UFC Fight Island: Chiesa vs Magny - Jan 20 🇦🇪 🏝

[wandshogun09]

7 hours ago, Kfogg1991 said:

Pretty much the only guys in that arena last night being put to work and really earning there pay check was the judges. 8 of 14 fights went to the judges yesterday and unfortunately 2 of those fights that didn't go to the judges were on the fight pass prelims. 

Nah, I’m the opposite on this. I thought it was a good card myself. Fights going the distance doesn’t necessarily mean bad fights. If they were all snoozers I’d agree but there were some really good fights and some excellent individual performances last night. It wasn’t on the level of the Holloway vs Kattar card on Saturday but it was far from a dull show.

As said, Michael Chiesa put on a bit of a masterclass. Really impressed by him. Magny isn’t a guy many look good against and I don’t recall anyone ever taking it to him in the grappling like Chiesa did and pretty much dominating. He’s looked good ever since he moved up to 170 but his first couple of wins were Carlos Condit in a slump and modern day Diego Sanchez. I wasn’t sure if it was more a case of out of form opposition flattering his performances. But since then he’s beat RDA and now Magny clearly. He’s looked better with each fight at Welterweight. Makes you wonder where he’d be now if he’d made the jump sooner. Not sure how much further he can go. If you beat Magny you’re going to be mixing with the very top boys next. There’s some really tough matchups ahead but I’d be very interested to see Chiesa in there with the Covingtons, Masvidals, Wonderboys etc. And I never thought I’d be saying that when he first moved up to 170.

Warlley Alves had a great night. Lazzez was being hyped up as well and was a bit of a home favourite but Alves wasn’t having it.

That can’t have been fun. Alves has shown flashes of serious potential a few times but he seems to not always show up on his game. Other nights he looks like a real player and this was one of them. Completely crushed a guy who was being talked up in some circles as the next big thing at 170. Alves calling out Nate Diaz was utterly pointless though because it’s never going to happen. Why even bother? 

Villanueva vs Moreira...

Yeah. 

Araujo vs Modafferi was about the only fight on the card I couldn’t get into. Just don’t find Modafferi enjoyable to watch. She’s got that nerdy likability but I’ve never been able to get into her fights. I quite like Araujo and I expected her to win comfortably but it’s no fun watching Modafferi get beat up and flailing about with her awkward crappy strikes. I feel like I’ve seen it 50 times now.

Matt Schnell looked good, as Panhead said. I’ve enjoyed every fight of his that I’ve seen so far. Sharp in the striking and he’s pretty slick on the ground from what I remember. Liked his post-fight interview as well. Flyweight again. Seems like 125 got really good really suddenly over the last year, doesn’t it? 

Gutted with how Akhmedov vs Breese went but it was a fun fight all the same. The result wasn’t what I wanted but it was an exciting ground battle and that whole finishing sequence was pretty sweet with Breese committing to the calf slicer and Akhmedov escaping and coming through with the arm triangle for the sub. 

The prelims were good too. There was nothing especially bad there. Nice wins and strong performances from Ricky Simon and Dalcha Lungiambula in their fights. Su Mudaerji continues to impress. 

The first four prelims were the standouts for me though. 

Francisco Figueiredo had a successful UFC debut and looked good. Wasn’t the kind of showing that’ll blow anyone away and at first glance he doesn’t quite have the venom and swagger of his more well known brother. But there were some similarities there as well and I can see there being better to come once he starts to feel at home in there.

Mike Davis vs Mason Jones rightly got FOTN. If you didn’t see it I’d recommend it. Tremendous fight. Was disappointed Jones lost but I did have Davis edging it. Jones will come again though and he’ll be popular because he goes for it. He showed no ‘Octagon jitters’ here. He came out guns blazing. He’s taken the loss well too.

I guess the $50K bonus will sweeten the pill. We say it all the time but it really is crazy how stacked Lightweight is. You look at a fight like this and these guys are way off being talked about in the title picture. There’s so much quality throughout the division it’s insane. Really looking forward to seeing both these two again.

Umar Nurmagomedov looked the dogs bollocks in his UFC debut. Morozov was tough and I think there’ll be better to come from him but he just came up against an animal here. Perfect debut really. He showed a bit of everything. He seems more of a striker than most of the Dagestan crew but he looked good everywhere here. Strong kicking game, power in his hands, good wrestling and he finished it with a choke.

I’m excited to see where he can go. He’s got big shoes to fill with the legacy his cousin Khabib left but he’s already 13-0 and he’s still 24/25. So far, so good. Yet another great addition to the Bantamweight division.

Manon Fiorot looked like she might be a bit of a problem as well. Had zero expectations going into this one as I’d never seen her or Victoria Leonardo before, or even heard of them before this fight was announced. But I loved Fiorot’s aggression here. She put a right beating on Leonardo. 

Proper set about her. Jury’s obviously out until we see her against someone we know and we can properly gauge what she’s got. But this was a good first impression. She’s in Valentina Shevchenko’s division so it probably won’t end well anyway. But at the very least it’s new blood for Val to potentially face down the line.

So yeah, not a bad show at all. There was plenty to like and feel positive about. Some fun fights, big finishes and a few exciting debuts. I’ve certainly had duller Wednesday evenings. 

[jimufctna24]

56 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

He seems more of a striker than most of the Dagestan crew but he looked good everywhere here. Strong kicking game, power in his hands, good wrestling and he finished it with a choke.

Aye, apparently both cousins' (Umar and Usman) game is more striking based than Khabib's is.

I'll be keeping an eye on both. 

Edited January 21, 2021 by jimufctna24

[Egg Shen]

yeh the talk is that Usman (who signed with Bellator) has the most potential of the bunch. DC talked about him on a recent podcast, got me excited.