UFC Vegas: Lewis vs Spivac - Nov 19 ??

[wandshogun09]

Apex AGAIN for this.

ESPN MAIN CARD
Ion Cutelaba vs Kennedy Nzechukwu 

Chase Sherman vs Waldo Cortes-Acosta

Muslim Salikhov vs Andre Fialho

Jack Della Maddalena vs Danny Roberts 

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Zhalgas Zhumagulov vs Charles Johnson

Jennifer Maia vs Maryna Moroz

Miles Johns vs Vince Morales 

Ricky Turcios vs Kevin Natividad

Maria Oliveira vs Vanessa Demopoulos

Fernie Garcia vs Brady Hiestand

Natalia Silva vs Tereza Bleda

 

Not amazing or anything but better than a few of the Apex shows we’ve had lately, I think. Decent Heavyweight headliner and a couple of fun fights and some prospects on the undercard. Basically what these cards are for. This isn’t the official bout order by the way. I’ll update that when it’s confirmed.

 

Ion Cutelaba vs Kennedy Nzechukwu just sounds like chaos to me. It nearly always is when Cutelaba’s involved but Nzechukwu’s shown a couple of times now that he’s not against getting into a wild dogfight himself. Neither one of them are ever getting a sniff of a title shot, even in a bit of a weird division like 205, but they’re usually always good value on undercards or Fight Night shows like this. Cutelaba’s 16-8-1-1 and has been submitted in the first round by Johnny Walker and Ryan Spann in his last two outings. But he put a beating on Devin Clark before that and went to a draw in a really entertaining slugfest with Dustin Jacoby before that. It’s pretty clear at this point what his shortcomings are and the thing that makes him so exciting to watch, his aggression, is also his undoing at times. Nzechukwu was a guy I was neither here nor there on until a year or so ago. He was just another ham and egger on a bloated roster to me. But his mad comeback KO over Carlos Ulberg changed all that.

Ulberg was making his UFC debut and coming in with some hype around him. Was battering Nzechukwu for a round or so then Nzechukwu rallied and put him down. Not just that, he did it again in his next fight against Danilo Marques! I’ve had a soft spot for him ever since. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to build on that momentum and he lost his next couple of fights. He got back in the win column in July though, with a TKO over Karl Roberson. Good stuff. I hope Nzechukwu wins this. He seems likeable enough and Cutelaba seems a bit of a dickhead so it’s an easy one to take sides in for me.

 

Chase Sherman vs Waldo Cortes-Acosta is your weekly dose of low level Heavyweight shite this time. Every Apex card has to have one of these bottom of the barrel fatty fights on the main card it seems. For some reason. In fairness, I remember really enjoying Sherman’s sloppy slobberknocker with Ike Villanueva a couple of years ago. But he’s 16-10 now and has lost 4 of his last 5. He finally snapped the losing streak in July with a big TKO win over Jared Vanderaa in a fight that apparently earned him a POTN bonus but I have no recollection of it. Acosta makes his second Octagon appearance here. He’s 8-0 and just won his UFC debut in October, also beating Vanderaa but on points. I didn’t like that fight. It was only the other week but I don’t remember being particularly impressed by Acosta and most of his offence seemed to consist of talking shit and taunting. Like a big chubby Sean Strickland. Not for me.

 

Muslim Salikhov vs Andre Fialho sounds like a straight up banger. Didn’t even know this fight was booked until looking up the card to do this post now. Love it. Salikhov’s one of those guys, a bit like Trinaldo, who’s a bit long in the tooth and he’s never going too far up the ladder, but he’s granite hard and a good test for fighters on the way up. He’s 38 years old and has got a ton of fight experience. He’s 18-3 in MMA and…wait for it, 199-13-1 in Kickboxing! And across both sports, in those 234 officially documented fights (he’s probably had even more ‘off the books’), he’s only been stopped 4 times, and only knocked out twice. Like I said, hard as nails. But if your nickname is ‘King Of Kung Fu’, you better be. One of those stoppage losses came in his last fight against Li Jingliang in July. That was the first time he’d ever been finished via strikes in MMA so it’ll be interesting to see how he looks here, especially against a heavy hitter like Fialho. I doubt it’ll have fazed him though. After 234 fights, it’s just another day at work.

Fialho’s quickly became a favourite to watch for me though. He made his UFC debut in January, I think I’d heard his name before because he’d knocked around Bellator, PFL, LFA etc, but I’d never actually seen him fight. He jumped in on short notice against Michel Pereira at UFC 270, lost on points but instantly made a fan of me. Really fun fight and, given the late notice, quite impressive. In April he got his first Octagon win, brutalising poor Miguel Baeza with a first round TKO. He turned right back around to take Cameron VanCamp’s head off in May at UFC 274. Another first round bludgeoning and those two wins earned him back-to-back POTN bonuses. Understandably, he wanted more of that and wanted to stay active. He took another quick turnaround and fought Jake Matthews at UFC 275 in June. It was a step too far though and Matthews smashed him up in the second round. He’s taken a break since but Salikhov’s no easy rebound fight. In hindsight, having 3 fights in such a short time like that probably wasn’t the best move. I got why he did it, 3 paydays in 3 months has got to be nice. Especially when you’re new and not on big money and you start getting those POTN cheques. But you’re gonna burn out at some point if your body never gets time to rest and heal up. This is a hard fight for him. Salikhov’s crafty and knows all the tricks in there so I can’t see Fialho just blasting him away early. But I’d like to see him get back to winning ways here.

 

Jack Della Maddalena vs Danny Roberts is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Really like the sound of this. Maddalena is looking like he’s legitimately one of the most promising prospects the UFC have signed this year. There’s been a few standouts but Maddalena’s definitely one of them for me.

He’s Australian, only 26 years old and has a record of 12-2 with 11 finishes. The two losses were his first two fights, since then he’s been on a tear. Got his big break last September when he was invited on DWCS and won a decision. Made his UFC debut on the Ngannou vs Gane undercard in January and bashed up Pete Rodriguez in a round. Then in June he took on Ramazan Emeev, who’s nothing special but he’s a tough Dagestani who’d never been stopped in his 7 previous fights in the UFC. Maddalena put him away in just 2:32. It’s weird because when you look at Maddalena’s record, he hasn’t beat anyone of note yet and he does have those two early losses. Maybe I’ve got it all wrong and he might completely fizzle out but I’ve got a good feeling about him. There’s just something about him. The calmness with which he stopped Emeev was impressive and at 26, he’s only gonna get better.

Danny ‘Hot Chocolate’ Roberts is no mug (see what I did there?) though. He’s one of those UK guys who gets forgotten a lot and it’s his own doing really. He’s had some long layoffs and he’s been quite inconsistent really. But he’s one of those fighters that whenever I watch him fight, I think he should be doing better than he is. He’s good. It just hasn’t really panned out for him on a consistent basis. Michel Pereira making a highlight reel of him a while back didn’t help but his left hook KO over Zelim Imadaev was a thing of beauty…

Genuinely one of my favourite one punch knockouts in UFC history that. Problem is he was out 2 years after that due to COVID restrictions and injuries. So he wasn’t able to capitalise on any buzz or momentum he got from that KO. And by the time he returned in 2021, it was old news. He beat the aforementioned Emeev in his return but it was a split decision that I seem to remember being seen as somewhat controversial at the time. Then in his last fight in May he got old manned by Trinaldo to a points loss. Like I said, it’s just not working out for him. At this point I get the feeling Roberts would be better served trying to get out of his contract and going somewhere else. He’s a fish that could probably do better in a smaller pond and probably make some decent coin. But at 35, he probably feels like if he leaves the UFC now he won’t get back there. He’s going nowhere though and it’s obvious the UFC don’t see much in him at this stage because he’s clearly being set up as cannon fodder here. I wouldn’t completely write him off. The jury’s still out on Maddalena for now. But timing-wise, you’d have to favour the Aussie here. Maddalena is actually from Perth as well. The February card is supposed to be there so the plan is probably for Maddalena to get another finish here and get back out on that card in front of his hometown crowd.

 

Zhalgas Zhumagulov vs Charles Johnson. Might be alright, nothing special. Zhumagulov is 14-7 and has had a bit of a disaster UFC run. He’s gone 1-4 in the Octagon but they’ve matched him up really tough. 3 of those 4 losses were against Jeff Molina, Manel Kape and Amir Albazi - all 3 of which seem like they could break out and go on a run at any time. Zhumagulov had beaten Tyson Nam, Tagir Ulanbekov and Ali Bagautinov just before he came to the UFC so he’s got something about him. But it hasn’t translated to success on the big stage for whatever reason. I’m kind of interested to see Charles Johnson back in there though. He’s 11-3 with 8 finishes and just lost his UFC debut against Muhammad Mokaev in July. He got dominated but he took Mokaev to the scorecards. Before that he’d scored a 5th round TKO over new UFC signing Carlos Mota in LFA. He also went the distance with Brandon Royval in LFA years ago.

 

Jennifer Maia vs Maryna Moroz really isn’t tickling my fancy. Maybe it’ll be a pleasant surprise but I’m not expecting much from it. Aside from one night where she looked like a bit of a wrecking ball and bulldozed Joanne Wood in a round, Maia has done nothing memorable during her 4 years in the UFC. Aside from that one fight, it’s been 8 lifeless decisions and 2 weight misses. Even her title shot against Shevchenko in 2020 is probably the most forgettable defence of Shev’s reign. Just…nothing. I actually remember people picking her to dethrone Shevchenko as well! ? All based off that first round finish of (Calder)Wood but, looking back, I think that performance was as much to do with Wood being so inconsistent and flaky as it was anything to do with Maia herself. I quite like Moroz though.

Someone in another thread called David “one of those MMA pervs” the other day. I guess I resemble that remark. I own it and I’m not sorry. On a serious note, Moroz is nothing special as a fighter either but she’s been much better to watch than Maia. She’s Ukrainian, 11-3 and also has a quick submission win over Joanne Wood, that was her UFC debut back in 2015. She hasn’t done a great deal since but she did go the distance with current Flyweight champ Carla Esparza in 2017 and she comes into this one off 3 straight wins and 2 POTN/FOTN bonuses. I did really enjoy her grudge match with Mariya Agapova in her last fight at UFC 272 in March. Prelim beef but it was fun. They fucking hated each other. Hoping Moroz wins this because I just can’t be doing with Maia. She’s basically the Brazilian Katlyn Chookagian for me. But I’ve got a bad feeling she’s just gonna be too strong and physical for Moroz here.

 

Miles Johns vs Vince Morales might be alright. Was originally supposed to be Morales against newcomer Jose Johnson but that’s off. In steps Miles Johns. Neither are world beaters or future contenders but it’s a solid enough little matchup. I just started getting into Johns’ fights then John Castaneda derailed him last time out in February. Before that though, Johns was looking good scoring back-to-back POTN winning knockouts over Kevin Natividad and Anderson Dos Santos. The Dos Santos KO especially was a cracker.

One of my favourite knockouts of last year. But yeah, Castaneda put a stop to any momentum he was starting to build. Morales has been on the roster for 4 years now. Lost to Song Yadong in his debut and it’s been up and down ever since really. He’s 11-6 overall now, 3-6 in the UFC. I vaguely remember his stoppage win over Louis Smolka but he comes into this one off a decision loss to Jonathan Martinez in May.

 

Ricky Turcios vs Kevin Natividad will be worth a look. Turcios won TUF last year, beating Brady Hiestand on points in the tournament final. I remember really enjoying that fight. I didn’t watch TUF so it was my first time seeing Turcios and he made quite a first impression with his all action style. He got derailed before he even got going in his next fight though. He lost a decision to Aiemann Zahabi in July and, to be honest, shat the bed. It was a poor showing from him which consisted of a lot of showboating and shit talking but little in the way of actual meaningful output. Hopefully he knocks that on the head here and fights more like he did against Hiestand. Natividad is 9-3 and coming off back-to-back stoppage losses and a year plus layoff. It’s definitely got the feel of the UFC lobbing Turcios a bit of a soft ball but you never know. I don’t really know what to make of Turcios after that weird performance against Zahabi. Hopefully that was a one-off.

 

Maria Oliveira vs Vanessa Demopoulos. Nothing happening matchup. Strawweight is probably the strongest women’s division but these two aren’t the reason for that. Oliveira is 25 years old and 13-5 with 8 finishes. Lost a decision to Tabatha Ricci in her UFC debut, won a decision off Gloria De Paula in her last fight. Nothing much else to say. Most notable name on her record is Marina Rodriguez on DWCS back in 2018, and Rodriguez stopped her in a round. Demopoulos is 34 with a record of 8-4. In fairness to her, I don’t recall her being boring and she had a cracking little one rounder with Silvana Gomez Juarez in January where Juarez hurt and dropped her and Demopoulos somehow came through the storm with an armbar. She also supposedly had a bit of a 5 round war with Loopy Godinez in LFA a couple of years ago that looks like it was good. I’ll have to watch it at some point. She comes into this fight off a split decision win over Jinh Yu Frey.

 

Fernie Garcia vs Brady Hiestand. Pure curtain jerker material here. Not arsed but I’ll go through the motions. Garcia is 30 years old, 10-2 record, 4 finishes. Won on DWCS last October but lost a decision in his UFC debut against Journey Newson in May. Hiestand is 23 with a 5-2 record and 4 finishes. He made it to the finals of TUF last summer but lost to Ricky Turcios by split decision in a fun scrap at the Finale.

 

Natalia Silva vs Tereza Bleda might seem like a fight to skip at first glance but I’m definitely gonna be watching this after Silva’s last fight. She actually signed with the UFC a while back but was inactive since 2019 for some reason. So when she finally made her debut in June, I had no real expectations. I think I was even gonna skip the fight but ended up leaving it on and she looked fantastic.

She completely outclassed Jasmine Jasudavicius in all areas en route to a clear decision win. Just schooled her. Her grappling was the main thing being talked up going in and she was being hyped as a bit of an armbar specialist but she put on a bit of a striking clinic here. Barely got hit herself, shut down all Jasudavicius’ attempts to grapple and busted her up on the feet. Just a really strong, complete performance and considering she’d had 2+ years on the shelf before this, it was really impressive. She’s still only 25 as well. She’s gonna improve on this. Great addition to the Flyweight division. She’s 13-5-1 now with 10 finishes and she’s on a 7 fight winning streak. Never heard of Bleda but just looked her up. All I can find on her is that she’s Czech, just 20 years old and undefeated at 6-0 with 4 finishes.

 

That’s all folks. 

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Smashing main card. Dunno what to make of that main event. A year or so again i'd have picked Lewis to smash Spivac, but it really feels like he's on the backside of a mental career now. I can Spivac winning this ground and pound in a pretty depressing affair.

Madallena/Roberts is the one though isn' it?

[Zebra Kid Mark]

Great write up Wand.

Not a bad card for the Apex, a few familiar faces dotted across the card.

One gripe and I think I have brought this up before but how can they expect us to care about TUF when the winner can't even make it to an Apex main card (or even TV prelims). We invest 3 months into their journey and then they are forgotten about.

[wandshogun09]

It’s not the final order Zebra, they haven’t confirmed that yet. I just went off how Marcel Dorff has it listed for now. I expect Turcios will be a bit further up the card than I’ve got it at the moment but you never know. Tonight’s Kattar vs Allen card for example looks all topsy turvy. 

[WeeAl]

Like the rest of you, I have a bad feeling about this one for Derrick Lewis. He's in a career slump at the moment and really needs to pull a W out. Of course he can do that, put Spivac looks like quite a banana peel to me. Hopefully Lewis can find a home for that uppercut early doors, rebuild some confidence and keep the train rolling for another while. 

[Egg Shen]

Can't help but feel that Derrick Lewis' heart isn't really in it anymore. He just finds himself in a position where he's probably making great money and he's still popular so he'll continue to turn up and take these fights. He'll no doubt give it a go, and he always has a punchers chance to win, but if Spivak manages to work on Lewis' gas tank and make him uncomfortable i'll expect him to win.

[Egg Shen]

early start on this one, 8pm main card i think.

[David]

On 11/9/2022 at 12:32 PM, Egg Shen said:

Can't help but feel that Derrick Lewis' heart isn't really in it anymore.

Has his heart ever really been in it? I think most of the times I've seen him fight he's tended to cave when the pressure got a bit much.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, looking back, the only example I can really think of where he came back from adversity and got the win was that mad comeback KO against Volkov, and even that felt like a bit of a desperate last ditch Hail Mary punch that just happened to pay off. I love him but there’s more examples of him folding in fights than handling the pressure well. It’s never talked about but he was on about retiring as far back as the Mark Hunt fight in 2017. Think he was on about his back at the time, or he was getting married or something. But he only talks like that when a fight is really rough on him and Hunt was obviously made for the kind of war that Lewis wasn’t ever interested in.

Lewis is probably my favourite Heavyweight these days but it’s more just because I like him than anything else. It’s been clear for a while where his ceiling is and I do think he’s a bit better than some make out. But like you say, when it gets really difficult in there, he does go into his shell and that’s when you start seeing those distress signals like him holding his belly and just retreating. The Gane fight was probably the most obvious example of that. He’s taken a fair bit of punishment the last few years as well and I think that “ceiling” I was on about might be a bit lower now. He used to sit right under those top 3 or 4 guys in the division, like a gatekeeper to the title mix. Watching him lately - getting faceplanted by Tai, getting swarmed early by Pavlovich - I think he’s gonna steadily slide down the pecking order now and start collecting more and more losses. I think the UFC recognise it as well. Spivac’s got a style that could’ve always been troublesome for him but he’s the kind of guy Lewis could catch. Now I’m not so sure and I think they’ve made this matchup with the intention of trying to give Spivac a bit of a rub by beating a popular name in a main event.

And yeah @Egg Shen early start for this one. 6pm prelims, 9pm main card. The Vieira vs Brundage fight on this is off now though from what I’m reading. 

Edited November 15, 2022 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

that main card is a cracker

[Egg Shen]

i spoke too soon...

 

 

[wandshogun09]

This went well then.

Can’t remember a main event ever getting scrapped halfway through a card but there we are. “Medical issue” so knowing Lewis, he probably just needed a massive shit. He was medically cleared an hour later or something. 

Edited November 20, 2022 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

So yeah this turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Luckily they had a couple of decent fights worth tuning in for lower down the card like Salikhov vs Fialho and Jack Maddalena’s fight because losing the main event halfway through the undercard was a massive blow. It wasn’t the strongest main event as it was but this card was being carried on the massive back of the Black Beast and it sucked for all involved. Especially Spivac who did everything right, was good to go and never got to fight. Hopefully they get it rebooked quickly for one of the upcoming cards.

Kennedy Nzechukwu vs Ion Cutelaba was weak as piss as a headliner, even as a substitute, but what can you do? Under the circumstances, whatever. At the very least it always promised to be an entertaining fight for however long it lasted. They did at least deliver on that. And I got the result I wanted so happy days.

Nice to see the big man get the win and in an unlikely main event. Seems a really good guy and hearing about his mum battling ALS just added to me being glad he came out on top here. Cutelaba was surprisingly friendly during fight week. Very uncharacteristic of him. Even during the weigh in face-off, where he’s usually mean mugging and getting in the opponent’s face, there was none of that here and he was all smiles and handshakes. Don’t know if it was just to throw Nzechukwu off, or if he just likes Nzechukwu, or if it’s a conscious effort to approach fights differently now. Regardless, it didn’t work. Nzechukwu wasn’t fucking around. I wanna see Nzechukwu vs Rountree!

Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs Chase Sherman was just there. I know it was only because Derrick Lewis dropped out and the standard for Apex cards is low but this as co-main event of anything is depressing. Sherman got battered here. Fair play to him for somehow lasting the distance, tough as fuck, but he took a right beating here. Still not really a fan of Acosta but this was better than his last fight at least.

Muslim Salikhov vs Andre Fialho was some fight. Definitely the FOTN for me this. Loved it. Salikhov’s one of those guys I’ve always liked watching but at times he hasn’t really gone for it. There’s been a few fights where it feels like he’s just coasted and could’ve gone for it more. He didn’t hold back here. I think Fialho being as powerful and dangerous as he is brought out the best in Salikhov. He had to fight fire with fire here and, while Fialho had some success early, in the end it was Salikhov’s technique and accuracy that made the difference. The turning point was Salikhov’s Superman punch in round 2.

Fialho was all over the place after that, his legs were gone and he fell down and ate some hammerfists just after. The commentators were banging on about him “losing his footing” or something but it was clearly more than that. He was buzzed badly from that punch and I don’t think he ever recovered. The corner kept asking him between rounds if he was OK, then he came out for the third round and just didn’t seem with it, and it wasn’t long before Salikhov got him out of there.

Brutal. Good stoppage by the ref. I actually saw a couple of twats claiming early stoppage on Twitter but Fialho absolutely needed saving there. That was gonna end really badly for him. He got hurt enough as it was and he was pretty much out of the fight from that Superman punch on anyway. It was only his own toughness keeping him upright but he’d have only taken more punishment in that situation. No sense in letting him get knocked completely unconscious. He was toast. Rough couple of fights for Fialho. I think he’d have lost this one anyway but, in hindsight, having all those fights back-to-back this year probably wasn’t the best idea. On a positive note, I was happy to see Salikhov get a win like this. I don’t know if it was the change in camp refreshing him or just the style of fight being good for him but this was the best he’s looked in ages.

Jack Della Maddalena looks legit. Again, he’s not beating top flight opposition yet but the way he’s dealing with these guys is very impressive. Just breezed through Danny Roberts here with ease. Roberts had nothing for him.

There’s something about Maddalena. Not declaring him a future champ or anything but I’ve had a good feeling about him since his debut. Roberts seemed game and he did well to weather the initial storm but it just felt like a matter of time. I love Maddalena’s striking, the calmness and his shot selection and mixing it up to the body and head. Still a lot of questions for him to answer though. I’ve seen people losing their head and talking like he’s gonna blast through everyone now but we’ll see how he does against the wrestlers and just better opponents in general in time. I like him though. It’s a no brainer to whack him on the Perth card now. He’s actually from Perth and the timing lines up perfectly. I’d like to see him get a step up though. No specific names are jumping out at me but it’s clear he’s a class above the level he’s been operating on. He needs a proper test. Plenty of them at Welterweight though so it’ll be interesting to see who he’s matched up with next.

Charles Johnson vs Zhalgas Zhumagulov had to be the longest 3 round fight ever. How many bastard fouls were there in this one? Seconds into the fight there was a low blow and that just set the tone for the rest of the fight. Felt like every second exchange there was either an eye poke or a bollock shot. 

Complete shambles. It’s a shame really because the bits between the fouls were pretty good. There was clearly a fun fight to be had between these two but it just disintegrated into a disjointed mess. The highlight being Johnson’s corner giving him the big Teddy Atlas speech in the corner and telling him to show why he’s a champion…only for Johnson to come out for the next round and immediately kick Zhumagulov in his Johnson. Then to top it all off, I felt like the judges got it wrong as well. I had Zhumagulov winning myself. Not gonna cry robbery because it was that messy of a fight with all the stops and starts that it was hard to keep track of. But I felt bad for Zhalgas when the judges went against him. He’s retired since as well apparently. This is the second split decision in a row he’s lost, can’t remember if the Jeff Molina one was controversial, but it seems like he’s just become disillusioned with the whole thing.

Jennifer Maia vs Maryna Moroz was awful and I didn’t think the Miles Johns vs Vince Morales fight was much better. The first round of that one was fucking awful right up until about the last 10 seconds. Maia vs Moroz was whatever, I didn’t expect much from that. But Johns vs Morales had no reason to be as bad as it was. Most interesting thing about it was genuinely when Johns said his coach (James Krause) got banned from cornering him. That’ll be to do with the ongoing investigation into dodgy betting/match fixing surrounding the Darrick Minner fight the other week. The fact the UFC denied his cornerman credentials is quite telling.

Ricky Turcios vs Kevin Natividad was a lot of fun. A return to exciting form for Turcios, although I really don’t think he’s gonna go too far in a shark tank of a division like Bantamweight. Great to watch, no question, but he’s so wild and reckless at times that you just see it ending in tears when he starts facing higher ranked guys. Natividad clipped him good a few times here, to be fair.

I don’t remember enjoying watching Natividad as much as I did here, which is why I kind of wrote him off in the opening post. I pretty much saw him as the UFC just feeding Turcios a body but, if that was the plan, Natividad didn’t get the memo. He came to win and you could argue he should’ve got the decision. It was a close one and I’m not even sure I agreed with Turcios getting the nod. Regardless, a really entertaining scrap. Turcios was a bit much in the post-fight interview for me though. What the balls was he rambling on about?

Brady Hiestand vs Fernie Garcia was better than I thought. Had no real expectations going in but it was enjoyable. Shouldn’t have been surprised really because Hiestand did have that cracking fight with Turcios last year and obviously it takes two to tango. Happy to see Hiestand win and that he’ll be sticking around for a bit now.

I said in the opening post that I was looking forward to seeing Natalia Silva back in there after a great performance in her debut a few months back. She didn’t disappoint. I didn’t think she looked as impressive overall in this one and there’s clearly still a lot of work to be done but that finish!

Christ almighty. A combination of great timing from Silva and the worst timing from Bleda there. Silva was a bit lucky as well because I think it was clear she was throwing that kick to the body but Bleda ducked right into it and couldn’t have done it at a worse moment. Tremendous knockout and got herself a POTN bonus for her troubles. I like Silva. I hope they don’t rush her too soon because she’s obviously a work in progress but I like what we’ve seen in her two fights this year. Nice addition to the Flyweight division.

Not card of the year or anything but, all things considered with losing the main event last minute and stuff, not a bad show. 

[Egg Shen]

skipped this one after the loss of the main event but some decent highlights in there. Great to see Turcios win.