UFC Vegas: Holloway vs Rodriguez - Nov 13 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

I AIN’T YOUR PAL DICKFACE! 

[Egg Shen]

anyone fancy Yair for an upset tonight?

From everything im reading, this is a foregone conclusion for a Max win, plus he's 1/7 on with the bookies which is massive for a UFC main event. Add in the weird undisclosed injury from earlier in the year which Max is reluctant to talk about, and Yair's mental unpredictable style and you may have the recipe for an upset. Ive underestimated Yair before, and with the huge lay-off's it becomes easy to write him off, but i think this way wind up being way more competitive than people think.

[WeeAl]

Personally Ebb, I don't see an upset at all. There's Holloway and Volkanovski's level, and then there is everyone else. 

Sure, Yair could throw something mad that Holloway doesn't see coming and could win that way. That however is all the chance I give him. I can't see how he wins a decision. He isn't going to overwhelm, outwork and then stop Max. Nor I he going to grapple and win that way. It's hail Mary or nothing for Yair in my book. 

Holloway stops him at the end of the third. 

Let's face it, Yair's best performance was against a pretty faded Jeremy Stephens. Of course he knocked the Zombie out in spectacular fashion, but just as impressive as the KO in that fight, was that Yair was even still there at that point. He had lost every round up until then. 

It's got the makings of an incredibly entertaining fight. However not one that I have a big pile of doubt about who wins. Now, watch Yair finish Max with a spinning flying knee in the first minute. 

[Egg Shen]

yeh im still picking Max, i just think it'll be a much closer fight than the odds suggest.

[wandshogun09]

It’s definitely got the potential of being a lot tougher than many think but I’m with Al. Just can’t see a Yair win beyond something wacky. Which could happen but not likely against someone the level of Holloway. It’ll be edge of the seat all the way though because we’ve seen Yair is dangerous until literally the last second, even if he’s losing.

I think a lot of the doubt on Yair as well is the inactivity. He’s dipped out for spells before and came back looking good but he’s never had a layoff like this (2 years) and came back against someone as good as Holloway.

I hope Yair makes a good fight of it but basically…

Edited November 13, 2021 by wandshogun09

[Zebra Kid Mark]

I'm hoping Holloway lights him up over 5 rounds. I love watching Yair fight but with what happened after the eye poke situation and how he reacted to potentially being a cheat, I don't like Yair the person.

[wandshogun09]

Fucking amazing. Adrenaline’s high and I might feel differently in a couple of days but I think that’s outdone Gaethje vs Chandler as FOTY for me. 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

I think the fact it went 5 rounds definitely helps its cause. If that fight took place in front of a crowd like Chandler vs Gaethje then I would say you were right.

Awesome fight, Yair is entertaining as hell and has completed a mini face turn after the way he fought and then handled the loss. I think that 2 year lay off has done him the world of good. I know he lost but he looked great and I forgot just how dangerous he can be. After round 1 I though those calf kicks were going to dictate the rest of the fight. Credit to Max for switching stance and working around it.

Holloway seems to want the Conor fight more than the title fight, if he's not next for Volk then I can see Giga being the next challenger if he can beat Calvin. 

[wandshogun09]

I totally get what you’re saying but I don’t think the fact that it wasn’t in front of a big crowd should downgrade it. A crowd would’ve added to the overall atmosphere but the quality was there regardless. And in some respects I actually think the lack of crowd adds to it in a weird way because you can hear the full whack of the strikes and I don’t know, it adds to the intensity in certain fights and this was one of them for me. I’ll watch it again but I think it pips Gaethje vs Chandler. I barely blinked that last round, the contrasting corner instructions before the 5th and Yair’s guys basically going ‘fuck gameplans just attack him the full 5 minutes’, and knowing Yair’s history with pulling out that Zombie KO in the dying seconds. It was insane.

Yair deserves so much credit as well. Fucker comes back after 2 years away and does better against Holloway than Ortega or Kattar. Definitely had Max winning but it was an incredible fight.

They even topped the usual post-fight backstage/hospital pic with this…

[Kfogg1991]

I personally thought the Justin vs Chandler fight topped this one for fight of the year however this fight was fucking fantastic. I will say however I scored this one differently and gave Rodriguez rounds 1/2/5 and Holloway rounds 3/4. The fifth round was incredibly close but I felt Holloway took his foot off the pedal slightly whereas Rodriguez continued to go for gold.

The co-main was very quick work in the office after just 30 seconds, however herb Dean once again fucked up and kinda tainted the ending with his indecisiveness which for some reason he's been doing more and more recently.

Unbelievable knock out for Kaos Williams that man has some serious power.

We also got an unbelievable finish on the fight pass prelims with Rafael Alves getting a unbelievable finish which was almost a combination of a huge punch into a flying knee then a guillotine which just looked unbelievable 

Great little fight night card overall the UFC continues its run of great shows 

[wandshogun09]

This absolute weirdo at it again.

 

[Dai]

Cracking fight, but there's no chance in hell this is topping anyone's FOTY list over last weeks fight, with the possible exception of Wand 😆 I think even you wont bump that fight for this one in a few days time.

I was as guilty as Max's corner in thinking/expecting Yair was wilting at the end of round two. His face was a mess, and we've seen countless times before Max go from strength to strength at this point and ruin his opponent. All the credit in the world to Yair in not just lasting the five rounds, but actually being more dangerous in the fifth. 

[WeeAl]

Holloway Vs Yair was a hell of a fight. Incredibly high level stuff on display from both men. The biggest thing on display though were two sets of balls, and boy did these two have a fair set on them each. 

Yair's foot at the end was disgusting. His kicking game was really having an effect. If Holloway hadn't managed to get inside the distance as often as he did and initiate some of the grappling and clinch work that he did, he would have been in quite a bit of bother. Round by round Max wins either three or four of them, but Yair had him in danger at different points throughout the fight. 

I'm not sure what I'd do next with Holloway. I'd like to see each of Max and Volkanovski fight somebody else once more. 

Max Vs Giga would be incredible stuff.  However that just eliminates a challenger. I'd be tempted to give Giga the shot, and have Max fight the winner of the upcoming Emmet/Ige fight. Or Holloway Vs Zombie. 

Ortega Vs Yair seems like a no brainer though. 

 

[wandshogun09]

So yeah this was a bit good. Still buzzing from that main event. Just insane performances from both and it was every bit as great to watch as you’d picture a fight between them to be. Maybe even better because I think most just thought Max was gonna overwhelm and ruin him as the fight wore on and if Yair had a real chance it would be some Hail Mary weird shit KO like the Zombie fight. For me he lost at least 3 rounds no argument but he was there and going tit for tat with Holloway the whole fight in a way I didn’t really expect from him. Especially given the layoff he was coming off. Dana’s comments after were telling, he said something like he didn’t expect Yair to look that good coming back from so long out. For the UFC brass to be thinking like that and still book his first fight back against fucking Max Holloway tells you they were expecting a blowout here. A fight to showcase Holloway and set up that third fight with Volkanovski. Yair wasn’t having it and refused to go away quietly. Loved it. Chuffed that Max won because he’s one of my favourite fighters in the sport but how could you not be won over by Yair’s effort? He seemed way more gracious and likeable in the build up and after the fight as well than I remember. That whole thing with Jeremy Stephens and the way he carried on after left a sour taste in a lot of mouths but he seemed way more mature and cool here. Maybe he just couldn’t stand Stephens. 

Fucking lunatics the pair of them. 

21 hours ago, Dai said:

Cracking fight, but there's no chance in hell this is topping anyone's FOTY list over last weeks fight, with the possible exception of Wand 😆 I think even you wont bump that fight for this one in a few days time.

Maybe. I’m gonna try and rewatch both fights sometime this week so I’ll see if I change my mind. The consensus seems to be that Gaethje vs Chandler was better and I loved that fight but this fight really did it for me. I certainly wouldn’t say there’s no chance in hell, Vince. 

1 hour ago, WeeAl said:

Ortega Vs Yair seems like a no brainer though. 

It’s got to happen. I’ve been saying for years that that cluster of Featherweights at the top of the division has the potential to be for MMA what the Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran era was for Boxing in the 80s. I was mostly talking about Holloway, Ortega, Yair, Zombie and Zabit. The problem has been that injuries and some of them just falling off the grid for years at a time has stifled what should be a series of classics. Of that group, so far we’ve had Holloway vs Ortega, Yair vs Zombie, Ortega vs Zombie and now Holloway vs Yair. And aside from Ortega vs Zombie, which was alright but not as good as expected, the other 3 were absolutely batshit. Now you add in Giga, Kattar, new blood like Topuria etc. The division is popping like never before and to me is arguably equal to in depth, or even better than 155 these days. And I haven’t even mentioned the champ Volkanovski there. Insane division. Hopefully Yair stays active now, that Ortega fight needs booking as soon as Yair’s Klump foot goes back to normal. Don’t know if Zabit is ever returning at this point but he’s another one who could be a player if his health issues haven’t utterly bollocksed him long term. Fuck, then there’s Barboza, Burgos, Emmett, Ige, Quarantillo. I keep thinking of more and I know I’m still overlooking a few. 145 is the shit. 

Now I’ve finished bumming the main event, for now at least, the rest wasn’t bad either.

Even De Lima vs Rothwell, which I had rock bottom expectations for, was too short to be shite. A merciful 32 seconds. Never rated De Lima but he certainly went for it here. Herb Dean dropped a bollock again though. It’s become a more and more frequent thing that. This time it wasn’t even that he stopped it too late. He just piss-arsed about being indecisive, went in and put his hands on them to seemingly stop it, then backed off and let it go, then stopped it. It was nowhere near the worst he’s done but it was just yet another on a growing list. I like Herb as a personality, he seems like a top bloke in general and comes across like someone you’d enjoy having a pint with in interviews and on podcasts and stuff. But I never got when people tried to push him as the best ref in MMA or ‘the gold standard’ of refereeing and all that cobblers. It sounds harsh but he’s actually one of the worst refs who’s regularly working UFC cards these days. You watch Big John McCarthy years ago or Marc Goddard today and they’re in control in there and they’re decisive. I’m sure if you went through both their careers looking for fuck ups you’d find something but on the whole they were/are very consistent. That goes for a bunch of today’s refs as well. Apart from that knob who reffed that Zaleski Dos Santos fight at 267, the bunch of refs we’ve got today are probably the best overall that there’s ever been. It was much worse in the days of Steve Mazagatti and Dan Miragliotta cocking up at least once a card. And Kim Winslow endangering lives every other fight she reffed. Herb just doesn’t look at the races in there sometimes and I think it’s worse now because the more conscious he is that people expect him to mess up, the more likely he is to mess up.

Felicia Spencer absolutely battered Leah Letson didn’t she? Felt a bit sorry for Letson, to be honest. All that time out and then comes back for that? Those ground and pound elbows at the end were nasty. Stumped what Spencer does next though because women’s 145 is a wasteland. There’s about 4 women in the division and even Dana said after the show that he’s not sure how much longer they’ll keep it going and that it depends how much longer Amanda Nunes wants to keep defending the belt. I don’t think anyone’s clamouring for Nunes vs Spencer 2 but it’ll probably happen at some point.

The Khaos KO was vicious. The way Baeza went down, initially I thought it was another leg buckling but thankfully not. 

Feel a bit sorry for Baeza. Came in undefeated now he’s on a 2 fight skid. He seems to have taken the loss hard as well. Good fight before the KO, I thought. Baeza was giving him all he could handle early and I really wasn’t sure which way it was going right until that finishing punch connected. Both always fun to watch, looking forward to seeing what’s next for them. 

Song Yadong continues to improve. Nice main card opener with Julio Arce and Song looked really good. One of his better showings in the UFC for me and Arce is tough so it was impressive. So many exciting fights for Song at 135. Again, Bantamweight is another division that’s really gone from strength to strength over the last couple of years. 

Prelims were a good bunch as well. 5 of the 6 ending inside the distance. The two highlights for me though…

Joel Alvarez ripping through Thiago Moises with the elbows of doom. 

Alvarez has really snuck up on everyone. Nobody’s been talking about him but he’s 19-2 now, all finishes and just wrecked Thiago Moises in 3 minutes. When you consider that Moises went into the 4th round against Islam Makhachev in his last fight, this was quite a statement. Only problem with Alvarez is he’s missed weight two fights in a row now. Not good. Don’t know whether he’ll move up to 170 now, or if he’d be as effective there. But he’s someone we should probably be keeping more of an eye on.

And Sean Woodson schooling Collin Anglin in style.

Funny looking sod. Always reminds me of them little football figures with the massive heads that were all the rage in the 90s. But he can definitely fight. Love watching him strike.

Fantastic show. We had that little spell of lacklustre Fight Nights around Sep/Oct but from the Vettori vs Costa fight on, they’ve really been knocking it out of the park. 

Edited November 15, 2021 by wandshogun09

[David]

I think when we see Holloway do this kind of thing, it just reinforces how good Volkanovski is. I think there's a tendency to downplay the guy for some reason, and I have zero doubt if they signed that third fight next Holloway would be the favourite among most fans, which would be insane.

I'm glad they're seemingly moving in different directions now. I want to both see Volkanovski fight some different challengers, and I want to see Holloway get some momentum without Volk crushing it all the time.