UFC Vegas: Felder vs Dos Anjos - Nov 14 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Saturday 14th November. Las Vegas. The APEX. 

ESPN+ MAIN CARD
Paul Felder vs Rafael Dos Anjos 

Abdul Razak Alhassan vs Khaos Williams

Ashley Yoder vs Miranda Granger

Brendan Allen vs Sean Strickland 

Kay Hansen vs Cory McKenna

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Randa Markos vs Kanako Murata 

Tony Gravely vs Geraldo De Freitas

Alex Morono vs Rhys McKee 

Don’Tale Mayes vs Roque Martinez 

 

Certainly not the strongest Fight Night we’ve had but not the weakest either. Can’t grumble at a Makhachev vs Dos Anjos headliner. I’m hoping something will be added, even just a semi decent name to beef up the main card or something. This might well be your lot though. 

 

Paul Felder vs Rafael Dos Anjos. We all know the score here. It was meant to be RDA vs Islam Makhachev but 2020 continues to suck arse and Makhachev pulled out with just 5 days to go until fight night. This is about as good a replacement fight as we could’ve possibly hoped for on 5 days notice though. As long as Felder’s in good shape cardio-wise, it should be a fun one. Apparently he’s been training for a triathlon. Don’t know to what extent or how much training he’d done but he must be in good nick if he fancies jumping into this on this kind of notice. It’s still a 5 rounder as well according to Brett Okamoto.

I said it in another thread the other day but, for me, Dos Anjos at one point was one of the best Lightweights in MMA history. Between about 2012 and 2016, he was on fire. He’s definitely been struggling of late though. He’s lost 4 of his last 5 but, in fairness, he’s been mixing with the very top tier of Welterweights for the last couple of years. And 3 of those losses were against Usman, Covington and Edwards. He’s dropping back to 155 for this one but, I don’t know. As great as RDA was, and it’s not like he’s shot now, I just don’t see him having another big Lightweight run in him. Just feels like he’s left it that little bit too late. Theoretically, he should win this fight. With Felder’s lack of prep time and kind of having one foot in retirement recently, RDA should probably win. But as we’ve seen in the past, these late replacements often seem to have a knack for flipping the script. And Felder’s that type who’s always game. There’s also the added question on if RDA can still make 155 without draining himself too much. I’m gutted that Makhachev is out but at the same time, this is an interesting one in a totally different way. There’s no young beast on the rise involved now. But it’s probably going to be a more exciting fight style-wise than the original. 

 

Abdul Razak Alhassan vs Khaos Williams is this card’s ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** Don’t blink. Should be fireworks from bell to bell. Alhassan is 35 years old, from Ghana and has a 10-2 record. All 10 of his wins were first round knockouts. 6 of them came in less than a minute. His most notable wins were Niko Price and Sabah Homasi. And he also twatted Charlie Ward (one of McGregor’s mouth breathing lackeys) a few years back. He’s been surrounded by controversy though and was out of action for nearly 2 years after being on trial for 2 rapes. He was found not guilty eventually, returned to the cage in July and lost a decision to rising prospect Mounir Lazzez. And speaking of prospects, Khaos Williams made quite a first impression in his UFC debut back in February. He came in on short notice and battered Alex Morono in just 27 seconds. We need to see more of him obviously but it was some debut. He’s 26 years old, 10-1 with 6 finishes. This one should be explosive.

 

Ashley Yoder vs Miranda Granger is doing sod all for me. Yoder is 7-6 and coming off a couple of losses. She loses pretty much any time she faces anyone good or even decent. Granger, nicknamed ‘Danger’ (creative), is 7-1 with 6 finishes. Not a bad record at face value but she’s coming off a loss to Amanda Lemos and she beat 7 nobodies prior to that.

 

Brendan Allen vs Sean Strickland is a really solid fight that’s been added last minute. Glad they’ve managed to get Allen another fight booked quickly. He was meant to fight Ian Heinisch on the Santos vs Teixeira card last week but Heinisch tested positive for COVID and the fight got scratched on the actual day of the show. I like Allen and I think he’s got some real potential. He’s a BJJ black-belt, 15-3 and has won his last 7 in a row. He’s already stopped Kevin Holland and Tom Breese since signing with the UFC, and then in June he beat Kyle Daukaus in a fantastic fight that would’ve been a cert for FOTN on almost any other night but, unluckily for them, that was the same night as Poirier vs Hooker. He’s still only 24 as well. Strickland is 21-3. He’s a guy I’ve never really been here or there on but he’s coming off that fight where he put a beating on Jack Marshman and basically provided his own commentary in the cage while doing it. “FALL DOWN JACK! WHY WON’T YOU FALL?” I’d expect Allen to win this just because he’s already beat better fighters than Strickland, but you never know.

 

Kay Hansen vs Cory McKenna. This might be decent actually. Hansen is only 21 years old with a 7-3 record. She looked really good in her UFC debut, submitting Jinh Yu Frey with a nasty armbar and bagged herself a POTN bonus. Not bad going. McKenna is also 21. Man, these two combined aren’t even as old as Anderson Silva! She’s Welsh (cheers Ebb), nicknamed ‘The Hobbit’, and has a record of 5-1 with 3 finishes. She’s fairly green but has already fought on DWCS and the rest of her fights were all in Cage Warriors. Worth a look. New blood at Strawweight.

 

Randa Markos vs Kanako Murata. Might be alright, not massively arsed. Markos is stepping in on a week’s notice after Livia Renata Souza pulled out. I’ve liked Randa ever since her stint on TUF years ago but, although she showed real promise on the show, it hasn’t worked out for her since. She’s 10-9-1 overall now and has about a 50/50 record in the UFC. She comes into this one off back-to-back losses to Amanda Ribas and Mackenzie Dern. Another loss here might just be the nail in the coffin. Murata is a newcomer. She’s 27 years old and mostly a wrestler it seems. She won gold at the Asian Wrestling Championships in 2012. In MMA she’s 11-1 and has fought in RIZIN, Invicta and Pancrase. Most notable win so far came in 2018 and it was a Von Flue choke submission over Angela Magana. I like her already. Anyone who gives old ‘Vinegar Tits’ a hiding is good with me.

 

Tony Gravely vs Geraldo De Freitas. Don’t know, don’t really care. Gravely looks alright, to be fair. His UFC debut back in January didn’t go his way, he got subbed by Brett Johns. But before that he was on Dana’s Contender Series and was coming off 7 straight stoppage wins. He’s 19-6 overall now. De Freitas is 12-5, I know I’ve seen him fight but nothing is jogging my memory about him. He’s 1-1 so far in the UFC but hasn’t fought in well over a year.

 

Alex Morono vs Rhys McKee. Quite interested in this one. Morono is coming off a quick KO loss against Khaos Williams but before that he’d been on good form with 3 consecutive wins and the beating he put on Max Griffin was the best I’d ever seen him look and his most impressive performance yet. McKee is where the real intrigue is for me here though. Irish former BAMMA Lightweight champ now fighting at Welterweight. 10-3-1 record with all his wins being finishes. Comes across as a sound guy and seems to have some real potential with it. Of course, he got ran over by the Chimaev Express in his UFC debut in July but he took that on less than a week’s notice and Chimaev might just be the real deal. Definitely looking forward to seeing him again with some proper training. Morono should be a good barometer to show us more of what he can do but it’s certainly a more doable task for McKee than Chimaev on a few days notice.

 

Don’Tale Mayes vs Roque Martinez. Low level Heavyweight fight. Because every card must have one. To be fair, Mayes mightn’t be that bad. But he was fed to Ciryl Gane and Rodrigo Nascimento right off the bat in the UFC and they both submitted him. He’s 7-4 with 5 finishes. Martinez is 15-6-2 with 11 finishes. He got schooled and choked by Alexandr Romanov in his first Octagon appearance in September. Grappling seems to be the weakness for both men, along with cake for Fatty Martinez. I’m expecting more of a sloppy brawl here which should be more suited to both their styles. You never know with these Heavyweight Ham & Egger battles. Could be wildly entertaining, completely embarrassing or a bit of both.

 

So yeah, bit of a one match show. There are a few fighters I like on this but not really in matchups I like. Unless they’re adding something else last minute this looks to be it. Not the best but there’s a few bits and bobs there that I like and the main event is quality. 

 

Edited November 14, 2020 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

hearing DC say that Khabib and AKA are now putting their full efforts in helping Makachev become the UFC Lightweight Champion got me excited to see him fight again.

Oh, and wand. Cory McKenna is Welsh 😉

[wandshogun09]

Thanks Ebb, edited it. Sherdog has her down as born in Colchester so I went by that. 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

1 hour ago, Egg Shen said:

Oh, and wand. Cory McKenna is Welsh 😉

What he said!

She looked ok in her fight on DWCS, she went the distance and got the contract but I think had she have been 30, male and American, I don't think she would have got the contract. I think Dana warmed to her because she's so young and is the first Welsh female fighter in the UFC. That's hardly a market Dana cares about but she definitely stood out. 

She also trains a little bit at Team Alpha Male, I think she bounces between her home gym in Wales and training with Faber.

Jeff Molina was awesome in his DWCS fight, he had an awesome scrap that went the distance. He definitely earned the contract.

It's a bit of a weak card overall, there's definitely going to be some good fights in there but I think it's weird that McKee got steam rolled in his debut on the prelims but is now fighting his next fight on the main card. I know you said this isn't the final bout order so maybe that will get dropped to the prelims in place of a more famous fighter like Eric Anders.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, don’t take any notice of the main card/prelims split on this one. I just chucked it on there how it was listed somewhere else. No doubt it’ll change a bunch of times yet, order wise and when the inevitable round of pullouts kicks off. I’ll edit it when the bout order is confirmed.

Anders only just got slotted onto this card as well. Arroyo was originally booked against Andreas Michailidis. So that fight might well end up higher yet. 

[wandshogun09]

On 10/29/2020 at 11:34 PM, Zebra Kid Mark said:

Jeff Molina was awesome in his DWCS fight, he had an awesome scrap that went the distance. He definitely earned the contract.

The Jeff Molina vs Zarrukh Adashev fight has been pushed back to January now.

 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

Damn, that's a shame. Although it's a refreshing change to see a fight pushed back in this age rather than see a fight fall apart altogher.

[wandshogun09]

Livia Renata Souza out now. Randa Markos has stepped in against Kanako Murata according to MMA Junkie.

Edit...Now Bryan Barberena is out 😡

 

Edited November 7, 2020 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

That's a huge loss for a very weak card. 

RDA is calling out Michael Chandler and I think that would be an awesome (dare I say better) replacement but I'd much rather see Chandler come in with a full camp behind him. He likely took a few break  after the Khabib/Gaetjhe card.

[WeeAl]

It's in Vegas then, any 155's likely to be near by? Paul Felder in town to commentate or anything? 

[Egg Shen]

ohhh thats a big hit

[Zebra Kid Mark]

6 hours ago, Zebra Kid Mark said:

RDA is calling out Michael Chandler and I think that would be an awesome (dare I say better) replacement but I'd much rather see Chandler come in with a full camp behind him. He likely took a few break  after the Khabib/Gaetjhe card.

Sorry to quote myself but Chandler has said on Instagram that he won't be taking the RDA fight. When asked why in his comments he says "we have other plans."

 

Paul Felder would be a good option but he doesn't strike me as a guy who would jump in with no preparation. My prediction is whoever does jump in won't be in the top 10 and at a stretch I can see them not being ranked in the lightweight top 15. I'd love to be wrong.

Islam is ranked 12 and RDA isn't even ranked at Lightweight right now.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, fans always go mad with the replacement suggestions and rumours but people need to understand this is 5 days away. It’s easy to say ‘ah can’t they just plug Chandler or Felder or Oliveira in?’ But these guys do have lives and families and things going on as well. And there’s the issue of weight. It’s all well and good people going ‘well so and so stepped in on 3 days notice before’ or whatever but everyone’s situation is different. The names being suggested might be way off 155 right now. Don’t get me wrong, if one of them is close enough in weight, have been in the gym anyway and fancies the job, they’ll probably see it as a sweet opportunity to jump right into a headline position against a name and former champ. But you’re not going to get too many top Lightweights just dive in on 5 days notice, with no camp and weight to cut.

I don’t blame a guy like Chandler not being all that into it. He’s seemingly coming in with the UFC already behind him. They had him slated as the backup for Khabib vs Gaethje for fuck’s sake. He was one positive COVID test away from challenging for the UFC belt in his first fight in the promotion. They obviously see something in him or they’ve made him promises as part of his negotiation that he’s coming in straight into a title eliminator or title shot right off the bat. With Khabib retiring I think Chandler could well be fighting for the vacant title next. He’d be mad to risk all that for a cold fight on less than a week’s notice against RDA. To save a card that no-one will watch apart from us nerds who watch everything. 

Like Zebra says, it’ll probably be someone lower down the rankings who’s already in shape at this point. Which 155ers have fought recently who didn’t take a ton of damage? Those are the guys that’ll be most likely. Someone like Alexander Hernandez maybe. A young guy looking for a breakout opportunity. He just fought so he’s probably not far off the weight, and he absolutely smashed Chris Gruetzemacher in about 2 minutes and barely got hit.

Fucking gutted about this though. Been looking forward to Makhachev vs Dos Anjos since it was originally booked for UFC 254. Then it gets moved here as a 5 rounder which was even better. Now it’s off. Worst timing ever for Makhachev as well. This was such a great opportunity for him to make a statement and kind of step out of Khabib’s shadow. 

[Kfogg1991]

What an absolutely killer blow to what was already a very hit and miss fight night card already. 
As it's been said above with just 5 day's notice we will be very lucky if we get anyone stepping in that is a decent name or up in the rankings. 

what a fucking shocking string of luck the UFC have had this year with fights falling apart & fighters pulling out/unable to fight super last minute