UFC Vegas: Zombie vs Ige - Jun 19 🇺🇸 🧟‍♂️ 🧨

[wandshogun09]

Back in Vegas in front of a load of empty chairs for this one.

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Korean Zombie vs Dan Ige

Alexey Oleynik vs Sergey Spivak

Marlon Vera vs Davey Grant

Julian Erosa vs Seung Woo Choi

Wellington Turman vs Bruno Silva

Matt Brown vs Dhiego Lima

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Aleksa Camur vs Nicolae Negumereanu 

Virna Jandiroba vs Kanako Murata

Khaos Williams vs Matthew Semelsberger

Josh Parisian vs Roque Martinez

Joaquim Silva vs Rick Glenn

Lara Procopio vs Casey O’Neill

 

Bout order’s probably all to cock but I’ll edit as and when. Like the look of this. Not a killer card or anything but it’ll do nicely. Few names on there that you can usually rely on for an entertaining fight. Little bit of everything on there.

 

Korean Zombie vs Dan Ige is your 5 round main event. Here we go. There’s something about a Zombie card, isn’t there? One of the most exciting fighters in the game for years now. He’s the type of fighter who can have a crazy war with almost anyone. And this matchup in particular is great. Ige is the type to meet him head on. Buckle up.

I’m a Zombie guy though. Love this nutcase. How can you not? I still remember when he first got on my radar with that mental slobberknocker against Leonard Garcia in WEC back in 2010. I think that’s when most became aware of him. He’d put together a solid little run in Sengoku before that but that Garcia war was the one that put him on the map, no doubt. It was WEC’s first (and only) PPV, on the undercard of the huge (at the time) Jose Aldo vs Urijah Faber fight, and these two lunatics stole the show and got FOTN.

Win or lose, and he’s had his share of losses, he’s been must see TV ever since. The WEC roster got merged into the UFC in early 2011, and Zombie came in and had maybe the best 3 fight stretch anyone’s had upon entering the Octagon. In his UFC debut, he pulled off the first ever Twister submission in company history. He followed that with a 7 second knockout over Mark Hominick. Then he submitted Dustin Poirier in what might’ve been the FOTY in 2012. Between injuries and his mandatory military service, his next few years were stop/start and up and down. But the thing that’s always stayed the same is that feeling of unpredictability and mayhem surrounding his fights. His first round knockout of Frankie Edgar a couple of years ago was nuts. He comes into this one off a decision loss to Brian Ortega back in October so he’s looking to get back to winning ways here and no doubt he’ll be coming to knock heads off.

Dan Ige has nowhere near the popularity of Jung but he’s nobody to overlook. A tough Hawaiian and an NCAA Division III wrestler with a BJJ black-belt. Likes to throw hands as well, as Gavin Tucker found out the hard way in March.

22 seconds is all it took. Think it was the first punch he threw. Ige isn’t typically a KO machine though. Despite the ‘Dynamite’ nickname. He’s got good striking and he can hurt you with his hands but he’s not putting guys to sleep on a regular basis. This Tucker knockout was something else though. And it’s immediately earned him a headline spot that had otherwise eluded him up to now. Ige is 15-3 and has wins over the likes of Edson Barboza and Mirsad Bektic, although both were split decisions and I seem to recall thinking Barboza was unlucky to not get the nod from the judges. Ige also went 5 rounds with Calvin Kattar in July. He’s tough and he’s a good fighter. But I don’t know. I’m not fully convinced. I think Zombie should win this but stranger things, and much bigger upsets, have happened. Should be fun though.

 

Alexey Oleynik vs Sergey Spivak. I’ll always have time for an Oleynik fight. Love watching the big sod. Watching him awkwardly and uncoordinatedly maul fuckers to the floor and put them in an Ezekiel choke over and over again never gets old to me. I actually used to think he was cack. It’s easy to to come to that conclusion when you first see him because he looks so lumbering and slow. Takes some time to appreciate the big lummox but he’s grown on me. His record is mad as well. 59-15-1 with 46 fucking submissions! 14 of them via Ezekiel. It’s incredible how he’s taken what’s usually a low success rate submission and basically made it his finisher. I know a lot of his opposition, particularly earlier in his career, was suspect but you don’t see records like that often and you can’t knock the man’s longevity. He has been knocked out in his last 2 fights though. And he turns 44 a few days after this show. It might finally be coming to an end. He’s in with a much younger man in Spivak as well. He’s 26 years old, a big bastard himself and he’s 12-2 with 11 finishes. He’s beat Jared Vanderaa and Tai Tuivasa. Yeah nothing earth shattering but he might be catching the old veteran at a good time here.

 

Marlon Vera vs Davey Grant 2 is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** here. Love this fight. Had no idea it was a rematch either. Zero memory of their first fight. Apparently they met back in February 2016, on the undercard of Michael Bisping vs Anderson Silva in London.

Grant won on points. I’ll have to give that a watch soon. Can’t go wrong with these two. Vera’s been a guy I’ve had mixed feelings on over the years. In the cage I always enjoy watching him. He’s ace. And I really dug him battering Sean O’Malley last year. I don’t know though, I always get a bit of an arsehole vibe off him. Nothing too bad. Like I was still happy to see him bash Suga Sean. But there’s a twattiness to him for sure. Although I must admit, this made me chuckle...

Little prick 😂 

Like I said though, great to watch bell to bell. He bit off more than he could chew in his last fight. He was clearly not on Aldo’s level, even a fading Aldo is still leagues above most. But he’s a tough, scrappy little fuck. I’d love to see Grant win here though. In contrast to my opinion of Vera’s dickheadedness, there’s none of that with Grant. He’s the goodest of good eggs. And you can go right back to his stint on the Rousey vs Tate season of TUF back in 2013. Such a likeable, down to earth bloke. He actually made it to the finals of TUF but lost to Chris Holdsworth and then had an absolute horror show over the next 6 or 7 years with injuries. Thankfully, he’s managed to stay healthy and fairly active over the last year or so and it’s paid off. He’s won his last three fights now, and scored highlight reel knockouts over Martin Day and Jonathan Martinez in his last two. Both really exciting fights as well. Can see this being a bit of a barnburner. Vera’s always up for it and with Grant finally on form, this has the makings of something wild.

 

Julian Erosa vs Seung Woo Choi. Might be alright. Don’t know what happened with Erosa. For the longest time he was just making up the numbers and doing nothing of note on the prelims. Lost 3 in a row and he was one of those ham and eggers I just couldn’t be arsed with when I’d see his name on a card. He got absolutely flattened by Julio Arce in 2019 and something about that seems to have lit a match under him because he’s been like a man possessed since. He’s gone 3-0 in his last 3, all finishes. Submitted Sean Woodson in a fantastic fight last June, then knocked out Nate Landwehr with a flying knee in less than a minute in February. OK, it’s hardly a run at the title but considering the slump he was in not too long ago, he’s done well to turn it around. Barely remember Choi. He’s 9-3 and coming off a decision win over Youssef Zalal.

 

Wellington Turman vs Bruno Silva. Nothing much to this. Just a making up the numbers matchup. Turman’s 24 from Curitiba, Brazil. Chute Boxe’s stomping grounds. Literally. Turman’s not Chute Boxe affiliated though as far as I know. He’s 16-4 and coming off a first round knockout loss against Andrew Sanchez last August. Seen him a couple of times and haven’t been particularly impressed. Bruno Silva isn’t Flyweight Bruno Silva who fought the other week. These guys are Middleweights. Solid record of 19-6 with 16 knockouts. Most notable win is his first round stoppage over Alexander Shlemenko in 2018 on a M-1 card.

Never saw that at the time. He’s coming into this fight off the back of 4 consecutive wins but he hasn’t fought since late 2018 because USADA got him before he could even make his debut. So with over 2 years away and having to come off the juice, who knows what we’re getting now?

 

Matt Brown vs Dhiego Lima. Decent fight. There aren’t that many things you can count on in MMA, but one of them is that Matt Brown’s gonna bring it. He loves a scrap. He’s 40 years old now and coming off a couple of losses, been in a bunch of rough, bloody battles over the years. He’s probably not got many left in him so enjoy him while he’s here. Crazy to think he actually holds a win over Wonderboy from way back. That’s one of those mad results people forget. He’s 22-18 now. It’s going nowhere. But I’ll always tune in for his fights. Lima does little for me though. Seems a nice enough guy but I don’t recall ever really getting into any of his fights. He’s just kind of there. Doesn’t help that he’s always being compared to his brother either. Hopefully Brown can make something of this and we get a good fight out of it.

 

Aleksa Camur vs Nicolae Negumereanu might be worth checking out. Camur is 25 years old, 6-1 with 5 knockouts and trains out of Strong Style Fight Team in Ohio alongside Stipe Miocic. He got in the UFC’s doors by scoring a highlight reel flying knee KO on Dana’s Contender Series in 2019.

He followed that up with a points win over Justin Ledet in his Octagon debut. Suffered his first defeat in September though, dropping a decision to William Knight on the UFC 253 undercard. Still think he’s got a lot of potential though. Only thing I don’t like about him is he’s the spit of a young Frank Mir. His opponent here Negumereanu is 26 years old, Romanian and has a record of 9-1 with all 9 wins coming inside the distance. Don’t know what to make of him. It’s a good start, obviously. But then he lost his UFC debut against Saparbek Safarov who’s a bit of a shitehawk.

 

Virna Jandiroba vs Kanako Murata. Quite like the sound of this actually. I’ve only seen limited footage of both but from what I have seen, I think this could be an interesting grappling battle. Jandiroba is a BJJ black-belt, 16-2 in MMA with 13 submissions. She caught my attention when she breezed through Felice Herrig in about 2 minutes last summer. She looked a right handful in that one. She was matched up with Mackenzie Dern in December and I was hoping for a bit of a mat classic given both their grappling backgrounds but it didn’t pan out. Dern won on points in a bit of a lacklustre fight. Hopefully this time we get to see more of her ground game because it’s clearly where she’s strongest. And Murata is the same from what I’ve seen. She’s 27 years old and mostly a wrestler as far as I can tell. Won gold at the Asian Wrestling Championships in 2012. She’s 12-1 in MMA, has competed in RIZIN, Invicta and Pancrase, won her last 8 in a row and choked out Angela ‘Vinegar Tits’ Magana in 2018. I like her for that alone. She made her UFC debut in November, outpointing Randa Markos. Like I say, hopefully these two grapple. Last thing you want to see is a BJJ specialist and a wrestler sloppily kickboxing for 15 minutes.

 

Khaos Williams vs Matthew Semelsberger. This has serious fireworks potential. You know what you’re getting from Khaos. The clue’s in the name. Remains to be seen what his overall MMA game is like but there’s no mistaking he carries TNT in those hands. As we saw when he took on fellow knockout artist Abdul Razak Alhassan in November.

Was all over in 30 seconds. He’d ironed out Alex Morono in just 27 seconds in his UFC debut just before that as well. Lost a decision to Michel Pereira in his last fight though. But Pereira’s a weirdo and an awkward style for most. Got my doubts how far he can go but at the very least he’ll no doubt provide some slugfests in the middle of the pack at 170. Semelsberger isn’t a guy I took much notice of until this year. He’s 8-2 with 6 finishes and coming off 5 wins but he was just another new face on the prelims and it’s a roster swimming with them. He absolutely sparked Jason Witt in 16 seconds in March though. Was some punch. He’s definitely got my attention now. Him and Khaos matched up sounds good to me.

 

Josh Parisian vs Roque Martinez. Two fine physical specimens here. Bottom of the barrel Heavyweight shite. I’ve seen both before but can’t remember much. I’m guessing I’ve blocked the memory out. Parisian’s 13-4 with 12 finishes and lost to the mighty Parker Porter in his UFC debut. And Martinez is...just...

#EATCLEAN.

Bloke’s built like a plate of mashed potatoes. There’s Heavyweight bulk and then there’s just not giving a single fuck, isn’t there. He’s 15-7-2 and has lost his first 2 UFC fights. He has actually fought some names. Got battered by Cro Cop but did score a submission win over Jerome Le Banner in 2017. But by 2017, JLB was washed up and MMA was never his strong suit anyway. This might be funny but will more likely just be total arse.

 

Joaquim Silva vs Rick Glenn. Not really fussed. Can barely remember Silva. Looked him up and now I know why. He’s hardly fought over the past couple of years. He was last seen getting knocked out by Nasrat Haqparast in 2019. He’s 11-2, best win is his knockout of Jared Gordon. Meh. Glenn’s 21-6-1, a former WSOF champion and has wins over Dennis Bermudez, Gavin Tucker and Phillipe ‘The Next GSP’ Nover. He’s nothing amazing but he’s not bad. Again though, inactivity. He hasn’t fought since late 2018 when he had an absolute corker of a hidden gem against Kevin Aguilar. Seriously, Fight Pass that. Cracking fight that about 12 people have probably watched.

 

Lara Procopio vs Casey O’Neill. Worth a look. Procopio is 25 years old with a 7-1 record and fights out of Nova Uniao. Barely seen anything of her but she did get a decision over Molly McCann in her last fight in February. O’Neill is where the interest lies here though. She’s 23, Scottish born but lives and trains in Australia and is undefeated at 6-0. Hasn’t beat anyone good yet but she’s just starting out. Battered Shana Dobson in her UFC debut back in February. Early days obviously but she could be one to keep an eye on in the Flyweight division. Not sure how good Procopio is though so she could be a decent test.

 

Pretty tidy little card, to be fair. 🧟‍♂️ vs 🧨

Edited June 18, 2021 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

That main card is real good, love seeing Davey Grant in a co-main slot too. Proper unsung hero of UK MMA.

Means/Roberts is a cracker too.

[wandshogun09]

On 6/2/2021 at 4:41 PM, Egg Shen said:

That main card is real good, love seeing Davey Grant in a co-main slot too. Proper unsung hero of UK MMA.

Oleynik vs Spivak is the co-main now according to this. On the plus side, 9pm start time for the prelims will do nicely.

[Egg Shen]

ahh regardless, thats a cracking little card. 

[Egg Shen]

Saturday is gonna be Zombie's 8th straight 5 round main event. Without checking, is that a record for someone whos never held a title?

[Egg Shen]

ignore the times as this is it has the New Zealand time schedule but here's the snazzy graphic:

im gonna sack off those prelims more than likely but that main card is sneaky good, im interested in all of that.

[wandshogun09]

Think the prelims start at 9pm UK time.

I’m gonna have to check the prelims for that Khaos vs Semelsberger fight but not a lot else grabbing me. Main card is good though yeah, bit of everything there. 

[wandshogun09]

Really enjoyable show, I thought.

Zombie vs Ige was a good fight. Didn’t think it was quite as one sided as the commentary made it sound but Zombie won fairly clearly and looked great. Ige was in it more than they made it sound and the rounds were pretty much all competitive. Wasn’t a complete domination but Zombie definitely got the better of it. Really strong, complete performance from him and a great way to rebound from that Ortega loss.

He’s been talking about fighting Max Holloway next and I’m all for that. I thought they were just going to rebook Holloway vs Yair Rodriguez for a later date but Giga Chikadze is saying he’s been offered the Yair fight so maybe they’re looking at other fights for Holloway. The Zombie fight would work for me. As would Holloway vs Yair getting rescheduled. Or fuck it, Zombie vs Yair 2 wouldn’t upset me one bit either. You really can’t go wrong with any combination in the Top 5 or so at Featherweight.

Spivak vs Oleynik was alright. Good win for Spivak but you have to think the long career is finally ending for Oleynik. He’s had a hell of a run all things considered but he’s 44 in a few days and this was his third loss on the bounce.

Marlon Vera vs Davey Grant 2 was some scrap wasn’t it? Loved it. Just a blood and guts battle all the way. Both took their lumps and gave as good as they got. Grant was always in it but Vera just pulled ahead as it went on and ended stronger. 

How Grant survived this I don’t know. It was looking bad there for a minute but he toughed it out and saw the final buzzer. Gutted for Grant, to be honest. He seems a top bloke and a win here would’ve set him up nicely for something big later in the year. Hopefully he can stay healthy and get back on track soon. 

Don’t think I ever saw their first fight, meant to do my usual rematch thing and watch and review it in here before this show but just never got around to it. They’re 1-1 now though. I’ve heard the first fight was good and this was quality. Hopefully we get the rubber match somewhere down the line. 

Seung Woo Choi wiping out Julian Erosa was a bit unexpected. Never really taken notice of Choi before. He’s never done anything that’s stuck in my memory before but this was a nice win for him. Erosa was putting a decent run together coming in. Choi’s well and truly knocked that off the tracks.

Bruno Silva finally made his Octagon debut and killed Wellington Turman in cold blood.

Nastiest ground and pound I can remember seeing in a long time. Just brutal. Looking forward to seeing more of him. This is a guy who knocked out Alexander Shlemenko in Russia, for fuck’s sake. Some fun to be had with him in the UFC’s Middleweight division. Right off the top of my head, him against that Barack Obama lookalike who fought the other week would be fireworks. 

Matt Brown pulled out a much needed win over Dhiego Lima and a highlight reel knockout to boot. Looks like a crime scene. All that’s missing is the chalk outline. 

“How’s that for 40, bitch?” - Matt Brown 

He’s already mentioned Demian Maia, Donald Cerrone and Robbie Lawler as fights he’s interested in next. All rematches of fights he lost fairly decisively. He’s after some revenge. Got no interest in a Maia rematch at this stage and I don’t think it’ll happen anyway. I’d be happy with him and Lawler tangling again though. Cerrone I can take or leave. 

I skimmed through the prelims. Mostly wanted to see the Khaos Williams vs Matthew Semelsberger fight. It was good. Not quite the mayhem I was hoping for but Khaos looked good and it’s probably going to be more beneficial to him to get more cage time anyway rather than just quick blowouts like his first couple in the UFC. 

Only caught the end of Casey O’Neill vs Lara Procopio but saw O’Neill get the finish. Choked the absolute shite out of Procopio. Put her to sleep. O’Neill might be worth keeping tabs on at Flyweight actually. She’s looking good so far.

Highlight of the prelims for me though, was this mad bastard.

Virna Jandiroba. She’s quickly becoming a favourite of mine. Awesome grappling, aggressive striking, just looks to do damage from start to finish. I didn’t see her Invicta fights or her first couple of UFC fights. I first noticed her when she steamrolled and submitted Felice Herrig last year. From there she fought well but came up short against Mackenzie Dern. Then last night she just terrorised Kanako Murata, beat her up on the feet, closed her eye up, tied her in knots on the ground and fucked her arm up. Which ultimately ended the fight as they stopped it after the second round. Felt sorry for Murata actually. Just a miserable night all around for her and she was distraught when it was stopped. She wanted to carry on even with one eye and her arm mangled. But it was over.

Jandiroba should’ve got a POTN bonus. She’s ace. Not sure how far she can go but on a good night I wouldn’t be surprised to see her give any of the top Strawweights problems. Her against Namajunas, Zhang, Jedrzejczyk etc could be great fights for the future. I still think there’s a grappling war to be had in a Dern rematch as well if they cross paths again. Regardless, even if she’s already peaked, I’m a fan. 

[Egg Shen]

Love the look of Bruno Silva, hes a guy who isnt there to mess around. Love it when someone brings that genuine feeling of nastiness to proceedings, he does just that.

Rough month for the Lima Brothers huh? Great to see Matt Brown win big though. 

Seung Woo Choi looks nasty too, fast, heavy hands for a featherweight. Erosa is clearly a guy who gets by a lot on his toughness, he was never gonna through this by being willing to take damage.

Missed the main event and caught a spoiler.

[WeeAl]

I'm late to the party on this one, as I saw the result of the main before I got to see it, then proceeded to fall asleep during it. Glad to see Zombie get the win. I expected he would have too much for Ige, unless Jung suddenly got really old. Ige is a good, ranked fighter. I don't see him as a top 7-8 fighter in that division though. I'm well up for Zombie Vs Holloway or Yair. Whoever fights for the title after Ortega/Volk is going to have to take a fight here in the interim, as it'll be ages until one of those two are ready to go again after the title fight. 

This main card started spectacularly. Matt Brown, Bruno Silva and Seeing Woo Choi. Jesus Christ, did somebody take their lunch money or something? Vicious finishes, one after another. Still up for Brown trying to get some of his L's back. Man can still compete and beat some of that 15-20 ranked crowd. 

Disappointed for Davey Grant as I was really pulling for him to win here. Brilliant fight, I'm just not a fan of Vera and didn't want him to pick up the W. Vera deserved the decision though, with both men putting in a good account of themselves. 

Edited June 24, 2021 by WeeAl