Paid Members Carbomb Posted July 10, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted July 10, 2022 It's a shame Aiemann Zahabi hasn't had the career he was touted to have. I remembered watching his first UFC match, and his striking was slick and a joy to watch - everything you'd expect from Firas' brother. Was really hoping he'd go on to bigger things than he's done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zebra Kid Mark Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 In my opinion this was a bit of a flat show. Michael Johnson vs Malarkey was definitely the most fun fights, both guys came to fight. I had it for Johnson just a little bit but it was so close that I can see how the judges gave it to Malarkey. The main event was a bit of a snoozer in my opinion and I was sad to see RDA get caught as he was up on my score cards. Rafael Fiziev vs Beniul would be the fight I make next. I can't see any other top 5 ranked lightweights wanting to fight him. Also gutted to see Ronnie Lawrence get dominated from start to finish, his opponent looks a handful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 11, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted July 11, 2022 On 7/10/2022 at 2:53 AM, Carbomb said: It's a shame Aiemann Zahabi hasn't had the career he was touted to have. I remembered watching his first UFC match, and his striking was slick and a joy to watch - everything you'd expect from Firas' brother. Was really hoping he'd go on to bigger things than he's done. but he won? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted July 11, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted July 11, 2022 3 minutes ago, Egg Shen said: but he won? Yeh, but since he debuted, he hasn't really lit the UFC on fire. Maybe he's a slow-burner, and this is him on his way up. As wand said, though, he's sort of leaving it a little late to get going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted July 11, 2022 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 11, 2022 Yeah definitely the least enjoyable and least eventful card we’ve had in a while. Not terrible or anything, not even the worst Apex card we’ve had in the last year or so, but the last 4 or 5 shows (PPVs and Fight Nights) have really delivered for me and this one didn’t quite hit the spot. Still some fun to be had in there though. Fiziev vs Dos Anjos never caught fire like I’d hoped. I think the fact this was the third attempt at actually getting the fight in the cage didn’t help in my case because it just built up the anticipation and expectations that bit more. Not a bad fight but nowhere near as good as I thought it’d be. Fiziev looked good but it wasn’t the big breakthrough, introduction to the main events, performance he’d have probably liked. I think the finish saved it though. That’s the main thing people are gonna remember anytime this fight gets brought up in the future. If it had gone that extra few minutes and went the distance, there might’ve been a bit of criticism aimed at Fiziev because he wasn’t really putting his foot on the gas for big spells of the fight. I think maybe he had some doubts about going 5 rounds so wanted to conserve energy, the 4th was his worst round and RDA’s best. But then Fiziev came out guns blazing at the start of the 5th and look what happened. I actually saw some talk about the stoppage being early after the fight. Must’ve been the initial angle on the live feed making people think that because the replays showed it was a perfectly legitimate stoppage by Mark Smith. The left hook that started it all was flush and RDA looked bollocksed from that but the follow up on the ground was the one. That was vicious and RDA was 100% done at that point. Despite the fight not being a barnburner or a stellar performance from Fiziev, stopping RDA like that is still quite a feather in the cap. Yeah, RDA is ageing and his best years are behind him but he’s shown in recent fights he’s still got some fight in him and you’re going all the way back to the Eddie Alvarez loss in 2016 to find an example of him being finished. Prime Ferguson couldn’t put him away and even up at 170 he went the distance with a bunch of the top guys. Not sure what’s next for Fiziev. This was undoubtedly the biggest win of his career to date and he’s going to be mixing with those top ranked Lightweights now. I like Zebra’s idea of Fiziev vs Dariush. Looking at the Top 10, that’s probably the most logical fight to make now. Dariush is the forgotten man at 155 but he’s right up there and is currently without a dance partner. I’d love to see Fiziev bag a fight with Gaethje, Poirier or Chandler as well. Any of them could be fantastic. What I don’t wanna see is him booked against a Gamrot, Ismagulov, Tsarukyan etc. As much as I’d enjoy those fights, I think those new breed guys would all benefit more from getting the ‘rub’ of facing the established old guard of 155 now, rather than being paired off against each other. Fuck knows where RDA goes from here. He turns 38 this year and he’s had so many gruelling battles. Still looks decent all things considered but he’s just not in that title mix form anymore. Sad as I am to admit it. Still some fun fights to make if he’s gonna carry on but I’m not sure how long he’s gonna wanna keep going if he’s locked out of the title picture. I wouldn’t mind seeing some matchups against other veterans or guys on a bit of a slide. Something like RDA vs Joe Lauzon could be fun. Or, as unlikely as it seems now, even get that McGregor fight that we were supposed to see in 2016 booked. Caio Borralho didn’t wow anyone in the co-main. I remember thinking he looked ace in his UFC debut before the unfortunate ending. He really seemed like he’d be one of those fighters who’s all action in any position. This was very one-note but, in fairness, I got his point in the post-fight interview. The grappling was the path of least resistance and he won comfortably there. I think there’ll be much better to come from Borralho. I liked his callout of Dricus Du Plessis but I can’t see it happening next myself. I think Du Plessis is due something a bit tastier than that after winning that nutty fight against Brad Tavares at 276. They’ll probably meet at some point but, for right now, I think DDP is just a couple of steps ahead and fighting Borralho now would kind of be a step backwards. I wouldn’t hate it if they booked it next though. Enjoyed the Said Nurmagomedov vs Douglas Silva De Andrade fight. Nice test for Said at this point in his career, De Andrade’s a tough little sod. Said looked good. Although I can’t help thinking him absolutely spamming the fuck out of the spinning attacks is gonna land him in trouble sooner or later. He’s good at it, don’t get me wrong. But he goes to that well so many times. The beauty of ‘spinning shit’ is that it’s usually unpredictable and you can catch an opponent off guard. With Said though, he was doing it so much here that it actually became very predictable. Against a more polished and slick striker, I could definitely see him getting timed and countered with something nasty. He’s got a lot of potential though and I’m looking forward to seeing more from him. Chase Sherman vs Jared Vanderaa was a bit of a pleasant surprise. Expected nothing from this. It was a rather entertaining sloppy brawl though. To be fair, Sherman’s had one or two slobberknockers I’ve enjoyed in the past and Vanderaa plays the part of punching bag very well. Tough guy but that final barrage was rough to watch. Felt like the ref could’ve stepped in a bit sooner actually, Vanderaa probably ate 2 or 3 punches too many. These two are obviously never gonna amount to anything. They’ll get fed to your Romanovs and Pavlovichs every now and then and that’ll be that. But once in a while, when they’re matched up against each other, it’s actually pretty fun. Aiemann Zahabi had a good showing, bursting the bubble of TUF winner Turcios. Never really had a dog in the race here but, while I don’t mind Zahabi, I was kind of hoping Turcios would go on a bit of a run. He really won me over in that TUF finale last summer. Nice win for Ariel Zahabi though. Hopefully he can stay a bit more active now. This is a couple of solid wins in a row but he has those big gaps between fights and it’s really stalled his momentum. He’ll be 35 later in the year as well. Time to make something happen. Mullarkey vs Johnson didn’t have much competition for FOTN but this would’ve got it on a lot of cards regardless. Always had a real strong chance of stealing the show. Like I say every time he fights, Mullarkey is a true scrapper. He might not know how to put his shorts on the right way but once the cage door shuts there’s never a dull moment. Saw there was a fair bit of debate about the decision here. I’ll be honest, I completely lost track of scoring it. Between getting caught up and losing myself in the twists and turns and my boy jumping all over me, I didn’t have a clue who won when it was over. A lot of the reaction I’ve read seems to think Johnson got a bit of a raw deal. I didn’t really feel like that watching it but, like I said, I lost track. Cracking fight either way. Cody Brundage stopped Tresean Gore in brutal fashion. Gore’s gone from being a favourite on TUF who was being hyped up pretty good to 0-2 in the UFC in no time. I remember before his debut he was talking about winning titles and all sorts. Whenever a guy starts talking like that just a few fights into their career it seems to backfire. Shades of Brandon Vera claiming he was gonna be champ at Heavyweight and 205, only to completely flop. I wanted Gore to win this just because Brundage seems a bit of a twat to me, but it all went tits up and Brundage got him out of there early. David Onama continues to be an undercard highlight for me. Really like this guy so far. Showing some different stuff with the submission finish as well. He does have a few subs on his record but watching his debut against Mason Jones and then the big knockout he scored against Gabriel Benitez, I pretty much just had him down as a striker. Nice to see a different wrinkle to his game. That’s 10-1 now with 10 finishes. Still fairly early days for him in the UFC but there are so many potential bangers to make with him in the Featherweight division. And at 28, he should be around a while yet. Saidyokub Kakhramonov looked like a problem in my ‘one to watch’ against Ronnie Lawrence. I’ll be honest, I highlighted this fight mostly because I’d loved what I’d seen of Lawrence. I knew Kakhramonov was good and would be a test, I expected a fun and competitive fight. Kakhramonov pretty much took him to school here though. Again, like Onama at 145, there are so many good fights to make for both of these two at Bantamweight. So yeah, not a great show or anything but some stuff worth checking. But really if you missed this one you didn’t miss all that much. Fizzy’s finish, Mullarkey vs Johnson and, surprisingly, maybe Sherman vs Vanderaa are the only things I’d say to go back and take a look at if you’ve got some time to kill. Roll on the Long Island and London cards over the next two weekends! Should be a return to form looking at those two cards on paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 Went back and watched the Johnson/Mullarky fight. Round 2 is clealry Mullarky, Round 3 is Johnsons. Johnson got a raw deal in the fact that he lost R1 despite dropping his opponent. He lost the round in my eyes as he got dropped as well, and Mullarky bombed him with four big elbows immediately after. Great fight though. Never watched the TUF he was on and whether all of his showmanship worked, but Turcios suffered with Kevin Holland-itis in this fight to me. All that noise, but very little action. Didnt come across well at all here for me, completley outsmarted for the fight. The Sherman fight was a very good heavyweight scrap. Good highlight reel KO too. Gutted for RDA. To me, he lost R1 and R2, but all that grappling was starting to pay dividends later in the fight, which gave him much more success in R3 and especially R4. R4 was clearly RDA's best round, which made the KO out of nowehere even more gutting. I fancied RDA's chances of squeaking out a win after R4, but was unfortunate to be blasted by that sweet punch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 12, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted July 12, 2022 I didn't see this but im seeing the posts about Turcios breaking records the lowest amount of significant strikes landed in a fight. 11% or something. I hope he get it together, proper likeable character. Tresean Gore could be cut going 0-2. It might be for the best, let him go have winnable fights in the LFA then bring him back. He was only 3-0 pre-UFC, the guy has proper raw power but it's too much too soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted July 12, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted July 12, 2022 I had that main event as being very close going into the fifth. Definitely didn't see an awful lot separating them. Clearly they each had a more favourable way for the fight to go, of it was to go their way, but both men were doing well enough in the other's department that this fight was hinging on round five. Then Fiziev goes out there with a left straight from the Devil's Arsehole, and it was all she wrote. It'd be absolutely no fun at all to get hit by that man. The strikes are fast and damn solid. I like Wand's idea of just pairing off all of these tough ass, younger headcases with the bigger names. Oliveira/Makhachev can battle it out for the belt. Underneath that: Poirier Vs Gamrot Gaethje Vs Fiziev Ferguson Vs Jalin Turner McGregor Vs Chandler (Have to be realistic here) RDA Vs Tsarukyan Dariush Vs Ismagulov Hooker Vs Gillespie Jim Miller Vs Brad Riddell Whatever fucking way you want to jumble the lot of them. Throw them all on one PPV and have a pick n' mix. What a division. That's not even counting loads of other up and comers and potentially either Holloway or Volkanovski moving up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted July 12, 2022 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 12, 2022 16 minutes ago, WeeAl said: the Devil's Arsehole Otherwise known as this event’s poster…  18 minutes ago, WeeAl said: I like Wand's idea of just pairing off all of these tough ass, younger headcases with the bigger names. Oliveira/Makhachev can battle it out for the belt. Underneath that: Poirier Vs Gamrot Gaethje Vs Fiziev Ferguson Vs Jalin Turner McGregor Vs Chandler (Have to be realistic here) RDA Vs Tsarukyan Dariush Vs Ismagulov Hooker Vs Gillespie Jim Miller Vs Brad Riddell I’m in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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