UFC São Paulo: Blachowicz vs Jacare - Nov 16 🇧🇷

[wandshogun09]

Saturday 16th November in São Paulo, Brazil for this one. 

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Jan Blachowicz vs Jacare Souza 

Shogun Rua vs Paul Craig 

Charles Oliveira vs Jared Gordon 

Antonio Arroyo vs Andre Muniz 

Markus Perez vs Wellington Turman  

 

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Sérgio Moraes vs James Krause

Ricardo Ramos vs Luiz Garagorri 

Francisco Trinaldo vs Bobby Green

Warlley Alves vs Randy Brown

Renan Barão vs Douglas Silva De Andrade 

Ariane Lipski vs Veronica Macedo 

Tracy Cortez vs Vanessa Melo 

 

Is it just me or have the UFC stepped their poster game up recently? The Boston and Singapore ones are pretty shit but 244, Moscow and this one are a noticeable improvement, IMO. Doesn’t really matter, just something I noticed. Anyway, I quite like the look of this. It’s a nice little card. 

 

Jan Blachowicz vs Jacare Souza is a fight I don’t think anyone saw coming. Before this was announced all signs seemed to be pointing towards Blachowicz being next in line for a crack at Jon Jones. Blachowicz was hinting at it, Jones was putting out cryptic tweets about fight announcements coming soon and even Dana said it was looking like Big Jan would be getting the title shot. Then out of nowhere they swerved and we’re getting this instead. Not mad about it myself. Jon vs Jan didn’t do much for me as a potential title fight anyway. Jones has had a fairly busy 12 months so I’m quite happy to see him sit out and let the division play itself out a bit. Between this fight, Reyes vs Weidman, Walker vs Anderson and Rakic vs Oezdemir, we should have a clearer picture by the end of the year on who gets the title shot in 2020. 

Anyway, this is an interesting matchup in its own right. Blachowicz is a good fighter. He’s won 5 of his last 6, the only loss being to Thiago Santos. He’s beat Jimi Manuwa, Jared Cannonier and he knocked out Luke Rockhold in his last fight. Good man. Jacare is moving up to 205 here after mixed results over the last couple of years at 185. One of the best grapplers in the game and when it’s all said and done might go down as one of the best fighters to never win UFC gold. He’s talked a lot recently about his struggles with mental health which is a shame but also refreshing to hear a fighter talk openly about it. He’s always seemed like one of the nicest guys in the sport so it’d be cool to see him have some success at Light Heavyweight before he retires. He’ll be 40 in December so you have to assume this is probably his last run. Should be a good fight. 

 

Shogun Rua vs Paul Craig should be a fun one. One of those old vs new fights. Shogun is one of my two favourite MMA fighters of all time. I think I’ve mentioned that before and if I didn’t then the username should’ve given it away. Him and Wanderlei Silva got me hooked on MMA. They were a brilliant tag team. Loved the yin and yang of Wandy being a crazed violent lunatic and Shogun being this placid but silent assassin. On the face of it they were like a rabid rottweiler knocking about with a golden retriever. But they both had a bite on them. It’s been tough watching Shogun over the last decade though. He’s collected up injuries and beatings like I collected Pogs in the mid 90s. He’s still managed to win 4 of his last 5 fights, which is remarkable considering his bones must have all the durability of prawn crackers these days. He’s been out of action since December 2018, when he knocked out Tyson Pedro in Australia. I was low-key hoping he’d quietly retired but here we go again. He was supposed to fight Sam Alvey but the grinning goofball dropped off the card with a broken hand, so Paul Craig stepped up. I prefer this. Not only do I like the actual fight better, but if Shogun loses, I can handle it against a good guy like Craig. Just the thought of Alvey potentially getting a win over Shogun was rotten. But yeah, pretty sweet fight here. Shogun’s way, way past his prime but on a good day he can still smack these new breed 205ers about (ask Tyson Pedro). And Craig is never out of a fight and has a habit of pulling submissions out of his arse, from the jaws of defeat. Should make for an entertaining clash. 

 

Charles Oliveira vs Jared Gordon. I’ll have some of this. If Oliveira is on a card I’m watching him. One of the more under appreciated fighters on the roster for me in terms of being great to watch. And he’s on top form at the moment as well, to be fair. He’s won 5 in a row and finished all 5 of them. Over good fighters as well. Nik Lentz, Jim Miller and Clay Guida all got stopped by him. Gordon is a tough dude with a 15-3 record and has overcome drug addiction to get where he is today. He’s up against it here, I don’t fancy his chances against Oliveira, but it should be a solid fight regardless.

 

Antonio Arroyo vs Andre Muniz is a total unknown to me. Never seen either before. Both making their Octagon debuts. I’d like to see Arroyo win purely because he’s been dicked about with opponents pulling out left and right on this card. He was originally set to face Trevin Giles, he dropped out then it was Alessio Di Chirico, and then he dropped out as well. Now it’s Muniz. Hopefully this one stays intact. Arroyo is 9-2 with 8 finishes. Muniz is a BJJ specialist. 18-4 in MMA with 16 finishes, 12 of them by submission. 

 

Markus Perez vs Wellington Turman is alright. Was meant to be Perez vs Jack Marshman which I was much more up for. This might be decent though. Perez likes a scrap and he’ll be the crowd favourite here. He was born in São Paulo. He’s had a hot and cold run of results lately but he comes into this one off a sweet anaconda choke submission over Anthony Hernandez in February. Turman I’m less familiar with. He’s from Curitiba, 15-3 with 11 finishes. Lost his UFC debut to Karl Roberson in July.

 

Sérgio Moraes vs James Krause is an OK fight. Not in love with it but it should be inoffensive enough. Quite liked Moraes on TUF Brazil years ago. Good guy. Top grappler. He hasn’t done much in the UFC since TUF though. Krause has quietly put together a decent 5 fight win streak but he’s had a fair few layoffs mixed in there as well. Not a bad little fight but can’t say I’m counting the days or anything. 

 

Ricardo Ramos vs Luiz Garagorri is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** and likely the show stealer, IMO. Lots of potential in both men. Ramos is only 24 years old and has a 13-2 record with 9 stoppages. Most notable win so far was his spinning elbow KO over Aiemann Zahabi on the MSG show in 2017. Garagorri is 30 years old from Uruguay. Undefeated at 13-0 with 10 finishes and beat Humberto Bandenay in a cracking fight on the Uruguay show in August. Sounds like a fight well worth checking out. 

 

Francisco Trinaldo vs Bobby Green is a battle of experienced, crafty, grizzled veterans. Trinaldo must be nearing the end now. He’s 41 years old, 23-7 and has been alternating between wins and losses over his last few fights. Green has fallen on hard times too. He’s 1-4-1 in his last 6. He’s always been a good technician but it’s just not going his way and he tends to switch off in fights and let rounds slip away. Kind of has the feel of a ‘loser leaves’ town fight to me, this one. 

 

Warlley Alves vs Randy Brown could be decent. Alves at one time looked like a real good prospect. Won TUF Brazil 3 and went 10-0 at the start of his career. To this day he’s still the only man to beat Colby Covington. He submitted King Cringe in just over a minute on the Aldo vs McGregor undercard back in 2015. He’s been patchy since then though. He’s 13-3 now and coming off a KO win over Sérgio Moraes. Brown is 11-3 and stopped the granite tough Bryan Barberena in June. He also handed Mickey Gall his first loss a couple of years ago. Solid fight here. They’re not making any waves currently but they’re both still under 30 and the potential and raw skill is there. I think they could both do well if they can put everything together. 

 

Renan Barão vs Douglas Silva De Andrade then. Who knows what to make of this in 2019? Barão just seems so far removed from the animal he was in his prime. To think he was almost unanimously considered one of the top three pound-for-pound fighters in the game in 2014. Some even ranked him top of that list. I never agreed with that but he was up there. Now 5 years later, we’re at a point where he’s gone 2-7 in his last 9 fights, bounced between Bantamweight and Featherweight to no joy, missed weight in his last 2 fights and just got knocked out by bang average Luke Sanders. Whether it’s the USADA effect or the vicious beatings from Dirty Dillashaw fucking him up, or all the above, I think it’s fair to say that at just 32 years old, Renan Barão is shot to shit. De Andrade probably beats him as well at this stage. I’ve got zero confidence in Barão anymore and De Andrade is a tricky customer at the best of times. 

 

Ariane Lipski vs Veronica Macedo is a nothing happening fight between two pretty ladies. Sounds harsh but it’s almost like they’ve whacked this on here purely as ‘the eye candy match’ like WWF used to do with Torrie Wilson (  ) back in the day. Haven’t been overly impressed with either so far. Lipski was the former KSW champ. She’s 11-5 and coming off losses to Molly McCann and Joanne Calderwood. Still only 25 years old so maybe she can turn it around. Macedo is 24 years old with a 6-3-1 record. She lost her first 3 fights in the UFC but did beat Polyana Viana in her last fight in August, with an armbar in about a minute. You never know, I guess. With fights like this that seem evenly matched on paper, they can turn out to be entertaining even if the overall skill level isn’t quite up to snuff. 

 

Tracy Cortez vs Vanessa Melo might be worth a gander. Mostly for the Octagon debut of Cortez. She’s 25 years old, 6-1 record and on a 6 fight winning streak. She’s fought for Invicta, Combate Americas and got a win on Dana’s Contender Series in her last fight. Touching backstory as well. She got into MMA because her brother was a fighter and it was his dream to get to the UFC. He beat former UFC fighter Drew Fickett in 2008 but his career was cut short when he was diagnosed with cancer. He died in 2011. Sad stuff. I’ve only seen little clips of Cortez but I think there’s some potential there. Plus she’s Latin and hot as fuck, which won’t do her any harm marketability-wise. Melo is 10-6, only 2 finishes and lost a decision to Irene Aldana in her UFC debut in September. 

 

And that’s that. UFC Brazil. 

Edited November 7, 2019 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Sam Alvey’s out with a broken hand. Shogun’s fighting Paul Craig instead now according to MMA Junkie. I like that fight better. 

[Carbomb]

Sorry wand, but I want Craig to break his win-loss-win-loss run with yet another submission out of nowhere. I like Shogun, but he should really call it a day; also, he's an unusual fighter in that, despite being sort-of partly shot, he can ruin anyone's run, completely against his run of form. 

[wandshogun09]

4 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Sorry wand, but I want Craig to break his win-loss-win-loss run with yet another submission out of nowhere. 

 

[jimufctna24]

For me, Shogun has fallen into the same bracket as Arlovski and other ageing fighters, in that while I used to support him, I find it difficult to care about his fights these days. 

Of course, I would rather he not job to the likes of Sam Alvey, etc, but even if he does, it doesn't really count against him. His legacy is already set in stone and the winter of his career is not what I will remember him for. I will remember him for the Pride years, the Machida fights, the classic with Henderson, etc. 

[David]

I'll be rooting for big Paul Craig obviously, but I like Shogun as well. Personally, if someone of his experience and career is happy enough fighting maybe once or twice a year in Brazil or whatever then I'm fine with that. Plenty of time between fights to recover.

I can't see this going all that well for Jacare. He's moving up to face someone who's bigger, longer, and sitting at 4-1. When some fighters move up in weight you see it as a way for them to reinvigorate their career, but for some it seems like the last roll of the dice. It seems like the latter here for Jacare.

Aside from that, it's a tasty little card. Only a few fights I'll not bother watching I reckon, which is the norm for UFC cards these days.

[WeeAl]

Well, this was a bit shit then wasn't it? I was beginning to think there was a technical glitch and they were replaying the 1st round on a loop. 

[Egg Shen]

its one event im glad i skipped.

Sad to see Renan Barao lose again the prelims, currently on a 5 fight skid  and 2-8 in his last 10. Has any fighter ever fallen from elite status like that? i dont if TJ Dillashaw took his soul or USADA royally ruined him.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Egg Shen

[wandshogun09]

Charles Oliveira, Ricardo Ramos and Randy Brown were the standouts for me on this one. Oliveira in particular is on a bit of a tear at the moment. It’s definitely time for a big fight for him. The McGregor callout was wildly unrealistic though. The Felder rematch could happen. I’d be up for that. 

Aside from that, it was one of the flattest and least enjoyable cards of the year for me. Shame because I genuinely had fairly high hopes going in. Sometimes it just goes like that though. Main event just never got going and I even found Shogun-Craig a bit underwhelming. 

Doesn’t help that this was the last UFC card until the Overeem vs Rozenstruik card on 7th December either. 

[WeeAl]

Yeah Charles Oliviera is long overdue a big fight. Especially now that he's settled at Lightweight. Kevin Lee might be a realistic fight that both guys would be interested in. Hooker or Felder would be good fights for Do Bronx to try and move up, but I don't think either guy would be interested in fighting him at this stage.

It's crazy to think how many records Oliviera could possibly smash in the UFC, while at the same time being completely under the radar. The man is only 30 for goodness sake.