UFC Vegas: Wonderboy vs Neal - Dec 19th 🇺🇸

[Carbomb]

5 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

I see Pettis leaving on a win or loss. He'll join his brother over in Bellator. 

I really hope not. There are still some great fights for him to have in the UFC. A match with Lawler or Price would be great. And if they really need to, they can feed him to Chimaev or Luque on his way out.

[wandshogun09]

Sweet, it’s another early one. 

[Egg Shen]

handy, likely to avoid the Canelo fight which is due to start around half 4.

[jimufctna24]

8 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

I see Pettis leaving on a win or loss. He'll join his brother over in Bellator. 

Apparently, a few fighters from Duke Roufus's camp are Bellator bound. 

I hope Pettis doesn't sign for them. I don't have much interest in watching him fight at this stage of his career. 

[wandshogun09]

Beautiful.

This similar KO from his UFC debut is still my favourite bit of Wonderboy striking brilliance though;

[WeeAl]

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

Sweet, it’s another early one. 

Lovely, I'll watch the prelims before bed then the main card in the morning. 

It's got the feel of another night like last week, with some of our old favourites all being paired with younger, cheaper fighters. I hope they all manage to be more Cub Swanson than Jacare Sousa though. 

I could see them cutting three of the four from last week (Jacare, JDS, Ferguson), with Swanson saving himself for now with a win, and Moicano probably being cheap enough to not be on their radar for cuts. 

Imagine though that The Wonderman, Aldo, Moraes and Pettis were all to lose tonight? They'd all probably need to ignore any incoming phone calls for the next month or two. 

[jimufctna24]

Merry Christmas @wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

[Kfogg1991]

Man the one thing I'm taking from the UFC from this year is the unfortunate fact that they have this tendency to have a fantastic show from front to back then the following week or two they have shows like this that are really hard to get through and just don't get close to the level of the week before. This show ended up being fucking decision city and the Judges really did have a full night of work on their hands as pretty much 90% of the fights ended up going to the judges decision which just ended up being so boring and meh.

I did however get the Christmas present i wanted which was to finally see that prick Greg Hardy get finished by KO however even that fight was slightly tainted in my eyes which i'll come to bellow.

Wonderboy Thompson vs Geoff Neal
Jesus Christ man Wonderboy went in there and showed the world that he was a completely different level to Geoff Neal. Neal through everything he could but just got nothing but heavy combos in return and Thompson really did look impressive in there, However man during the covid era i think we have all struggled with the commentary at times but for me this fight really did piss me off royally with the commentary. Thompson was showing his fantastic skills in there and all the commentary would do for the majority of rounds would harp on about how Neal is still dangerous and could finish it all with one punch.....Now i get you have to hype up the fighters in there so saying that once in the first round maybe yeah i get it.......But again and again when he's clearly not getting anything strong against wonderboy just came off as irritating and stupid. That being said great victory for Thompson and he is continuing on his title run going into 2021

Jose Aldo vs Marlon Vera
I know what everyone was saying going into this one that Aldo had to get a win otherwise he would be a sure cut for the UFC going into there mass clear out but i really don't think he put in a strong enough showing to put him in the safe zone. I think once again he looked like a shadow of his former self and in comparison to the fighter that was played in the pre fight video package he looked way older, way slower and shouldn't be doing it anymore in my opinion. He walks away with the Judges decision is it enough to keep him under contract, I guess we will see??

Michel Pereira vs Khaos Williams
I always do this man i LOVE Pereira, I think he's such a showman and i am one of the ones that loves his flashy/flippy stuff so i was hyped to see his name but then i was slightly worried because Khaos is a beast man and can knock you into next millennium. Once again it went to the judges and definitely the right man won but by this point i was so sick of it going to the judges i was just bummed we didn't get a decisive win from either man.

Marlon Moraes vs Rob Font
Man this was probably my fight of the night close second is the main event. I think the commentary were absolutely on the mark by saying Moraes just came off a loss and that can really effect some fighters, Marlon went in there and tried to take it to the ground but rob rode the wave and walked out with a huge knock out win quite possibly pushing him way up the rankings as a result.

Marcin Tybura vs Greg Hardy 
As i've said above and a couple of days ago in this thread i was all game too finally see ANYONE go in there and knock Hardy out. There are so many reasons i despise Greg Hardy and one of those reasons plays into Tybura's win. I think in the first round Hardy really tried to do the only thing he can do in that cage which was go forward with his power and try to get the knock out, There were a couple of times in that first round i was watching through my fingers because i thought SHIT he is going to do it again isn't he........Then the second round happened and Marcin went in there and he had pretty much taken everything Hardy could throw at him and Hardy being the total one dimensional fighter he is put all his cards flat on the table and Marcin made the smartest decision by getting the take down as Hardy pretty much has 0 ground game........This is where i got mixed feelings of total happiness someone finally knocked the prick out and fury. Tybura didn't knock him out......Hardy gave up and heard the ref say fight back or do something and just took the loss. I think it was Bisping that said all Hardy had to do was move his knee and push off to get some distance and try and stand back up but he didn't have a clue. He was gassed out and just lay there and didn't try to protect himself or fight forward. So yeah a mix of pure elation and genuine anger because once again he gets put on the main card and Pettis is put on the prelims and it really should be the other way round.

Apart from Pettis on the prelims there really isn't anything i would say go and watch as pretty much the entire undercard went to the judges. With it being the final show of the year and coming off the back of last weeks amazing PPV you really do want it to go out with a bang to put the final stamp on a truly wank year but unfortunately this show didn't do that at all but that's it now onwards and upwards to 2021!!!

[wandshogun09]

Definitely wasn’t the most exciting card we’ve had this year and there were a lot of decisions but I still mostly enjoyed it.

Wonderboy had a strong showing in the main event. I really like Neal and I think there’s better to come but last night just wasn’t his night. He’s one of those fighters who had a couple of big knockouts and everyone lost their shit on social media. There was a small but vocal hype train acting like Neal was going to wreck Wonderboy last night but he really hadn’t proven anything at the top levels yet so that talk was way premature. Not a knock on Neal at all. Like I said, I think he could still be a player at 170 down the line. But Wonderboy was just too slick, experienced and crafty for him here.

You get the feeling this is kind of a ‘one last run’ thing for Thompson now, similar to where Overeem is in his career. He hasn’t said that and he showed last night that he can still go. But he’ll be 38 in a couple of months and he’s been at it a long time now. He’s been more outspoken in the buildup to this fight as well, about big fights, titles, hype vs substance etc. Stuff he wasn’t always that loud about. Just seems like he knows the clock is ticking and it’s time to really go for broke. I’d love to see him get one last run at the gold before it’s over. Although I’d be torn on who to root for out of him and Usman. What an intriguing clash of styles that’d be though. 

Aldo vs Vera wasn’t the barnburner I’d hoped it would be. More of a methodical violent chess match. Still decent. I’m glad Aldo won. Not just because I’ve been a fan for years and not just because he badly needed this win. But Vera seems a bit of a dick at times and that elbow after the buzzer was another little example of that. Tough sod though. Some of those body shots he ate were horrible. And he ate a lot of them and kept coming. It was pretty clear that Aldo was superior in all areas though. I don’t know how to feel about Aldo’s callout of Dillashaw. It’s a big fight for both and I’m sure it’d be decent to watch. But I think Dillashaw wins that one. Aldo losing to that little PED taking, beady eyed twat isn’t high on my list of things I want to see in 2021. 

This gave me a chuckle on Twitter;

Seems Teddy’s really caught the MMA bug. He was tweeting throughout the show last night. Great to see a true old school Boxing guy open himself up to other combat sports.

Pereira vs Khaos wasn’t the highlight reel it could’ve been either. Still enjoyed it and I think that’s because they’re both always going to be so edge of the seat to watch. You never know what Pereira’s going to do next and Khaos can end a fight with one shot at any time. This was kind of a mirror of the main event though. I just felt like at times Khaos was waiting a bit too much for that perfect opportunity to strike and he ended up just watching Pereira do his thing for spells of it as the precious seconds ticked away. Say what you want about Pereira and he does have his flaws, but he’s got a knack for kind of hypnotising guys out there sometimes and it works more often than not. I liked his callout of Pettis but Pettis is on about 155 next. Actually, Ponzinibbio needs a new dance partner for that Fight Night in January. Ponzinibbio vs Pereira could be all kinds of fun. Wouldn’t mind seeing Khaos twat Mike Perry into that Bare Knuckle fed either. 

Font vs Moraes was short and exciting. Gutted for Moraes though. His UFC stint started so well but it’s really gone tits up since the loss to Cejudo. Even the win over Aldo got ignored and treated like a loss. Now he’s just got stopped twice on the bounce. Not good. Nice win for Font after a year of inactivity but I’m just really disappointed with how this went. I was hoping for Moraes to get back on track here and hopefully mixing with that Yan, Sterling, Sandhagen lot next year. Now it’s looking more likely he’ll be heading to Bellator or ONE or something. Shame.

Tybura vs Hardy was about as satisfying a fight as I’ve seen all year. In fairness to dickface, he looked pretty good early on. Probably the best he’s ever looked to date. But it all went south so rapidly and that’s kind of been my point all along. I just don’t think he’s got the mentality, the discipline or the conditioning to really excel in MMA beyond the ‘fat prelim bums’ level. As soon as he steps in with someone who doesn’t just wilt under his initial attacks, he shrinks in there. You could see that as far back as the Allen Crowder fight and Crowder is cack. Granted, Tybura was a significant step up but if Hardy was anything like the hot prospect so many make him out to be he’d have came through with a win here. Derrick Lewis and Shamil Abdurakhimov stopped Tybura. If Hardy can’t get it done at that level it doesn’t bode well for his ‘huge potential’ we’re always hearing about.

The UFC so badly want him to be good. You can hear them constantly pushing it on the commentary. But forgetting his NFL days and his supposed potential for a second, he’s 11 fights deep in his MMA career now and he still seems to have no real concept of the grappling side of things. And his cardio is still only good for one round tops. You can see gradual improvements in the striking but that’s it. And even that goes to shit once he tires at the 4 minute mark. If he didn’t have the NFL background and the controversy that some seem enamoured with, I genuinely think he’d be about as hyped as Jake Collier.

The ‘Prince Of War’ right there 😂 

Skimmed through most of the prelims at x12 and it didn’t look like I missed all that much. Only fights I made a point to watch in full were Pettis vs Morono, Santos vs Robertson and Flick vs Durden. 

Was happy to see Pettis get the W. That’s two in a row now for him in 2020. Might not seem like much but, believe it or not, this is the first time he’s won back-to-back fights since the big hot streak back in 2013/14! Bit of an iffy start here but once he got in his groove he looked pretty good. I know it was the last fight on his contract but I hope they come to terms for him to stick around a bit longer. The days of him troubling the title picture are long gone but there’s still plenty of fun fights to be had with him, and in multiple divisions. At 170, I’d love to see him face the likes of Robbie Lawler, Carlos Condit and Michel Pereira. At 155, fights with Dan Hooker and Beneil Dariush would be fun. And I’d still love to see that Jose Aldo fight somewhere down the line if possible. Although with Aldo at 135 now, that’s unlikely. 

I like Taila Santos. Really think she could be a darkhorse at Flyweight. 17-1 now, 12 finishes. Still can’t fathom how she lost to Borella in her UFC debut. Maybe it was a case of ‘Octagon jitters’ because she’s better than that and I have no doubt a rematch would go very differently. She’s got skills and she seems to be tightening up her overall MMA game and putting it all together now. I looked up her BJJ rank out of curiosity and she’s only a blue-belt. Yet here she pretty much dominated an ATT/Din Thomas trained BJJ black-belt in Gillian Robertson in a fight that was mostly contested on the ground. I don’t see her giving Shevchenko much bother so in the end it’s kind of all for nowt anyway. But I do think she’s one of the better fighters in the division. I think she could probably do with another year or so of these types of fights, she’s still only 27. But with how Shev’s been burning through challengers, I can easily see Santos being thrown into a title shot next year. The best thing for Santos would probably be if Shevchenko defends against Jessica Andrade next, then does that Superfight with Zhang Weili. That’d eat up most of Val’s 2021 and would allow Santos a bit more time to gain experience. 

Jimmy Flick had about as perfect a UFC debut as he could’ve wished for and put in a late contender for Submission Of The Year in the process. 

A first round flying triangle! As Octagon debuts go, it doesn’t get much better than that, does it? Exciting addition to an ever improving Flyweight division. I know it’s one for down the road but watching this I couldn’t help but think how good would Flick vs Brandon Royval be? One for the future that. 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

I enjoyed that show quite a bit. The main event was an absolute Wonderboy clinic and it was amazing to see him out class a tough guy for 5 rounds. I can't see Jorge Masvidal being up for another fight with him. Masvidal doesn't really gain much there and the hype for it won't be that great. I'd like to see Wonderboy fight Leon Edwards if Leon loses to Khamzat. 

I loved seeing Pettis get the win, hopefully he sticks around with the UFC and they stop putting him on the prelims. He deserves to be on the main card with his history.

Greg Hardy losing was definitely a highlight of the night, it was a lovely early Christmas present for all of us. I know it won't be the case but I'd love it if he's one of the 60 guys who get cut.

Aldo/Vera fight didn't really highlight Aldo as being back, it more highlighted Vera as not ever being there. I wonder how O'Malley feels about seeing the guy who beat him doing so badly against an ageing, slow Aldo.

What are we going to do for the next 3 weeks? Watching the UFC every Sunday morning and reading Wand's write ups mid week was my one constant of 2020!

[WeeAl]

I enjoyed that show, even if it wasn't up to the level of last week. Stephen Thompson put on a masterclass, Jose Aldo halted the slide a bit, Anthony Pettis managed to squash two wins together and Greg Hardy struggled to breathe. Gets a thumbs up in my book. 

[wandshogun09]

3 hours ago, Zebra Kid Mark said:

What are we going to do for the next 3 weeks?

4 weeks. Not that I’m counting or anything.

[Egg Shen]

On 12/19/2020 at 1:35 PM, Carbomb said:

I really hope not. There are still some great fights for him to have in the UFC. A match with Lawler or Price would be great. And if they really need to, they can feed him to Chimaev or Luque on his way out.

yep, Pettis is gone:

 

[Kfogg1991]

ahhhh man that actually sucks i thought they would just roll over his contract and keep him on board for a few more as he has just bagged himself a win but i think this puts out a real statement from the UFC that when it comes to this mass clear out, No one is safe.