UFC Vegas: Kattar vs Allen - Oct 29 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

This deserves so much better than the Apex but here we go…

ESPN MAIN CARD
Calvin Kattar vs Arnold Allen 

Tim Means vs Max Griffin

Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs Jared Vanderaa

Tresean Gore vs Josh Fremd

Dustin Jacoby vs Khalil Rountree

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Roman Dolidze vs Phil Hawes

Andrei Arlovski vs Marcos Rogerio De Lima

Joseph Holmes vs Jun Yong Park

Chase Hooper vs Steve Garcia 

Cody Durden vs Carlos Mota 

Joshua Weems vs Christian Rodriguez

 

Really liking the look of this! Some shite as you get further down the card but the main event is fantastic, Jacoby vs Rountree should be for the BMF belt and there’s just enough to cherry pick from the rest for an overall enjoyable night of fights there. And to think this card was also supposed to have Edson Barboza vs Ilia Topuria 😢 this isn’t the final bout order and I don’t know if Topuria is gonna stay on the card and get another opponent. I’ll update this post as we go. 
 

 

Calvin Kattar vs Arnold Allen is a cracking main event. Really pleased to see this getting the 5 round treatment and the headline spotlight. Even if it is just at the Apex. They could’ve whacked this on a PPV and it’d have been lost in the shuffle as a 3 rounder halfway down a main card. At least this way we get to see it play out over 25 minutes, if necessary. It’s pretty much perfect matchmaking as well, perfect timing for these two to meet. They’re ranked #5 and #6 currently in the Featherweight division and with Volkanovski just having gone 3-0 over Holloway and rapidly running out of interesting, and especially fresh challengers at 145, there’s everything to play for here. An outstanding performance or a big finish for either man here could be their ticket to a title shot.

Kattar’s 34 years old and from the Boston area. His record stands at 23-6 with 13 finishes and he’s been just hovering on the fringes of the title picture for a while now. He’s had some losses in the UFC but along the way he notched impressive wins over Andre Fili, Shane Burgos, Ricardo Lamas, Jeremy Stephens and Dan Ige. In January 2021 he bagged a big fight in a headline spot against Max Holloway. A huge opportunity for him and I clearly remember a lot of people fancying Kattar to win going in. But Max fucked him up the whole 5 rounds. One of the worst drawn out beatings in recent memory. Kattar took a year out after that and returned in January this year against Giga Chikadze. Any doubts about what Kattar had left after the Holloway fight were made redundant, Kattar bashed Chikadze all over the Octagon en route to a wide points win.

Battered him. He was riding high coming off that win. There’d been some hype on Giga going in so it felt like Kattar was right back in the mix with this win. He hit a speed bump in June though in the form of a close decision loss to Josh Emmett. I don’t remember the fight in any real great detail but I’m sure I had Kattar winning that one. It was close though. There were some cries of robbery but I don’t recall agreeing with that. Just a close fight that could’ve gone either way. That night it just went against Kattar. This is his attempt to get back in the win column.

For Allen this is his big moment. His biggest chance to date to finally break out of the pack and start really mixing with the top names of the division on a consistent basis. It’s been slow progress for him. He’s been on the UFC roster since 2015, for fuck’s sake. And he’s been winning the whole time. For whatever reason, he just never seemed to climb the ranks or make any headway. He’s still only 28 years old, with a record of 18-1 and 10 finishes. The only blemish on his record being a points loss on a Cage Warriors card back in 2014. He’s gone on an 11 fight winning streak since. I think a combination of his lack of shit talking and him going to a lot of decisions is why he’s never really climbed up the card until now. You look back at his record and there’s some solid enough wins on there. He beat Makwan Amirkhani in 2017, Mads Burnell in 2018, Gilbert Melendez in 2019 etc. Got a couple of decisions over Nik Lentz and Sodiq Yusuff. He’s been stacking up the wins but to little fanfare. There had been a bit of a fanbase growing on social media over the last year or so, a lot of it oddly enough, stemming from his love of Tesco meal deals 😂 he’s a good follow on Twitter, to be fair. For whatever reason though, despite his success he’d been pretty forgettable in the cage. That all changed on the London card in March though.

In just 2:33 of the first round, Allen swarmed all over Dan Hooker and stopped him. Completely overwhelmed him with an absolute barrage of strikes. Hangman Dan didn’t know what hit him. Easily Allen’s biggest and most impressive win to date. Hooker hasn’t exactly been on the best of form recently but he’s a decent name and a tough, scrappy guy. And with Allen never being a huge finisher and not exactly being known for his aggression, the last thing anyone was expecting was him to go all Pride Wanderlei Silva on him. He was so aggressive I thought he was gonna gas himself out trying to get Hooker out of there but he was like a man possessed that night. Maybe the home crowd did it, or maybe it was that Tesco grub. USADA need to check that because it certainly seems to have enhanced Double A’s performance.

Great fight this. Not sure how it plays out. Mainly because, and it seems weird to say, we still don’t know all that much about Allen. Even after all these years and all these fights, it feels like we’ve only scratched the surface and there’s still a lot of questions. He’s been in with names like Melendez and Hooker but Melendez was on his last legs by then and Hooker’s in a bit of a slump. This is a serious test, his toughest yet, against a granite tough guy who’s been in a few 5 round battles already. Allen’s never gone beyond 3 rounds. If he tries to come out all guns blazing like the Hooker fight I think this goes badly for him because Kattar isn’t going away easily and, in a 5 rounder, Allen can’t afford to empty the clip too early. I don’t think he’ll be that stupid though. He’ll know what he’s up against here. He’s a big strong lump so I expect he’ll be looking to clinch and bully Kattar around and take it from there. But you get in clinch range with Kattar and you’re probably eating some of those elbows. Very interesting fight.

 

Tim Means vs Max Griffin is a bit of a darkhorse fight for me on this card actually. Two of the more under-appreciated fighters in the Welterweight division for me, not in terms of going on a run at the title or anything, just for being in entertaining fights. Means especially is a guy I’ve always enjoyed watching. He’s been in a bunch of wild scraps on undercards and prelims over the years. Probably lost as many as he won but I don’t remember ever being bored watching him. Wins over Nicolas Dalby, Mike Perry and Thiago Alves. He’s 38 now and this’ll be his 48th MMA fight. A lot of miles on the clock and he got submitted by Kevin Holland last time out. He’d won his previous 3 fights though. Griffin’s 36 with a 18-9 record. He’s also beat Perry and lost a decision in a good fight with Alves. Beat Carlos Condit and took Neil Magny to a split decision last time out. I mean they’re both going nowhere but it seems like a pretty well matched battle of tough journeymen.

 

Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs Jared Vanderaa is your big dollop of Heavyweight shite this time. Because every card must have at least one. Apparently. Don’t know this Acosta bloke. Sherdog tells me he’s 31 years old with an undefeated record of 7-0 with 5 finishes. Hasn’t beat anyone of note yet but he’s only 7 fights in so fair enough. He’s already fought in Bellator and LFA before earning this shot with a TKO win on DWCS in August. Let’s give him a chance. Vanderaa is probably gone with another loss here. He’s 12-9 and has lost 4 fights on the trot now. Got stopped in 3 of them. Feels like one of those fights where they see something in Acosta so they’re feeding him a jobber to make a highlight reel out of for his intro fight. You never know with the Heavies though.

 

Tresean Gore vs Josh Fremd. Curtain jerk stuff but might be alright. Gore was on TUF last year and got a bit of buzz around him because of his power as far as I can tell. He was being talked about as the favourite to win TUF but injury took him out of his scheduled Finale fight with Bryan Battle. They finally met in February and Gore lost a decision and looked pretty shite, to be honest. He then fought Cody Brundage and got knocked out in a round. He was talking all kinds of shit before the Battle fight about winning UFC gold and stuff, which was mental considering he’d only had 3 pro fights at the time. It gave me flashbacks of Brandon Vera years ago claiming he’d be the first two weight UFC champ, only to drop off a cliff. It’s backfired badly on Gore as well. He’s obviously got a dig on him but that only takes you so far. Don’t really remember Fremd but he’s 9-3 and lost on points in his UFC debut against Anthony Hernandez in April. Gore’s gonna have to find a way to get the W here or it’s a 50/50 record for him.

 

Dustin Jacoby vs Khalil Rountree is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** and just sounds like an absolute dogfight, doesn’t it? One of those fights where the second it’s announced, you just know what you’re getting. We’ve had a few of them this year - Gregory Rodrigues vs Chidi Njokuani, Nate Landwehr vs David Onama - and they’ve delivered exactly the kind of chaos you’d expect. I don’t see this being any different.

Jacoby’s knocked about. He had an unsuccessful brief UFC stint about a decade ago where he went 0-2, got released and that took him on a path that saw him fight in Bellator, WSOF, a 4 year run in GLORY Kickboxing and even a Pro Boxing bout. Mixed results but he didn’t do badly and it was all experience gained. He squeezed a lot of scrapping into an 8 year period after his UFC release in 2012. Fast forward to 2020 and he appeared on DWCS, won and that’s that. He’s been back in the UFC since then. And he’s done a lot better this time around. He’s gone 6-0-1 with wins over Michal Oleksiejczuk and Darren Stewart in there. The only one he didn’t win was a split draw with Ion Cutelaba in a slobberknocker last year. We last saw him in July, when he sat Da Un Jung down with a POTN winning right hand in the first round. He’ll never go too far but he’s good value in the middle of the pack and fun fighters aren’t exactly a dime a dozen in the Light Heavyweight division at the moment. Jacoby’s one though. And thankfully, so is his opponent here…

Rountree is a funny one in that he’s a bit hot and cold. You never really know which Khalil Rountree is gonna show up from one fight to the next. When he’s on though, there’s few in the sport who are more violent. Like Jacoby, his ceiling isn’t particularly high because he’s not really well rounded enough and he’s never been very consistent. But he can be so much fun to watch when he’s up for it. He’s coming off a couple of wins and brutal finishes as well. He kicked Modestas Bukauskas’ knee backwards last September and it was horrible to watch. Bukauskas hasn’t fought since. Then in March this year…

Just set about Karl Roberson like he found him in bed with his wife or something. Crushed him and left him crumpled up in the foetal position. Like I said, Rountree has his flaws but when he flips that switch it’s scary to watch. It’ll only take him so far, of course. Just going berserker mode isn’t gonna work at the highest levels. But it’s gonna get him enough wins at the level he’s at to keep him on the roster and I’m fine with that. These two matched up together is must see stuff. Must’ve been the easiest fight to matchmake ever for Sean Shelby and co. A total no brainer. Can’t wait.

 

Roman Dolidze vs Phil Hawes. Quite like it. They’ve both been a bit hit and miss but they’re both strong, explosive and dangerous which always makes for at least an edge of the seat watch. Dolidze came in with an unbeaten record with all finishes, so had a little bit of hype. Made his UFC debut in July 2020, stopping Khadis Ibragimov in a round, then finally went to the scorecards with a split decision win over John Allan. He suffered his first loss, dropping a decision to Trevin Giles but he’s won his 2 fights since then. Like I say, a bit hit and miss and hasn’t been blowing people away with his performances but he had his most impressive showing to date in June, obliterating Kyle Daukaus with a big knee in just over a minute.

Nasty shit. At 34, Dolidze hasn’t got bags of time and I’m not convinced he’s got that much upside but I like him as an addition to the Middleweight pool. Hawes is similar. He’s had some setbacks but, aside from the knockout loss to Chris Curtis, he’s won 8 of his last 9 fights. He’s got points wins over Nassourdine Imavov (who’s on the climb now) and the aforementioned Kyle Daukaus. He’s also coming off his best performance so far in the UFC, TKOing Deron Winn in an unexpected cracker of a fight in June. So they’re both coming into this one with their confidence presumably at an all time high and they’ll both fancy the job.

 

Andrei Arlovski vs Marcos Rogerio De Lima is doing sod all for me. Nothing. I like Arlovski but he hasn’t been any fun to watch for years now. Fair play to him, at 43 years old and nearly 24 years into his career, he’s made adjustments to his style and found a way to keep getting wins and getting a cheque. Who’d have thought we’d be approaching 2023 and Arlovski is on a 4 fight win streak?

Bless him. There’s no getting away from it though, he’s been dull to watch in recent years. Looking at his record, the last fight I remember enjoying was, oddly, the Ben Rothwell rematch in 2019. Before that, Christ, you’re probably going back to the Josh Barnett loss in 2016. I’d say he’s gotta be near retirement but I could see him still trading plodding split decisions with middling fat Heavyweights into his 50s yet. I actually had him losing to Jake Collier last time out but he got the nod from the judges. I hope he wins this one because I can’t be doing with De Lima. Aside from his quick knockout win over Rothwell last year, he’s bored me shitless every time I’ve seen him. Maybe I’ve just watched the wrong fights but he’s been rotten whenever I’ve seen him. As boring as Arlovski’s fights have become, at least there’s an attachment there from the memories of his run as champion and stuff. De Lima’s just some big slug. Arlovski via nothing happening split decision!

 

Joseph Holmes vs Jun Yong Park. Interesting nicknames here. ‘Ugly Man’ vs ‘Iron Turtle’! Can’t remember enough of Holmes to say much about him. He’s 27 years old with an 8-2 record and has fought in the UFC twice, going 1-1. Don’t remember his debut against Jamie Pickett but he lost on points apparently. He subbed Alen Amedovski in a minute in May though. I probably saw that but it was so brief it’s not sticking out in the memory at all. I’m more familiar with Park though. He’s South Korean, 14-5 and is coming off a win over Eryk Anders. He had an absolute belter with UKFF favourite Gregory Rodrigues last October as well. It’s becoming quite a common occurrence for guys to have their best fight against our boy Greg but Park more than carried his half of that one. If you missed it get it watched.

 

Chase Hooper vs Steve Garcia. Worth a look. I’ve gone back and forth with my opinion on Hooper. Everyone was on the bandwagon when he signed and I got why. He’s a likeable enough little nerdy kid just living his dream. Takes a cold hearted bastard to root against that.

I like him. But he’s 23 and has already lost to Alex Caceres and Steven Peterson. Both tough, experienced guys but both total journeymen who any legitimate prospect should be beating. Not writing him off. He’s definitely got time. I’m just not sure if being in the UFC right now is gonna hinder his development. He’s clearly got some potential but, I don’t know, he seems like a guy who would’ve benefitted more from building experience in PFL or Cage Warriors or something before making the jump. Regardless, I hope it works out for him. He has looked really good in his wins and comes into this fight off a POTN winning stoppage over Felipe Colares in May. Garcia’s proper average but he’s scrappy and he’s about the level of opposition Hooper should probably be in with at this stage. He’s 30 years old, 12-5 and has a couple of decent wins on his record over Ronnie Lawrence and Abel Cullum. Went the distance with Joe Warren in Bellator years ago. In the UFC his best win has been…Charlie Ontiveros. Yeah, not great but it was a fun fight for what it was. Garcia got faceplanted in brutal fashion by Hayisaer Maheshate in his last fight in June though. Proper Flair Flopped him. Hooper needs to be winning this. He should win really but it’s another opponent kind of in the vein of Caceres/Peterson so it’ll be interesting to see if Hooper’s got over that hump.

 

Cody Durden vs Carlos Mota should be well worth checking out. Durden was all set to face Big Nog protégé Kleydson Rodrigues but that’s off. This might actually be better though. Nothing to do with Durden. He seems a right little prick and I don’t remember him being particularly exciting to watch. It wasn’t long ago he beat Aori Qileng then said “he can go back to China where he came from” or something. Then someone on Twitter dug up a load of tweets of him using the N word and all sorts. Proper arsehole. Mokaev decking and strangling him in a minute on the London card in March was genuinely one of the most satisfying results this year for me. He’s since bounced back with a TKO over JP Buys. Still a cock though. I’m hoping he ends up as cannon fodder for another Octagon newcomer here.

That’s Mota wiping out Rizvan Abuev in his last fight in August to become LFA Flyweight champion. Devastating. Hit him so hard he hammerlocked himself on the way down! Mota’s a guy I’ve been hearing about for a while and there’s been nothing but positive response to the news of his signing but I don’t recall actually watching him fight before. Just quickly looking him up now I can tell I’m gonna be a fan though. He’s 27 years old and currently 8-1 with 4 knockouts. Hopefully another one here.

 

Joshua Weems vs Christian Rodriguez has been thrown together last minute. Rodriguez was originally supposed to fight Garrett Armfield but that went tits up. Weems steps in on less than a week’s notice. Never heard of him myself but a quick look at Sherdog tells me he’s 28 and has a record of 11-2 with 9 finishes, 8 via submission. He lost a fight on DWCS about a year ago but has rebounded with a couple of subs. Rodriguez is 24 years old, 7-1 with 6 finishes. He was also on DWCS last October. One of the rare occasions I actually tuned in! So I remember him. He won a decision that night but Dana never gave him a contract for some reason. Thought that was a bit harsh at the time, especially because Jake Hadley fought the same night and got a contract despite missing weight and reports of him being a pain in the arse to deal with behind the scenes. ‘CeeRod’ got there in the end though. He got a quick submission in a promotion called NAFC in January, by February he was making his UFC debut. He lost on points to Jonathan Pearce though. Don’t think I saw that fight.

 

Off to Tesco. 

Edited October 25, 2022 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

fight change, Mota sounds like a great replacement:

 

 

[wandshogun09]

Just added a bit about that in the opening post. Funny old bout order for this. Was sure Jacoby-Rountree would be co-main but they’ve stuck Means-Griffin in that spot. Arlovski on the prelims, Dolidze-Hawes and Mota’s debut on the prelims. Yet Jared Vanderaa makes the main card. I don’t know how they decide the running orders for these things. No rhyme or reason at all. 9pm kick off for the prelims helps a bit though.

[Egg Shen]

yeah no real sense there, dont suppose it makes any difference in the Apex though. Good card.

[Egg Shen]

sleeper card this, and like wand. alluded too, a weird bout order, i think the prelims (outside of the main event) might be stronger than that main card. I dunno where i'm leaning with that main event. If this was Kattar's first fight after the Holloway fight i'd 100% be picking Allen, but Kattar came back and looked great last time so i'm not so sure. This is simply a case of sitting back and seeing what happens for me.

Having said that, just saw this image of Allen from the weigh-in's, he came in half a lb under but i hope this is just a bad photo, cause he looks terrible:

 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, Allen’s a big lad. His days at 145 are probably numbered, to be honest. He’s not even 30 yet so you have to think that the weight cut is only gonna get harder and 155 isn’t that far away for him. Between all that Tesco grub and his DNA, he’s not staying at Featherweight too much longer. You ever seen his old man?

100% natty, of course. 

I was thinking about this fight earlier. We’ve barely talked about it and I think it’s because nobody’s really got a proper read on it. Despite Allen being on the roster so long, it feels like we still don’t know that much about him. The notable names he has fought have been at a bad point in their careers. Even the Hooker fight last time, which finally got him some buzz, it got talked about a lot because it was a decent name win for Allen and it was a long time coming for him to finally get a memorable finish like that after so many decisions. Especially on home soil. But I’m not sure how much we should really read into that because Hooker’s in a slump at the minute and seems to have been spiralling down in form ever since that war with Poirier a couple of years ago. At the same time, Allen’s been consistently winning so you can’t really pick fault either. The thing I love about this fight is that Kattar is both a name and he’s in good form. And it’s 5 rounds. This fight should answer a lot of the remaining questions on Allen, I reckon. Kattar’s not tippy top elite but he’s mixed with some of the best and he’s tough, hard to put away and he’s dangerous as fuck himself. I get the feeling Allen is one of those fighters who only really does what he feels like he has to do to win. I think he’s the type to rise to the level of his opposition or the occasion. The way he came out against Hooker was unlike I’ve ever seen him before and I think a lot of that was because of the occasion with it being in London and a co-main against a name. This being his first headliner might bring the best out of him but if he tries to bullrush Kattar the same way he did against Hooker I don’t see it working out too well for him. I don’t think he’s that stupid though.

It’s a tough call but I’m leaning towards Kattar on points. I see it mostly playing out on the feet and I just think he’s got more to his game there. All anyone remembers about Allen’s last fight was that he blitzed Hooker out of there but if you watch the whole flurry he’s very sloppy and leaves himself wide open a bunch of times and gets cracked badly at least once and his knees buckle.

He recovered quick and immediately rocked Hooker right back and it ultimately led to the finish. But Hooker was already hurt by the time he landed that punch. Allen can’t be getting reckless like that tomorrow night. Kattar’s got some nasty elbows in close and his Boxing isn’t had either. I think Allen might be looking to clinch and grapple more in this one, use his strength to kind of bully Kattar around. But if he gets close enough to clinch then he’s close enough to eat those Kattar elbows as well. Risky game. We’ll see. I like both but I’d love to see Allen shine here and build off that momentum from the Hooker win. It took him so long to get a moment like that, it’d be a shame if it just fizzles out now and he’s back to winning workmanlike decisions on undercards for another few years. I wouldn’t be shocked if Allen wins. We just don’t really know how good he is yet, we might’ve just scratched the surface. But based on what we’ve actually seen and not the imagined potential, I’m leaning towards Kattar. 

[Egg Shen]

I watched that Mota/Abuev fight you gif'd, scary knockout. Mota comes in a favorite too on a week's notice, those LFA Champs are no joke.

[David]

38 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

It’s a tough call but I’m leaning towards Kattar on points.

Yeah, I agree. I think Allen is really good, but I'm not convinced he makes a dent at the very top level. He seems to leave himself wide open on occasion, as you say. And top class fighters will pounce on that.

[wandshogun09]

The (hopefully) final bout order and start times. 

[Egg Shen]

only managed to see the prelims on this so far but they were quality.

Roman Dolidze sent Phil Hawes to the land of wind and ghosts. Brutal finish after Hawes clearly blew his knew in that ground transition. Quite like Dolidze.

The Iron Fucking Turtle!

I think it's time for Chase Hooper to maybe find another line of work. There was something unsettling about seeing him getting beaten up by Steve Garcia. I know Hooper's talented on the ground but it just felt wrong to me, this was a mugging.

Rogerio de Lima showed how to beat modern day Arlovski. You just should him zero respect and go after him, made it look easy. 

Carlos Mota's debut was disappointing but he showed glimpses of what he's about. Simply got out wrestled.

 

 

[Egg Shen]

had to post this...

😄😄😄

[wandshogun09]

Really shitty ending to what was shaping up to be a fantastic fight there. Unfortunate for all involved. That flying knee attempt from Kattar where you could see he overreached and his knee was trashed on the landing was horrible. I thought they were gonna stop the fight between rounds but they gave him a chance and just look at this angle of Kattar’s right knee…

😬

Really made me wince that. Sucks for Kattar. It’s also shite for Allen though. I thought he was looking great in that first round. Obviously that doesn’t mean he had it in the bag. There was a long way to go and Kattar has been the type before who’s started slow and then warmed into a fight. So who knows how it would’ve gone if it played out to its natural conclusion? This ending robbed them both. Saw this quote from Allen earlier and it pretty much sums the situation up. The title picture at 145 is a right mess.

“Obviously there was the injury with Yair and Brian and then Calvin. Emmett vs Kattar, it was a real close decision. I wanted the performance to stand out so I could ask (for a title shot): ‘Look, this deserves it more than that and that’. But now I’m in the same boat. I don’t have an opinion on it. Everyone’s getting dodgy wins and weird things. It’s hard to say who deserves it. I don’t know. Whoever.” - Arnold Allen

One thing this all does is clear the path for that Makhachev vs Volkanovski fight up at 155. It seems like that’s what the UFC we’re gonna do anyway, after the face-off at 280. But with no clear cut, head and shoulders above #1 contender at 145, Volk taking that challenge on at 155 makes more sense. Then regardless of the result there, hopefully an obvious challenger at Featherweight will emerge in the meantime. The most obvious choice is surely Allen vs Emmett. Wouldn’t be surprised if they make it an interim title fight either. I wouldn’t really agree with that but I could definitely see them doing it given their hard on for interim belts. Then the winner awaits Volk for a unification fight on his return to the division. And then even if it winds up that Volk decides to just stay at 155, the Allen-Emmett winner can get full champ status. They mentioned Max Holloway and I love the bastard but he shouldn’t be in an interim title fight when he’s fresh off going 0-3 to the champ. 

Max Griffin looked pretty solid beating scrappy veteran Tim Means. Not sure how the one judge had it scored for Means. I thought it was a clear Griffin win. The knockdowns, the takedowns and top control. I didn’t think there was much of an argument at all for Means taking 2 of those rounds. Thankfully Griffin did get the decision. And to be fair to Means, even he looked baffled to hear one of the judges had him winning. Griffin even said Means told him after the fight that he should’ve won 30-27. Class from Means. You don’t often see that kind of honesty from a fighter after a loss.

Didn’t like that Acosta vs Vanderaa fight at all. Add Acosta to that group of sluggish sloppy lumps that stink up cards in the Heavyweight division. The showboating was doing my head in as well.

If you’re doing something impressive and show off a bit that’s one thing, this guy was eating leg kicks and acting like he did something. Not a fan. Vanderaa’s not much better to watch either. Why was this on the main card? They’re both going nowhere and both arse to watch. Acosta’s undefeated but based on this performance I doubt he stays that way for much longer.

Tresean Gore finally got that elusive first Octagon win and Jesus Christ!…

Nearly twisted Josh Fremd’s head off like a bottle lid. Nasty finish from the appropriately nicknamed ‘Mr Vicious’. He seemed to be getting a bit of a big head before his UFC debut but I liked him in the post-fight interview here. Still seemed confident but those losses clearly humbled him a little bit and I actually think they might’ve been a positive in the long run.

Jacoby vs Rountree delivered everything expected of it apart from a brutal finish. How these two went the distance I’ll never know. Really good scrap though. I checked and apparently there wasn’t a FOTN given but if there was, this would’ve been it for me. I had Jacoby winning myself though. Rountree had a strong third round but it wasn’t enough to take the decision for me. Seen some wallies on Twitter saying Rountree won clearly because ‘look at their faces at the end’. Never fails to make me laugh when twats trot that one out. As if fights should be judged purely on who’s marked up more at the end. So by that logic you could absolutely dominate the fight for 14:50 and land 3 times the amount of strikes your opponent did, but you get split open with one elbow in the last 10 seconds of the fight and that means you lost? Complete idiots. Probably the same people who go ‘that should’ve been a split decision’ after a close fight. I felt like Jacoby was a bit hard done by with the judging. I could maybe see an argument for Rountree but one judge had him winning the second round which I thought was Jacoby’s best round. Really enjoyable fight all the same.

Roman Dolidze looked a right handful in his first round demolition job of Phil Hawes.

Christ. Wasn’t just the KO itself either, I loved the way he set it all up with the assault off his back. In hindsight, Hawes scoring that takedown was a terrible move for him. Dolidze immediately started softening him up with the elbows from the bottom, then that nasty leg lock fucked Hawes up bad. Big Dan could’ve stopped the fight right there because you could see Hawes could barely stand on the leg. And sure enough, seconds later Dolidze ironed him out. Really liked this from Dolidze. He got off to a bit of a lukewarm start in the UFC but that’s 3 wins in a row now and two consecutive brutal finishes over Daukaus and Hawes.

De Lima subbing Arlovski in less than 2 minutes was some sad shit. Arlovski’s not been great to watch for ages but nobody really moans about it. I think everyone gives him a pass just because we’re all quietly happy to see him still getting wins, getting paid and not getting regularly laid out like he was during that bad spell 10-12 years ago or whenever it was. I thought he’d still have enough to get a plodding points win from this, I’ve never rated De Lima. But no. Knocked him down and choked him in 1:50. Bollocks. Arlovski will no doubt win another 3 split decisions now though, he’ll stick around forever. I’m convinced he’ll still be fighting into his 70s.

Jun Yong Park vs Ugly Man Holmes was alright, nothing special. I like Park, he’s fairly consistently in entertaining fights. This was one of his least exciting and he still brought the aggression and got the second round submission. Holmes doesn’t look much cop to me though.

I’ve said it in the past but I think it’s clear at this point that Chase Hooper doesn’t belong in the UFC. I hoped I’d be proven wrong because I like Hooper but Steve Garcia just smashed him here. Chase looked like shit. No striking, no defence and kept trying spinning shit when he doesn’t even have the basics down yet, and getting clipped every time he spun. Whole thing only lasted about 90 seconds and Garcia dropped him, what, 3 or 4 times?

Poor sod. He knows doesn’t he? He just knows he’s out of his depth. He’s only 23, there’s time for him to go away and make improvements and still make a bit of a run. But I don’t think he’s gonna get that done while he’s in the UFC. I think he’d be better off trying to get out and go somewhere else, regroup and fight some lower level opposition while he develops his game a bit more. Not everyone can be a Jon Jones type phenom who can come in and rise up the ranks in their early 20s but he’s floundering at almost the bottom rung level in the UFC. Not even a knock on Garcia or Peterson or Caceres but these are journeymen a prospect should be beating. Maybe Hooper just isn’t what he was initially cracked up to be and will never amount to much. But if he’s gonna give himself his best chance, I think he’d be better off out of the UFC, rebuilding and trying to come back later. Short term, being in the UFC probably seems cool but long term it’s probably just snuffing out any chance of him developing. Nearly every time I’ve seen him, even in some of his wins, I’ve just got the feeling he’s not ready.

Cody Durden completely shat all over any buzz around Carlos Mota’s UFC debut. Just took a big fat dump all over it and sapped any kind of excitement or enjoyment out of it. Can’t even knock him, it was a late switch in opponents so you do what you have to do to secure the win. But it was no fun to watch at all. Disastrous debut for Mota really. Losing a dull decision is just as bad, if not worse, than if he’d got caught in a sub or something. If there’s any saving grace I guess it’s that he’s got the built in excuse of the short notice but this was an awful first fight in. Hopefully we see a better showing next time but, short notice or not, getting shut down like this by someone as average as Durden doesn’t bode well.

Christian Rodriguez got a nice first round submission in the curtain jerker but it wasn’t as easy as it reads on the record. I liked what we saw of Weems the short time it lasted. Especially considering he’d stepped in on short notice. He missed weight but, again, short notice so I hope they give him another chance with a full training camp.

Decent show, shame about the ending. 

Edited October 31, 2022 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

fully agree on Hooper.

Really enjoyed the show, i fast forwarderd all the breaks but the actual fights were entertaining. I even got a weird kick out of Acosta/Vanderaa.

Enjoyed seeing Gore win, i think he would have been cut off a loss. 

The main event was just unfortunate. It echoe'd the Edwards/Belal fight a bit where Edwards was finally getting a real spotlight fight and it didnt really end up adding to his case when it was done. I haven't seen a lot of people question the legitimacy of the win though which is good.

I think there's a solid chance we see Arnold fight for an Interim title in England next year. Even if Volk fully intends to come back down you know the UFC loves them Interim titles and Arnold fighting for one under Edwards/Usman will be a big thing for over here, so it all may work in his favour.

[WeeAl]

I missed this card as my box didn't record it, but it sounds like a really unfortunate ending in the main event. Hopefully Kattar can make a good recovery. 145 really does have a few problems at the minute, despite the depth of talent. If the UFC manage to make Edwards Vs Usman in a rematch in England next year, I'd be pretty happy with Allen in a big fight underneath. Hopefully with Pimblett and Molly McCann having their fights and getting beat just before that.