UFC Copenhagen: Hermansson vs Cannonier - Sep 28 🇩🇰

[wandshogun09]

On Saturday 28th September, the Octagon makes its first trip to Denmark with this lot;

ESPN+ MAIN CARD
Jack Hermansson vs Jared Cannonier 

Mark Madsen vs Danilo Belluardo 

Gunnar Nelson vs Gilbert Burns 

Khalil Rountree vs Ion Cutelaba

Michal Oleksiejczuk vs Ovince Saint Preux 

Nicolas Dalby vs Alex Oliveira 

 

ESPN+ PRELIMS
John Phillips vs Alen Amedovski

Alessio Di Chirico vs Makhmud Muradov 

Siyar Bahadurzada vs Ismail Naurdiev 

Brandon Davis vs Giga Chikadze

Macy Chiasson vs Lina Länsberg

Lando Vannata vs Marc Diakiese

Nohelin Hernandez vs Jack Shore  

 

I really like that. I think the UFC have done a good job with the European cards this year. I really enjoyed the London and Sweden shows earlier this year and this one looks along those same lines. No doubt some sections of the MMA media and twats like Schaub will shit all over it because it’s not rammed with ‘names’ but fuck that. There’s plenty to like here. 

 

Jack Hermansson vs Jared Cannonier is your 5 round headliner. Might seem underwhelming to some but I think this is a great fight and I’m actually glad to see these two getting a bit of spotlight. Sweden’s Hermansson in particular has been sneaking up on us for a while now. He’s 20-4 and has won his last 4 in a row. He stopped Thales Leites, Gerald Meerschaert and David Branch. All impressive wins. But in April, he got the call to step in on short notice against Jacare Souza. Even with a full camp, that’s one of the toughest fights in the division. Hermansson went in on short notice and beat Jacare over 5 rounds by unanimous decision. And he looked great. He put in one of the best performances of the year so far for me. So he fully deserves this spot. Cannonier is more than worthy of his shot too. Since dropping to 185 he’s looked like a different fighter. He’s got wins over David Branch and Anderson Silva in his last two fights. This should be a good one. The 185 division is stronger than its ever been. So strong that nobody is really talking about these two. But they have a chance to change all that here. The winner of this puts themselves in position for either a title shot or at least a number one contender matchup. 

 

Mark Madsen vs Danilo Belluardo has been bumped up to co-main according to MMAJunkie, which seems a bit odd. This has my interest though. Never clapped eyes on either of them before but after reading a bit about Madsen, I’m intrigued to see how he does. He’s 34 years old and making his UFC debut here, 8-0 in MMA with 5 finishes so far. He represented Denmark twice at the Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling and took the silver at the 2016 Games in Rio. Belluardo is Italian, 12-4, lost his debut in June. Not overly fussed about seeing him but Madsen could be worth keeping tabs on. Obviously it’s way early to be talking about him going for titles but adding him to the 155 ranks could get very interesting if he’s successful. Remains to be seen how his overall MMA game looks but in terms of grappling alone, him and Khabib could be something to see down the line. One for the future maybe. But at 34, time is of the essence. 

 

Gunnar Nelson vs Gilbert Burns is a matchup I really like the sound of. This was originally supposed to be Gunnar vs Thiago Alves but Alves picked up an injury so Burns stepped in. I liked the Alves fight but this is actually a better matchup, IMO. Gunnar can strike a bit and has that awkward Karate style but his grappling is obviously his bread and butter. But Burns is a world class BJJ artist himself. His style matches up a lot better with Gunnar’s than Alves did. And while he’s not a slick striker, Burns has knockout power and has developed his right hand into a fight ender. He’s on good form right now as well. He’s won his last 3 in a row and stepped in on short notice to hand the previously undefeated Alexey Kunchenko his first loss on the Uruguay show in August. I guess you could say that Gunnar has the advantage of having a full camp but he was training mostly for Alves and his Muay Thai style. This is a completely different fight and he’s got his work cut out with Burns here. Could get very interesting if it becomes a grappling battle. 

 

Khalil Rountree vs Ion Cutelaba should be all out fireworks. I love this pairing. Neither are world beaters or anything, they’ve both suffered their share of defeats. But they add depth to 205 and both come to knock heads off. The highlight of Rountree’s UFC stint so far was probably his surprise first round KO over Kickboxing legend Gokhan Saki a year or so ago. Unfortunately for Rountree, he got steamrolled by Johnny Walker in his next fight. But he bounced back in style in April with a points win over Eryk Anders where he looked to have improved leaps and bounds in his striking and put on a bit of a Muay Thai showcase. Cutelaba is coming off a submission loss to Glover Teixeira in a cracking fight in April. He’d rattled off some vicious highlight reel knockouts before that though and he’s still only 25 years old. Anything can happen but I’d be a bit surprised if this is anything but a total bombfest ending with one of them laid out. Cutelaba is wild and intense as fuck and Rountree isn’t the type to shy away from that.

 

Michal Oleksiejczuk vs Ovince Saint Preux will most likely be decent. Both are finishers. Poland’s Oleksiejczuk is the lesser known of the two, he hasn’t faced the names OSP has. But he’s aggressive and dangerous, only 24 years old and comes into this fight off quick back-to-back knockouts over Gadzhimurad Antigulov and Gian Villante. OSP has stoppage wins over Shogun, Corey Anderson and Yushin Okami. And of course, he also went the distance with Jon Jones. So he’s definitely the more experienced and seasoned man here. But he’s also 36 and coming off a couple of losses. Fuck knows with this one. I reckon it’ll be fun though, given their styles. 

 

Nicolas Dalby vs Alex Oliveira is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time and will be a nice way to open up the main card. Really looking forward to this. Dalby is actually from Copenhagen so the crowd will be buzzing for this. And it’s a fantastic fight on paper. This is Dalby’s return to the UFC after a few years away. In his first UFC stint he took Darren Till to a draw in a great fight and beat Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos. He got released in 2017 and has had a successful run in Cage Warriors since, winning their welterweight title. His last fight was a war and an absolute bloodbath with Ross Houston in June. A fight so bloody it actually got stopped because the canvas was swimming in claret. 

 

Unsafe working conditions, eh? It was a fight that got a decent amount of attention online and a fair bit of discussion from MMA media and fans. And with the UFC already having this Denmark card lined up, I guess it was a no-brainer to make a call to Dalby. He’s getting no favours though. Alex ‘Cowboy’ Oliveira is nobody’s soft touch. He’s got wins over Carlos Condit, Will Brooks and Tim Means. And he’s had proper slobberknockers with the likes of Mike Perry and Yancy Medeiros. He’s tough, crafty and scrappy as fuck. He’s also a massive cunt if the recent story of him attacking his ex-wife is true. Don’t know what’s happening with that. 

 

John Phillips vs Alen Amedovski is a fight where I’m not that clued up on either guy. But I know Phillips is a banger. I remember someone (Ebb?) posting a highlight reel of his on here a while back and he can definitely fucking whack. He’s 21-9-0-1 with all 21 wins being finishes. 18 by knockout. Badly needs a win here though as he’s gone 0-3 in the UFC and lost an all-Welsh battle against Jack Marshman last time out. Amedovski is 31 and Macedonian. He’s also a finisher with an 8-1 record with all 8 of his wins coming by knockout. Don’t blink in this one!

 

Alessio Di Chirico vs Makhmud Muradov is another fight with a late switch up. This was meant to be Di Chirico vs Peter Sobotta but Sobotta dropped out. Di Chirico is alright. Quite enjoyed the little I have seen of him so far and he’s a bit of a weird character too if my memory is serving me correctly. He’s 12-3 overall, ups and downs in the UFC but I like him. His KO over Oluwale Bamgbose sticks in my head for some reason. It’s Muradov I’m more interested in here though. This is his UFC debut, he’s 29 years old, from Uzbekistan and he’s 22-6 with 18 finishes. Decent but nothing earth shattering there. He’s going to get a lot of attention though because his manager is some bloke called Floyd Mayweather. He’s the only MMA fighter on Floyd’s books. 

 

Siyar Bahadurzada vs Ismail Naurdiev is a bit of an unknown for me. Don’t really know what to make of Siyar now. He’s 35 years old and coming off a loss to Curtis Millender. He had a few wins before that but also a couple of lengthy spells of inactivity too. He’s a banger though, so he’s always got that. Whenever I think of Bahadurzada, the first image in my head is always his UFC debut years ago where he completely flattened Paulo Thiago seconds into the fight. Naurdiev is only 23, nicknamed ‘The Austrian Wonderboy’ and has a 18-3 record with 16 finishes. He beat veteran Michel Prazeres in his Octagon debut, so he’s got something about him. Lost a decision to Chance Rencountre in his last fight though. Probably be a decent old vs new scrap. Neither seem to like going to the judges.  

 

Macy Chiasson vs Lina Länsberg is just there. Can’t say I’m particularly bothered one way or the other but it’s not a bad matchup. I quite like Länsberg. Don’t rate her as a contender or anything but she won me around with her attitude after Cyborg gave her a kicking. Seems a good lass. She’s 37 now though and she’s had a long old career when you factor in her 48 Muay Thai fights on top of her MMA stuff. She’s 9-4 in MMA now, beat Tonya Evinger on the Sweden show in June but she’s had a real hot and cold run. At 27 years old, Chiasson is the younger and fresher, although much less experienced of the two. She’s 5-0 with 4 finishes and won TUF at some point. I recall her looking good so far, to be fair, I’m just not that into this fight for whatever reason. 

 

Lando Vannata vs Marc Diakiese...fuck, had no idea this was booked until now. Could be pure Tekken shit. Both are really unorthodox and creative with their striking styles. Which makes them both that bit extra dangerous. Lando’s been proper hit and miss in the UFC, he’s mostly been on a win one-lose one merry-go-round. But he’s insanely fun to watch. He instantly made a fan out of me in his UFC debut, when he took on Tony Ferguson on short notice and almost pulled off the upset knockout. His picture perfect spinning kick KO on John Makdessi was a thing of beauty as well. It doesn’t get talked about as one of the best knockouts ever but it should. He dragged the usually frustrating to watch Bobby Green to easily the best fight of his career as well. Lando is a madman. Diakiese has been slightly less of a human highlight reel but has had his moments himself. Most notably his 30 second KO against Teemu Packalén on one of the UK cards. He snapped a 3 fight losing streak on the London show in March with an impressive points win over Joseph Duffy. Should be a fight and a half, this one. 

 

Nohelin Hernandez vs Jack Shore could be a good little fight. Hernandez is 25 with a 9-3 record and trains out of AKA. He got submitted by Marlon Vera in his UFC debut in July. It’s Shore’s debut that is the pull here though. He’s Welsh, 24 years old, undefeated at 11-0 with 10 finishes and is/was the Cage Warriors 135lbs champion. Interesting addition to the ever improving bantamweight division. 

 

Brandon Davis vs Giga Chikadze will jerk the curtain. Even this should be worth checking out though, I reckon. Davis has been in the UFC for a bit. Nowt special. He’s 10-7 and I mainly remember him for getting kneebarred by Zabit a while back. Watch this for Giga Chikadze’s Octagon debut. He’s 31 years old from Georgia, 7-2 with 7 finishes and is a Kickboxer who’s fought in GLORY a few times. He likes a body shot as well...

Probably won’t amount to much in the UFC. Doesn’t seem to have much in the way of a ground game and at 31 he’s unlikely to close that gap, but he could be an exciting addition to these European cards going forward. 

 

Good shit. I like the main a lot and then you’ve got stuff like Gunnar/Burns, Rountree/Cutelaba, Dalby/Oliveira and Vannata/Diakiese and a few intriguing newcomers...anyone who says this is a weak card, tell them they’re talking bollocks.

Edited September 28, 2019 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

this is one of the best European cards in ages, tremendous stuff.

[wandshogun09]

Thiago Alves is out of the co-main. They’re looking for a replacement for Gunnar. Hopefully he stays on the card. Shame though, I really liked that fight. 

Edit - Gilbert Burns is stepping in against Gunnar. I actually think that’s a better fight than the original. Burns matches up much better on the ground with Gunnar than Alves would’ve plus he still offers that knockout threat on the feet. He deserves an opportunity like this as well. He’s won his last 3 and jumped in on short notice last time and beat the undefeated Alexey Kunchenko who was 20-0 previously. 

Edited September 15, 2019 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Bit of an intriguing development here. Peter Sobotta is out of the Alessio Di Chirico fight with an injury and he’s been replaced by Makhmud Muradov, Floyd Mayweather’s only signed MMA fighter. He’s 22-6 with 18 finishes. 

[wandshogun09]

Sorry for the triple post but this is 2 days away, a pretty nice card and nobody’s talking about it. 

I think this is brilliant and should’ve been the actual poster; 

Televised prelims kick off Saturday at 5pm on BT Sport 2, followed by the main card at 7pm. 

Edited September 26, 2019 by wandshogun09

[Carbomb]

That should be the style of poster for every Cejudo fight.

[David]

6 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

That should be the style of poster for every Cejudo fight.

Damn straight.

[WeeAl]

It's a hell of a card actually. Much stronger overall than the Mexico card from last week. 

With a win here, Hermansson should only be behind Paulo Costa, and the champions in the pecking order at 185. You have to imagine Costa will fight the winner of Adesanya Vs Whittaker next, but the winner here could well be next in line if they can wait that long, or else they'll have to fight possibly Romero or the loser of the fight in Australia next month. Either way, win this one and you're in the kingdom of the god's at MW. 

Ion Cutelaba Vs Khalil Rountree is a banger. After how Rountree looked last time out, I can't wait to see him in there again. Cutelaba will be full of murderous intent for the first 90 seconds, though if it goes past that I'm picking Rountree. 

I'm excited for seeing how Madsen adapts to the UFC in his debut, you get the feeling he could become a star if managed right for his first few fights in the promotion.

Dalby Vs Oliviera should be a really good scrap, OSP is probably getting knocked out by Michael Letters, and Gilbert Burns seems to me to be a step up in competition from Tiago Alves for Gunnar Nelson on short notice. I think Nelson would have handled Alves comfortably, but I think Burns Vs Nelson will be a much closer fight. 

Vannata Vs Diakese on the prelims should be nothing if not entertaining as well. 

[Egg Shen]

Its a really strong card, the lack of interest from Stateside media just goes to show that the regional shows here have worked in establishing names that get people interested in their part of the world. This is the first card in ages where im gonna have to watch top to bottom.

You sure its 5 for the prelims @wandshogun09? UFC Fight Pass has them listed at 4pm, or is there a couple exclusive on there?

[wandshogun09]

The BT Sport coverage of the prelims starts at 5 so I’m guessing there’ll be a couple of fights on Fight Pass between 4 and 5. 

[Egg Shen]

ahhh, need to see that Jack Shore fight.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, I reckon you’re looking at Davis vs Chikadze and Shore vs Hernandez on Fight Pass from 4pm. Then the BT coverage starting with Lando vs Diakiese. That would be my guess anyway. 

Ha...

 

Edited September 27, 2019 by wandshogun09

[Guy Bifkin]

Canonier is an animal, pure savage. Put him in there with Yoel next and watch them smash through the space time continuum. 

[wandshogun09]

Enjoyed that. Prelims were a bit slow going with all the decisions but John Phillips put an end to that and the main card was good stuff. 

Jared Cannonier looked really good. He’s been a different fighter since he dropped to 185. He was so-so at 205 and I don’t think anyone saw him coming but he’s 3-0 with 3 stoppages at 185 now and he’s got to be knocking on the door of a title shot soon. Hermansson was on a strong run as well and coming off that huge win over Jacare. And he got off to a good start here. For Cannonier to stop him was very impressive. I like Guy’s idea of Cannonier vs Romero. That would be a real clash of beasts and I can’t think of anyone more obvious for either man to fight next. It’s looking like Paulo Costa will get the winner of Whittaker vs Adesanya so if that’s how it goes then Cannonier vs Romero would be the fight to make. 

Mark Madsen had the perfect UFC debut. Thought they did a great job with the pre-fight video and DC and Chael bigging his wrestling credentials up. Then the fight itself was just a complete mauling. Belluardo never even got going. Madsen had the clinch within 20 seconds, got the takedown within 40 and it was all over seconds later. Early days of course and it remains to be seen how he does against better opposition. But to come into the UFC and co-main in your hometown in your debut and do that, he looked like a bit of a star last night. It’ll be interesting to see who he gets matched up with next. He’s new but he’s also 34 so it’s not like they’ve got all the time in the world to bring him along slowly. And he’s in the toughest division in the sport so we’ll soon find out what he’s got. 

Gilbert Burns vs Gunnar Nelson, the late replacement curse strikes again. You could kind of see this one coming though. Like I said when Thiago Alves dropped out, stylistically Burns was always going to be a tougher matchup for Gunnar. He’s one of the best grapplers in the game and you’re not safe on the feet with him either. As that flying knee in the second round showed. Wasn’t like Gunnar didn’t have his moments, but it was never going to be a straight forward fight for him and Burns just outworked him. Burns has got to be looking at a top contender fight next. He’s on a nice little streak and has stepped in on short notice twice on the bounce now and beat Kunchenko (who was 20-0 going in) and now Gunnar. 

Ion Cutelaba vs Khalil Rountree was chaos like expected. I was 50/50 going into this one. Both have that fight ending power and I thought it would depend on if Rountree could make it a technical fight or whether Cutelaba could drag him into a slobberknocker. But Cutelaba mixed it up with takedowns and Rountree paid the price. I think a lot of people were overlooking Cutelaba here. I think that was partly because of Rountree’s excellent showing against Eryk Anders in his last fight and Joe Rogan in particular getting all on his ballsack over it. Then seeing Rountree kind of laugh in the face of Cutelaba’s attempt to intimidate him at the weigh in, I saw a lot of ‘Rountree’s gonna sleep this fool’ type stuff. But Cutelaba is nobody to overlook. He’s vicious as fuck and has the power to put a lot of guys away if he connects clean. Cutelaba fucked him up. 

Ovince Saint Preux vs Michal Oleksiejczuk was fun. Really thought OSP was getting chinned the way it started. Oleksiejczuk was really putting it on him at the beginning of the fight. You could see him starting to fade as the round went on though and OSP coming back and getting the tap with yet another Von Flue choke was mental. At this point it really needs to be renamed the Von Preux choke.

Nicolas Dalby vs Cowboy Oliveira was a good scrap to open the main card. Glad Dalby got the win. The ref was fucking useless though. Restarting them on the feet after Oliveira’s foul on the ground was iffy enough. But standing them up in the third round when Oliveira was in half guard doing damage was shocking. It was clearly him reacting to the crowd booing and a ref shouldn’t be letting the crowd influence them like that. Of course they’ll be booing when their hometown fighter is at a disadvantage. That standup was bollocks and arguably changed the course of the fight as the final scorecard was 29-28 Dalby across the board. If Oliveira had been allowed to work from that position instead of being stood up, who knows how it would’ve played out. We’ll never know now. I was happy Dalby won as Oliveira seems a bit of a cock, but man that ref was shite. 

John Phillips vs Alen Amedovski was always going to end with one of them on their back. Both are notorious finishers. Didn’t expect it to end that quick though. This was just 17 seconds of mayhem and Amedovski got the worst of it. Phillips has a got a thump on him. 

Makhmud Muradov vs Alessio Di Chirico was decent enough. Thought Muradov looked good. Had him winning pretty convincingly over a solid opponent and on short notice. Not a bad start from Floyd’s boy. 

Ismail Naurdiev vs Siyar Bahadurzada was alright. Bit of a Naurdiev showcase. He was the sharper, faster and more technical striker and Siyar was just looking for that one big bomb. Naurdiev did a good job nullifying Siyar’s power and just outlanding him and mixing in takedowns. I like the look of Naurdiev so far. Lot of potential there at just 23 years old. 

Giga Chikadze vs Brandon Davis, what a balls up. I had Chikadze winning fairly clearly so I was a bit taken aback when it was announced as a draw. Only for it to come out later that one of the judges can’t do maths and cocked up his scorecard. Chikadze did win after all. Total mess. 

Lina Länsberg vs Macy Chiasson wasn’t the best. I was happy to see Länsberg win though. And especially after listening to Chiasson’s irritant of a coach between rounds. “We’re in frickin’ Denmark! And she’s from frickin’ Sweden! Do you wanna frickin’ lose?! Go out there and frickin’ win!!” Oh just frick off will you. Motherfricker. 

Didn’t catch the Fight Pass prelims in the end so missed Diakiese vs Lando and Shore vs Hernandez. Heard Jack Shore looked really good though. Dominant performance then a third round submission. 

[WeeAl]

Mark Madsen is going to be worth watching. He can grapple a wee bit I think? It's early in his MMA career but he isn't young either. I'd get him in there now with those guys 15-20 in the division and see how he handles it. He's got the talent, but does he have time on his side to cultivate the overall game? It'll be interesting to see it play out. 

OSP weathered the storm that we knew was heading his way early. I thought he was done in that first round but then he hit the Big Boot, Leg Drop combo and we know nobody is getting up from that. Seriously, he's taking the piss now with these Von Flue chokes. Fuck knows how he manages to do it time after time. 

Jared Cannonier is clearly a bad, bad man to get into a cage and have a fight with. He wasn't being fancied here at all but he put a hurting on Hermansson, on what was supposed to be 'singin' and dancin' Jack Hermansson's big night (credit the Co-Main event guys). The suggestions of Romero Vs Cannonier are on the money. Get it booked for Cuba (or some other place with a Cuban population, I don't know if our man Yoel is allowed back home or not). 

Nicolas Dalby Vs Oliviera and Cutelaba Vs Rountree were both as exciting as could be expected. Neither fight was really going to fall beneath expectations. 

Jack Shore had the perfect debut. Glad to see Diakese get the win, and John Phillips? Jesus. If the game plan against Phillips isn't to wrestle immediately, then his opponent clearly has a death wish. Do not stand with this guy unless in the aftermath, you want to have scrambled eggs for brains.