Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 24, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted November 24, 2020 (edited) OK, Saturday 5th December in Vegas. ESPN+ MAIN CARDJack Hermansson vs Marvin Vettori Ovince Saint Preux vs Jamahal Hill Gabriel Benitez vs Justin Jaynes John Allan vs Roman Dolidze Matt Wiman vs Jordan Leavitt ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Louis Smolka vs Jose Alberto Quinonez Damon Jackson vs Ilia Topuria Gian Villante vs Jake Collier  As always, expect about half of this to get cancelled. 2020, innit. Not the best card and there’s some real dross at the lower end there but I dig the main event and there’s 3 or 4 other fights I’m really liking the look of. It’s better than the Blaydes vs Beast card a week earlier and it’ll do to pass time until 256 the following week.   Jack Hermansson vs Marvin Vettori headlines now. This is the third main event that’s been made for this card so hopefully it’ll be third time lucky and there’ll be no more changes before Saturday. Won’t hold my breath or anything though. It was originally supposed to be Hermansson vs Darren Till but Till dropped out. Then it was Hermansson vs Kevin Holland right up until Holland tested positive for COVID the other day. Vettori was all set to face Jacare at UFC 256 a week after this show so the UFC have done the old switcheroo and swapped them around. Now it’s Hermansson vs Vettori and Jacare vs Holland. It’ll do. Best of a bad situation and all that bollocks. Fair play to Hermansson as well for continually saying yes to everyone they’re chucking at him. I’ve become a big fan of Hermansson over the last couple of years. I still think he’s the sleeper at 185 and he looked the business breezing through Gastelum last time. You’d think he’d be in that title shot conversation by now but not many seem to bring his name up when talking about potential contenders for Adesanya. I don’t expect him to beat Izzy but at least he’s a different type of challenge. Everyone else is a striker/wrestler type. The Joker poses a different set of problems for Adesanya to solve. He’s got to get past Vettori here first though obviously. Vettori is 15-4-1 and on a nice little run of form, coming off 3 straight wins. And he actually took Israel Adesanya to a split decision before that. I’ll have revisit that one, I can barely remember it. I’d favour Hermansson here but you never know, especially when you’re dealing with last minute changes of opponent and stuff. We live in unpredictable times. I’d like to see Hermansson win and get in that title hunt though.  Ovince Saint Preux vs Jamahal Hill is the co-main event as best I can tell. Not ideal as co-headliner but it’s a decent enough fight. OSP’s grown on me over time. He’s never been elite but he’s mixed at a high level and had his moments. I’ve always been a sucker for a fighter having a ‘finisher’. Cro Cop with the headkick, Rousey with the armbar etc. And OSP has claimed more victims via Von Flue choke than Jason Von Flue himself. To the point it’s pretty much known as the Von Preux choke now! Him headkicking Corey Anderson into oblivion didn’t upset me either. He’s 37 now but he’s still no walk in the park for most 205ers. As Alonzo Menifield found out last time. OSP proper decked him. I’ve not seen a great deal of Hill. He’s undefeated at 7-0-0-1. The one No Contest was his last fight against Klidson Abreu. Hill won by first round TKO but it got overturned after he failed the old marijuana test. Fucking barmy that that’s still a thing and fighters are getting wins taken away from them for smoking weed. I’m glad the UFC are just treating it like he won. But yeah, not sure how good Hill is. His best wins so far are Abreu (it’s still a win, I don’t care) and Darko Stosic. Decent but neither of them are amazing. This is a significant step up. Co-main against a guy who’s been in there with Jones, Teixeira, Shogun, Bader etc.  Gabriel Benitez vs Justin Jaynes. OK fight. Both coming off losses but I think this’ll be a decent little scrap. Benitez is 21-8. Lost his last couple but, to be fair, they were against Sodiq Yusuff and Omar Morales who both look worth keeping tabs on. Jaynes is 16-5 and got subbed by Gavin Tucker last time out. Before that though, he’d won 5 in a row and had just ironed out Frank Camacho in 41 seconds. Neither of these guys are future contenders or anything but it’s an alright fight. We’ve seen a ton worse.  John Allan vs Roman Dolidze. Not familiar with Allan. He fought Mike Rodriguez in the UFC in July 2019, won on points then got popped by USADA so it was overturned. Mustn’t have seen that fight because his name and face isn’t ringing any bells with me. It’s Dolidze I’m really looking forward to seeing again. He debuted in July and bashed up Khadis Ibragimov. Looks like he’s going to be fun to follow. 7-0 now with 7 finishes. ADCC grappler who’s developed a knack for sparking sods. A welcome injection of new blood at 205.  Louis Smolka vs Jose Alberto Quinonez. This was meant to go down on that RDA vs Felder card but got scrapped the day of. Probably a fight nobody is going to be too fussed about but I’ve always got time for a Smolka fight. Ever since his fantastic fight with Paddy Holohan in Dublin years ago I’ve been a fan. That was back when the majority of MMA fans were crapping all over the Flyweights and saying they were boring. Smolka vs Holohan was class. He’s had hot and cold spells since and he’ll never be in the title picture but he’s so exciting to watch. Just a little ball of energy. Quinonez is no great shakes really. 8-4 record. He’s the guy they usually sacrifice to the prospects and he’s already been fed to Sean O’Malley and Nathaniel Wood. But he’s game and always up for a scrap so I expect this to be fun while it lasts. But, even as inconsistent as Smolka can be, I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t win this.  Matt Wiman vs Jordan Leavitt. Bit of an old vs new clash here. I’m always surprised to learn that Wiman is still on the roster. It’s not like he’s ancient at 37 but it feels like he’s been around forever. He’s not looked good of late either. He’s 16-9 now, returned from a whopping 5 year layoff last year and has lost 2 fights since. Leavitt is another Contender Series guy. He caused a bit of a stir in his fight to win the contract on there in August. Not often you see a celebration like this... Seemed to make a fair few MMA fans feel a bit insecure with his post-fight Louis Spence mannerisms. He got the job done though and at 25 years old and 7-0 with 5 submissions, he could have some real potential. He should probably be beating this version of Wiman anyway.  Damon Jackson vs Ilia Topuria is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Mostly to see Topuria back in there but Jackson’s no slouch himself. Even if he does have Pennywise’s hairline. He had a stint in the UFC a few years ago that didn’t pan out for him but he’s done alright since. He’s gone 9-2 in his last 11, returned to the UFC in September, submitted Mirsad Bektic and bagged himself a POTN bonus. Not bad going. But yeah, it’s Topuria I’m more interested in. He looks like a real prospect. He’s Georgian, 23 years old, undefeated at 9-0 with 8 finishes. Mostly a grappler but mixes it up. He stepped in on really short notice for his Octagon debut in October and beat Youssef Zalal on points. He looked like a real problem, especially in the grappling and especially given his lack of prep time. Be interested to see how he looks with a full camp here.  Gian Villante vs Jake Collier is doing absolutely nothing for me. Villante is a likeable enough guy and he’s been in a couple of fun sloppy brawls over the years but he’s never been much cop really. He’s 35 now, coming off back-to-back stoppage losses and he just looks like he doesn’t care anymore. I said it before but I think the only reason he’s moved up to Heavyweight is because he can’t be arsed to train anymore. He looked about ready for a caesarean in his last fight. Collier isn’t any better really. He used to be a Middleweight earlier in his career, then moved up to 205, now he’s morphed into a fat fuck Heavyweight. If Vince Russo was booking this it’d be a Kebab on a pole match for the #EATCLEAN belt. Watch these two waddle out and have the FOTY now.  That’s your lot. Edited December 5, 2020 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 25, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted November 25, 2020 (edited) Surprised they are giving Collier another shot after that performance against Aspinall. Love that Kevin Holland finds himself in the main event though. Outside of Chimaev, Holland has been the one to benefit most from the lockdown schedule. 4 fights, 4 wins, cuts a great promo and even got his name being mentioned in the same sentence as Izzy's. If Holland wins this id have no problem with them sticking him in with Adesanya for the belt. Edited November 25, 2020 by Egg Shen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 28, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 28, 2020 Can we get a replacement for the replacement? Kevin Holland is out now. Christ. Between RDA vs Makhachev, Nunes vs Anderson, Yan vs Sterling and Blaydes vs Lewis main events are going tits up left and right lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 28, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted November 28, 2020 (edited) awww fuck off Like the idea of Vettori stepping in though Edited November 28, 2020 by Egg Shen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfogg1991 Posted November 28, 2020 Share Posted November 28, 2020 Fuck me what a couple of weeks for this company. THIS week's card is next level weak now we have had that main event drop out but this one has apsolutely nothing for me at all once again i will watch as it's part of my weekly routine but yeah not a good couple of weeks for uncle Dana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 28, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted November 28, 2020 i could have swore Bethe Correira retired? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 28, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted November 28, 2020 Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted November 29, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 29, 2020 Updated the OP with the changes and bout order for Saturday’s card. Holland is fighting Jacare at 256 now. So they’ve literally just swapped Holland and Vettori around. 22 hours ago, Egg Shen said: i could have swore Bethe Correira retired? Correia vs Wu Yanan has been pushed back to January now for some reason. I’d be fine with them keep postponing Correia’s fights until she’s 80. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 29, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted November 29, 2020 1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:  Correia vs Wu Yanan has been pushed back to January now for some reason. I’d be fine with them keep postponing Correia’s fights until she’s 80. cant disagree Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted November 30, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted November 30, 2020 Surprised to see Vettori has is the betting favorite for this. Few quid on The Joker then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted December 5, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted December 5, 2020 Might as well cancel the show at this point. Fucking hell.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted December 5, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted December 5, 2020 The UFC need to do whatever they can to get back to Abu Dhabi as soon as possible, and stay there. This Vegas carry on is like a chocolate teapot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted December 5, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted December 5, 2020 What’s left of this one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfogg1991 Posted December 6, 2020 Share Posted December 6, 2020 (edited) Well once again the ufc deliver what they can with all the covid pull outs and what a fucking show this ended up being good god the main card was fantastic!!! Jack Hermansson vs Marvin Vettori What a fucking war this ended up being!!! I thought Vettori was going to finish it in the first round with that knock down but he seemed to stutter and didn't quite know how badly hurt he was, He should have laid it on big with the ground and pound but in a way i'm glad this didn't happen because these 2 just stood and went to war with each other. Fantastic victory for Vettori meaning he is now the first Italian in the top 5 so congrats to him on this one Ovince Saint Preux vs Jamahal Hill I'm a big lover for OSP so i was quite hyped to see him back in there but Hill absolutely peppered him with combinations and power shots ending it with a knock out on the feet for Hill before OSP took anymore damage. I completely agree with the ref's stoppage on this one OSP was pretty much out on his toes. Gabriel Benitez vs Justin Jaynes That knee to the body was unreal you litterally saw the air leave Jaynes entire body and he folded up like an accordion for Gabriel to take the win in the first round. John Allan vs Roman Dolidze Yeah this was abit of a dud for me compared to the rest of the card but 1 out of 5 is nothing to moan about on a card that had me less than excited going into it so yeah. Matt Wiman vs Jordan Leavitt where the fuck do you start with this one!!! Leavitt for me for some reason is abit unlikeable with his calm cool laid back delivery in the pre-fight/post-fight promos however fucking hell that slam knock out was truly scary Wiman was out for a GOOD 7/8 minutes before he started to come round and asked what happened and where he was. Even dana said the sound was weird in the APEX tonight so when his head smashed against the canvas it made a disgusting sound that no one including Jordan Leavitt when he was watching it back post fight enjoyed or felt totally comfortable in seeing. Let's face it we watch MMA too see those brutal knock outs But this one was brutal for a entirely different reason and i'm really glad to hear he's okay and isn't badly damaged by it. So yeah i can't believe i'm saying this but i absolutely say everyone should watch this main card it really delivered in every way. Edited December 6, 2020 by Kfogg1991 I accidently hit post before i had written anything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panhead Posted December 6, 2020 Share Posted December 6, 2020 (edited) I thought Ilia Topuria looked great on the prelims. I can't remember seeing him before but I'll keep an eye out for him in the future. That slam from Jordan Leavitt was brutal!   Edited December 6, 2020 by Panhead My tablet's keyboard shat the bed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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