probably be explosive, I reckon. 

 

Kai Kara-France vs Mark De La Rosa might be worth a watch. Kara-France came into the UFC with a little bit of hype. He hasn’t blown me away but he has looked pretty good so far. He’s from New Zealand, 19-7 with 12 finishes. He’s 2-0 in the UFC with 2 points wins. De La Rosa is only 24 years old, 11-2 record, 2-2 in the UFC. Mostly know him because his wife Montana was on TUF and fights in the UFC. I must’ve seen him fight before but nothing is springing to mind. 

 

Saparbek Safarov vs Da Un Jung is a complete shot in the dark for me. I know sod all about Jung. Looking him up he’s Korean, 10-2 with 8 finishes and on a 10 fight streak. His record on Sherdog says he has a KO win over someone called Hulk Hulk. I want to see the cunt’s birth certificate. Safarov is a pure brawler, I know that much. Not much in the way of technique and fluid combinations and stuff but he’s granite tough and comes to scrap. Could be fun.

 

Anthony Hernandez vs Jun Yong Park is another fight where I don’t really know either guy. Vaguely recall seeing Hernandez at some point. He’s 7-1, nicknamed ‘Fluffy’ for some reason. Park is a newcomer. Never seen him before. He’s 9-3, 7 finishes.

 

Thiago Moises vs Damir Ismagulov will most likely be a decent prelim. Moises is 12-3 and fights out of American Top Team. Ismagulov is where my little bit of interest lies here though. He’s fairly unknown but he looks handy. He’s Russian with a 18-2 record, 2-0 in the UFC and riding a 13 fight win streak. 

 

Andre Soukhamthath vs Mudaerji Su I’m not arsed about. Soukhamthath has fought in the UFC a few times. He’s lost just about any time he’s been in with anyone any good and he’s 2-4 in the Octagon. Su is 9-3 with all his wins AND losses being finishes. All I’ve seen of him was him getting submitted by Louis Smolka in his last fight. Could turn out OK but it’s just filler really. 

 

Karol Rosa vs Lara Procopio. Yep. Another one where I don’t have a clue. They’re both Brazilian, both making their UFC debut. Rosa is 24 years old and 11-3. Procopio is 23 years old and 6-0. 
 

Not an amazing card or anything, there’s more filler than killer, but I quite like this. Really dig the main event and I think Dos Santos/Jingliang and Evloev/Grundy in particular will make this one well worth tuning in for. 

[wandshogun09]

Bit of UFC with your cereal this Saturday. Prelims start live at 9am on BT Sport 2, followed by the main card from 11am. 

[WeeAl]

I'll catch very little of this one as I'm on shift next weekend, but I'll probably see the main and Co-Main spoiler free on Sunday morning before work. After that though there's not the level of interest for me to try and avoid spoilers until Monday. The Denmark card looks really good though, but this overseas show is a little weak, probably on the count of getting a rare title fight outside of the US. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah it hasn’t helped that Mike Grundy dropped out injured. Evloev vs Grundy was one of the better and more interesting fights on the card for me. I still really like the main event and Dos Santos vs Jingliang should be exciting. But there is a big drop off in my interest below those two fights. 

[Egg Shen]

weakest ufc card in history? there may be unsung talent there, but in terms of name value this is as thin as it gets.

[wandshogun09]

There’s definitely been worse. 2014 springs to mind as having a few absolutely rotten cards in the days of two shows on one night and stuff. 

[jimufctna24]

UFC 24 deserves a mention:

Randleman knocked himself unconscious backstage during the show, which led to his scheduled bout with Pedro Rizzo being cancelled. This left the card looking like this:

Tedd Williams    def.    Steve Judson    
Lance Gibson    def.    Jermaine Andre    
Dave Menne    def.    Fabiano Iha    
Bob Cook    def.    Tiki Ghosn    
Jens Pulver    def.    David Velasquez    
Scott Adams    def.    Ian Freeman     
Shonie Carter    def.    Brad Gumm

Menne, Pulver, Freeman and Carter were all respectable fighters, and Bob Cook went on to become a great trainer. However, none of them were household names in 2000, or remotely close to being so. 

There is probably some obscure Fight Night card that was even worse. But UFC 24 was probably the worst pre-Zuffa, at least in terms of name value. 

 

[wandshogun09]

Disgusting. 

I mentioned 2014 before. Just had a look and right enough, this kicked that year off;

Fight Night in Singapore - Saffiedine vs Lim 

Tarec Saffiedine vs Hyun Gyu Lim

Tatsuya Kawajiri vs Sean Soriano 

Kiichi Kunimoto vs Luiz Dutra Jr

Kyung Ho Kang vs Shunichi Shimizu

Max Holloway vs Will Chope

Katsunori Kikuno vs Quinn Mulhern

Royston Wee vs Dave Galera

Mairbek Taisumov vs Tae Hyun Bang

Dustin Kimura vs Jon Delos Reyes 

Russell Doane vs Leandro Issa

And quickly skimming through the cards that year you had a pretty awful TUF Finale with a Stipe vs Maldonado main event and a bare bones undercard. Costas Philippou headlined a Fight Night. Ali Bagautinov headlined a PPV! You had that fucked up PPV where Barao fell out and we got Dillashaw vs Joe Soto as main event and an undercard so piss weak Bethe Correia vs Shayna Baszler was a featured main card fight. A couple of Fight Nights topped by Bader vs OSP and Arlovski vs Bigfoot that I recall being pretty terrible, on paper and in practice. 

That’s just from quickly looking through 2014. I’m sure there’s even worse standalone cards from other years. 2014 just always jumps out to me as a consistently weak year. That UFC 24 card is going to take some beating though. 

This card isn’t much good. Especially with losing the Grundy vs Evloev fight. The card couldn’t afford to lose a fight like that. But there’s nothing wrong with Andrade vs Zhang as a Fight Night headliner and Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos is legit and on the rise. The rest doesn’t look good on paper though. 

[TildeGuy~!]

I see nothing but a Zhang mauling in this fight. 

In the 2 fights I’ve seen her in under the UFC banner she’s been an absolute monster.

So confident infact I’ve just whacked £50 on her becoming the new champ.

[wandshogun09]

Just a reminder this starts in a bit on BT Sport 2. 9am for the prelims, 11am main card. 

I know most people are down on this card and I can see why. But these two fights should be worth a look at least;

[TildeGuy~!]

On 8/26/2019 at 7:32 PM, TildeGuy~! said:

I see nothing but a Zhang mauling in this fight. 

In the 2 fights I’ve seen her in under the UFC banner she’s been an absolute monster.

So confident infact I’ve just whacked £50 on her becoming the new champ.

Have some of that.

[wandshogun09]

The main event was a hell of a 42 seconds. I was really about 50/50 going in but I wouldn’t have called it to go down quite like that. Weili Zhang is a monster, no doubt. I don’t think there’s another woman in the division who could welcome on that Andrade bullrush and come out on top. I could see her holding on to that belt for a while. I don’t even blame Andrade for being so aggressive because 1) it’s worked against pretty much everyone else and 2) she did clip Zhang before getting hurt herself. Zhang just seems to be made of different stuff. She wasn’t going to be overwhelmed. Huge moment for Chinese MMA as well with her becoming their first UFC champ. 

Andrade was class in the post-fight too. Took the loss well, didn’t make excuses, gave Zhang her due and even busted out a bit of Chinese! 

Got to admit, Li Jingliang surprised me in the co-main. I really rate Dos Santos and fancied him to win this fight quite comfortably but Jingliang rose to the occasion and put in his career best performance. Dominated the fight and then got the finish with just seconds to go. 

Thought Kara-France vs De La Rosa and Song vs Krantz were good scraps. And that Su Mudaerji looked sharp. Don’t recall seeing him before. 

It was mostly a great night for the Chinese all in all. 

[Egg Shen]

well i was critical of the card going in but thats a home run for the UFC isnt it? Breaking into a new (massive) market and crowning a Champion via a destruction like that? unreal. I decided to skip the show because of the other stuff on this weekend but just saw the fight on twitter, that was some Wanderlei Silva shit.

[wandshogun09]

Those were my thoughts watching the fight, Egg. It was like Wanderlei vs Rampage 1 on fast forward. 

[Ironic Indie Lad]

On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 1:35 PM, TildeGuy~! said:

Have some of that.

How much did you make on that shit? Great bet.

Skipped this show but caught the main event. What a brutal mauling. Just a total berserker rage beatdown.