UFC Vegas: Overeem vs Volkov - Feb 6 🇺🇸

[WeeAl]

Are we late enough in the week that we're allowed to get excited about this one yet? I just checked there and don't think the weigh in has happened yet. As it stands, it's a belter of a lineup for a fight night

[wandshogun09]

Just rewatched the first Ferreira vs Dariush fight. Had no memory of it and they’re two of my favourites so thought it was due a revisit.

It went down in October 2014 and opened up the PPV main card of UFC 179 in Rio. That same night, Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes tore the house down with their FOTY contender rematch in the main event. So it’s hardly surprising that this fight got forgotten. Ferreira was coming in undefeated at 11-0 with bonus winning finishes over Ramsey Nijem and Colton Smith in his first two trips to the Octagon. Dariush was 8-1 with submissions over Rocco Martin and Charlie Brenneman. His lone defeat was a TKO loss to Ramsey Nijem in April 2014. So between Ferreira being unbeaten and Dariush having a loss to a guy Ferreira had already put away, Ferreira was coming into this one as the favourite. But Ferreira was taking the fight on short notice after Dariush’s original opponent Alan Patrick pulled out with an injury. So on paper that kind of evened everything out. Both BJJ black-belts and decorated grapplers but they’d both also shown that they didn’t shy away when the punches started flying either. 

Carlos Diego Ferreira vs Beneil Dariush 

UFC 179: Aldo vs Mendes 2

October 25th 2014

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Commentators for this are Mike Goldberg and Brian Stann. Sod off Goldy. Although at least I’m being spared Joe Rogan. I remember liking Stann on colour. 

Round 1: Kind of a cautious first minute or so, both guys testing the waters. Some nice kicks from Dariush, to the body and legs. Clinch battle now as the Brazilian crowd chants something, presumably in support of their boy Ferreira. I might be in the minority here but I haven’t really been arsed that we haven’t had the crowds this past year. Hearing the rabid crowd in Brazil here though, I do kind of miss it. Ferreira goes on the attack but doesn’t really connect clean and Dariush hits a sweet takedown. OK, now we’re talking. These two on the ground has serious barnburner potential. And sure enough, Dariush fucks around too long and finds out how risky a game that is with Ferreira...

But it’s the end of the round and Dariush is strong enough of a grappler that he doesn’t panic and knows what to do to survive until the buzzer. Dariush 10-9. Despite the late scare, Dariush controlled the round. It was mostly on the feet and he definitely got the better of it there overall.

I love Rafael Cordeiro’s calm instructions in the Dariush corner. Chute Boxe! 

Round 2: Dariush coming right out and forcing the grappling now. He goes for a takedown and uses it to take the back from the standing position and land knees. Ferreira fires up but is met with knees from the Thai clinch.

That training with Cordeiro paying off for Dariush. Couldn’t tell whether the knee dropped Ferreira there or if it was a balance thing. The commentators no-sold it and the crowd never reacted at all so I’m assuming it was a slip. Ferreira keeps switching stance and it’s not really working for him. Don’t really know what he’s going for but he keeps persisting with it and Dariush isn’t fazed and keeps chipping away at him. 

A takedown battle ends with the Iranian on top. He’s not doing much damage but he is controlling the position. Ferreira threatening with subs but having no luck. And Dariush ends the round on top. Dariush 10-9. Ferreira needs a finish by my scoring.

Round 3: Bit more urgency from Ferreira now, and he needs it. He counters off a Dariush leg kick and unleashes a flurry...

But Dariush weathers it. Love this guy. He’s just so laid back under pressure. Ferreira’s punches were flailing and sloppy but he has some power in his hands and Dariush is just nonchalantly trying to grab a sneaky clinch and blocking with his arms in the midst of it.

Beautiful! They roll straight through and Dariush gets a takedown. After all that graft from Ferreira, he’s back on his arse. Demoralising. It was one of those takedowns where you see the sigh and the look of frustration written all over the guys face. That flurry might well have been the Brazilian’s last stand. He looks cream crackered. You can see he’s not quitting mentally, he’s still trying to elevate Dariush or sweep to make something happen but it seems like the conditioning just isn’t there at this point and Dariush is smartly making him carry his weight. They clinch against the fence and Dariush lands some knees, drags him about and grinds out the remainder of the round. Another 10-9. So I’ve got Dariush 30-27. 

Winner - Beneil Dariush by unanimous decision. 

30-27s across the board. Can’t disagree with that. Ferreira just never really got going. He took the fight on short notice and it showed. He had some moments and his leg lock attempt at the end of the first and his burst of aggression at the start of the third probably would’ve been enough to get a lesser opponent out of there. But it just seemed like he didn’t have the engine to deal with someone like Dariush with a limited training camp. And where his slick ground game would’ve usually pulled him through for the W, Dariush was skilled enough in that area to deal with it.

Decent fight, not amazing or anything but I enjoyed it. It’s worth a little watch if you get chance before tomorrow night. I think there’s better to come in this rematch though. For one, they’ve both had a full camp this time. This fight got announced in November. On top of that, they’re both better, more seasoned fighters than they were in 2014 and they’re both on top form. Ferreira is on a 6 fight streak and coming off a submission win over Anthony Pettis. And Dariush is on a 5 fight streak and back-to-back highlight reel knockouts. There’s never been a better time for these two to run it back. And for all that everyone’s on about Poirier, McGregor, Chandler, Oliveira and that lot, these two might be the darkhorses of the Lightweight division. Not saying they’ll ever be champ or anything but 155 is wide open now Khabib’s retired. I’d at least like to see either of these guys mix it up with Oliveira or Ferguson or Makhachev. The possibilities are endless. 

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by wandshogun09

[jimufctna24]

2 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Aldo vs Mendes 2

What a fight that was. 

[Egg Shen]

excellent stuff as always wand. Ive gone Ferreira on my betslip, im not confident.

[wandshogun09]

UK start times and bout order. 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

I'm very hyped for this card, Frankie vs Corey is probably the most solid co main event on a fight night card in a while, the fight could easily headline any other fight night card. It's a shame it's not a 5 rounder.

 

 

 

[Panhead]

Cracking card. The Edgar/Sandhagen winner has got a good shout for a title shot. 

Any word on Dillashaw's return bout? 

[Egg Shen]

Dillashaw keeps getting mentioned but nothing concret. Im hoping they do they Aldo fight. 

[Kfogg1991]

Fuck me only 1 week without a UFC show and it feels like a month but Jesus I really fucking enjoyed this main card man.

Alistair Overeem vs Alexander Volkov
I have so much respect for Overeem but I was always going with Volkov for this one, Volkov has the power, His timing is so crisp and he has a calm patience about him that not many other fighters have. Really happy for Alexander here he fucking mashed Overeem up man, It is a shame but Alistair just couldn't get out the gates his face looked mangled and you could tell late in the first round and early in the second he got clipped with a couple of big shots and his eyes started to go cloudy and had the look on his face where I believe he knew he was getting knocked out, It was just a matter of when. Great KO for Volkov he now moves up to number #5 ranked it will be really interesting too see what's next for him. I think he could quite easily have a fast turn around if he wanted to and if they were to offer him something decent to do that because he barely took any damage at all.

Cory Sandhagen vs Frankie Edgar
FUCK ME!!!!! I don't know anyone that is a true MMA fan that doesn't love and respect Frankie Edgar so it is never ever nice too see someone like him suffer a brutal knock out but holy fuck the sandman landed a stunning flying knee and Edgar was out on his feet man you could tell by the way he landed on the mat. Sandhagen surely has to be in line for the winner of the Yan vs Sterling fight next month after that unreal win tonight. 

Michael Johnson vs Clay Guida
Fuck Clay is a fun fighter to watch even now and he's been in the UFC for donkeys years. He just has the energy in there of a hyper kid full of E numbers, He just dosen't stop moving. Really fun fight spot on with the judges decision Clay absolutely won this one hands down.

Mike Rodriguez vs Danilo Marques
What a fun opening fight man Marques pulled out a really impressive submission win, I didn't think he properly had it in but then you saw Rodriguez eyes roll to the back of his head and he was done. 

Really really fucking good main card man The 4 fights I've mentioned above were extremely fun with some big big finishes for good measure, The UFC have this habit at the moment of having a few back to back shows that are mainly judges decision wins and abit of a slug to get through but then a smaller less talked about fight night card comes along and puts on a really exciting and fun night that really makes you love the sport even more. 

[Panhead]

I don't even know what to day about Sandhagen destroying Edgar. Good grief. 

[wandshogun09]

Absolutely fuck last night. Overeem’s ‘last run’ hits a brick wall and then this...

[jimufctna24]

Yeah, mostly a shit night in terms of results. 

I only watched the Overeem/Kape/Edgar fights.

I hear that Dariush and Ferreira was a bit of a banger. 

[neil]

Sandhagen's knee was hit with pin point accuracy, using his knee like a jab. Unreal. Overeem looked iffy from the start, seemed totally outclassed by Volkov. Will the 'Reem hang it up now?

[wandshogun09]

On 2/7/2021 at 1:52 PM, jimufctna24 said:

I hear that Dariush and Ferreira was a bit of a banger. 

Yeah, it was a really good fight. Similar to their first fight in a lot of ways with Dariush just proving a bit too much overall. But it was a better version of their first fight for me. I picked Ferreira, even after rewatching him lose their first fight the other day, and I felt foolish watching the rematch unfold in much the same way. It was a lot of fun though. Rightly got FOTN. It’s a shame it’s 2-0 though. I’d have loved to have seen them go 1-1 and do the trilogy decider over 5 rounds down the line. 

Dariush had some shit to get off his chest post-fight;

You never usually see him talk up like that but I can understand why he’s frustrated. He kind of backed off a little bit on the criticism later on when talking to the media. Seemed like he felt bad for kind of having a pop at Sean Shelby’s matchmaking. He said his frustration is more with the top guys seeing him as ‘high risk, low reward’ meaning his progression at 155 has kind of stalled. It’s a weird one because I can also see why the top boys would think like that. Fighting a tough guy like Dariush (or Ferreira for that matter) is kind of a double edged sword. It’s the same thing Charles Oliveira had until he finally bagged that Ferguson fight. I hope Dariush gets a top ranked fighter next. He’s earned it. But I’m struggling to think which one of them will take it at this point. They’ve all got bigger fish to fry at the minute. Still pisses me off that we were meant to get Dariush vs Oliveira a few months back and it fell apart. That would’ve been some fight. 

I enjoyed this card quite a bit up until the last two fights. Not that they were bad fights or anything. The Sandhagen KO was beautifully done. That deserves to be remembered at the end of the year when the talk of best knockouts comes up. But seeing Edgar and Reem both lose like that just left me cold. Not as cold as poor Frankie was though.

Volkov vs Overeem was deflating. Probably the best Volkov’s looked overall for me but, like Neil said, Reem looked a bit off from very early in the fight and just never got past that. Even when he tried to initiate the grappling in the second round he just didn’t look confident and Volkov was making him pay every time he got close. I’ve never seen Volkov look so effective, to be fair. Once he had Reem hurt and Reem kind of turned away for a second, you knew the writing was on the wall. Reminded me a bit of when Kharitonov stopped Reem. 

Overeem didn’t announce his retirement but I think that might be coming this week. He made a lot of this being his last run and after a loss like this I can’t see him wanting to go back to the drawing board and try again. Even if he’d won this fight he’d have had to wait for this Miocic-Ngannou-Jones thing to play out so he’d have had to fight again before getting a title shot. Now he’s even further back, obviously. Can see Volkov fighting the winner of Rozenstruik vs Gane on one of the summer cards.

Cory Sandhagen has to be the nailed on #1 contender at Bantamweight after that, doesn’t he? Talk about bouncing back. It was only June that we saw Sterling piss through Sandhagen. Since then he’s stopped Marlon Moraes and kneed Frankie Edgar into a state of rigamortis. The Bantamweight title picture has never been more straight forward. Winner of Yan vs Sterling to face Sandhagen. Perfect. In the meantime you can do a returning Dillashaw vs Aldo or whatever. And if Cruz beats Kenney at 259 next month that’s another name to play with. And we’ve got Munhoz vs Rivera 2 this Saturday throwing another guy into the mix. 135 is really cooking. 

Guida vs Johnson was a pretty good fight between two guys at the same stage in their careers. Was pleasantly surprised, to be honest. As competitive as they both looked here though, I think it’s mostly because they’re both at the same point in their careers. You wouldn’t fancy either of these two against any of the Top 10-15 at Lightweight currently. This fight on its own was enjoyable enough but who do you match them with going forward? There aren’t many fighters from their ‘era’ or who are on that ‘last legs but can still go a bit’ level left. I don’t really want to see Guida vs Sanchez 2 for example. Leave the memory of that classic alone. Neither of them are that guy anymore. 

Pantoja vs Kape was a bit flat. Nothing wrong with it technically but it just never really got out of second gear. Shame. I was really looking forward to Kape’s debut but Pantoja is one of the best and trickiest fighters in the division so it was never going to be a cakewalk, especially for a guy making his debut. And Kape just didn’t do enough the first two rounds. Too much flash and showboating, not enough substance. I just think he couldn’t work Pantoja out and by the time he started getting a read on him, Pantoja had pulled too far ahead. I had Kape taking the third round but by then he was already 0-2 down and needed a finish. Still a lot of fun to be had with Kape. Like I said, this was a tough debut and Kape had also been inactive for over a year before this. I’d love to see him matched up with a Kai Kara-France or Brandon Royval next. Pantoja is a bit of a darkhorse at Flyweight. 

Was happy to see Devonte Smith get back to winning ways. I still think he has a lot of potential.

Molly McCann leaving her gloves on the mat after her loss lead to speculation that she was retiring but she’s shot that down on Twitter since. She did it as a little tribute to her late dad because it would’ve been his birthday.

A very solid show but between Reem losing, Edgar getting wiped the fuck out and Kape’s debut flopping it’s not going down as one of my favourite cards in recent memory. 

[WeeAl]

😪 That's the appropriate emoji for Saturday nights card. Poor 'Reem and Frankie. They just got done in. Overeem didn't look at the races. I expected him to mix in a lot more grappling than he did, but he looked very gun shy. Not sure whether that was as a result of what Volkov was showing him right from the off, or something going on with himself, or a combination of both. That's the prospect of 'Reem Vs Jones, and rematches with Stipe and Francis, and the 'One Last Run' in the bin now. Thanks for the memories big man, you've earnt putting those slippers on permanently.

I thought Frankie Edgar was dead. He went stiff as a board immediately. What a picture perfect KO that was by Sandhagen. He was right by what he said afterwards, he clearly used the loss to Sterling as motivation to improve. Still not sure he'll get a title shot off the back of it though. It depends what TJ Dillashaw and Lego head are planning I guess. If it's Yan as champion I would go straight to Corey. If it's Sterling then I can see why they might pivot elsewhere and ask Sandhagen to win one more. 

I was disappointed that Guida asked for an up and comer. This match making against Johnson is exactly the type of fight I want to see him in, especially with a new four fight deal. Win three in a row against other old guys and then you'll have proved you're better than the legends division. As it stands, I'd much rather watch him fight Cerrone, Miller, Maia, Sanchez, Lawler, Condit, Trinaldo, Matt Brown, Joe Lauzon etc. There's no benefit to watching these guys go on five fight losing skids. Like this show, pair two of them up against each other, up or down a weight class, and let one of them get well with a win. Both men looked good here, and it was a fun fight. The right man won though. 

Disappointed that Kape didn't get the win, but again, good decision by the judges. A tough introduction into the UFC for the former Rizin kingpin. 

Dariush and Ferreira had a great fight as well, really enjoyable stuff from both men. I wouldn't mind Dariush Vs RDA, to be quite honest with you. I think that would be a lovely fight to make. 

When they showed the rankings on the show it struck me how many of the lightweights are MIA. Real estate Al, Shite ink Kevin Lee, Gregor the Trout, Islam Makachev, to name a few. Hopefully we get to see all of them back in there again soon.