UFC Vegas: Sandhagen vs Song - Sep 17 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Apex again.

ESPN MAIN CARD
Cory Sandhagen vs Song Yadong 

Gregory Rodrigues vs Chidi Njokuani 

Andre Fili vs Bill Algeo 

Alen Amedovski vs Joe Pyfer 

Tanner Boser vs Rodrigo Nascimento

Anthony Hernandez vs Marc-Andre Barriault  

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS 
Damon Jackson vs Pat Sabatini

Trevin Giles vs Louis Cosce

Loma Lookboonmee vs Denise Gomes

Trey Ogden vs Daniel Zellhuber

Mariya Agapova vs Gillian Robertson 

Tony Gravely vs Javid Basharat

Nikolas Motta vs Cameron VanCamp

 

As always, probably not the final bout order. I’m almost certain there’ll be a shuffle. Not as strong as some Fight Nights we’ve had this year but I quite like this. The top 3 fights especially. There’s some fast forward fodder on there but I like most of this, to be honest. Even further down the card there are a few fighters I wanna see more of, or check out for the first time. Pretty much what these Fight Nights are about.

 

Cory Sandhagen vs Song Yadong is your 5 round main event. I like it. It’s not a fight I was really expecting, and definitely not as a headliner, but I’m fine with it. Bantamweight is the bollocks and I’m pretty much always happy to see them get some of that main event spotlight on the Fight Night cards. The timing of this one seems a little bit odd with Sandhagen coming off a couple of losses and Song on a winning streak but whatever. Sandhagen hasn’t been getting the results lately but he’s been operating at the absolute top level at 135 and hanging with those guys so it still feels like a step up and a big opportunity for Song.

‘Sandman’ Sandhagen is 30 years old with a record of 14-4 and 9 finishes. Like I said, despite the recent losses, he’s one of the best in the division. And even those losses, one was a razor close decision against TJ Dillashaw that a lot of people had Sandhagen winning. The other was a more clear cut points loss to Petr Yan in one of the best fights of 2021. The only time Sandhagen has really just been rolled through was when Aljamain Sterling submitted him in 90 seconds a couple of years ago. But again, Aljo is the champ now. Sandhagen might be coming off back-to-back losses but he’s still very much in and around the title mix and it won’t take much for him to get right back in the conversation. And of course, it hasn’t all been losses for him. He took decisions off John Lineker and Raphael Assuncao early in his UFC run, stopped Marlon Moraes with a spinning kick and who can forget his devastating flying knee that turned poor Frankie Edgar to dust last year?

A brutal, scary, crushing knockout. Whatever was left of Frankie’s durability after the Ortega and Zombie stoppages, this just obliterated that chin completely. Sandhagen’s a bastard with them knees as well. This wasn’t a one-off case of him throwing them. He landed some beauties in the Dillashaw and Yan fights as well, they just never landed as flush as they did on Edgar. It’s something you always have to watch out for with him.

In his way stands Song Yadong. One of China’s best. He’s 19-6-1-1 with 11 finishes and trains out of Team Alpha Male in California. I remember when he first burst on the scene in the UFC and Urijah Faber was hyping him up as some can’t miss prospect. I’ve always found him a bit hit and miss though myself. And even back then, after hearing Faber big him up, I remember looking at his record and even pre-UFC he’d had a bunch of losses. In fairness to him though, he was really young when he started his MMA career. If the dates on his record are accurate, he made his debut when he was still 15 years old! He’s still only 24 now. And he has seemingly settled in and found more consistency as he’s gained experience. And when he’s been on he’s looked a handful. He’s currently riding a 3 fight win streak and has stopped Julio Arce and Marlon Moraes in his last two outings. He also has a decision win over Chito Vera in a FOTN from 2020 that I know I saw but barely remember. That sounds like a fight I need to revisit and obviously it’s aged well given what Vera has gone on to do. This is his toughest test since Vera though. Given how the MMA media and fanbase are all about what you’ve done lately, with Sandhagen coming off a couple of losses I feel like he might get overlooked a bit here but he’s definitely the favourite to me. Quality of opposition matters and he’s been mixing at the highest level there is at 135 for some time now. And Aljo loss aside, he’s had his moments. Song’s got his work cut out, I reckon. But it’s a massive chance for him to make a statement and catapult himself into that upper echelon at Bantamweight. Cracking fight this.

 

Gregory Rodrigues vs Chidi Njokuani is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** here. As close as it’s possible to get to a guaranteed barnburner as far as I’m concerned. Only thing I don’t like about this is that one of them has to lose, and it’ll probably be in violent fashion. Everyone’s favourite Barack Obama lookalike is back! Rodrigues has been can’t miss viewing for me since he first rocked up in the UFC last year. He’s 12-4 with 10 of his wins coming inside the distance. He’s gone 3-1 so far in the UFC and I don’t recall a single dull moment. The Jun Yong Park and Julian Marquez fights in particular were barmy slugfests and he ended both by KO. He’s ace. Seems a top bloke as well. But so does Njokuani. And in just two UFC appearances, he’s made an instant fan out of me.

That’s him putting Dusko Todorovic to bed with a nasty elbow in his last fight in May. Todorovic is a hard bastard himself as well, and Chidi put him down inside a round. Before that he’d knocked out Marc-Andre Barriault in just 16 seconds in his Octagon debut! It’s been cool to see. He’s a name I’ve been vaguely aware of for years. Mostly because I remembered his brother Anthony from the WEC days, but also, Chidi had been bouncing around Bellator and LFA for years and having mixed results. A TKO win on DWCS last September got him in the UFC and here he is, at 33 years old, knocking heads off on the big stage. This is perfect matchmaking as well. It’s the kind of fight you know both will really fancy and be looking forward to. They’ll be well up for this and I know I’m up for it. It could quite easily just be 2 minutes of fireworks and someone getting viciously laid out. But if it goes a bit longer we could be in for an all out war that steals the show.

 

Andre Fili vs Bill Algeo could end up being a bit of a sleeper. If you just look at their recent records you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a skip job but I really think this could be excellent. Fili’s another one of those Team Alpha Male guys who I’ve never been fully sold on but there’s been flashes of quality in some of his fights where I can understand why people saw such potential in him. It just hasn’t panned out for him though. He’s 21-9-0-1 now and has only won 1 out of his last 5 fights. Not good. Algeo’s on a bit better recent form though. He’s 16-6 and beat Spike Carlyle and Joanderson Brito. Beat the shite out of Herbert Burns in July as well. Proper took it to him and seemed to completely break him to the point brother Gilbert had to actually carry him out of the cage after the fight. If Fili’s up for this it could be a bonus winning type fight, I reckon.

 

Alen Amedovski vs Joe Pyfer should be worth a look. Can’t say I remember Amedovski really. He’s 8-3 and coming off 3 straight losses and he’s been finished quick in his last 2 fights. John Phillips walloped him in just 17 seconds in 2019 and Amedovski then vanished until May this year, only to get submitted by Joseph Holmes in just over a minute. It’s Joe Pyfer you wanna be tuning in for.

I haven’t actually seen him fight yet but kept seeing his name everywhere after his appearance on DWCS back in July. He got a second round TKO over some sod called Osman Diaz and a lot of people seemed high on him after. Anyone on here see it? He’s 9-2 overall now with 7 finishes. Nickname ‘Bodybagz’ and he turns 26 the very same day as this show! Would be quite a birthday celebration for him if he scores another big knockout in his UFC debut. I’m intrigued to see what the fuss is all about. Looking at Amedovski’s last few results, it does feel like a bit of a birthday gift from the matchmakers.

 

Tanner Boser vs Rodrigo Nascimento. As lower level Heavyweight fights go, this one isn’t bad at all actually. Neither are going on a run at UFC gold but they’re not at that sloppy shitehawk level a lot of the division are. Boser is 20-8-1 with 13 finishes. He’s lost when he’s been in with the likes of Gane and Arlovski but he’s had his moments below that and scored a few nice knockouts. He’s coming off a knockout over Ovince Saint Preux, surely his best win to date, but that was over a year ago now so he hasn’t been able to build any kind of momentum off it. Nascimento is a funny one. He got off to a strong start in his career. Came into the UFC undefeated, subbed Don’Tale Mayes in his debut and was 8-0 with 8 finishes. Then it all went to shit. He got sparked by Chris Daukaus in less than a minute, bounced back with a stoppage over Alan Baudot, then got popped by USADA and hasn’t fought in over a year now.

 

Anthony Hernandez vs Marc-Andre Barriault. Not particularly arsed but it might be alright. Hernandez is usually fairly decent to watch from what I remember. He’s 9-2-0-1 and coming off a couple of wins but hasn’t been mega active lately. His career highlight so far has been the submission over Rodolfo Vieira last year, which came as a shock given Vieira’s BJJ pedigree. Barriault is a fighter I’ve never really been into. He came in as a former two weight champ in the TKO promotion in Canada but swiftly lost his first 3 fights in the UFC and got popped by USADA to add to it. He’s 14-5-0-1 now and coming off a quick guillotine finish of Jordan Wright in April.

 

Damon Jackson vs Pat Sabatini is a solid enough fight. Jackson’s 34 years old with a record of 21-4-1-1 and has 18 finishes, mostly subs. Hasn’t been a world beater but he’s won his last 3 fights and the only loss in his last 5 was against Ilia Topuria in 2020. He’s beat Mirsad Bektic, Charles Rosa and in June he spoiled the debut of Daniel Argueta when he beat him on points. Argueta came in unbeaten and was the LFA champion and a standout wrestler so Jackson squashing any buzz he came in with was a nice win for him. He’s got a tricky matchup here though. Sabatini has proven to be a bit of a handful in the lower-mid level at 145. He’s 17-3 with 12 finishes and is currently riding a 6 fight winning streak. Hasn’t beat anyone of real note yet but he’s got convincing victories over Tristan Connelly, Jamall Emmers, Tucker Lutz and TJ Laramie so far in the UFC and I don’t recall him looking troubled at any point. Hasn’t been the most exciting to watch so far but he’s been quietly stacking up the wins. I think Jackson with his experience and the threat of his ground game could provide a more interesting test though.

 

Trevin Giles vs Louis Cosce. Alright prelim filler, nothing more really. Giles is 14-4 and has actually had some pretty good wins in his career. He’s beat Roman Dolidze and James Krause in the UFC and has victories over Ryan Spann and Brendan Allen pre-UFC. He seems to have pretty much found his level now though. Our Gerald submitted him in 2019 and now he comes into this fight off consecutive knockout losses to Dricus Du Plessis and Michael Morales. The Morales fight was supposed to be his fresh start after dropping to 170 as well. Cosce’s 7-1 with all his wins coming inside the distance. Him and his brother were on DWCS a couple of years ago and apparently stood out but they haven’t had the best of starts in the UFC. Louis made his UFC debut in late 2020, got TKO’d by Sasha Palatnikov and hasn’t been seen since. Bit of a weird one really but they both can be dangerous and will both surely be coming in with a point to prove here so this could be better than many expect.

 

Loma Lookboonmee vs Denise Gomes. Change of plan. This was supposed to be Lookboonmee against Diana Belbita but Belbita is out due to health issues. I usually enjoy watching Lookboonmee. She’s nothing special as far as MMA goes but she’s got some sweet striking, as you’d expect from someone who’s been doing Muay Thai since she was a child. She’s 6-3 in MMA, still only 26 so hardly on the scrap heap, but I can’t see her ever closing the gap when it comes to the grappling side of things. Gomes steps in on just over a week’s notice. I know sod all about her but saw a few comments on Twitter about a quick turnaround. Looking her up, I see she’s just won a decision on DWCS at the end of August. She’s 22 years old and has a 6-1 record with 4 knockouts. Doesn’t sound like a bad substitute, to be fair.

 

Trey Ogden vs Daniel Zellhuber is a fight that, at first glance, is just there with no real reason to give a bollocks. Maybe it’ll be a pleasant surprise though. Ogden’s 15-5 with 11 submissions, was on a little win streak before signing with the UFC but lost a split decision against Jordan Leavitt in his Octagon debut in April. Never seen this Zellhuber chap but Sherdog tells me he’s Mexican, 23 years old and 12-0 with 9 finishes. Won a decision off Lucas Almeida on DWCS last September. That jumps out immediately because Almeida has since fought in the UFC and stopped Mike Trizano in an unexpected corker a few months back. Just like that I’m hooked and looking forward to seeing this guy. Think I might have to check out that Almeida fight from DWCS as well at some point before this show.

 

Mariya Agapova vs Gillian Robertson could be fun actually. I mean, neither are likely going anywhere in the Flyweight division but I don’t recall either being involved in anything boring yet. Agapova seems a bit of a nutcase. She’s 25, from Kazakhstan and she’s 10-3 with 8 finishes. She’s definitely got her flaws, she’s aggressive almost to a fault sometimes. But she’s entertaining to watch because of it. Pure ‘kill or be killed’ mentality. She’s coming off a submission loss against Maryna Moroz in their bit of a grudge match at UFC 272 back in March. Robertson’s 27, from Canada, trains at ATT and she’s gone a less than stellar 10-7 in her career so far. She’s definitely mixed with the tougher opposition of the two here though. I think Agapova would’ve lost to pretty much all the names Robertson lost to as well. Robertson could give Agapova real issues here, I think. If she can make it a ground battle. If it stays on the feet though, Agapova has the edge.

 

Tony Gravely vs Javid Basharat. I’ll give it a whirl. Gravely’s alright. Not a contender, never will be in a division as deep as Bantamweight, but he’s not a bad fighter at all. Probably one of those guys who’d be champ in a lot of the smaller promotions but gets lost in the shuffle simply because of the depth at 135 these days in the UFC. He’s 23-7 with 13 finishes and is coming off wins and strong performances over Saimon Oliveira in January and Johnny Munoz Jr in June. He blitzed Munoz in about a minute. Basharat really stood out to me in his UFC debut in March though. He beat Trevin Jones on points and I thought he looked really promising. He’s from Afghanistan but came to the UK as a young kid with his mum. He’s based in London now but has trained at Xtreme Couture. And he’s doing well for himself. He’s currently undefeated at 12-0 with 11 finishes.

 

Nikolas Motta vs Cameron VanCamp. Dunno. Don’t particularly care. Probably being overly harsh but there’s nothing really to this. Motta’s 12-4 with 8 knockouts and coming off a TKO loss against Jim Miller in February. VanCamp is 15-6-1-1 and got brutally wiped out by Andre Fialho’s left hook of doom at UFC 274 in May. Not much else to say about this one. Just feels like two ham and eggers trying to get their first Octagon win.

 

We’ve had better but we’ve definitely had a lot worse. It’ll do. 

Edited September 16, 2022 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

this sucks:

 

 

[Egg Shen]

ignore*

Edited September 14, 2022 by Egg Shen

[wandshogun09]

Updated the opening post and here’s the card as it stands 2 days out. Not an amazing card but there’s stuff to like there and the prelims kicking off at 9pm doesn’t hurt. 

Edited September 15, 2022 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

The three certainties in life.

Death.

Taxes.

And…

 

[Egg Shen]

how many times is that now?

the fight with McMann is off.

[wandshogun09]

1 hour ago, Egg Shen said:

how many times is that now?

Gotta feel bad for Sara McMann. She went through her training camp, spent time and money, made the weight like she always does. And doesn’t get to fight. She turns 42 next week and really hasn’t got time at this stage of her career to be fucked about like this. You have to wonder at what point do the UFC just cut Ladd loose? It’s not like she’s a contender like Chimaev and it’s not like she’s a Rumble or Lineker type who were exciting as fuck to watch. She’s going nowhere, she’s dull as shite in the cage and she’s spent pretty much her entire UFC run missing weight and/or pulling out or being pulled out of fights. Not worth the hassle. Even if they do keep her around, who’s even gonna sign to fight her at this stage? Knowing she’s probably just gonna come in heavy again and they won’t get to fight? 

Edited September 16, 2022 by wandshogun09

[Carbomb]

15 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

 

 

I'm just loving that there's this report that she's missed weight, and there's that "ICON Meals" sponsor placard, with Ladd's sheepish-looking face, like it's a kind of mugshot for the MMA "Weight-Missers Hall of Shame", or something. Someone should photoshop the placard to say "Gregg's" instead.

 

[Egg Shen]

Despite being a dreaded Apex show, actually finding myself bang up for this one:

[wandshogun09]

Yeah same. No UFC for 2 weeks after tonight either so make the most of it.

Start times…

Edited September 17, 2022 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Cory Sandhagen came out with the W but it wasn’t as he’d have liked. It was a good fight, the Bantamweights almost always bring it, but I wasn’t as high on it as some I’ve seen raving about it on Twitter. Good fight though. Competitive throughout. Wasn’t scoring closely but I felt like Sandhagen was up going into that 5th round but maybe it could’ve been 2-2. Either way, that cut was horrible, it was getting worse and the doctor was right to stop it when he did. I’ve actually seen some backlash against Sandhagen for this, which baffles me but probably shouldn’t. For one, it was Sandhagen who caused the cut that ended the fight. Two, he had no control over the doctor’s decision. Three, Sandhagen clearly didn’t wanna win it like that. You could see it in his immediate reaction when the fight was stopped and then he said it in his interview after. It was unfortunate but these things happen. I didn’t think it was his best showing though. And although he’s really good at those jumping knees, he was spamming the fuck out of them last night to the point it was probably making him a bit too predictable. Song fought well but I just didn’t think he was on quite that level going in and I feel the same now. He might get there though. I wouldn’t count him out. This just wasn’t his night. 

Gregory Rodrigues vs Chidi Njokuani was always the favourite to bag FOTN for me, hence it being my ‘one to watch’, and they delivered. Right from the first exchange they were just fully committing to trying to take each other’s head off and Rodrigues ate a knee and was covered in blood almost from the off. Absolutely vile…

Fucking hell!! 🤢

I thought Song Yadong’s cut was bad enough, and it was. This was horrendous though. When you can see veins and skull and shit like that, it’s next level. And Rodrigues wasn’t deterred by that fucking axe wound at all. His response to that was to drop Chidi on his arse, take the fight to him and basically just out-tough him. I really like Chidi but you could almost see his spirit die a bit when Rodrigues shrugged off the fact he’s now got a third eye and came firing back the way he did. Rodrigues is made of different stuff. I’ve been saying it for a while now, he’s granite hard. I was actually a bit surprised they let him come out for the second round though, with the state his head was in. But they came out swinging again and Rodrigues got him down and you could see Chidi just wilting as Rodrigues battered him to a TKO finish. Barmy fight.

Andre Fili vs Bill Algeo was about as entertaining as I pictured it. Really liked this fight. Pretty much all action in all areas. Loved Algeo’s aggression while Fili had his back in the third round. Another bloodbath as well thanks to this kick…

Algeo’s a tough bastard. He’s shown that a few times now. But there was just that bit of extra overall quality from Fili. Was a bit surprised one of the judges scored it for Algeo but whatever. Right man won. Fili’s post-fight interview was heartbreaking as well, with him talking about him and his Mrs losing what would’ve been their first baby. I felt that.

Joe Pyfer had a bit of a showcase debut.

Like I said in the opening post, I think this was designed to be that way though. It was as close to a gimme as they could’ve given him. Pyfer’s a puncher and Amedovski isn’t much good, had been stopped a few times and was coming off a losing streak with spells of inactivity sprinkled throughout. Pyfer looks like he’ll be fun to watch but there’s nothing really to take away from this other than he can dig a bit. We’ll see what he’s about in time. But for now, he was supposed to knock this guy over and he did. Nothing more, nothing less.

Nascimento vs Boser wasn’t much to write home about. We’ve had worse fights in the Heavyweight division, much worse, but this wasn’t great. Boser looked to have got himself in the shape of his life for this after a bit of a layoff but in the end, Nascimento’s grappling was just too much for him to overcome. It ended up a split decision but I don’t get how the one judge had it scored for Boser. I thought it was a cut and dry 29-28 for Nascimento myself.

Anthony Hernandez had probably the best overall showing of his career for me in the main card opener. The submission over Rodolfo Vieira last year was more of a ‘moment’ because it was so unexpected but this performance against Barriault last night was on point.

Christ! Actually damaged the Octagon floor, for fuck’s sake. My first thought seeing that was, isn’t spiking the opponent like that illegal? But nothing was said about it and I don’t think Hernandez was even trying to spike him. Either way, Barriault was fucked and it lead into the arm triangle finish. Really strong performance from Hernandez. Schooled Barriault in pretty much all aspects of the fight.

Damon Jackson stopping Pat Sabatini in a minute was both unexpected and also the big feel-good moment of the card.

Had no idea about his brother dying so recently, and so young. I think they said he’d died just days before the fight, maybe a week tops. Nobody would’ve blamed Jackson if he’d just pulled out of the fight and when I heard the story, I was half dreading the fight because I already thought going in that Sabatini was probably winning this one. He was on a 6 fight winning streak and has looked a bit of a handful so far. The prospect of seeing Jackson get stifled to a shutout decision sounded awful. But he came out like a man possessed and wrecked Sabatini quick. Then as you’d expect, the emotions came flooding out of him.

In contrast, that Trevin Giles vs Louis Cosce fight was wank. Didn’t have any real expectations one way or the other going in but I thought it’d at least be more watchable than it turned out. Cack.

Loma Lookboonmee vs Denise Gomes was enjoyable. I’m under no illusions that she’s probably never advancing too far up the ladder but I like watching Loma. I’d be quite happy to see her just having these types of fun prelim fights for a few years. She’s said after the fight that she’d been dealing with depression and even suicidal thoughts for a while now. Nice to see her get the win and get that message about mental health out there.

Oh and just to add to the craziness, Gillian Robertson choked Mariya Agapova all the way out, to the point she was almost biting her own tongue off!

Fucking grim. It was weird as well. She wasn’t even fighting the hands, wasn’t doing anything to escape. Just biting down on her tongue and refusing to tap.

Bit of a mad show. Between all the blood, the gruesome cuts on Song and Rodrigues especially, Agapova nearly chewing her bastard tongue off and Barriault almost getting spiked through the canvas, it was one of the more brutal cards I can remember in all my years watching. Then you add in Fili’s post-fight interview, Damon Jackson fighting just days after losing his brother and Loma opening up about her mental health problems, it was a rollercoaster of a show. The actual results of the fights themselves almost felt secondary compared to the mix of gore and emotions throughout the card.

Edited September 18, 2022 by wandshogun09

[Zebra Kid Mark]

I had the same thought as you regarding the spike, I could have sworn it illegal but the commentators didn't reference it being illegal once.

The Cosce brothers have been a bit of a disappointing off the back of such a fun showing on DWCS, I know I bigged them up a lot. I got that one wrong.

I love Sandhagen, he's a fun guy to watch and a good guy to hear talk, however him saying post fight that he wants a guy ahead of him in the rankings as he got overlooked this time was a bit strange. He's 4th and he's lost to the Champ, 1 and 2. What did he expect? Of course he's going to fight someone below him. In my opinion, if you lose, you fight a guy ranked below you.

Good show overall, very brutal.

[Egg Shen]

yeah, this was up there with that infamous Fight for the Troops show in terms of brutality, some horrific shit here. 

That Robocop fight was mental. I ain't sure how far that guy can go, but what a mentalist. He's like a machine out there (no pun intended) and his ability to come back from punishment is next level. I love the bloke.

[wandshogun09]

Good shout on that Fight For The Troops card. I forgot about that but I knew exactly which one you meant immediately 😂 

[wandshogun09]

Fuck me, Song Yadong heals up fast. Considering it was all Marvin Eastman a week ago…