UFC Vegas: Silva vs Hall - Oct 31 🇺🇸 🎃 👻🕷

[wandshogun09]

Saturday 31st October. Halloween Night. The UFC returns to Vegas for The Spider’s final walk. Maybe. 

ESPN+ MAIN CARD
Anderson Silva vs Uriah Hall 

Bryce Mitchell vs Andre Fili

Kevin Holland vs Charlie Ontiveros

Greg Hardy vs Maurice Greene 

Bobby Green vs Thiago Moises

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Alexander Hernandez vs Chris Gruetzemacher

Adrian Yanez vs Victor Rodriguez

Sean Strickland vs Jack Marshman 

Jason Witt vs Cole Williams

Dustin Jacoby vs Justin Ledet

Miles Johns vs Kevin Natividad

 

Not an amazing card but it’s decent. The story is going to be Anderson Silva’s farewell. It’s an interesting fight with Hall. At this point it’s one of the few fights I’m up for seeing Anderson in. There’s a couple of bits and bobs on the undercard worth your attention as well. Bryce Mitchell and Makhmud Muradov being the main ones for me.

Apologies in advance. This’ll be a long one. 

 

Anderson Silva vs Uriah Hall. This is supposed to be Anderson’s final fight. I emphasise ‘supposed to be’ for obvious reasons, you never really expect MMA retirements to stick. But at 45 years old, after a long and illustrious career, it’s probably the time to hang up those yellow and black shorts for good. He’s won 1 fight out of his last 8. Which is crazy when you think back to how dominant he once was. But that’s the way it goes and Father Time is going undefeated for eternity. He’s actually still got 2 fights left on his UFC contract but the way everyone’s talking, all indications are that this will be Anderson’s last walk to the Octagon.

“Yeah, it’s his last fight. Anderson Silva has two fights left on his contract but we agreed that the fight against Uriah Hall will be his retirement fight. His legacy is gigantic. Anderson Silva had a great career here and he will be remembered as one of the best of all time.” - Dana White

I don’t think Anderson has 100% confirmed it but he’s talking about it, he hasn’t denied what Dana’s saying and it’s got to be about that time. 

“Maybe this is my last fight. That’s why I’m training hard every day, doing my best. My whole team has come to help me. Everybody is in quarantine to start training. I’m very excited because I think this is my last performance inside the cage. We’ll see. The good story is Anderson Silva fights again for the belt and wins, and then is done - but that’s a script, you can’t do this in real life.” - Anderson Silva 

Regardless of how the last few years have gone with the losses, the injuries, the PED stuff, it’s undeniable that he was a special fighter. People love to go back and pick apart his resume these days but at that time, there was nobody quite like him in MMA.

He started martial arts as a teenager. Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, Taekwondo, Capoeira. He dabbled in a bit of everything. A mixed martial artist before the term was even invented. His MMA career began in 1997. Think about that. There’s probably a decent number of fighters on the UFC roster who weren’t even born then. He was raised in Curitiba so naturally he wound up at the Chute Boxe Academy which was based there. A gym that would turn out to be a breeding ground for absolute savages including Jose Pele Landi, Wanderlei Silva, the Rua brothers Ninja and Shogun and later on Cris Cyborg.

You kick your ball over their fence, you’re leaving it. 

So Anderson turned pro and in his first 9 fights he went 8-1 with wins over Hayato Sakurai and Roan Carneiro. He was picked up by Pride in 2002 and looked impressive early on, most notably scoring a dazzling flying knee KO over one of the respected top Welterweights of the day Carlos Newton.

He hit a couple of rough patches after that though. He got submitted by Daiju Takase in 2003 and found himself out of Pride for a spell. He regrouped and went travelling, picking up wins over Jeremy Horn in South Korea and then coming over to Cage Rage and beating Lee Murray in London. He was getting about a bit and in late 2004 he was back in the fold in Pride.

But it went tits up again as Ryo Chonan got him with a flying scissors leg lock. To this day one of the craziest submission finishes I’ve ever seen. I think it was around this time that Anderson had his falling out with Chute Boxe. He later claimed they got him blocked from returning to Pride. It all worked out in the end, obviously. And Anderson ended up joining forces with Chute Boxe rivals the Brazilian Top Team.

He remained close with the Nogueira brothers for the rest of his career and credits Big Nog for stopping him from quitting the sport around this time. Another reason to love Big Nog. Not only was he fucking awesome, we’d have never seen Anderson Silva’s glory years had it not been for him talking Anderson off the ledge.

Anyway, Andy went back over to Cage Rage and swiftly bashed up Jorge Rivera and the cringetastically nicknamed Curtis ‘Bang Em Out’ Stout. Got himself DQ’d against Yushin Okami over in Hawaii then back to Cage Rage. Where he killed Tony Fryklund in cold blood with this mad backwards, upwards elbow thingybob.

One of my favourite knockouts ever and, as far as I know, it’s never been done since.

After that he was UFC bound. In June 2006, he made his first Octagon appearance taking on TUF 1 vet Chris Leben, who was on quite a tear at the time. He was on a 6 fight win streak and riding the wave of momentum coming off that first TUF. There was real buzz there and Leben was believing his own hype big time. I clearly remember in the pre-fight video, him saying something like ‘After this fight maybe Anderson can go back to Japan where the competition’s a little easier’...

49 seconds is all it took The Spider to blitz through Leben. I like Leben but he really didn’t know what he was getting into here. His swinging haymakers from the kneecaps approach wasn’t going to cut it against a precision striking sniper like Anderson. It was one of those UFC debuts that instantly made everyone sit up and take notice. And with the Middleweight champ at the time Rich Franklin fast running out of fresh challengers, Silva got the call just one fight in the door. Despite Silva’s crushing finish in his debut, the Zuffa boys probably still saw this as just another routine defence for Franklin. He’d looked good as champ prior to this and Anderson did have those losses in Pride. It went terribly, terribly wrong for the maths teacher though.

As a Muay Thai bummer, I was loving this. Nothing against Rich, but I love a good clinch display and seeing Anderson properly ragging a strong guy like Franklin about and busting him up to the body to bring the hands down, then kneeing his face in was as beautiful as it was brutal. Textbook Thai clinch demolition job. Poor Rich had to have his passport photo retaken and everything. Look at the state of it...

Anderson Silva was the new Middleweight champion of the world. Just 2 fights into his UFC career. Little did everyone know just how long he’d have a stranglehold on that thing.

The reign of terror began. 2007 saw him submit BJJ black-belt Travis Lutter, TKO Nate Marquardt in a round then utterly dismantle Rich Franklin again in a rematch. This time in Franklin’s hometown, with his wife crying in the front row. Rolling into 2008, it was time for closure...

Anderson’s Pride run mightn’t have ended how he’d have liked but he got the last laugh in the end. He submitted Dan Henderson to unify the UFC and Pride belts at UFC 82. Anderson’s got that Pride belt somewhere to this day. He followed that up by going up to 205 and sparking James Irvin just because he could. Had a couple of stinkers with Cote and Leites but returned to form in a major way in the summer of 2009, taking the piss and clowning Forrest Griffin in a round...

Say what you want about Griffin but he was a good fighter for that time and was Light Heavyweight champ just months earlier. And Anderson made him look like he didn’t belong anywhere near a cage with him.

After that it was the Demian Maia fight in Abu Dhabi...yeah, moving on. Then the Chael Sonnen thing started. One of the best rivalries in MMA history.

Everything about them was so opposite and Chael was exactly the foil Silva needed for his legacy. Every great needs an arch nemesis and Chael stepped into that role perfectly. Couldn’t have came at a better time for Silva either with him coming off that rotter against Maia. And best of all, Chael would do all the talking and promoting. Of course, the first fight in August 2010 is an epic. Chael dominating for 4.5 rounds only to get caught in a triangle right at the end was pure movie stuff. Right down to leaving it open for a sequel somewhere down the road.

After that it was the battle for Brazil against Vitor Belfort.

I still don’t really know what the origins of the beef between these two was. They didn’t get on though. Even years later, they don’t seem particularly pally now. Fuck knows. But with Anderson’s star being at an all time high coming off the Sonnen fight, this dynamic with Belfort captured people’s interest at the time as well. And the thinking was if anyone could give Anderson issues in the striking, Vitor would be your man.

Wrong.

Front kick KOs are a thing now. Still impressive but they’ve been seen a bunch of times. In 2011, that wasn’t the case. This was breathtaking at the time. Full on Daniel Son’d him in the gob. To do it to someone like Belfort was even more shocking. Looking back at Anderson’s career, this 2 fight stretch - Sonnen 1 then the Belfort KO - probably solidified Anderson’s legendary status more than anything else in his career.

He continued on after that. Stopping Yushin Okami, Chael again in the big rematch and Stephan Bonnar up at LHW again. By the end of 2012, Anderson was being talked about as the greatest of all time. The only things left for him to do seemed to be Superfights with GSP and/or Jon Jones.

But a new contender had emerged in Chris Weidman. And from 2013 on, Anderson’s career took a drastic turn. First he got KO’d by Weidman and lost his belt. Then in the rematch...

Still makes me wince. And he’s never been right since. He’s had his moments. I’m one of the few who really enjoyed the Nick Diaz fight. And the Bisping fight was incredible and Silva arguably should’ve won. Even the Adesanya fight, he didn’t disgrace himself. It was a fun fight. But things just haven’t worked out. The aura has been shattered and he seems to have lost a little bit of that swagger and confidence along with a bit of his timing and speed. It’s to be expected at 45 after a long career. But it’s still cack to see him in the L column all the time. Even the PED bollocks, at this point, whatever. I’m not naive enough to believe there were many clean fighters during Anderson’s era. He’s just one of the ones who got caught. And I could be wrong but I’ve never felt like he’s been a career long cheater. I think he probably used whatever he used out of desperation late in his career and after the leg injury.

But yeah, Uriah Hall then. I didn’t mean to treat him like an afterthought here but if Anderson’s really retiring then that’s the story. Kind of fitting that he’s going out against Hall though as at one point Hall was regularly being compared to and hailed as possibly ‘the next Anderson Silva’. It didn’t pan out and those comparisons rarely do. But I can see why people thought that. Back when he was coming off TUF, Hall was like a Tekken character. That spin kick KO on the show was ridiculous and he seemed to have all the potential in the world. For whatever reason though, he just doesn’t seem to show up some nights. I think he’ll be up for this one but there’s also the chance he freezes out there. Having Anderson Silva’s last fight in a UFC main event can do that. I’d love to see Anderson go out on a win but really, I just hope it’s a good fight. And most importantly, regardless of the result, I hope this really is it for Anderson. He’s done more than enough, he’s got nothing left to prove and hopefully he’s fine financially. He doesn’t need to be fighting into his 50s, for fuck’s sake.

 

Bryce Mitchell vs Andre Fili could be all kinds of fun. Never really gotten into Fili’s fights myself but I’m up for this matchup, mostly because I love watching Bryce Mitchell. He’s quality. One of the most exciting grapplers on the entire roster for me. 13-0 unbeaten, busted out a twister submission (only the 2nd in UFC history) in December, tied Charles Rosa up in knots at UFC 249 in May. He’s great to watch. Fili’s 21-7 and coming off a split decision over Charles Jourdain. Decent fighter but hasn’t really fulfilled the potential most saw in him when Team Alpha Male were bigging him up as the next breakout star. Hoping and expecting Mitchell keeps his O here.

 

Kevin Holland vs Charlie Ontiveros then. Not happy with this. Not happy at all. This was originally my ‘one to watch’ but got buggered. First it was Makhmud Muradov vs Krzysztof Jotko. That’s right, none of the original elements of this fight are still there. Jotko dropped out but it was Muradov I was buzzing to see again anyway so I wasn’t too fussed. Then Holland stepped in making it an even better fight. Now here we are just 2 days out and Muradov is out. Bollocks. I like Holland but I can’t be arsed with this now. Don’t know who this noodle headed jabroni is who’s stepped in but apparently he’s 11-6 and lost to MVP in Bellator back in 2015. I hope Holland sleeps his Sideshow Bob looking arse quick and we can get the Muradov fight rebooked. 

 

Greg Hardy vs Maurice Greene. I’ll say it again, balls to Greg Hardy and his supposed potential. I just don’t see it. He’s 6-2-0-1 now. Got himself disqualified in his UFC debut by throwing a blatantly illegal knee. And he got his win over Ben Sosoli overturned to a No Contest because the pillock used an inhaler between rounds. More importantly, he’s a woman beating wanker who’s not really shown any remorse or regret as far as I can tell. Bollocks to him. I keep hearing how he’s got all this potential but all I see is a plodder with a big right hand. Same as 90% of the Heavyweight division outside the top few guys. I’d love to see Greene hand him a loss here but I’m not overly confident he does. Just never been sold on Greene from what I’ve seen. He’s more of a grappler so maybe he can exploit the weaknesses Hardy has there. But I don’t recall him being much of a takedown guy or very explosive so I can see him failing to get takedowns and getting caught coming in. Love to be wrong and he chokes the piss out of this twat.

 

Bobby Green vs Thiago Moises. Could be good. Green is on a nice little run of form at the minute. After years of inconsistency, split decisions, draws and some frustrating performances, he’s looked better than he has in years recently. He’s beat Clay Guida, Lando Vannata and Alan Patrick in his last 3 and looked good doing it. He completely dominated Patrick last time out in September. I said it before but his little run of late reminds me of Jorge Masvidal’s unexpected late career resurgence, although obviously on a much smaller scale. They both became known for kind of coasting and leaving fights too close at times but both seemed to find another gear lately. Moises is 13-4 and has been on a bit of a win one/lose one run in recent times. Decent fighter just haven’t seen enough of him really.

 

Alexander Hernandez vs Chris Gruetzemacher. Not particularly arsed. Can’t stand Hernandez. Came off as a right penis in the run up to the Cerrone fight a while back and I’ve rooted against him ever since. Decent fighter, but a bit of a dickhead. He’s 11-3 now and coming off a satisfying TKO loss to Drew Dober in May. Notable wins include a knockout over Beneil Dariush (another reason I dislike him) and a decision over Francisco Trinaldo. Gruetzemacher has been off the grid since 2018 for whatever reason. He stopped Joe Lauzon in his last fight at UFC 223. For context, that was the card where McGregor threw a tantrum and attacked a bus and Khabib told him to “send location”. That’s how long it’s been since Gruetzemacher fought. He’s 14-3. Don’t remember much about him other than him looking pretty good against Lauzon. I hope he batters Hernandez but if I’m honest I can’t see it.

 

Adrian Yanez vs Victor Rodriguez. Don’t know either of these ham and eggers. Yanez was on Dana’s Contender Series. He’s 26 years old, 11-3 with 8 finishes. That’s all I’ve got. Anyone seen him? Rodriguez is stepping in for an injured Aaron Phillips. He’s 7-2 and coming off 4 consecutive stoppage wins. 

 

Sean Strickland vs Jack Marshman. Decent enough fight, nothing amazing. Strickland has been around for a while in the UFC but never really made any waves. He’s 20-3 with some nice wins over the likes of Court McGee, Tom Breese and Nordine Taleb but he’s faltered every time he’s stepped up to that next level. Wales’ Marshman is 23-9 and got ran over by Edmen Shahbazyan in his last fight. That was over a year ago now. I like Marshman, he’s a scrapper. But I can’t see him sticking around much longer in the UFC really. He’s 2-4 in his last 6 and, although tough as fuck, I just don’t think he’s got enough about his overall game to cut it in the UFC’s Middleweight division these days.

 

Jason Witt vs Cole Williams. Don’t recall ever seeing either of these two fight. Witt is 17-6 and got KO’d by Takashi Sato in his UFC debut on the Poirier vs Hooker undercard in June. I’d have seen that but it lasted 48 seconds apparently so nothing about Witt sticks out. He was just on the wrong end of a highlight reel. Williams is 11-2 and got subbed in his debut on the Covington vs Lawler card last year. He does have a win over a Charlie Brown though. Poor Snoopy. Yeah, nothing to see here.

 

Dustin Jacoby vs Justin Ledet. The UFC return of Dustin Jacoby. He’s certainly knocked about a bit. He was in the UFC for a short stint back in 2011 but went 0-2 and was cut loose. That was early in his career though. He’s since fought for WSOF and Bellator briefly. He’s fought in GLORY Kickboxing and had his moments there, he’s had a Pro Boxing match and won and now he’s back in MMA. He fought on Dana’s Contender Series in August and got the win, landing himself a UFC contract 8 years after they let him go. Cool story. He hasn’t half gone a strange route back. Fucker’s been everywhere. Never been particularly impressed with Ledet. He’s not terrible but anyone who’s really got something about them will handle him without too much hassle. As Rakic, Walker and Camur have shown in his last few fights. I’m intrigued to see what Jacoby can do this time though. My hopes aren’t that high, to be honest. He’s never done well when he’s stepped in with upper level guys. But I’d like to see him at least get a couple of wins and maybe some bonus money. The dude’s been putting the work in.

 

Miles Johns vs Kevin Natividad. Don’t know. I’ve seen very little of Johns and nothing of Natividad. Sherdog tells me Johns is 10-1 with 4 finishes. Beat Cole Smith in his UFC debut but got stopped by Mario Bautista in his next fight. Natividad was supposed to debut against Brian Kelleher on the Overeem vs Sakai card the other week but fell out almost as fast as he stepped in. He’s 9-1 with 6 finishes.

 

I’ll leave you with this because it’s ace. Anderson Silva highlights, Wu-Tang style;

🕷 

Edited October 30, 2020 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Keep forgetting Hall/Silva is even happening. I think its the perfect kind of fight for Anderson to take. If Hall is on form he could do some damage but i think it'll be a fun fight to watch. Hall stands off enough to make it interesting. 

Really like this main card. I was well on the Bobby Green train before this recent run hes on but ive pretty much missed it all. Great to see him doing so well, hes in the talk for turnaround fighter of the year. I could fully see Green having a late Jorge Masvidal-like career revivial. Get Bobby Green the right opponent/platform and i think he could break through. Great character too.

Greg Hardy crushes Maurice Green (sorry wand).

Really like the sound of Jacoby/Ledet, should be a good striking battle. K-1 kickboxer vs. pro boxer, i like it.

Mitchell/Fili is outstanding too.

Like it.

[jimufctna24]

On 10/3/2020 at 1:04 PM, wandshogun09 said:

People love to go back and pick apart his resume these days

Just let me get warmed up:

 

[David]

For me this is a fight seven years in the making. I've wanted to see Silva vs Hall since the hype train took off back in 2013 on TUF, when he was laying fools out in style.

Even in 2020 it'll still rank up there as one of my top five most anticipated fights of the year, as both guys have slowly diminished at the same rate, meaning we should still get an exciting and competitive fight.

On 10/3/2020 at 1:04 PM, wandshogun09 said:

I’ll say it again, balls to Greg Hardy and his supposed potential. I just don’t see it.

If you don't see potential in Greg Hardy then you're either allowing your hatred to blind you, or you're not looking closely enough.

Let's be honest, if this was any other dude who had come in from the athletic background he has, and did what he's done, we'd be talking about him as a potential future contender. And rightfully so.

As a person, he's dogshit. As an athlete, he's above-average for sure, and as a fighter he could go places, especially in the heavyweight division as it stands now.

He's come this far and I don't want to see him eventually come undone against a nobody like Greene. Where's the payoff in that? He gets wrestle-fucked by a nobody? Hardly will eventually lose, and when he does I'd rather it was to an Ngannou or something. Hopefully he puts Green through the mat and moves on up.

Decent little card overall, with a corker of a main event that could be significant in a number of ways.

Edited October 5, 2020 by David

[wandshogun09]

2 hours ago, David said:

If you don't see potential in Greg Hardy then you're either allowing your hatred to blind you, or you're not looking closely enough.

I’ve never let my hatred blind me before when it’s come to utter shitbags like Mayweather, McGregor, Jones, Covington etc. Fuck, even Frank Mir, I’ll always give him his due for being one of the best submission artists in MMA history and I’ve always rated his colour commentary work back in WEC. I can separate my dislike of a fighter when it comes to giving credit where it’s due. So I guess I’m not looking closely enough then. Although, I don’t know what I’m not seeing that others seem to be. He’s heavy handed, sure. Most Heavyweights are. I’m not seeing what’s so special about him that isn’t there in almost any other random slugger in the division. He’s got a big right hand. What else has he shown?

Also, aside from Volkov, he’s fought nobodies. And still not looked that great most of the time. I’ve seen people say a few times now something like ‘to do what he’s done...’. What’s he done? Going the distance with Volkov in a losing effort is the most impressive thing he’s done so far. Take that away and when he’s not been getting himself DQ’d or arsing about with an inhaler, he’s plodding his way to dull decisions over the likes of Ben Sosoli and Yorgan De Castro. To flip what you said, if it was any other dude that came in and did that, we wouldn’t be talking about them as a future contender. His opposition has been no better than Khamzat Chimaev’s so far, and you’re not impressed with Chimaev yet. Why Hardy? They’ve both fought lower level guys so far. Difference being, Chimaev has handled his ‘jobbers’ the way he was supposed to. Hardy’s gone the distance with 2 of his. Imagine Steve Austin going to a competitive draw with TL Hopper when he was on the rise in 1996? Me neither. If Hardy is going to be something, he should really be looking better against some of these scrubs. 

As for his athletic background, that’s all well and good but he can’t coast on that forever. How has it translated to his MMA game? He hasn’t looked amazing cardio-wise, or particularly explosive, or like he’s picking up the grappling. What’s he got that half the fat brawlers in the division haven’t? Apart from the NFL background. 

I’ll admit he might benefit from Heavyweight being so shallow. Almost anyone can KO anyone on a given night in that division. But that’s true of any Heavyweight. 

2 hours ago, David said:

I don't want to see him eventually come undone against a nobody like Greene. Where's the payoff in that? He gets wrestle-fucked by a nobody? Hardly will eventually lose, and when he does I'd rather it was to an Ngannou or something. 

Oh if given the choice I’d love to see Ngannou decimate him properly. If it was pro wrestling that’s how you’d book it. But sod the payoff talk. I can’t bring myself to root for Hardy to keep winning just to maybe get there one day. Pulling for a cunt who you don’t like just to hopefully see someone else batter him 2 years from now? Who’s got time for that? And in a way it’ll be even funnier if he gets derailed by a nobody like Maurice Greene. 

 

Edited October 5, 2020 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

His opposition has been no better than Khamzat Chimaev’s so far, and you’re not impressed with Chimaev yet. Why Hardy? They’ve both fought lower level guys so far. Difference being, Chimaev has handled his ‘jobbers’ the way he was supposed to. 

 

[David]

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

To flip what you said, if it was any other dude that came in and did that, we wouldn’t be talking about them as a future contender. His opposition has been no better than Khamzat Chimaev’s so far, and you’re not impressed with Chimaev yet. Why Hardy? They’ve both fought lower level guys so far. Difference being, Chimaev has handled his ‘jobbers’ the way he was supposed to.

I'll just take this part and reply, as it relates to Chimaev. The big difference here is that I'm not calling for Hardy to face a top five guy based on his performances thus far. I know he's fought nobodies, but I see potential in him. It's hard not to.

For the record, I see potential in Chimaev as well. I just don't think he's done enough to warrant a top five guy, and neither has Hardy. If anyone started calling for him to be slung in there with the likes of Overeem, Lewis or Rozenstruik I'd be saying the same thing as I am about Chimaev.

Although, much as @Egg Shenclaimed about Thompson taking on Chimaev, it could be said that Hardy would be a decent name for Overeem to fight as well. He's not getting a title shot any time soon most likely, so why not? Same argument there. But I'd say neither fight makes real sense at this stage of Hardy or Chimaev's development.

Bottom line is that the dude is 6'5 and cuts down to make the heavyweight limit. He hits hard, and he's a hell of an athlete. You don't get five years in the NFL and go to a pro-bowl if you're not a special athlete.

I see potential in the guy, and I think others do as well. Israel Adesanya had this to say on him:

Quote

He's new to the game, so he makes a lot of mistakes, like the asthma thing. If he was more experienced, he would have known. But he's very talented. And one thing is he's getting better every single fight. I see it. The last guy he fought, he's not the greatest, world-class opponent like his next test is a world-class opponent, but Hardy's lead rear hand was really snappy. That was the first thing I noticed, and his foot placement I was really impressed with. So yeah, he's getting better, and I think even the fact that he picked to fight Volkov on such short notice, I'm impressed. I saw him fight a few months ago and saw this and thought he has gotten better.

Even people like Helwani and Okomoto who blatantly hate the guy have had to admit that he's got potential. "A tone of raw potential" is how they put it. 

So yeah, I don't disagree with them. He has a shit-ton of potential. But he had a lot of potential in the NFL as well and through his own shithousery he never lived up to it. He could easily do the same in the UFC.

[wandshogun09]

That’s fair enough. Although like you touch on there in the last paragraph, regardless of whether or not he’s got the physical tools I think the mental side of it could be just as big an obstacle for him. I suppose we’ll see in time but he just seems the type who will get in his own way more than anything. 

[David]

14 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

That’s fair enough. Although like you touch on there in the last paragraph, regardless of whether or not he’s got the physical tools I think the mental side of it could be just as big an obstacle for him. I suppose we’ll see in time but he just seems the type who will get in his own way more than anything. 

Oh aye, I think that he'll fuck it 100%. 

He's like Mike Tyson in that regard. The only person who'll stop him making a dent in MMA will be the person who stopped him being an NFL regular. Himself.

[David]

So, we have this up next. The retirement of another GOAT contender. I'd like to see Silva go out on a vintage performance, putting Hall away in style.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, Anderson confirmed earlier this week that it’ll be his last fight. He did throw a “probably” in there but I think this is it. I think everyone’s going to be pulling for him here. After the career he’s had the last memory of him in the cage should be him winning. MMA fans have gotten too accustomed to see him losing recently and I think that’s partly why there’s a lot of nonsense talked these days about why ‘he wasn’t as good as people make out’ and shit. A nice highlight reel KO might remind them. I doubt it but it’d be a cool moment anyway. 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

On 10/3/2020 at 1:04 PM, wandshogun09 said:

 

Adrian Yanez vs Victor Rodriguez. Don’t know either of these ham and eggers. Yanez was on Dana’s Contender Series. He’s 26 years old, 11-3 with 8 finishes. That’s all I’ve got. Anyone seen him? Rodriguez is stepping in for an injured Aaron Phillips. He’s 7-2 and coming off 4 consecutive stoppage wins. 

 

I saw Yanez on DWCS and after his fight I wrote in the DWCS thread "Yanez looked incredible. He was definitely the star of the show."

That's not much of a detailed write up but I liked what I saw of him then so I am excited to see him open the show this Saturday.

Great opening post too Wand, that write up on Sivla is incredible. A lot of great memories were brought back reading that.

[wandshogun09]

Thanks for the additional info on Yanez. The DWCS guys are a real blind spot for me. I never get around to watching it so any help on those guys is welcome. 

[Egg Shen]

I could see Anderson fighting again. I think this will be it for his UFC run but i wouldnt be at all surprised to see him one off random fights in Russia and places like that. 

[wandshogun09]

Unless I’m mistaken, I’m sure I read that he contractually owes the UFC two fights though. So even after this he won’t be free to just fight somewhere else. If he comes out of retirement, he’ll have to fulfil that last UFC fight before he can do anything. It’s why Randy Couture never fought Fedor in Bellator or somewhere when he was gone from the UFC. Think he signed something like a 6 fight deal in 2009, around the time of the Brandon Vera fight, and he only did 3 of those fights before retiring with fights still left on his deal. Sure Anderson signed some similarly long contract a few years back didn’t he? And I could swear it was said at the time ‘Anderson Silva will retire with the UFC’.

I mean, you could be right. Anderson marches to the beat of his own drum and if it is only 2 fights he owes them, I guess he could decide to just do one more after this and be free and clear to do something elsewhere. Maybe he still wants that boxing match with Roy Jones Jr or something. I hope not though. A legend like Anderson deserves to bow out on the biggest stage possible and a UFC main event, even if it is just a Fight Night, is as big as it gets for him at 45 years old. I’d hate to see him go out like Chuck Liddell in some dimly lit arena against Jones or someone else who should’ve been at home with a robe, slippers and a cuppa years ago.

Edit - Yep, just checked. Anderson signed a 10 fight contract at the end of 2012. Dana said this at the time...

”He signed a 10 fight deal. I don’t think we’ve ever done a 10 fight deal. Anderson said ‘I want a 10 fight deal, not an 8 fight deal’. He can have a 100 fight deal if he wants one.”

Must’ve been a fucking jinx. This was just after the Stephan Bonnar fight. After he signed that contract he immediately lost to Weidman and the glory days were over.

But yeah, this Uriah Hall fight is the 9th fight on the deal. 

Edited October 26, 2020 by wandshogun09