UFC 279: Diaz vs Ferguson - Sep 10 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Sin City for this madness…

PPV MAIN CARD
Nate Diaz vs Tony Ferguson

Khamzat Chimaev vs Kevin Holland

Li Jingliang vs Daniel Rodriguez 

Irene Aldana vs Macy Chiasson

Johnny Walker vs Ion Cutelaba    

ESPN PRELIMS 
Hakeem Dawodu vs Julian Erosa

Jailton Almeida vs Anton Turkalj 

Jamie Pickett vs Denis Tiuliulin

Jake Collier vs Chris Barnett  

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS 
Norma Dumont vs Danyelle Wolf 

Chad Anheliger vs Alateng Heili

Elise Reed vs Melissa Martinez 

Darian Weeks vs Yohan Lainesse 

 

OK, the state of that. That’s not the final bout order but, honestly, however they shuffle this it’s not gonna look great. Bare bones, especially for a PPV. Seriously, take away the main event and this would be poor even for an Apex Fight Night. Someone (think it was Silky) said they’ve probably deliberately put together a weaker card here because Nate gets PPV points and this is probably his farewell. That’d be petty as fuck but not surprising in the slightest. I have read that Dana’s saying they’re gonna be adding some fights to this card and will announce them after 278, but this late in the day, what are we realistically gonna get?

 

So Nate Diaz vs Tony Ferguson is our new main event. Jesus Christ what a balls up this has been. Wasn’t gonna bother doing an eleventh hour edit here but everyone’s in bed and I’m wide awake so sod it. Of course, this is Nate’s last fight on his UFC contract and he was supposed to be getting sacrificed to Khamzat Chimaev. He’s been saying he was trying to fight Poirier, Chandler and guys like that but the UFC were dead set on Chimaev. Who knows what to believe when it comes to the Diaz boys. But there was definitely a lot of talk of the Poirier fight, on both sides, a few months back and obviously nothing came of it. I can certainly see Dana being vindictive enough to wanna trash Nate on the way out, and what better way to do that than to feed him to Chimaev, who’s an absolute nightmare style for him on paper? But as seems to have been a recurring theme throughout the years, it’s looking like Nate will get the last laugh.

End of an era. Say what you want about him but he’s been one of the most popular fighters on the roster for well over a decade now. Came through TUF 5 in 2007 (one of the best seasons) as just ‘Nick’s little brother’ and won the thing. And in the years since, he’s more than stepped out of the shadow of his big bro and carved out a hell of a career for himself. He was never gonna be UFC champ or anything. Just too many spells of inconsistency, the lack of wrestling which plagued him and Nick, too many losses etc. But he’s done some shit. Strangling Conor McGregor and ending his mini streak in 2016 being the big one. Win or lose, one thing you can’t accuse him of is being dull. There’s always some craziness going on with him. So why would his final fight week be any different?

First Thursday’s press conference got cancelled due to some backstage handbags between Chimaev and Kevin Holland. Then Diaz and his 957 man entourage got involved. The UFC decided it’d be safer just to sack the presser off. Probably a wise move. Crisis averted, right? No. Chimaev then decides to rock up to Friday’s weigh in 7.5lbs overweight. Didn’t look sucked in, didn’t look like he’d struggled and frankly didn’t look like he gave a single solitary fuck. Dana’s since said something about a medical issue stopping Khamzat cutting more weight but he looked fine on the scale and it can’t have been that bad if he’s still good to go for a co-main 5 round fight. Just odd all around. Of course, the UFC went scrambling, made some calls and shuffled the card up…

And now this mad bastard is stepping in. Yeah he was already on the card so it’s not like he wasn’t training, but he was training for a 3 round fight against Li Jingliang. Now he’s in a 5 rounder against Nate. Completely different matchup. Jingliang’s a power puncher, Nate’s all volume and pace. And it’s also Tony moving up to Welterweight late in his career. Considering the last time we saw Ferguson he was getting his face kicked off by Michael Chandler…

It’s a bit worrying to think what could happen to him against some of the hitters at 170. He has fought at Welterweight in the past but it was a lot earlier in his career when he was much younger, much less beat up and fighting lesser opposition. He dropped back to 155 just after winning TUF in 2011 and has stayed there ever since. Now at 38 years old, coming off 4 straight losses and having just had his chin cracked and been knocked out cold for the first time, it feels like a desperation move. But actually, I like this matchup for him better than the Jingliang one. I think it was pretty much a cert that the ‘Leech’ was gonna spark him. This Nate fight though, they’re kind of in the same phase of their careers.

Madness. I can’t believe we’re actually gonna be seeing this tomorrow night. Diaz vs Ferguson is one of those fights that’s been brought up a bunch of times over the years, back when they were both in the mix at Lightweight. Even when this card was originally announced it felt like this would’ve been the better, more fan friendly fight to make. More evenly matched, winnable for both, almost guaranteed to be exciting and it was our last chance to see it. In a way, Chimaev did us all a big favour. We were gonna get a squash match, now we’re getting Diaz vs Ferguson. I’m sure there’ll be some joyless fucks going ‘but they’re both washed up’. I don’t care that they’re not at their best anymore. They’re at a similar point in their careers and sometimes that’s all you need for a great fight. We’ve seen examples of it in the past. Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva was hardly prime versions of both. Same with Randy Couture vs Big Nog, Hendo vs Shogun 1 and Mark Hunt vs Bigfoot 1. Fighters don’t have to be in their prime to have a barnburner. Sometimes they cross paths late in their careers and under weird circumstances and the timing just turns out to be right. In a lot of ways Nate and Tony are very similar. They both have skills in the striking and especially on the ground but they also have big flaws defensively and they’ve both been guilty of relying on their toughness a lot over the years. They’re also both known for pushing the pace and breaking opponents. I don’t see that changing this late in the game for either man. And with both preparing for different opponents here, this fight coming together 24 hours before the show means we’re probably in for something even more chaotic. Any semblance of a gameplan either man had is likely out the window at this point. They’re just coming to scrap.

 

Khamzat Chimaev vs Kevin Holland is now the co-main. These two are the ones who basically set the wheels in motion for this card going completely barmy. There’s been some back and forth for a while now between these two. Probably all started around 2020. That’s when Khamzat burst into the UFC and the hype went mad. Also, the same year, Holland was on fire and went 5-0 that year including stopping Jacare. Fast forward to this fight week and they crossed paths backstage before the scheduled press conference on Thursday. Things escalated, there was a scuffle, the presser got scrapped and then Chimaev badly missed weight the next day and that’s that. Here we are.

It’s at a Catchweight of 180lbs and it’s 5 rounds! Didn’t expect a 5 rounder but Holland was pushing for it and I suspect it’s because he fancies his chances late and is banking on Chimaev fading. Maybe he’s onto something and who knows why Chimaev missed weight so badly. Maybe he’s carrying an injury? Thing is, while I do think Holland has a slightly better chance against Khamzat than Nate did, it’s still a terrible style matchup for him. We’ve seen Holland shine in certain fights and he’s looked great. But we’ve also seen him have fits against guys who were able to drag him about and wrestle the arse off him. The Brunson and Vettori fights were utterly miserable for him. And I’d say Chimaev’s grappling is even more suffocating than those two. I guess there’s a chance Chimaev tries to test his striking more. We saw him stand a lot against Gilbert Burns last time out and he ate some big shots. He ate them well but, still, why stand and take punches when you have that grappling base? And especially in this fight where it’s Holland’s kryptonite. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to it but it’s a really bad match for Holland this. Fuck knows what becomes of Chimaev after this now though. Even if he just steamrolls Holland, how can the UFC have any confidence in him making 170 for a title fight? Surely he’s off to 185.

 

Li Jingliang vs Daniel Rodriguez is a patch up job but it’s a good one. Looking at this reshuffled card, I genuinely like the fights we’ve ended up with better. This is a banger. I do feel a bit bad for Jingliang though. He was all set to fight Tony Ferguson here, which would’ve been a big opportunity for him against a fading name. I really think he’d have knocked Fergie out and that would’ve been a huge scalp for him. He’s never gonna trouble the top contenders but he’s no joke. He’s 19-7 with 14 finishes and his last 4 wins have all came via KO/TKO and all bagged him POTN bonuses. He clobbered Santiago Ponzinibbio in a round last year and stopped veteran striker Muslim Salikhov in his last fight in July. To put that in perspective, between Kickboxing and MMA, Salikhov had 219 fights in his career going in and had only been stopped once back in 2009. Jingliang put him away. D-Rod is nobody’s pushover though.

He’s 16-2 with 12 of his wins coming inside the distance. He hasn’t really mixed at the top level yet but he’s done well with who he’s been given. He beat Mike Perry on points, knocked out Dwight Grant and submitted Tim Means. He got his biggest win to date last time out, taking a decision off Kevin Lee. I remember a lot of people dismissing Rodriguez going into that one, acting like he wasn’t even worthy to share the cage with Lee, much less giving him a shot of winning. But he’s a handful. That Lee win was last August though. So he’ll have been out over a year by the time the Octagon door shuts. He was supposed to fight Kevin Holland here so it’ll be interesting to see how he adjusts to the opponent switch and coming back from a year on the shelf. Got a good feeling about this one though.

 

Irene Aldana vs Macy Chiasson isn’t doing anything for me. Neither are really going anywhere at Bantamweight but the way the division is going at the moment, I wouldn’t be surprised if the winner of this isn’t far off a title shot. Just because they’re both fresh contenders. I don’t mind Aldana, to be fair. She’s had a couple of bright spots. I remember loving her wild scrap with Leslie Smith in her UFC debut years ago. And she does go for the finish more than most of the women at 135. The brutal left hook KO against Ketlen Vieira springs to mind. She stopped Yana Kunitskaya in a round last time out but that was over a year ago now. Chiasson won TUF in 2018 but has had a pretty forgettable run since. She’s 8-2 now and coming off a split decision win over Norma Dumont in an awful fight at UFC 274 in May. They only kind of got off lightly with the criticism because Namajunas and Esparza had an even worse fight later that night. Aldana should probably win this. I hope so anyway. Neither are anything special but she’s way better to watch.

 

Johnny Walker vs Ion Cutelaba is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** here. As the card stands now we really don’t have much to choose from, do we? This stands out though. Should be pure chaos however long it lasts. It does feel very ‘Apex Fight Night’ though. Especially given both guys’ recent results. We last saw Walker getting knocked out in hilarious fashion by Jamahal Hill. Before that he lost that inexplicably dull 5 rounder against Thiago Santos. I still don’t get how that one shat the bed. I guess sometimes two rights can make a wrong. I love Walker though.

Just a fun character and usually always in exciting fights whatever the outcome. He’s 1-4 in his last 5 so he badly needs the win here and I hope he gets it because Cutelaba’s always seemed like a knuckle dragging, meatheaded div. He’s coming off a quick submission loss against Ryan Spann in May. And like Walker, he’s only won 1 out of his last 5. Very rarely involved in anything boring though. These two are pretty much the definition of the phrase ‘kill or be killed’. But yeah, fully rooting for Walker here. One of my favourite 205ers, it’d be nice to see him back in the win column. I’d say it might be a ‘loser leaves town’ matchup but I hope not. The Light Heavyweight division really can’t afford to lose exciting fighters and despite the cack recent records, these two bring it.

 

Hakeem Dawodu vs Julian Erosa is a decent enough fight. ‘Mean’ Hakeem is 13-2-1 with 7 knockouts, 9-0 in Kickboxing, has a 42-5 amateur Muay Thai record and is apparently allergic to smiling. In the UFC he hasn’t really blown anyone away but he’s alright. 6-1 in his last 7, beat Kyle Bochniak, Julio Arce, Zubaira Tukhugov and Mike Trizano. Got dominated by Movsar Evloev last year but a lot of people have had that pleasure. He’ll never go too far up the ladder but he’s not bad to watch with the right dance partner. And I think Erosa might fit the bill.

That’s from his last fight against Steven Peterson in February. Seriously, if you missed that one, get it watched. It was on the Strickland vs Hermansson undercard and it was fantastic. Erosa’s been a highlight for me on Fight Nights and undercards for a bit now. He’s had some really exciting under the radar scraps. The one with Sean Woodson was ace. He’s also submitted Charles Jourdain and stopped Nate Landwehr with a flying knee in less than a minute! Hopefully he can drag Dawodu into a war here.

 

Jailton Almeida vs Anton Turkalj then. This was supposed to be Almeida against Shamil Abdurakhimov but the Russian dropped out. Not really a blow at all. Almeida was where my interest lay here anyway so at least he’s still on the card. He’s really stood out to me since making his Octagon debut in February.

He’d won a fight on DWCS last September to get his foot in the door. Made his first UFC appearance and breezed through Danilo Marques with a first round ground and pound TKO finish. Looked the business. Then in May we got a bit of a curveball. He was supposed to fight Maxim Grishin but Grishin pulled out, so Jailton took a late notice fight up at Heavyweight and submitted Parker Porter in a round. I assumed the Heavyweight thing was a one-off because of the situation with the original opponent withdrawing. But then the Abdurakhimov fight got booked. Not sure about Heavyweight long term for Almeida myself. Hard to criticise when he’s winning but I think he’ll struggle as he goes up in levels. Time will tell. Turkalj is Swedish, 26 years old and currently undefeated at 8-0 with 7 finishes. Nicknamed ‘The Pleasure Man’ for some reason. He won a decision on the latest series of DWCS in July. Anyone see that? I didn’t watch it but I’ve read that he talked a bunch of shite going into that one then did the absolute bare minimum once the cage door shut. Maybe I’m being harsh but he sounds like a Poundland Strickland so far. Hopefully Almeida drags him to something watchable. This one will be at a Catchweight of 220lbs apparently. 

 

Jamie Pickett vs Denis Tiuliulin might be OK but it’s not grabbing me really. Pickett is one of those guys on the roster who’s ‘just there’ for me. His fights come and go and I remember little of them. He’s 13-7 overall, 2-3 in the UFC and coming off a first round submission loss in his last fight. There’s worse on the UFC’s books for sure but he’s been just another prelim ham and egger to me so far. Tiuliulin is 9-6-0-1 with 8 knockouts. Made his UFC debut in March and got strangled by fellow newcomer Aliaskhab Khizriev. Don’t really know anything else about him other than that. Neither seem like they’re going anywhere, they’re just making up the numbers. But Tiuliulin’s high finishing rate gives me a little bit of hope that he can make this more lively and entertaining than I’m expecting it to be.

 

Jake Collier vs Chris Barnett is the fat boy offering for this card. No show is complete without one. A fight of two halves for me. Two very round and rotund halves. Collier bores me shitless. He’s 13-7 and I don’t remember enjoying any of his fights that I’ve seen, except for when Tom Aspinall bashed him up in seconds. Genuinely, I think the most interesting thing about his career has been witnessing him basically eat himself from Middleweight up to Heavyweight through sheer gluttony. In fairness to the big vat of dripping though, as much as I hate to admit it, I thought he did enough to get the decision in the Arlovski fight in April. And he did have the good grace to finish Chase Sherman quick before that and not put me to sleep like he usually does. I’m rooting for his downfall again here though…

‘Huggy Bear’ is back. Bless him. He’s 36 years old with a record of 22-8 and 17 knockouts. Knocked about a bit fighting over in Japan and Korea, fought for Inoki Genome, RIZIN, Road FC and UAE Warriors before finally making his way to the UFC last year. He’s nothing amazing, never had any real standout wins, but he’s a likeable character and a fun addition to the lower levels of the Heavyweight division. With some of the dross in that weight class, having a guy like Barnett to throw in the mix is only a good thing. He’s not gonna go far though. He’s already 1-2 in the UFC, got subbed by Ben Rothwell right out the gate in his debut, lost to Martin Buday last time out. The only bright spot so far has been his quick knockout over Gian Villante at MSG in November. He’ll most likely lose this one and it’s gonna suck. Hoping for an unexpected feel-good KO from him though.

 

Norma Dumont vs Danyelle Wolf. Hopes aren’t high for this. Even for me, a connoisseur of bum cheeks. Dumont’s fights are like her physique. A load of arse. She’s 7-2, has fought 5 times in the UFC and I don’t think there’s been one good fight. Her 5 rounder against Aspen Ladd last October has to be one of the worst main events I’ve ever seen. And on a roster so deep, there was really no excuse for that to be headlining in 2021. Even by Apex standards, it was a real low point. Her next fight against Macy Chiasson was dire as well. And to top it off, she’s missed weight in 2 of her last 4 fights, and in 2 divisions! I don’t know Danyelle Wolf but seems a bit of a strange signing. Apparently she was an amateur boxer but she’s only 1-0 in MMA, with the debut win coming on DWCS in 2020. She was supposed to make her UFC debut last year but got injured. She turns 39 years old just days before this card as well. Just an odd one all around this. 

 

Chad Anheliger vs Alateng Heili. Don’t know. Don’t recall seeing Anheliger fight before. Sherdog tells me he made his UFC debut back in February and got a late TKO win over Jesse Strader. No memory of it so I probably skipped it. He’s 35 years old, Canadian and 12-5 with 10 finishes. Seen Heili a few times but I’m hazy on him. He’s 15-8-2 and blitzed through Kevin Croom in just 47 seconds in his last fight in April. He’s had a loss, a draw and a win in his last 3 outings. Talk about inconsistency!

 

Elise Reed vs Melissa Martinez. Not a clue on this. I’ve seen Reed a couple of times now. She had a disastrous UFC debut, getting battered and swollen up by Sijara Eubanks. She rebounded with a solid points win over Cory McKenna on the London card in March, but then got stopped by Sam Hughes in May. She’s 5-2 overall now and looking back, even the McKenna win might’ve been partly down to McKenna coming off knee surgery and a subsequent long layoff. Martinez might make this worth tuning in for though actually. She’s 24 years old, unbeaten at 7-0 with 5 knockouts and has fought almost exclusively in the Combate Americas promotion so far, winning their Strawweight belt. Read in a few places she’s supposed to be a strong prospect. She’s also apparently got a fairly extensive Kickboxing background. She’s been inactive since 2019 for some reason but I’m intrigued enough to give this a look.

 

Darian Weeks vs Yohan Lainesse. Alright, I suppose. Weeks has looked pretty average so far but, to be fair, it might be a bit misleading. He’s already 0-2 in the UFC but he stepped in on short notice in his debut and lost to Bryan Barberena. Then in his next fight he was thrown in with Ian Garry and lost again. Not the easiest introduction to the big stage. And if there’s a positive in there, he did take both the distance. He was 5-0 with 5 finishes before signing with the UFC as well so maybe there’s better to come from him. He was briefly linked to a fight with former GLORY champ Cedric Doumbe on the Paris card but that whole thing went weird and Doumbe ended up getting released before he could even debut for some reason. So here he is with a new opponent. Lainesse is Canadian, 8-1 with 6 knockouts but got TKO’d in his UFC debut by Gabriel Green in April. I remember Green putting a right beating on him but, like Weeks, his pre-UFC record looked promising. If nothing else it seems these two both go for the kill. Doesn’t sound like a bad pairing and one of them is gonna get their first UFC win.

 

Have it.

Edited September 10, 2022 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Ariel Helwani has said there's a real fight out of left field about to be announced for this. Only clue he gave was that someone would be fighting out of their regular weight class.

[Egg Shen]

ignore* double post

Edited August 20, 2022 by Egg Shen

[wandshogun09]

🤔

There’s been rumours of Tony Ferguson vs Dan Hooker for a bit now so maybe that. Very intrigued what the “left field” fight is that @Egg Shenmentioned though. Unless Fergie’s fighting Stipe or something mad. 

[wandshogun09]

11 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

Ariel Helwani has said there's a real fight out of left field about to be announced for this. Only clue he gave was that someone would be fighting out of their regular weight class.

This’ll be it.

I like it and it’s a much needed boost for this card. But it’s a weird one. And Ferguson moving up to Welterweight after a horrible KO loss at Lightweight just feels like a recipe for disaster. 

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by wandshogun09

[DavidB6937]

Sorry for the total noob question but looking to get back into watching UFC more regularly.. what are my options? Thanks 😊

[wandshogun09]

4 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

Sorry for the total noob question but looking to get back into watching UFC more regularly.. what are my options? Thanks 😊

If you’ve got BT Sports you can catch nearly everything on there. All the Fight Nights and PPVs are on there live. You might get one a year on Box Office if Conor McGregor is fighting and that’s it. Also, the BT Sport app is ideal for anyone getting into/back into it because they’ve got a load of past events and fights on there. Then there’s Fight Pass for £5.99 a month, which is great value if you’re gonna use it a lot and gives you access to every UFC going back to 1993  plus Pride, Strikeforce, WEC and all that as well as live events from various smaller promotions and grappling competitions. I’d start with catching up on recent stuff through the BT app if you’ve got it though. If you need recent fight recommendations there’s a bunch of good ones. 

[DavidB6937]

Thank you! I'm switching to BT when we move house soon so sounds like the best option.

[Egg Shen]

Yeah its a shame Fight Pass doesn't have quicker access to newest shows, you're looking at a 3 day delay before the shows are uploaded to the app.

If you wanna go on a dive into the catalogue though, Fight Pass is well worth subscribing too for a couple of months.

@DavidB6937chuck your two cents on the threads here too, always nice to have some more contributers.

[Scott Malbranque]

I'm not sure if slapping a Fanmade promo up on here is frowned upon, but serio, this is absolutely exceptional, goosebump inducing work by the masterful Dreist Studios. 

 

[wandshogun09]

Nah @Scott Malbranquechuck them in. A lot of them are actually better than the official ones. That channel is great for them I’ve shared their stuff on here before. 

[wandshogun09]

Added a Holland vs Rodriguez bit to the opening post.

The bout order I’ve put up for now isn’t final. They haven’t confirmed it yet. But I’ve got to admit, while it’s still far from a loaded PPV, I actually like this quite a lot now. Main event is still gonna be a squash but it should be anything but boring. And the additions of Ferguson vs The Leech and Holland vs D-Rod have given this card quite a boost for me. Not stacked but at least there’s some stuff to sink the teeth into on the undercard now. 

[Egg Shen]

Yeah, really like that main card. Just full of fights where the chances of something crazy happening are pretty high. 

I hope Chris Barnett is ok going into this too, his fiancee and the mother of his children passed away in May, seems pretty quick to be coming back.

[wandshogun09]

Fuck, didn’t know that about Barnett. That definitely has a Walt Harris feel to it. You can see why they’d wanna just get back in there but that does seem quick.

They’ve finally decided on a bout order now. Although you know it’s gonna change a bunch of times before the actual show. 

[Zebra Kid Mark]

They're kind throwing Wolf to the wolves (pun intended) in this one.

Someone with a record of 1-0 debuting in the UFC against a former main eventer. Last time I can remember that happening was Brock Lesnar's debut against Frank Mir.

Wolf won on DWCS all the way back in 2020 so this is a very long lay off.