UFC Fight Island: Holloway vs Kattar - Jan 16 🇦🇪 🏝

[Zebra Kid Mark]

What an absolute show, it feels so good to have UFC back, it feels even better to have the crowd there, and to top it off, we just saw the performance of the year and it's only January! Wow. Max Holloway is back!

Watching live is such a novelty for me as I'm a 'record and watch on Sunday morning' kind of guy, what a show to watch live. Amazing.

[Panhead]

Absolutely sensational performance from Max. One of the best individual showings that I can recall. 

[Scott Malbranque]

Watching that next level stuff from Holloway, and the man's man of all men's men, Kattar, dead on his toes, still swinging in that fourth round made me delighted to be born. 

That's the best compliment I can pay that fight. Hair on the necker backer stander upper stuff. Be ta Jays.

[jimufctna24]

Chuffed that Holloway and Condit both won. 

[WeeAl]

Sensational stuff in that fight. Holloway looked magical and Kattar was tough as old boots. He took crazy punishment and I've no idea how he made it to the end. Realistically I think it should have been stopped early in the fourth, but all credit to Kattar for showing Herb Dean enough for him to let it go. 

The UFC couldn't have asked for a better show for a Network debut. Everything on that whole main card delivered, and if you were watching the prelims, Justin Tafa and Carlos Felipe locked horns like two Rams and had a boxing match in the centre of the cage. That seemed to set the tone for the rest of the night. 

Max looked like he leveled up last night to me. His best performance since the Ortega fight. Was he better overall last night than that fight? Maybe. I can't wait now to see him against the winner of Volk/Ortega. 

[Kfogg1991]

I experienced so many emotions during this show last night I felt genuinely drained once it was done but as a whole you saw a masterclass on how to kick off a year AND how to kick off a new working relationship with a network. 

Pretty much all of the prelims left me frustrated & Disappointed with a 4 week layoff you really want/expect everyone fighting to come out the gate and look for the finishes but as 1 fight after another after another after another continued to go to the judges that's when my heart started to sink and I convinced myself it was going to be one of "THOSE" nights but that wasn't the case and it turned out to be a truly fantastic main card as a whole.

Before I talk about any of the fights on the main card and get excited I unfortunately need to comment on 1 fight from the prelims which in my opinion will go down in history but for all the wrong reasons.......... Sarah Moras vs Vanessa Melo - Was quite possibly the worst women's fight I have ever seen. I actually felt quite bad for the guys on commentary having to try and justify & be positive about either of these fighters as they were in for the first 2 rounds making sounds like they were on a tennis court not a cage But the most confusing/infuriating part was even though they looked like they were throwing punches, From where I was sat I kept saying to my partner "None of these shots are looking like there close to landing" But I convinced myself It was just my eyesight - Until the 3rd round when the guys on commentary had tried there hardest and admitted defeat as they talked about the stats and said only 20% of the shots thrown from both fighters had actually landed. By the end of the fight I also felt bad for the judges because how the fuck do you pick a winner in a fight where no one is really landing anything? My best friend said it best after it had finished "If they were men they wouldn't have made it out of the regionals" Which I thought was such a valid point.

But enough of that stuff onto the main card!!!

We were promised the announcement regarding the outcome of the meeting with Khabbib at 3pmES/8PM our time so the world was well within their rights to believe the show would open up with uncle Dana revealing his powers of persuasion but instead we got the normal opening hype video and onto the first fight which I looked on twitter as a sea of people were commenting that they didn't care about either fighter they wanted the announcement they were promised. Which really hurt and deflated from what should have been a red-hot crowd & fans round the world raring to go for the main card.
Punahele Soriano vs Dusko Todorovic -You can't really ask for a better main card opening knock out than this........Soriano went in there did the fans around the world the biggest favour he could and picked up a great knock out finish and the first fight on the card to end within the first round/Not going to the judges.

Then we got the Khabbib announcement and in all honesty I was left feeling slightly disappointed and confused by it. Why would you make out like it was a huge decisive choice made from the man (Obviously we know why - To get more people watching the main card) I think in regards to the Conor fight next week He will have to go in there against Dustin and do something more spectacular than we can ever imagine considering Khabbib has categorically said several times now he will never ever work with Conor again and we all know how much Conor disgusts him professionally/personally so I just don't see that happening. The only thing that could come from next week could possibly be a Dustin win Possibly the winner of Hooker vs Chandler? But at the end of it It felt more like a AWWWWW sort of announcement than a AHHHHHHH.

Joaquin Buckley vs Alessio Di Chirico - Once again we saw a hype train derailed which really sucked for Buckley because after that spectacular KOTY finish he had so many eyes on him praying to follow up from it but no Di Chirico didn't get that memo and finished it with a quick nasty knock out with a head kick 2 minutes in the first.

Santiago Ponzinibbio vs Li Jingliang - Yet another fantastic knock out finish from Li but you couldn't help but feel incredibly bad for Santiago after everything he's been through But it's just one of those things in this sport unfortunately. Li came off incredibly humble with his victory and all round great guy.

Carlos Condit vs Matt Brown -This fight finally happened 8 years in the making and Condit went in there extremely confident and calm/collected. I thought Brown showed signs of being impressive in the first round but I think he got really gassed and in rounds 2/3 he stuck it out but there were times I thought it was close to being finished. I was slightly surprised by Brown's reaction when the judges decision was announced he looked genuinely shocked and disappointed but he clearly lost round 2 & 3 in anyone's eyes but obviously not his.

Then it was time for the main event and good GOD what a main event it was!!!
Max Holloway vs Calvin Kattar - I said openly yesterday afternoon I didn't believe that Max should be given a 3rd fight against Volkanovski after having 2 back to back and whatever you personally scored it he lost both of them, I still think that Volkanovski should be given a couple of fights with other top 10 ranked fighters before getting Max again.......However that being said Max went in there last night and fucking showed the world that he is legit and an elite/champion fighter. He didn't even fucking spar during his training camp for this fight yet he went in there, Both guys said they were going to stand and bang and that is what they went in there and did. Holloway last night looked like he had fucking levelled up in a huge way. I mean huge huge props to Kattar he is one tough son of a bitch 9 out of 10 fighters would have hit the deck and struggled to make it out of the 2nd/3rd round but Kattar showed the heart of a lion and refused to die. I do feel there is a argument to be made that the ref should have stopped the fight in the 4th but Herb Dean let them go at it. That 5th round though guys I mean holy shit, Holloway was talking to the commentary team not looking at Calvin and continued to throw and fucking land shots. At one point i think during the 4th round he threw a combo........Did the matrix style dodge from Calvin's return shots.....Did the fucking robot and then pushed forward and landed another 4/5 shot combo. It stopped looking like a genuine fight at one point and looked more like a game of tekken or mortal kombat it was insane!!!

I'm just finishing up watching the Dana white post fight presser and he has said Max is next to fight the winner of Volkanovski vs Ortega which even though I truly believe we should see max have 1 more then have the 3rd fight at the end of the year, After last nights masterclass from Holloway you see why he is saying you have to do that 3rd fight. Also in that post fight presser he comments on how fucking dire the prelims were so yeah it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows but all in all a fantastic main card to kick off 2021.

[wandshogun09]

As everyone else has said, what an awesome show that was. It always seems to happen when there’s been a break. It was similar with UFC 249 last year after 2 months of no shows when COVID first really kicked in over here. It’s like the fighters are that bit more amped up to get in there and make a statement just like we all are to watch it. Having some fans there probably added to it as well. 

Holloway vs Kattar was just ridiculous. It was too one sided to be FOTY for me but it’s still probably going to be brought up a lot in that conversation come the end of the year because it was such an action packed, bloody and memorable fight. Reminded me a lot of Holloway’s performance against Ortega a couple of years back. And this was fucking barmy...

In the midst of battle, looking over at the commentators and screaming “I’M THE BEST BOXER IN THE UFC!”, while throwing and dodging punches. Who the hell does that? That’s prime Roy Jones Jr shit where you have to rewind it because you can’t believe what you just saw. If Kattar would’ve caught him there it would’ve been the most embarrassing knockout loss ever.

Chuffed Holloway won. I’m a big fan of Kattar but, while nobody ever needs a loss, Holloway needed this win badly. He was already 0-2 to Volkanovski and had that loss to Poirier not long before. He was in danger of being left behind and being locked out of the title picture at Featherweight and Lightweight. He needed to pull out a special performance and he did just that. Kattar will hopefully bounce back like Ortega did. But a beating like that can change a fighter, physically and mentally,

What next for Max? After a fight like this it’s hard to deny him another crack at the gold. But as much as everyone’s understandably on his cock now, I still don’t see him doing this to Volkanovski. There’s a reason he wasn’t putting out the same kind of volume against Volko as he was against Aldo, Ortega and Kattar. Volk doesn’t get enough credit for that. I don’t know what happens. Currently, Volk vs Ortega is scheduled for March. So I guess we just wait and see how that plays out first. There’s still Zabit and Yair lurking as well, if they’re ever planning to fight again. I know he’s on about stepping in at 257 if needed but I really don’t want to see him back at 155 yet. 

Enjoyed the shite out of Condit vs Brown. Exactly the kind of fight you want to see these guys in at this stage of their careers. Glad it finally happened. Pretty much how you’d picture a fight between these two. Bloody, full of action on the feet and the ground, both aggressive and attacking from all angles. Really good fight. They both showed they’ve definitely got something left in the tank but I don’t see either coping with the top contenders of today at 170. They’re better in these type of fights.

I’ve seen a few calls on Twitter for Carlos Condit vs Nick Diaz 2. It’s a nice idea but it’s going to be easier said than done getting Diaz in the cage. And I’m not sure Diaz should be in there at all at this point. But there has been talk of Nick returning this year. If he does, a rematch with Condit would be one of the better options. 

Jingliang vs Ponzinibbio playing out how it did was a bit of a shock. But maybe it shouldn’t be given Ponzinibbio’s layoff.

Not the return to the UFC the Ponz was hoping for obviously. Shame. Like a few of us said, he was on quite a run before the injuries and time away. He was knocking on the door of title contention, was lined up to face Robbie Lawler at one point etc. It’s all gone up in smoke. I think I underrate Jingliang at times but I definitely think the Ponzinibbio of 2018 would’ve beat him. Still wouldn’t mind seeing Ponz vs Lawler rebooked now. Or maybe Ponz vs Matt Brown or something. 

Alessio Di Chirico ended the fun where Buckley is concerned. Was hoping for Buckley to go on a little streak but getting headkicked and hammerfisted into dust will derail that quick...

Poor prick didn’t know where he was after that. What was Di Chirico banging on about after the fight though? Moaning at Anik about the losers not getting interviewed? 

Soriano vs Todorovic was pretty much the perfect main card opener for the ABC debut. Two young, exciting, undefeated prospects squaring off and they had a cracking little one rounder. I like both of these but Soriano especially is quickly becoming a highlight for me. Todorovic was looking good early on but Soriano’s power was just too much and started to overwhelm him. Not sure how far he can go. He seems to rely on his power a bit too much at times but he’s going to be entertaining to watch whoever they throw him in against. 

Justin Tafa vs Carlos Felipe was a pleasant surprise. Heavyweight MMA is always a bit of a lottery. Especially outside the top boys. You almost always go in expecting a quick KO or an awful plodfest. Same here for me but instead they went out and traded leather for 15 minutes and it was a lot of fun. They’ll never be contenders but who cares? This was just two big lumps having a scrap. I liked it. Wasn’t sure about the decision though, I felt like Tafa edged it myself but whatever. 

Rest of the televised prelims were nothing to write home about. And Vanessa Melo vs Sarah Moras was terrible. If you didn’t see it though, Austin Lingo vs Jacob Kilburn down on Fight Pass was a hell of a scrap.

It was the first fight of the night, a pure curtain jerker between two guys I didn’t know. I went in with zero expectations and these two went out and had a real back and forth battle.

Tremendous show. Hell of a main event, a fun throwback fight in Condit/Brown, a couple of surprises with Ponz and Buckley getting wiped out etc. I enjoyed almost everything on this one. Roll on Wednesday. 

[Kfogg1991]

12 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

As everyone else has said, what an awesome show that was. It always seems to happen when there’s been a break. It was similar with UFC 249 last year after 2 months of no shows when COVID first really kicked in over here. It’s like the fighters are that bit more amped up to get in there and make a statement just like we all are to watch it. Having some fans there probably added to it as well. 

Holloway vs Kattar was just ridiculous. It was too one sided to be FOTY for me but it’s still probably going to be brought up a lot in that conversation come the end of the year because it was such an action packed, bloody and memorable fight. Reminded me a lot of Holloway’s performance against Ortega a couple of years back. And this was fucking barmy...

In the midst of battle, looking over at the commentators and screaming “I’M THE BEST BOXER IN THE UFC!”, while throwing and dodging punches. Who the hell does that? That’s prime Roy Jones Jr shit where you have to rewind it because you can’t believe what you just saw. If Kattar would’ve caught him there it would’ve been the most embarrassing knockout loss ever.

Chuffed Holloway won. I’m a big fan of Kattar but, while nobody ever needs a loss, Holloway needed this win badly. He was already 0-2 to Volkanovski and had that loss to Poirier not long before. He was in danger of being left behind and being locked out of the title picture at Featherweight and Lightweight. He needed to pull out a special performance and he did just that. Kattar will hopefully bounce back like Ortega did. But a beating like that can change a fighter, physically and mentally,

What next for Max? After a fight like this it’s hard to deny him another crack at the gold. But as much as everyone’s understandably on his cock now, I still don’t see him doing this to Volkanovski. There’s a reason he wasn’t putting out the same kind of volume against Volko as he was against Aldo, Ortega and Kattar. Volk doesn’t get enough credit for that. I don’t know what happens. Currently, Volk vs Ortega is scheduled for March. So I guess we just wait and see how that plays out first. There’s still Zabit and Yair lurking as well, if they’re ever planning to fight again. I know he’s on about stepping in at 257 if needed but I really don’t want to see him back at 155 yet. 

Enjoyed the shite out of Condit vs Brown. Exactly the kind of fight you want to see these guys in at this stage of their careers. Glad it finally happened. Pretty much how you’d picture a fight between these two. Bloody, full of action on the feet and the ground, both aggressive and attacking from all angles. Really good fight. They both showed they’ve definitely got something left in the tank but I don’t see either coping with the top contenders of today at 170. They’re better in these type of fights.

I’ve seen a few calls on Twitter for Carlos Condit vs Nick Diaz 2. It’s a nice idea but it’s going to be easier said than done getting Diaz in the cage. And I’m not sure Diaz should be in there at all at this point. But there has been talk of Nick returning this year. If he does, a rematch with Condit would be one of the better options. 

Jingliang vs Ponzinibbio playing out how it did was a bit of a shock. But maybe it shouldn’t be given Ponzinibbio’s layoff.

Not the return to the UFC the Ponz was hoping for obviously. Shame. Like a few of us said, he was on quite a run before the injuries and time away. He was knocking on the door of title contention, was lined up to face Robbie Lawler at one point etc. It’s all gone up in smoke. I think I underrate Jingliang at times but I definitely think the Ponzinibbio of 2018 would’ve beat him. Still wouldn’t mind seeing Ponz vs Lawler rebooked now. Or maybe Ponz vs Matt Brown or something. 

Alessio Di Chirico ended the fun where Buckley is concerned. Was hoping for Buckley to go on a little streak but getting headkicked and hammerfisted into dust will derail that quick...

Poor prick didn’t know where he was after that. What was Di Chirico banging on about after the fight though? Moaning at Anik about the losers not getting interviewed? 

Soriano vs Todorovic was pretty much the perfect main card opener for the ABC debut. Two young, exciting, undefeated prospects squaring off and they had a cracking little one rounder. I like both of these but Soriano especially is quickly becoming a highlight for me. Todorovic was looking good early on but Soriano’s power was just too much and started to overwhelm him. Not sure how far he can go. He seems to rely on his power a bit too much at times but he’s going to be entertaining to watch whoever they throw him in against. 

Justin Tafa vs Carlos Felipe was a pleasant surprise. Heavyweight MMA is always a bit of a lottery. Especially outside the top boys. You almost always go in expecting a quick KO or an awful plodfest. Same here for me but instead they went out and traded leather for 15 minutes and it was a lot of fun. They’ll never be contenders but who cares? This was just two big lumps having a scrap. I liked it. Wasn’t sure about the decision though, I felt like Tafa edged it myself but whatever. 

Rest of the televised prelims were nothing to write home about. And Vanessa Melo vs Sarah Moras was terrible. If you didn’t see it though, Austin Lingo vs Jacob Kilburn down on Fight Pass was a hell of a scrap.

It was the first fight of the night, a pure curtain jerker between two guys I didn’t know. I went in with zero expectations and these two went out and had a real back and forth battle.

Tremendous show. Hell of a main event, a fun throwback fight in Condit/Brown, a couple of surprises with Ponz and Buckley getting wiped out etc. I enjoyed almost everything on this one. Roll on Wednesday. 

I'm so glad you said it too about the Vanessa Melo vs Sarah Moras fight it really was terrible wasn't it?? 
Also on your point about Di Chirico I forgot to mention that shit in my review but apparently Dana had no clue he did that and he mentioned in the post fight presser that he walked past him in the back and said good job tonight man and he just looked at him as if to say "who the fuck are you". Dana literally said him and his team looked like they went in and lost not the team that picked up the win. What a fucking weird way to behave both inside and outside the cage but he's not going to have won any brownie points behaving like that.

[jimufctna24]

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

What next for Max? After a fight like this it’s hard to deny him another crack at the gold. But as much as everyone’s understandably on his cock now, I still don’t see him doing this to Volkanovski. There’s a reason he wasn’t putting out the same kind of volume against Volko as he was against Aldo, Ortega and Kattar. Volk doesn’t get enough credit for that. 

Exactly. 

If Volk didn't exist, Holloway would probably still rule the Featherweight division with an iron-fist. He's already beaten Ortega and Kattar, and I see no reason why he wouldn't beat Zabit convincingly, especially considering the issues Zabit has with his cardio. 

Holloway and Volkanovski are both elite level fighters who happen to share the same division. 

[Egg Shen]

Yeh Di Chirico cut his press conference short too😄 the man was making a stand. If anything it'll probably help his cause, thats the sort of thing people will remember. Hell of a performance too. That was very much set up to be a Buckley showcase.

 

[wandshogun09]

Predictably, the consensus on social media seems be that Kattar is a bum now. What do we see being next for him? The name immediately popping into my head is Korean Zombie. How good would that be? But I’m not sure Kattar should be thrown into that kind of violence in his next fight after that beating last night. He’s still got a lot of potential, it’d be a shame to see him burn out having too many wars too soon. 

[Egg Shen]

Kattar just ran into a man possessed last night. Kattar is easy a top 145lb, Max just went to a whole new level. I do hope the beating doesn't have too much of an effect on him. He doesn't seem the time to be mentally effected too badly by it but physically that may have taken something out of him.

The performance just highlights just how good Volkanovski is. Max looks unbeatable at 145 fighting anyone else except for him. Im all for a 3rd fight after the Ortega defence...and if Ortega wins Ortega/Holloway 2 is a no brainer.

Also, i dont if its ever a discussion but Max Holloway is comfortably the best MMA fighter to ever come out of Hawaii now isnt he? he's surpassed BJ Penn comfortably for me.

[wandshogun09]

6 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Also, i dont if its ever a discussion but Max Holloway is comfortably the best MMA fighter to ever come out of Hawaii now isnt he? 

Hang your head in fucking shame. 

[WeeAl]

Count me in to now absolutely wanting Ortega to beat Volkanovski, so we get Holloway Vs Ortega 2. Where Max hopefully can beat Ortega again. That's a situation where a third Holloway Vs Volkanovski fight would make all the sense in the world. 

[wandshogun09]

A snippet of Volkanovski breaking down how he beat Holloway;