UFC 259: Blachowicz vs Adesanya - Mar 6 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

I know this is a bit of a way off but sod it. We should get talking about this. Saturday 6th March in Las Vegas, we’ve got the first truly stacked card of the year. The UFC is back on PPV with a triple header of title fights.

PPV MAIN CARD
Jan Blachowicz vs Israel Adesanya - Light Heavyweight Title

Amanda Nunes vs Megan Anderson - Featherweight Title

Petr Yan vs Aljamain Sterling - Bantamweight Title

Islam Makhachev vs Drew Dober

Thiago Santos vs Aleksandar Rakic 

ESPN PRELIMS 
Dominick Cruz vs Casey Kenney

Song Yadong vs Kyler Phillips

Joseph Benavidez vs Askar Askarov

Rogerio Bontorin vs Kai Kara-France 

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Tim Elliott vs Jordan Espinosa 

Carlos Ulberg vs Kennedy Nzechukwu

Sean Brady vs Jake Matthews

Livia Renata Souza vs Amanda Lemos

Uros Medic vs Aalon Cruz

Trevin Jones vs Mario Bautista

 

Look at THAT lot! This isn’t the confirmed bout order. We’re still nearly 2 months away so no doubt there’ll be a shitload of pullouts and changes and shuffling the order up between now and then. Hopefully most of this stays intact. I know that’s asking too much these days but as long as 5 or 6 of the fights I’m really into stay together, I’ll be happy. Try to be positive. But not COVID positive.

 

 

Jan Blachowicz vs Israel Adesanya. Here we go then. Champion vs Champion. I said at the time this was announced that I’m a little bit lukewarm on this. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike the matchup at all. It’s a good one. But I’m not feeling it as the big ‘Superfight’ it’s going to be pushed and promoted as. Yeah, it’s the Light Heavyweight champ vs the Middleweight champ. It’s cool. But Blachowicz has literally just won the strap and it was vacant. He didn’t beat the champ for it and hasn’t defended it yet. It’s not like it’s two champions who have been dominating their respective divisions like say, Anderson Silva vs Georges St Pierre would’ve been in 2009. Now that would’ve been a ‘Superfight’. Or even if this was Jones vs Adesanya. Massive. Plus that one has the bad blood built in. I don’t know. I just think I’d have preferred seeing Blachowicz defend against Glover Teixeira and Adesanya against Whittaker again or something. I don’t mean to be negative though, and now this fight is on I’m well up for it.

Blachowicz won the title at UFC 253 in September, knocking out Dominick Reyes...

Polish Power! 🇵🇱 

It was a really impressive performance and one that wasn’t particularly expected going in. He’s always been a good fighter but I don’t think anyone ever had him pegged as a future champ. Mostly because Jones had a stranglehold on the 205 belt but, even still, he just wasn’t a guy anyone talked about as a threat to the gold. He’s been on form for a while though, winning 8 of his last 9.

Later that same night at UFC 253, Israel Adesanya schooled and finished Paulo Costa in two rounds to successfully defend his Middleweight belt...

This improved his MMA record to a perfect 20-0 with 15 knockouts. His rise has been incredible to watch. He’s only been in the UFC since 2018 but in that time he’s really established himself as one of the top fighters and biggest names in the game. Wins over Yoel Romero, Robert Whittaker, Anderson Silva, that crazy war with Kelvin Gastelum, Derek Brunson, Marvin Vettori. He’s squeezed a lot into a short time when you think about it.

Get this promo down you;

This fight is interesting for a few reasons. Everyone seems to be writing Blachowicz off but it remains to be seen how Adesanya looks at 205. He’s fought as high as 220lbs in the past in Kickboxing but MMA is a different kettle of fish, especially when you factor in the grappling side of things where size becomes even more of a game changer. Jan’s shown he’s got real power against big, legit, true Light Heavyweights. So I wouldn’t just assume Adesanya waltzes up from 185 and walks through him. He’s technically the much better fighter but, like we hear all the time, there are weight classes for a reason. We’ll see. It’s an intriguing one and if Adesanya wins it’ll be interesting to see where this leads. Does he stay at 205 and vacate the 185 belt? Does he try to bounce between the divisions and defend both? And the big question, does it lure Jones back to 205 for the big grudge match?

 

Amanda Nunes vs Megan Anderson. OK then. This was meant to happen at UFC 256 in December but Nunes pulled out with an injury and the fight got postponed. Good of her to allow Anderson to have a pain free Christmas, I suppose. What else can you say about Nunes? I know the women’s side of MMA doesn’t have the history or depth the men’s does but at this point I think it’s pretty much universally accepted that Nunes is the GOAT, right?

20-4, 16 finishes. She’s the Featherweight champ and Bantamweight champ concurrently and has been since 2018. A ‘champ champ’ who actually defends both belts. Imagine that! Knocked out Cyborg, savaged Ronda Rousey and ran her out of the sport, beat Valentina Shevchenko twice, only woman to knock out Holly Holm in MMA, submitted Miesha Tate, beat Germaine De Randamie twice. You can always point to the one sided wins against overmatched opponents like Felicia Spencer and Raquel Pennington if you’re really weird and have a need to try to discredit her. But she’s beat everyone put in front of her for years now. Most of the time in brutal fashion and against the best fighters available to her. There’s been a bit of talk that she might retire because there’s nothing left to do but she seems happy to keep going. And 2020 was a big year for her.

Nunes and her partner Nina Ansaroff welcomed their daughter into the world in September. She’s already got the Nunes mean mug down to perfection. This could’ve gone either way. I thought maybe Nunes might just jack MMA in now to do the mum thing. Or on the other hand, maybe it just renews and strengthens her focus and motivation now there’s a little one to support. I definitely wouldn’t want to face the wrath of Amanda Nunes after the baby’s had her up 4 nights on the trot. Yeah, Megan Anderson is fucked, isn’t she?

Yep. I feel a bit bad for Anderson here. She seems nice enough and she’s not a terrible fighter or anything. But unless Nunes has dropped off massively for some reason or she’s gone soft from all the kids telly and the constant smell of rusks and baby shite, I just don’t see what Anderson can do with her. She’s got some fairly dangerous striking and her lanky frame makes that even more effective. Even Holly Holm turned into a wrestler against Anderson in their fight. But that’s it. She’s got the old puncher’s chance and nowt else. I see Nunes going the grappling route here like she did against De Randamie in their second fight. She could probably stop Megan on the feet but why even bother risking it when she has such an advantage on the ground? Nunes isn’t a meathead bomber, she’s shown before that she’s smart enough to recognise when to take the path of least resistance. I see her taking Megan down, lots of ground and pound, lots of blood, lots of pain, then either a TKO or submission in the middle rounds and poor Megan leaving with a face like a regurgitated lasagne.

 

Petr Yan vs Aljamain Sterling. What a fight this is. Like Nunes vs Anderson, it was supposed to go down at UFC 256 in December but Yan had visa issues and couldn’t travel. It’s back on now and I’m all about it. Absolutely love this fight. These are the kind of fights we want to see in the Bantamweight title picture. And now Lego bollocks is out the way we can. It’s become such a strong weight class over the last couple of years but for too long it got held up and fucked about by Cejudo winning the belt and leaving it on ice. With him gone, the division was finally able to crack on and Yan claimed the crown in July, stopping Jose Aldo in a great fight to become the new undisputed champion.

Big fan of Yan. Ever since his UFC debut I’ve had a good feeling about him but I was never sure he’d go as far as winning the title. He’s really gone from strength to strength though. He’s 15-1 now, the only loss being a split decision to Magomed Magomedov in 2016. Since then he’s won 10 in a row, including avenging that loss to Magomedov and beating John Dodson, Jimmie Rivera, Urijah Faber and Jose Aldo in the Octagon.

Sterling has taken a bit of a long, bumpy road to get here. He’s a Serra-Longo guy and I remember first hearing about him an interview where Matt Serra shouted him out as someone from the gym to watch out for. That was probably about 2013. Not too long after that, he was making his UFC debut and the rest is history. I remember him being pretty much just a grappler in his early fights but over the years he’s really improved a lot and become a well rounded fighter. He’s had his setbacks along the way, the Marlon Moraes KO was devastating. But he kept plugging away and now he’s 19-3, on a 5 fight win streak and just pissed through Cory Sandhagen in 90 seconds in his last fight. Amazingly, there were still doubts he’d get the next title shot, even after that, because Moraes was still in the mix. But Sandhagen beating Moraes in October took him out of the race and cleared the way for Aljo to get his shot. Thankfully, common sense prevailed and the fight was made official. 

This is such a brilliant fight. Two young fighters in their prime, both on top form and coming off winning streaks, facing off for all the gold. I’d favour Yan myself but if Sterling can turn it into more of a MMA/grappling type fight then he might be able to give him some issues. We really haven’t seen Yan in that kind of fight yet so who knows? I think it’ll mostly play out on the feet though. And in that kind of fight I think Yan the Man gets to him at some point over the 25 minutes.

 

Islam Makhachev vs Drew Dober. This could be a really good fight but, I don’t know, feels like a step back for Makhachev. Not that Dober is a bad fighter, he’s not. But considering Makhachev was originally scheduled to headline against Dos Anjos in November, this feels like his progress is kind of stalling again. I like the matchup regardless. Makhachev’s been threatening to become a top contender for some time now but, for whatever reason, he’s been stuck in that ‘Lightweight dark horse’ spot for what seems like forever. He’s a Sambo gold medalist, 18-1 in MMA and he’s beat Davi Ramos and Arman Tsarukyan in his last couple of fights. The Tsarukyan fight especially was incredible. I think the main reason for Makhachev’s climb being so slow has been that Khabib was the King at 155 for years and, with them being so close, he was never going to be in the title mix while Khabib was on the throne. Different story now though. With Khabib retired, now is the time for Makhachev to step up. Whether he’s got the goods remains to be seen but this is his first step. Dober is someone I’ve kind of slept on over the years but he’s been looking really good lately. He’s 23-9-0-1, stopped his last 3 opponents and slapped Alexander Hernandez about in his last fight, which is always enjoyable to watch. Good fight. Dober’s no jobber but if Makhachev is going to realise his potential then these are fights he needs to be winning. If he gets by Dober I’d really like to see that RDA fight rebooked over 5 rounds again.

 

Thiago Santos vs Aleksandar Rakic is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** for 259. Should be fireworks however long it lasts. I’m really split on this. I love Santos. Total badass in the cage and by all accounts he’s a true gent outside of it. There’s a lot of shitbags in MMA but Santos is one of the good guys. Like a big Brazilian Bobby Eaton. But I’ve rated Rakic for a while and I still think he’s probably the brightest prospect in the UFC’s 205 division. A year or so ago, the talk was that Reyes, Walker and Rakic were the 3 Light Heavyweights who were most likely to break through as top guys in the future. I said back then that I thought Rakic had the most potential of the bunch and I stand by that. Now Walker has been derailed and Reyes got stopped by the Polish Power, Rakic is still on the climb. Marathon not a sprint etc.

There’s Rakic murdering Jimi Manuwa in cold blood in Stockholm back in 2019. One of the scariest knockouts I’ve ever seen and I’m not exaggerating one bit when I say that, watching live, there was a couple of minutes there when I thought we’d seen the first Octagon death. Manuwa was down for ages. He retired shortly after. Rakic dropped a split decision to Volkan Oezdemir after that but came back to dominate Anthony Smith in his last fight in August. Santos can bust a brutal headkick out himself...

Poor Steve Bosse found out the hard way back in 2015. Santos has had his ups and downs, wins and losses, some bad injuries and he’ll be 38 by the time he steps into the cage for this one. But even in defeat, he showed against Glover Teixeira in November that he’s still dangerous as fuck. He also took Jon Jones to a razor close decision and has a KO win over the current champ Jan Blachowicz on his record. A guy like that is always just a big win or two away from a title shot. The timing of this one probably favours Rakic but Santos has operated on the highest level and done well for himself. Any rust he had going into the Glover fight should be gone now as well. Should be wild this. Really looking forward to it.

 

Dominick Cruz vs Casey Kenney. This one kind of caught me off guard. I was half expecting Cruz to announce his retirement after that loss to Cejudo at UFC 249 in May. He’s 35 years old now and it’s been well documented that he’s had a horror show list of injuries over the years. With him doing the colour commentary and analyst stuff more these days, I thought he’d probably decide to call it a career now he’s out of the title picture. But here we are. Bit of an odd matchup. Not a bad one but I thought if Cruz was going to fight on, it’d be against bigger names. A clash with Aldo would’ve been pretty cool for example. Or even rematches with Garbrandt or Dillashaw. The fact he’s taking on a young, surging 135er like Kenney tells me Cruz isn’t interested in going the Rich Franklin route of just being content to go out on some fan friendly name fights. As a former champ and established name in the sport, you only take a fight like this for one reason. He’s trying to get back in the title race. I’d certainly be interested to see him mixing with the likes of Yan, Sterling, Sandhagen etc. There’s some great fights to make there. But it’s probably a ‘one last run’ thing now. For Kenney, this is a huge opportunity. He’s 29 years old, 16-2-1 and was flying right under the radar until very recently. He’s turned some heads lately though. He’s rattled off 3 wins in a row now and just beat Nathaniel Wood in an excellent fight on the Khabib-Gaethje undercard. He also holds wins over Louis Smolka, Brandon Royval and Ray Borg. He’s been quietly racking up the wins. If he can knock off a former pound-for-pounder in Cruz, it’ll be massive for him and instantly catapults him straight into that mix of contenders at the very top end of 135. Quality fight.

 

Song Yadong vs Kyler Phillips. Looking forward to this, mostly to see Song Yadong back in there. He’s a guy who’s been being hyped as some big time prospect for a bit now but he hasn’t really blown me away so far. Don’t get me wrong, he does look good but he hasn’t particularly stood out as a can’t miss breakout guy in his performances so far. For me anyway. Still, he’s just turned 23. He’s certainly off to a good start. He’s 16-4-1-1 with 9 of his wins coming inside the distance, trains at Team Alpha Male. He beat Marlon Vera on points in his last fight. I don’t know. I need to see more. Faber’s been bigging him up for a while but he would, he trains at his gym. Just not entirely sold on him yet. Phillips will hopefully ask some questions of him here. He might look like Russell Brand with a gym membership but he’s got some skills once the cage door shuts. He’s 25 years old, 8-1 with 6 finishes and he battered Cameron Else to a second round TKO on the Holm vs Aldana card in October. Don’t think I’ve seen anything else of him but he looked pretty impressive that night.

 

Joseph Benavidez vs Askar Askarov. Don’t really know what to make of this one. My first thought is it’ll most likely be a fun, action packed fight. So I’m happy it’s there. But I don’t know what Benavidez has left or what he can even aim for at this stage. It’s a shame because he’s basically been a high level ‘nearly man’ his entire career. He’s a really good fighter but there’s just always been someone around who’s been that bit better. From the WEC days when Dominick Cruz shut him out at 135, to the UFC where he played second fiddle to Demetrious Johnson at Flyweight for years on end. Then DJ fucks off to ONE, it feels like Benavidez finally has his chance, but no. Then Deiveson Figueiredo pops up. Benavidez spent his whole 2020 getting his arse handed to him by Figgy. That was it. He got battered twice. The second time even worse than the first. Don’t feel too sorry for him though. He still climbs into bed with Megan Olivi every night.

I think he’ll be fine. It’s mad though. You look back over his record and he’s got wins over Henry Cejudo (albeit disputed), Jussier Formiga twice, Alex Perez, Dustin Ortiz twice, Zach Makovsky, Ian McCall, Miguel Torres. It goes on and on. He’s got to be one of the best fighters to never win a major title. He’s 36 now. It’s hard to see it happening for him at this point. Especially with the 125/135 divisions getting stronger and deeper by the month. Askarov is a tough little fucker from Dagestan. He’s 28 years old, undefeated at 12-0-1 and coming off wins over Alexandre Pantoja and Tim Elliott. The only blemish on his record is his draw with Brandon Moreno in Mexico City in 2019. But that was a tremendous fight and doesn’t seem like a ‘blemish’ at all if you’ve seen it. It doesn’t get much coverage, I only read about it recently myself, but Askarov is actually almost completely deaf and competed in the Deaflympics in 2017, winning the gold medal in wrestling. He was also the first Flyweight champion for the Russian ACB promotion. There are no easy fights for Benavidez. Ever.

 

Rogerio Bontorin vs Kai Kara-France. Another solid matchup in the ever improving Flyweight division. Bontorin is 16-2-0-1 and has looked decent in the limited footage I’ve seen. He dropped a decision to Ray Borg last time out but was on a 4 fight win streak before that. It’s KKF who makes this worthwhile though. He’s no world beater but he’s been a lot of fun to watch lately. He’s 21-9-0-1 and has had a bit of an up and down run in the UFC. But the fights have been so good to the point that anytime I see his name on a card now, I know I’ll have to check out the prelims. His last 3 against Brandon Royval, Tyson Nam and Brandon Moreno were all belters.

 

Tim Elliott vs Jordan Espinosa. Not that fussed really. And with all this talk of the UFC making 60+ cuts to the roster soon, fights like this probably see the loser on the chopping block. Elliott is a funny one for me. He’s got a shite 16-11-1 record but you watch him fight and there’s been times when he’s legitimately looked like one of the best in the division. The big one being that corker with Mighty Mouse for the Flyweight strap in 2016. He clearly lost but he did way better than anyone expected and gave Mouse one of the best fights of his whole title reign. He’s just not had the consistency when it’s mattered against those top boys like DJ, Figgy and Benavidez he’s been found lacking. Always thought he seemed a bit of a cock as well though so I’m not exactly sad to see him taking Ls regularly. Espinosa is 15-8 and has lost 3 of his last 4 fights. He’s one of those guys I know I’ve seen fight and literally recall nothing of him.

 

Carlos Ulberg vs Kennedy Nzechukwu. OK then. For once I’m sort of semi familiar with a DWCS guy. I remember seeing some stuff about Ulberg after his quick KO win on there in November and there was a bit of excitement about him on social media as I recall. ‘Mr Marvelous’ apparently. Hope he’s paying Marvin Hagler royalties for that.

He’s only 3-0 so far. 30 years old from New Zealand and he’s a teammate of Israel Adesanya at City Kickboxing. Seems to have a bit of personality about him as well. I saw videos of him dancing about with Izzy after that win. Very early days of course but it’s looking good so far. Nzechukwu is 7-1 and has fought in the UFC a couple of times. He was on DWCS himself a while back. Hasn’t beat anyone that good yet and the one time he stepped up he got submitted by Paul Craig. We’ll see how it goes.

 

Sean Brady vs Jake Matthews. I like this matchup a lot actually. Brady has looked a bit of a handful so far. He’s 28 years old from Philadelphia, a BJJ black-belt under Daniel Gracie and in MMA he’s undefeated at 13-0, a former Cage Fury Welterweight champion and he’s gone 3-0 since signing with the UFC in 2019. He looks legit so far. He beat the tough veteran in Court McGee, he beat a fellow prospect in Ismael Naurdiev, and in his last fight he submitted the heavy handed Christian Aguilera. Australian Matthews is still just 26, which seems nuts to me. Feels like he’s been on the roster forever. He’s 17-4 now and comes into this one off 3 consecutive wins. He beat Diego Sanchez in September but that doesn’t mean much these days sadly. He’s also beat Li Jingliang and Emil Meek. He’s had a few rough nights along the way but he’s got some talent and he’s young enough that he’s still got time. I think he’s heading for another loss here myself but I could well be wrong.

 

Livia Renata Souza vs Amanda Lemos. Might be alright, not massively arsed. Can’t say I recall too much of Souza but she isn’t a bad fighter. 14-2, 10 finishes, former Invicta champion, BJJ black-belt. She’s decent. Although she’s looked fairly unremarkable since signing with the UFC. Lemos I remember even less about. She’s 8-1-1 with 7 finishes and she’s coming off wins over Mizuki Inoue and Miranda Granger. That’s about it on her.

 

Uros Medic vs Aalon Cruz. Not a clue. Never heard of Medic and I’m not sure I’ve seen Cruz fight before. Maybe @Zebra Kid Mark can fill us in, he seems to be the UKFF’s roving reporter when it comes to Dana’s Contender Series. Uros ‘The Doctor’ Medic (creative genius) was on there in August and scored a quick TKO. He’s 6-0, all finishes. Cruz is 8-3 and was also on DWCS back in 2019. He’s fought once in the UFC since and got blitzed by the pocket sized ginger whirlwind known as Spike Carlyle.

 

Trevin Jones vs Mario Bautista. Bit disappointed in this, to be honest. It was meant to be Jones vs Randy Costa and I’ve become a bit of a Costa fan over the course of his first couple of UFC outings. Was looking forward to seeing him back in there but he’s out. Oh well. Don’t recall seeing Jones but he’s 12-6-0-1. He stopped Timur Valiev in his UFC debut but it got overturned to a No Contest because Jones tested for marijuana. Same with Bautista really. I’ve definitely seen him fight but my memory is very hazy on him. He might be decent though. He’s 8-1 and coming off a flying knee finish on the Jon Jones vs Dominick Reyes card last year. His only loss has been against Cory Sandhagen. 

 

That’s all folks. 

BOOM! 

Edited February 28, 2021 by wandshogun09

[WeeAl]

I haven't even managed to start reading your write up yet Wand, I saw your list for the card and I came straight down to the comment box. The idea being that surely, that can't be the card, can it? Full to bursting this fucker is. It's the prelims that caught me out - this day and age of mostly thin cards and Joe B and Dominick Cruz both have fights that don't even make the main card? Crazy.

It's an incredible looking card as it sits now. It'll be a shame to watch it fall apart over the next eight or nine weeks, but at least we don't know which bits are going to fall off, so we can still let ourselves get excited about it. 

[wandshogun09]

1 hour ago, WeeAl said:

It's the prelims that caught me out - this day and age of mostly thin cards and Joe B and Dominick Cruz both have fights that don't even make the main card? Crazy.

One of them might be on the PPV yet. This isn’t the final bout order. I think it’s safe to assume that Santos vs Rakic will be on the main card under the 3 title fights. What fills that 5th slot is anyone’s guess. I could easily see Benavidez vs Askarov or Cruz vs Kenney on the main card over the Makhachev fight. We’ll see. Guess it’ll all depend what’s even left when the card gets closer. 

[WeeAl]

Yeah there could be a bit of shuffling I guess. If some of these do fall off, hopefully it'll be soon enough that they can find replacements, rather than the last second cancellations that tend to be the norm. With a bit of luck it'll end up in Abu Dhabi rather than Vegas, decreasing the chance of too many drop outs. 

[wandshogun09]

I saw something on Twitter that the UFC have applied to have all the February events at the APEX in Vegas. Hopefully they’ll be back on Fight Island by March for this one. 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

This is an absolutely stacked card from top to bottom which makes me happy to watch but also sad that they waste Cruz and Joe B on the prelims when they have some real dross on the main cards of some fight nights. I get that they want all eyes on the PPV and they don't care as much about the fight nights but it really annoys me when a PPV and prelims have a stacked line up of must see fights and then a fight night only has a few decent fights with no real credible co main. Sounds a silly thing to complain about I know. Guess it's the wrestling fan in me.

The 3 main championship fights all have different storylines and different questions to get answered which make it an unmissable PPV.

I have no real favourite between Izzy and Jan, I just want there to be a good fight, a win for either will satisfy me. I love seeing a dominant champion like Izzy solidify is legacy but then I can't fault seeing a nice guy like Jan carry on his dream of being the champion. It's win win for us fans. Izzy is going to be the heavy favourite seeing as he has handled power punchers like Jan quite easily so far. Jan doesn't really offer up anything new aside from the big factor in that he is 20 pounds heavier than all of his previous opponents. 

Despite how predictable a Nunes win is, the punchers chance factor is always going to be there for her opponents. I'm just looking forward to sitting back and watching one of the greatest fighters alive fight. 

I am team Sterling 100% for the BW championship, I am a big fan of his and he has the looks, skills and charisma to be a real star, I really don't know why the UFC haven't strapped a rocket to him already. I think he's money. I also listen to his weekly podcast and he seems pretty cool and very informed.

There's a fair few flyweight fights on the card which isn't a bad thing at all. Hopefully one of them can insert themselves into the title picture, preferably not at Joe B's expense, but he's had multiple shots now so maybe it is time for some fresh blood to step up and make a name for themselves.

DWCS Fighter Lowdown: Uros Medic

He had a near perfect showing on episode 1 of season 4, it was one of the fights where you just knew he was getting a contract as soon as the fight ended. He's a wild Serbian who just came out swinging and one via ground and pound after knocking his opponent down with a kick. I remember saying in the DWCS thread at the time that I'm looking forward to seeing him fight so lets see how he fairs with the bright lights. Can't say I know anything about his opponent aside from the fact that Aalon surely was a miss spelling/pronunciation of the name Aaron when he was born.

[wandshogun09]

Bout order confirmed last night. Scared to get too excited for this one because you know there’s bound to be a load of pullouts but it’s hard not to when you look at how stacked it is. The likes of Cruz and Benavidez being on the prelims just shows how deep this card is. 

On 1/10/2021 at 2:17 PM, wandshogun09 said:

 

PPV MAIN CARD
Jan Blachowicz vs Israel Adesanya - Light Heavyweight Title

Amanda Nunes vs Megan Anderson - Featherweight Title

Petr Yan vs Aljamain Sterling - Bantamweight Title

Islam Makhachev vs Drew Dober

Thiago Santos vs Aleksandar Rakic 

ESPN PRELIMS 
Dominick Cruz vs Casey Kenney

Song Yadong vs Kyler Phillips

Joseph Benavidez vs Askar Askarov

Livia Renata Souza vs Amanda Lemos 

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Rogerio Bontorin vs Kai Kara-France 

Tim Elliott vs Jordan Espinosa 

Sean Brady vs Jake Matthews

Randy Costa vs Trevin Jones 

Carlos Ulberg vs Kennedy Nzechukwu 

Uros Medic vs Aalon Cruz 

 

[jimufctna24]

I have a working theory that the light-heavyweight division has been pish for years. The second half of Jones's career has been really underwhelming. Looking back, only his two wins over DC have really impressed me since 2015. Elsewhere, DC was a banged up plodder towards the end of his career. Santos and Smith were journeymen at middleweight, and Gusty was always a bit ordinary really. 

By contrast, I rate Izzy as the best middleweight ever and perhaps even the best ever MMA fighter north of 170lbs. I also really rate Whittaker and Romero, who were Izzy's two main rivals at 185lbs, and consider them to be vastly superior to the top guns at 205lbs. I therefore expect Izzy to make Blachowicz look daft in a few weeks time. The jump from middleweight to light heavyweight is a big one, but I think the differential in skill will more than compensate for it. 

Edited February 24, 2021 by jimufctna24

[wandshogun09]

MMA fans getting excited for Blachowicz vs Adesanya.

Jim at 3 o’clock in the morning:

Edited February 24, 2021 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

random question, but Adesanya was in the corner of Junior Fa this morning down in Aucklund. Shouldn't he really be in America already just 7 days out from his fight?

[wandshogun09]

This is class.

[Egg Shen]

I predicted it on here a while back when the Jan fight was first presented but depending on results i have no doubt we'll end up seeing Jones/Adesanya for the heavyweight title.

[wandshogun09]

 

[sukhy]

Rogan takes after Paulie

HE'S HURT 

[wandshogun09]

How dare you? Don’t ever compare Joe Rogan to the great Paulie ‘Walnuts’ Gaultieri.