UFC San Diego: Vera vs Cruz - Aug 13 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Fight Nights are back on the road again. Fuck the Apex. We’re off to sunny San Diego, California with this lot…

ESPN MAIN CARD
Marlon Vera vs Dominick Cruz 

David Onama vs Nate Landwehr

Yazmin Jauregui vs Iasmin Lucindo

Devin Clark vs Azamat Murzakanov

Ariane Lipski vs Priscila Cachoeira

Gerald Meerschaert vs Bruno Silva

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS  
Angela Hill vs Loopy Godinez

Lukasz Brzeski vs Martin Buday

Cynthia Calvillo vs Nina Nunes

Gabriel Benitez vs Charlie Ontiveros 

Ode Osbourne vs Tyson Nam

Jason Witt vs Josh Quinlan

Youssef Zalal vs Da’Mon Blackshear 

 

That’s the bout order. I like the card quite a bit actually. It’s certainly got my juices flowing more than the Santos vs Hill one on the 6th. Main event is good and there’s a handful of fights and fighters I like sprinkled throughout. Obviously they’ve got to sell tickets to this so you’re gonna get a better card than the Apex ones.

 

 

Marlon Vera vs Dominick Cruz is your 5 round main event. Good fight. Bit of an new breed vs old school feel to it but I quite like the matchup. I wasn’t really expecting this fight to get made. I kind of thought Vera would be matched with someone else given the run he’s been on of late, maybe Sandhagen or someone like that. And I was half expecting Cruz to be paired off with Aldo or Edgar in a bit of a legends fight. But this’ll do nicely.

‘Chito’ Vera is on a good little streak at the moment. He’s 19-7-1 currently and he’s had a few setbacks over the years. But he’s always game for a good scrap and he’s been putting some wins together recently. In his last 3 fights he’s beat Davey Grant on points in a FOTN winning barnburner, then he kicked poor Frankie Edgar’s face off with a POTN winning knockout, then in his last fight in April he battered Rob Font over 5 rounds in another FOTN.

Font got all lumped up. The kind of beating that shaves years off a career. It was competitive throughout, Font was landing a lot and would be winning a few of the rounds, then Vera would just assault him in the last minute and steal the rounds on damage. It was a strong performance from Vera. I always knew he was tough. That was confirmed when I saw him go the distance with John ‘Hands Of Stone’ Lineker years ago. And even now, you look at the guys he’s faced over a 27 fight career and it’s crazy to think about but he’s never been knocked down. He’s hard as nails. I’ve said a few times on here that I’m not really a fan. It’s nothing to do with his fighting, I love watching him, it’s always been more to do with a bit of a dickhead vibe he’s given off at times. But he’s been winning me around a bit. The fact he handed Sean O’Malley his first (and, to date, only) loss and that it bothers the Suga fans so much is enough on its own to make me warm to him.

Cruz is one of the true pioneers of the lighter weight classes. He’s 24-3 now, which doesn’t seem like a ton of fights considering how long he’s been around, but you have to factor in those horrific layoffs he had years ago through injuries. He’ll turn 37 years old a few weeks after this fight. It’s winding down. But what a career. He doesn’t get the credit these days but he’s probably the GOAT at Bantamweight. You look back over his career. He won the WEC belt, won the UFC belt, defended both more than once. Beat Urijah Faber twice, Joseph Benavidez twice, Demetrious Johnson, TJ Dillashaw, Brian Bowles, Scott Jorgensen, blitzed Takeya Mizugaki in a minute. Even recently with his career approaching the finishing line, he’s coming off wins over Casey Kenney and Pedro Munhoz. There are Bantamweights who I think are better than him and the division as a whole is a lot stronger and deeper now than when he was on top. But in terms of a body of work and accomplishments in the division, I can’t think of anyone who’s got a better overall resume at 135 than Cruz. I think newer fans just see him as the dull commentator who jumps in the cage every now and then. But he was a hell of a puzzle to solve at his peak and deserves his props. And I’m not even really a fan. I think I rooted for most of his opponents to beat him over the years. And even today, I can’t stand his boring commentating and I don’t particularly find his fighting style pleasing to watch either. He deserves credit for bringing that frantic movement and footwork style to MMA at a time when nobody was really doing it. But these days, there are so many fighters who’ve adapted that and do it better, now he just looks weird when he’s galloping around and flailing his arms about.

“I just see it as total destruction. How? When? I don’t know what round. Who cares? But he’s going down and I’m going to move forward.” - Marlon Vera on fighting Cruz.

It’s an interesting matchup this. Not sure what to think about it. The timing definitely favours Vera. He’s not even 30 yet and looking at his recent performances, it really feels like he’s just coming into his prime. Cruz is obviously past his and I’m not sure how many fights he has left. It all depends on how Vera responds to Cruz’s awkward herky jerky movement. You’d think most fighters today are used to that stuff now, unlike the guys Cruz would bamboozle in his prime. But you never know until the fight starts. Vera is very straight forward. He doesn’t dance around much, he wants to come forward and smash your face. On paper, that’s the kind of style that plays into Cruz’s game. But I think Cruz being older now and having gone through so many injuries, he’s just lost that little half step of speed that was once there. And I think that’s why we’ve seen him get tagged and dropped more in recent years. Even in his last fight, Munhoz had him badly hurt at one point but couldn’t close the show. I can’t help thinking if ‘Chito’ gets him wobbly like that, he won’t let him off the hook. Solid main event. Don’t know where the winner goes after this. The division is kind of wide open at the moment. Vera is ranked #5, Cruz is ranked #8. So they’re in the conversation. But we’ve also got fights coming up over the next few months like Aldo vs Dvalishvili, Yan vs O’Malley and Sandhagen vs Yadong. It’s all up in the air and it kind of feels like a spectacular win from almost any of these guys could potentially catapult them into a title fight.

 

David Onama vs Nate Landwehr has potential show stealer written all over it. Very high likelihood that one or both of these two leave with some bonus money. This fight was actually supposed to happen in March but Landwehr pulled out. Then Landwehr was set to face Zubaira Tukhugov on this card but Tukhugov withdrew. And here we are. Onama steps in. We got there in the end. Hopefully it happens this time because it’s such a fun fight on paper. Can’t see anything but bell to bell chaos here. Onama has really made a fan of me since signing with the UFC late last year. He made his UFC debut jumping in last minute in October against Mason Jones. Up in weight as well. He lost on points but gave such a great account of himself and made a lot of fans. Since then he’s returned to his weight class, 145, and knocked out Gabriel Benitez in February and submitted Garrett Armfield in July. Quick turnaround for him here but he seems the type who will perform better by staying active. And Landwehr’s a mad bastard. He’s 15-4 now and coming off an anaconda choke sub over Ludovit Klein in October. He’s been very inconsistent in terms of results but when it comes to entertaining scraps, he’s been consistent as fuck! Never a dull moment. This should be no different.

 

Yazmin Jauregui vs Iasmin Lucindo. Couple of Octagon newcomers here. Can’t say I’ve heard of either but, after doing a bit of digging, it doesn’t sound bad. Jauregui’s Mexican, 23 years old and undefeated at 8-0 with 6 knockouts. Almost all her fights came in the Combate Global promotion. Apparently Brandon Moreno’s already hyping her up as a future UFC champion. Obviously early days and it could just be Mexican loyalty speaking on Moreno’s part there. But she’s definitely off to a strong start. Lucindo is Brazilian and 13-4 with 10 finishes. Can’t find a lot of info about her but she’s only 20 years old, which makes her now the youngest fighter on the roster, even younger than Muhammad Mokaev. She was born in 2002. I feel old as fuck. Marcel Dorff tweeted that she made her pro debut at just 15 years old as well! Nuts.

 

Devin Clark vs Azamat Murzakanov. Quite like the sound of this. I’ve been critical of Clark in the past but, fair dos, he’s been fun to watch lately. Up until his recent fights he always struck me as a guy whose heart just wasn’t really in it. Like he had all the physical gifts and the athleticism and all that, but never really had the stomach for a gritty, ugly fight. He’s proven me wrong recently. Especially the fight against Ion Cutelaba where he literally got his teeth smashed up but kept going for it and somehow went the distance. He took a fight at Heavyweight last time out and stopped William Knight as well. He’ll never be champ, or even a contender, but he’s alright. And my initial opinion on him was definitely harsh and wrong. Looking forward to seeing Murzakanov back in there as well…

That’s how his UFC debut ended back in March. A beautiful third round flying knee KO against Tafon Nchukwi. He’s undefeated at 11-0 with 9 finishes. 8 by knockout. A lot of his opposition are unknown Russians but I did spot that he scored a 50 second KO over Andre Muniz in 2016 that’s ageing well. Muniz is looking a right handful in the Middleweight division these days. Decent fight this. Like I say, Clark’s no contender but he’s mixed with a few of them. So this should give us a good read on what Murzakanov is about. At 35 years old, he’s no spring chicken so why waste time? Let’s see what he’s got.

 

Ariane Lipski vs Priscila Cachoeira. Yeah, nothing really to see here. This was meant to happen on the Santos vs Hill/TUF Finale card on the 6th but got pushed back a week. I don’t really mind Lipski but she’s never gonna amount to much. She’s already stumbled at the Joanne Wood, Molly McCann, Antonina Shevchenko level so there’s not much chance of her suddenly levelling up and going on some run at a belt. She did beat Mandy Bohm and I loved that kneebar she pulled off a while back but she’s pretty much found her level at this point. I’m not a fan of Cachoeira ever since that dirty and blatant eye gouging shit she pulled against Gillian Robertson. But she might actually make this more watchable. She’s aggressive, to a fault sometimes, and she’s coming off an unexpected wild FOTN scrap with Ji Yeon Kim in February which I really enjoyed. Not expecting much from this but we’ll see.

 

Gerald Meerschaert vs Bruno Silva is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Partly because I always like to highlight our Gez’s fights but also, it’s a genuinely fun and interesting piece of matchmaking. In a way I’m a bit torn on this one because I always root for Meerschaert but I’ve become quite a fan of Silva too. And with both coming off losses, I wanna see both return to the win column but obviously only one will. This’ll be Meerschaert’s 50th processional MMA fight. The big 50. He’s 34-15 now and of his 34 wins, only 2 were by decision. The man’s a legit finisher. A whopping 26 came via submission so you know what his bread and butter is. Love Gerald. Not only a tough as nails battler but seems a top bloke with it. Silva’s a little bit less experienced but still, this will be fight number 30 for him. He’s 22-7 with 19 knockouts. So on paper you might think it’s grappler vs striker, and I guess it kind of is to an extent, but these two can do damage wherever the fight goes. They’ve both pretty much seen everything in there at this point. Meerschaert’s coming off a ball achingly dull points loss to Krzysztof Jotko in April. Says it all about how boring Jotko is that he was able to drag Gerry into a dud. And Silva lost a decision to Alex Pereira in March. A loss that’s not ageing too badly considering how devastating Pereira’s looked against everyone else. Silva’s the only guy who’s taken Pereira the distance so far in MMA. This’ll be good. Both go for the kill from whatever position they find themselves in. It’s got the feel to me of Meerschaert catching a beating but I thought the same when he fought Makhmud Muradov and, while he did get battered early, he found a way to get the sub. Good stuff this.

 

Angela Hill vs Loopy Godinez was actually supposed to go down in October but it’s been rushed forward for some reason and chucked on here. It’ll be at a catchweight of 120lbs due to the short notice for both women. I like the matchup but I’d rather they’d have left it where it was in October. Now they’re gonna be coming in with very limited prep time and we probably won’t get the best out of them. Loopy’s done this a few times as well. The company must love her because she’s willing to jump in at a moment’s notice but I said before I wish she wouldn’t. I think she’s got serious potential but these last minute fights aren’t always a good idea and it’s already cost her a couple of times. I get why she does it because they’re probably paying her peanuts so she wants to stay active. She’s probably thinking that by bringing this fight forward a couple of months, she’ll be able to get paid then squeeze another couple of fights in before the end of the year. I get it. But it’s a shame fighters feel they have to do shit like that because, while the short term financial gain is a plus, it can really hinder their long term progression if they’re jumping in not fully prepared and losing fights they’d have otherwise won. Anyway, this should be an enjoyable fight. Like I said, Loopy has shown real promise. She’s 28 years old, 8-2 and looked an absolute beast in her last fight in particular, dominating Ariane Carnelossi at UFC 274 in May.

Strongest performance of her career to date. Completely schooled Carnelossi the whole 15 minutes and got a couple of 30-26 scorecards. Can’t ever accuse Angela Hill of trying to take easy fights. She’s nearly a decade older at 37 and she’s gone 1-5 in her last 6. She’s been in with a higher level of opposition and a couple of those losses were dodgy decisions but it’s still not a good look. She could’ve done with an easier fight this time but she’s signed to face Godinez so fair play. The short notice is a wild card for both, it’s mostly gonna depend on who was in better shape when the call came. But I’d have to favour Loopy here. She’s younger, stronger, more well rounded and her style is the type that could really give Hill fits.

 

Lukasz Brzeski vs Martin Buday. Don’t know. Never seen Brzeski, seen Buday once and barely remember him. Looking up Brzeski, he’s Polish, 8-1-1-1 with 7 finishes. Don’t have a clue about any of his opposition in Poland but he’s already managed to pick up a loss, a draw and a No Contest. The NC was in his last fight on DWCS in September. Anyone know the story there? And is this guy any good or just another Heavyweight jabroni? Buday is Slovakian, 10-1 with 8 finishes, mostly knockouts. He dropped a decision to former TUF winner Juan Espino in 2017 but hasn’t lost since. Made his UFC debut in April and beat Chris Barnett.

 

Cynthia Calvillo vs Nina Nunes is doing sod all for me. It was originally supposed to go down on the Fiziev vs RDA card in early July but Nunes dropped out with an illness. The delay has done nothing to increase my anticipation. They’re not even terrible fighters, it’s just a nothing fight. I remember Calvillo had a bit of a promising start to her UFC career. She came in undefeated and rattled off 3 wins in quick succession, won 6 of her first 8 inside the Octagon etc. I remember Dana seemed quite high on her at the time but it’s fizzled out. She’s 9-4-1 now, has lost 3 on the bounce and is coming off back-to-back TKO losses to Jessica Andrade and Andrea Lee. Nunes is 10-7 and coming off a couple of losses herself. She’s had her moments, the 2018 decision win over Claudia Gadelha being the high point. But she’s never been consistent enough to make a serious run at a belt or anything. She lost to Tatiana Suarez in 2019, took a long break to have her daughter and came back last April only to get submitted by Mackenzie Dern. At 36, I can’t see her making a splash now but this is basically a coin flip at this stage.

 

Gabriel Benitez vs Charlie Ontiveros is alright undercard filler. Benitez has never been anything to write home about and every memory I have of him is him losing. But I don’t remember him ever being boring. He’s a jobber who jobs in style. I’m being harsh. He’s had his moments. He scored a nasty knee to the body stoppage on Justin Jaynes a while back, and a slam KO before that. But it’s mostly been losses. He’s 22-10 overall now, and 1-4 in his last 5. At 34, I think it’s safe to say the ship’s sailed on him going on some big run. He’s basically become a guy they feed to prospects on the way up the ladder. We’ve seen it in his last 2 fights where David Onama and Billy Quarantillo added him to their highlight reel. I think they’ve finally given him a winnable fight here though.

Ol’ Sideshow Bob Ontiveros is back. He’s 31 years old and 11-8 in MMA. He’s going nowhere. Didn’t help that they threw him straight in with Kevin Holland in his UFC debut. That ended about as well as you’d expect as he got slammed and injured 2 minutes in and the fight was stopped. He returned a year later and got stopped by Steve Garcia in a fight I remember quite enjoying, to be fair. So yeah, neither are any great shakes but I’d expect Benitez to have enough about him to pull a win out of this. Could be a ‘loser leaves town’ situation though.

 

Ode Osbourne vs Tyson Nam just got added late in the day. I like it. Osbourne has been wildly inconsistent in the UFC and when he first came in I had him down as some nothing happening ham and egger for a bit. He’s really grown on me though. He’s from Kingston, Jamaica and he’s 11-4-0-1 with 9 finishes. Not gonna give any of the top boys at Flyweight sleepless nights but he’s solid for where he is on the cards and he’s always enjoyable to watch, win or lose.

There he is ironing out Zarrukh Adashev in his last fight in June. Lasted about a minute. He beat CJ Vergara on points before that and walloped Jerome Rivera in just 26 seconds up at Featherweight last year. Even in his KO loss against Manel Kape, I recall him doing well early in that one too. He’s one of those guys who you see on a card and might skip over but his record doesn’t really do him justice as far as being an exciting fighter goes. He’s pretty much always a highlight of the prelims for me. And Nam is much the same way so I expect this to be all kinds of fun. I’ve had a soft spot for Nam for years, ever since he sparked then Bellator champ Eduardo Dantas on a card in Brazil. That was in the Bjorn Rebney days of Bellator and Bjorn was so cocky he thought his champ could take a squash match on the side and Nam would just be cannon fodder. He fucked up and Nam uncorked the shock KO about 90 seconds into the first round. Always love when an underdog does shit like that. I remember Nam and Kai Kara-France having a belter on the New Zealand card in 2020 as well. He’s 38 years old now with a record of 20-12-1. He hasn’t fought for well over a year either so this could be a rough return for him but he’ll be up for it as always.

 

Jason Witt vs Josh Quinlan. Dunno. Maybe it’ll be good but I don’t know enough about either to say I give much of a shite. In fairness to Witt, I vaguely remember enjoying his last fight with Phil Rowe and I know I loved his slugfest with Barberena before that. But everyone has slobberknockers with Barberena don’t they? Witt actually got the win though, which I didn’t remember. He’s 19-8 now and has been alternating wins and losses for the last 2 years. Never heard of this Quinlan bloke but he’s unbeaten at 5-0-0-1 with the No Contest coming in his last fight on DWCS in September. Anyone see that? Apparently the fight was stopped 47 seconds in and ruled a NC. For him to get straight in the UFC off the back of that, I’m guessing he was hard done by somehow?

 

Youssef Zalal vs Da’Mon Blackshear is a late switch up. Zalal was originally scheduled to face DWCS newcomer Cristian Quinonez but Quinonez is out. Zalal’s nothing special but, to be fair, I vaguely recall enjoying watching him in the past. He’s Moroccan, 25 years old with a 10-5 record. Comes into this fight off 3 consecutive losses and, seeing as his name isn’t Sam Alvey, that means he could be on the chopping block here. He’s not as bad as his record suggests. Even during this recent losing streak, he went the distance with Ilia Topuria and took Sean Woodson to a split decision. Has UFC wins over Austin Lingo, Jordan Griffin and Peter Barrett.

There’s a man who loves his job. I don’t think I’ve ever looked that happy at work. So yeah, Blackshear makes his UFC debut. He’s 27 years old, 12-4 with 9 finishes (8 by submission) and fights out of Jackson-Wink. He’s the Cage Fury champ and has also fought in Bellator and Titan FC.

 

And that’s UFC San Diego.

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by wandshogun09

[Panhead]

I'm quite looking forward to this. Obviously having our favourite Sax Machine on the card is always a winner, but I like Grasso too and NATE THE TRAIN, BABY!! 

[Egg Shen]

Marcel has you covered wand:

 

[wandshogun09]

That’s better. Isn’t it amazing how much better a card can look, with the exact same fights but in the correct order. Happy to see they put Onama vs Landwehr on the main card where it belongs.

While I’m here, I threw this together a while back. I think prefer mine to the official poster. 

Edited July 29, 2022 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

This card’s been taking a beating.

- Alexa Grasso is out of her co-main event with Viviane Araujo. As far as I can tell they’ve just scrapped it rather than look for a replacement.

- Aspen Ladd is out of the Sara McMann fight. My first thought was it was another weight cutting issue but apparently she’s got COVID. Not sure if they’re looking for a replacement to fight McMann or if they’re gonna reschedule this fight for a later date.

- DWCS newbie Cristian Quinonez dropped out so Youssef Zalal now faces another newcomer in Da’Mon Blackshear.

- And for some reason, they’ve decided to bring the Angela Hill vs Loopy Godinez fight, that was originally set for October, forward to next week. I guess because a couple of fights dropped off but, to be honest, I’d rather lose a fight completely and have a slightly shorter card than rush a couple of fighters out there with pretty much no training camp. 

Hopefully that’s it for card changes but, you know, we’re still over a week out. The bout order’s probably all to cock again now with the changes. I’ll update it when it’s confirmed.

[wandshogun09]

Updated the opening post. Bout order’s changed again. Onama vs Landwehr is now co-main! I like it. Redone the poll to include that fight now as well. 

[Egg Shen]

like to see that! although im surprised they didn't just put Angela Hill in that spot.

[Zebra Kid Mark]

This is quite a weak card in my opinion with a very strong main event. Hopefully the fact it is in front of a crowd will make the show a lot more fun than it currently looks.

[wandshogun09]

On 8/11/2022 at 1:36 PM, Zebra Kid Mark said:

This is quite a weak card in my opinion with a very strong main event. Hopefully the fact it is in front of a crowd will make the show a lot more fun than it currently looks.

I think it’s a good card myself. The main event is its main strength but Onama vs Landwehr and Meerschaert vs Silva are real solid matchups for the main card. Even the Jauregui vs Lucindo fight has my interest, both making their debuts but it sounds like a fight worth checking out and there are high hopes for Jauregui especially from what I’ve read. On the prelims I really think that Osbourne vs Nam might be the sleeper FOTN and I’ve always got time for a Loopy Godinez fight. By usual Fight Night standards, I actually think this is pretty sweet. For me it’s exactly the right mix of established names, veterans and some newcomers trying to break through that these Fight Nights really should be about. 

[wandshogun09]

Anyone seen the stuff about Marlon Vera’s daughter going into this? She has Moebius syndrome which effects the ability to make facial expressions. I think I somehow missed the story at the time, despite looking now and finding a bunch of old articles about it. She had surgery a few years ago from money he’d saved throughout his career and money raised through a GoFundMe that was set up. A big chunk of the donations came from people involved with MMA as well as MMA fans. And the surgery was successful. A nice story, right?

Well this week, some absolute scum on social media have been using pictures of Vera’s kid in memes taking the piss. I won’t share it here because it’s disgusting and doesn’t deserve sharing. But it was vile stuff. 

He’d already been slowly winning me around and I’d have been pulling for him against Cruz anyway. But knowing this story now, you’d have to be a cold hearted sod to not want him to do well. 

Edited August 12, 2022 by wandshogun09

[Zebra Kid Mark]

After his fight with Rob Font he had his 3 kids in the cage with him and I don't know why but I felt a bit teary from it all. I then researched her condition and read all about the good stuff he has done for her. 

[Egg Shen]

Have a feeling Chito's winning this violently around the mid-stages

 

 

[Egg Shen]

[Zebra Kid Mark]

What a fun main card! Crowd were red hot for it and it made the show all the more better.

GM3 winning via sub is always fun to watch, but what was even more surprising is he won every round before hand. That's unlike him.

Nate the Train and Onama lit up the co main even spot, I pray Nate never fights in the Apex again as he needs to fight in front of fans. What a star. 

Chito Vera is a hard guy to beat when it's 5 rounds. You think you are out classing him in rounds 1 and 2 but he never quits, this is a bold statement but I don't see him losing in a 5 round fight for a long time. He will be champion one day. He's not even 30 yet.

EDIT: Also I was surprised that no one on commentary picked up on the fact that Vera mangled up Cruz's nose with that final kick. It was clear as day on the replay.

EDIT V2: I hope Cruz sticks around, he was very quick in this fight and was much better than his 2 previous outings, he was just up against a very game Chito. He shouldn't be ashamed of his performance.

Edited August 14, 2022 by Zebra Kid Mark

[wandshogun09]

Vera vs Cruz was an enjoyable fight. I wasn’t sure how it would play out, as it got closer I had a gut feeling Vera might stop him but it was just that, a gut feeling based on Cruz coming towards the end of his career and getting clipped more frequently in recent fights.

I’m not even really a Cruz fan but I felt a bit sad seeing him get his face and nose kicked in like that. That era when I’m guessing most of us on here really got into MMA, there’s not many of those names still around competing at a high level anymore. Cruz is one of them. So I guess that’s why it feels like a bit of a downer. That said, Cruz fought well. He didn’t embarrass himself by any means. He still looked pretty fast, he was still moving well etc. He seemed more aggressive for this one as well. Even during the walkout, he looked more fired up than usual and actually a bit angry. I was happy to see Vera get the win though. I had a feeling he might hang back a bit more in this one and just pick his shots. We saw him do that in the Rob Font fight and it worked a treat there. But with Cruz’s style, there was part of me thinking Vera might just let too many rounds slip by while Cruz did his thing. That was the only thing giving me doubts really. And that was pretty much happening for spells of it. Jason Parillo was clearly aware of that though and was telling Chito as much between rounds. It’s a risky game to play but in the end, he got to Cruz and the power made the difference. Once he started dropping him towards the end and the accumulation of Vera’s shots seemed to be troubling him, you got the sense it was just a matter of time.

All I could think coming out of this fight was that I really wanna see Chito Vera vs Petr Yan. Apparently it was in the works for this card but Vera said Yan turned it down because he was “too fat from eating pizza” or something 🤣 it’s definitely a fight I wanna see though. Actually, Vera vs the winner of Yan/O’Malley sounds like a plan. We either get Vera vs Yan which just sounds like beautiful violence. Or we get Vera vs O’Malley 2.

As for Cruz, I think he showed he’s got some fight in him but it’s got to be coming to an end soon. If Aldo loses to Merab next week, I think an Aldo vs Cruz legends fight makes a lot of sense. If Aldo beats Merab, I think he should get a title shot and if that happens, a Cruz vs Frankie Edgar legends fight might be the one to do. Either way, I wanna see a legends fight. It’s mad really that Cruz never crossed paths with Aldo or Edgar throughout their long careers. I’d still watch ‘em.

Landwehr vs Onama was typical of what we’ve come to expect from those two. Nutty fight. I loved everything about it. The face off in the cage during the intros set the tone and then Onama got off to such a strong start, he had a hell of an opening round. Nate did well to turn it around towards the end. And then as the second and third round wore on, Nate’s constant pressure and pace seemed to just overwhelm Onama. Couldn’t believe the mad shit went for a piledriver at one point! And this was fucking mental…

Landwehr’s stupidly entertaining to watch but what an idiot 😂 one of these days he’s gonna do something like that and get flattened. If Onama had more left in the tank by that point he might’ve been the one to do it. He did have that one last big flurry right at the end but it was too late. Even Teddy Atlas was losing the few marbles he had left over it…

High praise! I wouldn’t go that far myself but it’s easy in the heat of the moment to go a bit overboard. Crazy fight though. Definitely on my list for best fights so far this year. You know it’s good when 15 minutes just whizzes by like nothing. There was so much going on and it was so much fun I had to double check that the rounds weren’t 3 minutes!

I thought the Yazmin Jauregui vs Iasmin Lucindo fight was fantastic. Can’t remember another example where we’ve seen 2 fighters making their UFC debut deliver a fight like this. Especially considering they’re only 23 and 20 respectively. Bright futures ahead for both.

I saw some moaning this week about this fight getting such high billing on the card. I got that to an extent, two newcomers third from top on a main card did seem a bit odd. But with how good this fight was, I’m glad they weren’t buried on Fight Pass to an audience of 12 and a half people or something. Both fucking went for it, Jauregui just had that bit more quality and accuracy to her stuff. The chin on Lucindo to eat some of those shots! The fact she’s already had 17 fights at 20 years old is mad. Dana rushed right over to Jauregui as soon as she left the Octagon.

Not often you see that after a debut. Really looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for these two. If it wasn’t for the madness that was Landwehr vs Onama, I think this would’ve been my FOTN.

Azamat Murzakanov remains unbeaten. Improves to 12-0 with 10 finishes.

That must’ve fucking sucked! Crushing body shot. Felt bad for Clark but I do love a body shot stoppage. This Murzakanov guy looks like a bit of a problem. Still a long way to go but it’s 205, not like he’s in some mega deep division. And let’s face it, 205 needs all the new faces it can get at the moment. Some fun fights to make in the middle of the pack. Cutelaba and Walker spring to mind, just off the top of my head.

Priscila Cachoeira walloping Ariane Lipski in a minute wasn’t really how I pictured that one playing out but it shouldn’t have been a shock really. Cachoeira isn’t without flaws but if she’s got anything about her it’s aggression and power early in a fight.

Our Gerald getting back in the win column after that stinker with Jotko was lovely to see. And like Zebra says, for once he didn’t go through utter hell to get the submission. And against a tough guy in Bruno Silva.

I really thought this was gonna be more of a dogfight than it was. Thought it was a fight Meerschaert could definitely win but one that would be rough early on. By Meerschaert’s standards he came out relatively unscathed here though. Liked the Petroski callout. I’m up for that.

Angela Hill beating Loopy Godinez was mildly surprising to me. I like both but I really thought Loopy would be all wrong for Hill. But then again, I never expected Loopy to almost totally abandon her wrestling either. For once Hill actually got a decision go her way though! Really enjoyed this fight. I know Hill’s record is crap but I love watching her fight. She’s consistently in fun scraps. I can’t figure Godinez out though. She’ll look like a killer one fight then loses next time. You get the feeling she could’ve made this fight fairly straightforward if she’d gone with a more grappling based approach. It would’ve been the easiest path against a striker like Hill. Baffling. Maybe it’s the old Mexican pride thing. Once she got tagged, she wanted to fire back and the fight fell into a pattern from there. Or maybe like I said in the opening post, bringing the fight forward 2 months just came at a better time for Hill than Godinez. Still a close and competitive fight throughout, and bags of fun to watch, but the right woman won for me.

Quite liked the Buday vs Brzeski fight and I didn’t really expect to. They were both bringing it. Seen a lot of people complaining that Brzeski should’ve got the decision and I can see why. Didn’t feel like robbery to me, it was one of those fights where Brzeski was landing more but Buday was landing heavier. By the end I really wasn’t sure which way it was going. Good scrap from the big lads.

Nina Nunes vs Cynthia Calvillo was arse but I expected nothing more from it. Almost killed the prelims dead though. They’d been good up to this point, then these two went out there and sucked the life out of the place. Don’t even know about the decision. Nunes got the split but I ended up skimming through much of the second and third rounds because I was losing the will to live and we’ve all got better shit to do. Nice moment for Nina retiring in the cage, I suppose, with the baby in there and stuff. Fight was terrible though.

Benitez vs Ontiveros was a fun few minutes. Had a feeling Benitez would get a W this time. Just never thought much of Ontiveros. Benitez has never been anything special but he’s a tough little fucker and usually always fairly entertaining to watch. It was nice to see him get a win like this. He battered old Sideshow.

Tyson Nam vs Ode Osbourne was short and sweet. Like I said in the opening post, I enjoy watching both of these two but it was nice to see Nam get the win and a big finish after a long layoff. The commentary for this was hilarious as well. I don’t know about anyone else but I find Cormier so fucking overbearing on commentary these days. He was alright when he first started but now he just chats proper shit and shouts over everyone. First he kept disagreeing with Bisping about guys smiling when they get hit or some bollocks. Then he was banging on that Osbourne was winning the fight after less than 3 minutes into the first round. Bisping was trying to say “it’s a little early to say that” or something and DC just kept talking over him and then right when he was at his smuggest and doubling down on it…

😂 Hit him with the old Fedor-Arlovski. It really couldn’t have been timed better. DC shut right up and Osbourne’s back had barely even touched the canvas before Bisping was rubbing his nose in it. “DC, he’s winning!” Loved it. I really think DC was arsey about Bisping’s joke in one of the earlier fights about there “not being a gi in the world that would fit DC”. He seemed to be looking to disagree with Bisping on anything after that. I was a big fan during his fighting days but I’ve got to say, I’m sick of him on commentary. Him and Rogan together is the worst.

Josh Quinlan made quite a first impression with his first round knockout of Jason Witt.

Nice to see he had the presence of mind to pull that last follow up punch as well. You don’t see that often. Usually in the excitement and with the adrenaline pumping, fighters will land a few unnecessary shots. Shows how calm and collected Quinlan must’ve been in there, especially considering it was his UFC debut. Witt fucked up just sloppily wading in with that kick and paid the price big time. Quinlan looks worth keeping tabs on.

Really fun show all in all. The main card especially was quality but the prelims had their moments as well. That rotten Nunes vs Calvillo fight dragged it down a bit but that was probably the only outright bad thing on the show.