UFC Vegas: Rozenstruik vs Gane - Feb 27 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Was looking forward to that one as well. 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

That's a shame to lose that one but the card is still pretty stacked, the prelims are quite tasty looking too, in my opinion.

I feel sorry for Angela Hill, she main events a fight night card and loses a controversial split decision and in her next fight she's on a fight night prelim! You'd at least expect her to make a fight night main card or even a PPV prelim surely?

With the loss of William Knight the card now has 2 DWCS S4 alumni in Ronnie Lawrence and Dustin Jacoby. Dustin has already shown us what he can do since he won his contract so it's Lawrence who I am more interested in seeing how he does. The S4 alumni haven't done too well in their debuts on reflection, the season was awesome but a lot of them have suffered with the octagon jitters. I might spend a Sunday afternoon analysing how they all got on some time soon and post my findings here.

[Panhead]

I looked this morning on my Sky planner and BT aren't showing the prelims🤔

[wandshogun09]

15 minutes ago, Panhead said:

I looked this morning on my Sky planner and BT aren't showing the prelims🤔

They must’ve updated the listings. I just looked and the prelims are on BT Sport 1 from 11pm after the Boxing. Then the main card kicks off at 1am. 

[Panhead]

That's good. I noticed the prelims had disappeared from my scheduled recordings and when I checked it had something else there (Might have been basketball or Aussie rules football) and the main card starting at 1am. 

[Egg Shen]

 

[wandshogun09]

Revisiting the first Pedro Munhoz vs Jimmie Rivera fight on the eve of the rematch. I say ‘revisit’ but actually I think this will be my first time seeing it. I was sure I must’ve watched it at the time but looking up the card it was on back in 2015, these two were on the Fight Pass prelims and I hadn’t got on board with Fight Pass at that point. So this is all new to me.

It took place in November 2015 in São Paulo. Vitor Belfort vs Dan Henderson 3 headlined that night. These two were just jerking the curtain on the Fight Pass stream. Munhoz was 11-1-1 coming in and his most notable win was a decision over Jeff Curran in the RFA promotion a couple of years earlier. He got Raphael Assuncao in his UFC debut, which was no soft welcome, and lost on points. He came back with two quick knockout wins but one got overturned after a drug test came back dodgy. He’d been out a year coming into this fight as a result of the drug test suspension. Rivera was 17-1 at this time, on a 16 fight winning streak and had stopped Marcus Brimage in Glasgow in his first trip to the Octagon.

The stage was set...

Pedro Munhoz vs Jimmie Rivera 

UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs Henderson 3

November 7th 2015

São Paulo, Brazil 

Commentators are Jon Anik and Brian Stann. Nice. No Goldberg, no Rogan, a hot Brazilian crowd and a fight I’ve never seen between two exciting fighters. Happy days.

Munhoz was actually born in São Paulo so you know where the crowd allegiance is here. Brazilian crowds always back their own but Munhoz is legitimately the hometown boy for this one so it’s extra hostile territory for Rivera. 

Round 1: They’re wasting no time. Not much of a feeling out process at all and Rivera is looking really sharp in the early exchanges here. He’s aggressive in coming forward but he’s also countering well and making Munhoz pay every time he tries anything.

The left hook is landing, he’s started going to the body and the right uppercut is starting to get through now. Not the best of starts for Munhoz at all. He’s constantly coming forward though. He’s always been a tough little sod Munhoz. He goes for a halfhearted takedown attempt and Rivera easily stuffs it and continues boxing Pedro up. But Munhoz finally starts to find some success in the last minute of the round...

Sweet. Rivera doesn’t look badly hurt or anything but it’s the breakthrough and confidence booster Munhoz badly needed going back to the corner at the end of the round. Still, it’s Rivera’s 10-9. Fun opening round as well. 

Round 2: Munhoz coming out on the attack now. His late success in the first round seems to have lit a fire under him and he’s bringing it right to Rivera’s door. Rivera still letting the combinations fly though so Munhoz can’t get too reckless. Both landing and Rivera absolutely nails him with a left hook to the jaw. Munhoz is rocked and sloppily going for a desperate takedown but Rivera’s all over him. Serious case of rubber legs for Munhoz here but he’s weathering it and...

He returns fire and hurts Rivera! The crowd erupted at that. That whole sequence was fantastic. Both have each other’s respect after trading shots like that. Munhoz shoots in for a single leg and Rivera defends it beautifully. Both throwing and landing again.

Christ. Rivera looks bollocksed now. Munhoz jumps on a guillotine choke but he loses it and Rivera tries one of his own but no joy. This is awesome. How am I only just seeing this fight? Munhoz won’t fuck off here. He’s in Rivera’s face all the time. Both connecting with a variety of strikes late in the round. Close but I’m saying Munhoz 10-9 for the two sort of knockdowns. So I’ve got them tied going into the final round. 

Round 3: Here we go. Munhoz comes right out and fucking toe-pokes him straight in the gob. The nerve of him! They both whiff on spinning shit to the oohs and ahhs of the crowd. Rivera still getting the odd dig in but he’s noticeably slowed down a tad now and Munhoz is relentless with his pace and coming forward. Must be exhausting. But Rivera is still looking dangerous in bursts. Both trading hard shots again as Anik runs through Munhoz’s stellar grappling credentials. Which we’ve seen none of in this fight because Rivera’s takedown defence has been on point. Rivera seems to be getting a second wind now and he’s throwing with bad intentions. But Munhoz just eats it all.

“Munhoz is just marching forward like Terminator.” - Brian Stann

He is as well. He took one right hook in particular that looked and sounded like it should’ve at least backed him up, if not wobbled him. Nothing. Button mashy video game exchange in the dying seconds and that’s it. Another close round but I had Rivera 10-9 because he landed the bigger shots and more often. Tremendous stuff.

Winner - Jimmie Rivera by split decision.

Belting fight, that was. If you’ve got Fight Pass, I’d highly recommend giving it a watch before the rematch tomorrow night. Well worth 15 minutes of your time. Can’t believe it’s taken me over 5 years to watch it but I suspect a lot of people won’t have seen it because it came at a time when Fight Pass was in its infancy and both guys were fairly new to the UFC. In late 2015, a cold prelims between relatively unknown Munhoz and Rivera wouldn’t have convinced you to get the stream on. It’s definitely one to go back and check out though.

I was already really looking forward to this rematch, just because I’ve become familiar with both over the last few years and enjoy watching them. Especially Munhoz. Hence it being my *one to watch* in the opening post. But now after seeing how good the first fight was, I’m even more into it. Hopefully it actually happens. It’s been booked on a couple of cards already this year and has fallen apart for one reason or another. You’d think it’ll go ahead this time. We’re 24 hours out and they’ve both weighed in today.

But in these uncertain times, you just never know. Hope for the best, I suppose 🤞 

[Egg Shen]

tremendous stuff wand.

[Egg Shen]

the final card:

[wandshogun09]

Yeah and that snazzy graphic is already out of date. Hill vs Yoder is off. One of Yoder’s cornermen tested positive for COVID.

Here’s my picks that will mostly be wrong anyway. 

[Egg Shen]

ahhh, balls. I just stuck Hill on my acca too

[seph]

According to Sherdog it's been put back 2 weeks to Fight Night 187

[wandshogun09]

2 minutes ago, seph said:

According to Sherdog it's been put back 2 weeks to Fight Night 187

Yeah it’s on the Edwards vs Muhammad card on March 13th now. 

[Kfogg1991]

Wow what a fucking dud this card turned out to be.......out of the entire show every fight bar 1 went to the judges and the 1 knock out that did happen was called way too late to the point it was like "fuck me are you waiting for this guy to die before you call it"

The main event in particular was exceptionally bad and boring to the extent Dana was in the building and was so mad he didn't come out for the post fight press conference and dissed Gane backstage. 

[wandshogun09]

6 hours ago, Kfogg1991 said:

Wow what a fucking dud this card turned out to be.......out of the entire show every fight bar 1 went to the judges and the 1 knock out that did happen was called way too late to the point it was like "fuck me are you waiting for this guy to die before you call it"

The main event in particular was exceptionally bad and boring to the extent Dana was in the building and was so mad he didn't come out for the post fight press conference and dissed Gane backstage. 

Not having a go but do you actually watch the fights or are you looking up the results, seeing most of the fights went the distance and deciding the show was a dud based on that? It wasn’t the best show I’ve ever watched and the main event didn’t deliver like everyone hoped but the show as a whole wasn’t shite and fights going to decisions doesn’t necessarily mean they were bad either. 

And fuck Dana anyway. The big baby. This was the first time either Gane or Rozenstruik have been in anything resembling a boring fight and he’s spat the dummy. Doesn’t surprise me, he’s always been the biggest ‘Just Bleeder’ going. But it’s still bollocks. It’s so easy for him to sit cageside where it’s all safe and cosy and slag a fighter off for not throwing caution to the wind. Maybe if the UFC’s pay structure wasn’t designed so you only get half your pay if you lose, fighters might be more willing to go for it in these situations. Yeah it wasn’t much fun to watch but I’ve got no problem with Gane fighting how he did last night. People need to remember this was only his 8th pro MMA fight. He was against an 18st knockout artist who’s had 87 wins across Kickboxing and MMA, and knocked out 74 of those men. Gane was giving up a ton of experience here, was in his first UFC main event, his first 5 rounder. Not to mention this fight was supposed to happen on the March 13th card originally. So these guys had their training camp cut short by a few weeks because the Reyes vs Prochazka fight got delayed. Not disaster but not ideal either. They agreed to bring the fight forward to do the UFC a favour. It wasn’t a great fight. It happens. Now Dana shits on them. Nice one.

On the plus side, this was valuable experience for Gane. He got 5 rounds in against, as I said, a dangerous and much more seasoned opponent, and he pretty much schooled him to a shutout and came out without a mark on him. Your 8th pro fight isn’t the time to be taking reckless risks in fights like this. It’s about gaining experience. Gane probably shouldn’t even be fighting at this level yet. He was meant to be fighting the Shamil Abdurakhimov and Sergei Pavlovich types last year but they kept dropping out. That’s the only reason he got chucked in with Dos Santos in December. But because he beat a name like JDS, you can’t go backwards after that so now he’s mixing in main events against guys he ideally should’ve been fighting a year from now. The fact that he’s still beating these guys comfortably with relatively little cage time should be applauded if anything. I mean, I understand people not enjoying the fight. But people are always moaning that there’s no promising new Heavyweights coming through. Here we’ve got one who shows all the signs of being something a bit special, he has one dominant but lacklustre fight and everyone’s cacking all over it. 

Deal with it. 

Ankalaev continues the winning streak. Wasn’t as good a fight as I’d hoped for but I thought there were a few different little wrinkles in there that showed he’s more than just a banger. Krylov looked trickier and more awkward than I remember him being in the past but Ankalaev figured him out and got the better of it. Had him winning every round. One of the more promising newish faces at 205 for me. Him and Rakic are probably my two LHWs to keep an eye on. I could be off on that but it feels to me like both are just about a year or so away from really becoming a problem in the division. 

De La Rosa vs Silva ending in a draw was crap. Silva’s own fault though. She robbed herself of the win with the blatant grabbing the fence and getting the point deducted. That point made all the difference in the end. Aside from that, she had a solid performance. Shame really but it’s good to see a ref actually do something about fence grabbing rather than just give endless warnings with no consequence like the usually do.

De La Rosa’s eye got well jacked up. 

Munhoz vs Rivera 2 did what it said on the tin. Cracking fight that was only a shade below their first meeting for me. Certainly didn’t disappoint though and it was the obvious and deserving FOTN bonus winner. I think you could throw these two out there against each other every 6 months and they’d never have a bad fight. This time Munhoz was determined to go home with the win. And Rivera’s leg. Those calf kicks were brutal.

Don’t know how Rivera stayed upright and kept attacking. Even in the third round when his leg was trashed, he was still hunting for that knockout shot.

Fantastic stuff. I was chuffed Munhoz won. Not just because I’m more of a fan of his but now they’re 1-1 and both were really exciting fights. So you know the rubber match is coming down the road somewhere.

Could well end up being one of the best trilogies in MMA despite them not getting the hype and recognition of the more well known rivalries.

Caceres vs Croom was decent. I’ve always enjoyed watching Caceres though. I love the way everything he does looks so laid back and like he’s half asleep in there. I had a feeling Croom might catch Caceres in something but it wasn’t to be. Bruce Leeroy too crafty and Croom faded pretty badly as the fight went on. 

Glad Thiago Moises won just because it always pleases me to see Alex Hernandez lose. It was another good fight as well on top of me getting the result I wanted. 

Alexis Davis kind of surprised me. I’ve had the feeling she’s been done for a while but this was a clear cut win over a younger fresher fighter here. Fair play. She badly needed it as well. Wasn’t a very good fight but whatever. 

I like this Ronnie Lawrence guy already. Really strong UFC debut for him. Only early in his career as well so there’s a long way to go yet. The stoppage was late though. Don’t know what the ref was waiting for. 

He was walking around them like he was Peter Ebdon playing safety. He must’ve looked at the beating from every possible angle before finally waving it off. 

But yeah, a nice debut for Lawrence. I thought he was harsh on his own performance in the post-fight interview but I guess that’s healthy to be self critical to a degree. It’ll only help him improve. 

Jacoby vs Grishin was pretty good as well. I’m enjoying Jacoby’s sort of MMA resurgence so far. He had to get through a couple of dicey moments here but he got it done. Could be some fun to be had with him at 205 going forward. It’s a shame Gokhan Saki is no longer on the roster. That would’ve been an obvious fight to make and no doubt a barnburner. 

So yeah. The main and co-main weren’t as good as expected but this card was far from a dud. Munhoz vs Rivera 2 was ace, Ronnie Lawrence looked impressive, Jacoby vs Grishin was a good ruck and Moises vs Hernandez and Caceres vs Croom were decent. There was more good than bad. Just the last 3 fights ended it on a flat note. It happens.

259 next week and it’s loaded like Ted Dibiase so cheer up Dana you big, fat, pink, sad sack of misery.