UFC 282: Blachowicz vs Ankalaev - Dec 10 🇺🇸

[Cousin Jim Bob]

17 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

 

 

He has been having a back and forth with Paddy on social media for awhile now. I hope it is just the two using each other for publicity. I really don't want to see that prick turn up in AEW.

Edited December 11, 2022 by Cousin Jim Bob

[wandshogun09]

Fuck’s sake. A draw. What a shitshow the Light Heavyweight division is at this point 🤣 this was supposed to clear up the mess after Jiri Prochazka vacated the belt and now we still don’t have a new champion. Wasn’t the best fight, wasn’t expecting it to be. I didn’t think it was as bad as some opinions I’ve read though. I lost track of the scoring but I actually felt like Ankalaev edged it myself. Fuck knows? I’m actually glad he never won in a way after seeing what a knob he came across as post-fight. And yeah, I’m not in a hurry to rewatch it, or see a rematch. I’m guessing they will do a rematch anyway just because I can’t think of anything else obvious for either man coming out of this show. But if they do make the rematch, it’s not gonna be for the belt. Now we’ve got this on the Brazil card next month…

For the vacant 205 belt. Again! What a weird turn of events. Dana hated Blachowicz vs Ankalaev so much he just decided to come up with a completely different pairing to crown a new champ, within about 30 minutes after the show finished. Madness. I really hope Glover wins the belt back. Nothing against Hill but how could you not root for Glover? One of the nicest in the game plus it’s surely his last shot at UFC gold and it’s in Brazil. Fairytale stuff if he can pull it off but I’m about 50/50 on it. I think he should beat Hill but you never know with Glover. Could just as easily see him getting decked in a minute. Who knows what that war with Jiri took out of him as well? With how the 205 division is going, I actually hope Glover wins the belt and then immediately retires. Would be hilarious if we still don’t have a champ after a second attempt to whack the vacant strap on someone.

Pimblett vs Gordon…this is gonna be a long one. This fight is probably gonna be the main talking point of this show and that’s a shame because it’s a talking point for all the wrong reasons on an otherwise pretty great card. I was up anyway so I watched the fight live and I definitely had Gordon winning at least 2 of the 3 rounds. But I had this feeling, I tweeted during the third round when it looked like it was going to the scorecards, “expect some fuckery”. And sure enough…

I thought maybe my scoring might be off because I was tired and obviously hoping Paddy would lose, so I rewatched the fight today after a sleep, trying to score it for Paddy and I still had it for Gordon. The closest round for me was the second. That was pretty even and I can see possibly Pimblett getting it for his kicks and a few decent punches at the end because Gordon didn’t do as much that round. But even then, it was close enough that I wouldn’t argue if someone scored it for Gordon. I absolutely had Gordon taking rounds 1 and 3 though. He was landing clean shots and snapping Paddy’s head back for a fair old chunk of the first round. And although it wasn’t pretty to watch, I thought he clearly outworked Pimblett in the third. The defence I’ve seen from the Pimblett fans on round 3 is ‘you shouldn’t win a round by just laying on someone, it’s about damage’. But what did Paddy do to win that round? A few elbows while he was being clinched against the cage and about 20 seconds of a waistlock at the end doesn’t undo about 4:40 of being controlled and briefly having his back taken. Fuck, even Paddy conceded he lost the 3rd round in an interview post-fight. Apparently he “took that round off” because he “easily won the first 2 rounds”. Fucking delusional.

Look at the state of these scorecards…

This is the biggest problem for me. Two of the three judges somehow scored the first round for Pimblett? How? That was Gordon’s clearest round. I’ve seen people arguing the case for Paddy taking 2 of the rounds. Whatever. I disagree but whatever. He definitely never won the first round though and, ultimately, the judges cocking that round right up is what cost Gordon the fight. I know the stats aren’t the best way to gauge a fight because they’re based on the fight overall and don’t take into account that it’s scored round by round but these are interesting to look at…

I genuinely don’t know how you give this fight to Paddy. It’s either ineptitude or corruption but neither are a good look, especially at a time when the UFC is being looked at for match fixing and dodgy gambling. Doug Crosby’s done himself proud this weekend. I read he had a howler of a scorecard in the Sabatello vs Stots fight in Bellator the other night, now he’s somehow scoring the first two rounds here for Pimblett.

Have it. Feel bad for Gordon. I mean, he didn’t help himself really by just trying to grind out a decision. He kind of gave them the opportunity to screw him. But that grinding style is how he fights. He’s not a big finisher, if he was gonna win it was always gonna look something like this. Now not only has he had a harsh decision go against him, Dana came out and immediately shat on him to the media after for his gameplan and “trying to coast”. That’s it, blame Gordon.

At the end of it all, regardless of how you scored it, even if you somehow had Pimblett winning, this wasn’t a good sign was it? Anyone who’s watched Pimblett over the years pre-UFC knew that he’s really nothing special in the cage. He’s not terrible but he’s way, way below what the UFC are hyping him as and what a lot of fans who have only seen his UFC fights have been led to believe. We’re constantly being told he’s MMA’s next big superstar, seeing comparisons to Conor McGregor, hearing that he’s gonna sell out Anfield and fight for the title and all this shite. And here he is going life and death with Jared Bastard Gordon. And let’s be clear, Paddy isn’t a prospect. He’s about to turn 28, he has 23 fights under his belt, he’s won titles in other promotions and he made his pro debut a full decade ago. He’s not some young pup who needs developing and is gonna improve massively with time. He’s 10 years in, he is what he is at this point. A decade in and he still holds his chin straight up in the air and just wades in like a div, still gets cracked by journeymen and ham and eggers, was getting tagged repeatedly here by the same left hook over and over from Gordon with no adjustments, had no answer for Gordon’s clinch and still needed to “take a round off” at this level. This is what Paddy Pimblett is. Bang fucking average. He’s just got a big mouth, a horrible cunty/racist streak (which always gains you a cult following in MMA sadly) and a funny little Lloyd Christmas meets Boris Johnson haircut. There’s a reason he’s 4 fights into his UFC run and he’s still fighting at this level. There’s a Conor McGregor comparison for you. In Conor’s 4th UFC fight he was knocking out Dustin Poirier. In Paddy’s, he had to be gifted a decision against Jared Gordon. Lad. Lad. Lad. What was that shit in the post-fight interview as well? Banging on about FOTN and bragging like he just put on a great performance? Get out Patrick. 

Genuinely scratching my head who they can even match him with now and still somehow protect him. He can’t keep facing these mid/low level 155ers forever but this fight probably scared the shit out of Dana. I suspect they’re gonna feed the remains of Tony Ferguson to him in London. I’d hate that but it’s what I see happening. Would be hilarious if it backfired and Shot Tony D’Arces him into oblivion. They absolutely, positively, definitely won’t let him near Topuria though. That I’m 100% sure of. Love the way Rogan asked him what’s next and he starts on about his injured foot. He knows doesn’t he? The easy fights are about over.

Must admit I didn’t have that much interest in Ponzinibbio vs Morono going in. Decent fight but losing Robbie Lawler just completely soured me on that one. It turned out alright though.

Happy to see The Ponz come through with the big finish. Fair play to Morono, I thought he fought pretty well considering the short notice and I didn’t think Ponz looked too clever on the whole. He definitely looked to be on the slide to me here through the first couple of rounds and we seemed to be well on track for a Morono points win before Ponzy came out of nowhere with that finishing attack. Wouldn’t mind seeing them just rebook Ponzinibbio vs Lawler now. They’ve both surely got a limited number of fights left in them and I can’t really think of a better matchup for either right now than each other.

DDP vs Till was hilarious. A total meme fight and a very enjoyable one at that. Du Plessis is such a weird one because I watch him and I actually don’t even think he’s that good or especially skilled. But he just goes and goes and goes. Gets knackered but keeps going. As he fights tougher opposition I don’t think it’s gonna work out well for him but he’s stupidly entertaining to watch all the same. He benefitted here from Till looking like shite for the bulk of the fight. Really thought DDP was gonna just crush him in a round the way it was looking in that opening few minutes but Till rallied and made a bit of a scrap of it at the end. Fair play. Just delayed the inevitable though.

Made me laugh scrolling through Twitter in real time at the end of this fight and seeing everyone going ‘OMG how has Till’s wrestling not improved? He trains with Khamzat now FFS!!’ As if Till’s learning anything from just getting ragged around the gym mats by Khamzat and chums on a daily basis. If anything it’s probably just damaged him even more, physically and confidence-wise. I don’t see where Till goes from here. It’s one thing losing to Whittaker or Brunson. DDP, as much as I like him, is a couple of steps down from that level and he still got dominated and subbed. Seems to have made no progress in any area of his game and has probably actually regressed. I’ve seen people go ‘he needs to go back to 170’ but that’s not gonna fix all his issues. Adding a bigger weight cut to his list of woes isn’t the cure some are hoping for. He’s just simply not as good as a lot of people thought he was/hyped him up to be. On a more positive note, there’s some really fun mad bastard fights to make with DDP in the Middleweight division. I wanna see DDP vs Roman Dolidze next. And fights with Gregory Rodrigues, Marvin Vettori and Paulo Costa down the road would be barmy as well.

Ilia Topuria stole the show for me. What a performance and coming out party that was. While Paddy got most of the attention going in, this was a battle of true prospects here. When you get two undefeated and clearly very skilled fighters like these paired off against each other, you never really know how it’s gonna go. You might have a feeling but unbeaten fighters like this can be tricky to predict because they often haven’t shown many weaknesses yet. I had a bit of a gut feeling Topuria would get it done, just based on being the more well rounded of the two, but I was far from confident in it. Someone’s O had to go…

And Bryce got mauled. In fairness, I actually thought he looked more comfortable on the feet than he’s ever looked in the past. He’s clearly been putting the hours in to improve his striking. But he wasn’t gonna catch up to Topuria, whereas Topuria already had enough of a grappling base to compete with Bryce there. That’s kind of how I felt it would go. Topuria would have enough about his grappling to defend the takedowns or survive if he was taken down, and would ultimately force Bryce into more of a standup affair and win on the feet. What I didn’t expect was Topuria to just completely beast Bryce in all facets and end it by submission! Incredible performance.

I’d absolutely love to see Topuria vs Pimblett on that London card in March. For obvious reasons. But it won’t happen and that’s also for obvious reasons. I’ve already seen Paddy arse lickers try to justify it not happening by saying ‘but…but they’re in different weight classes’. So what? Topuria fought at 155 as recently as July for the Jai Herbert fight. He’d have no problem going up in weight to take a fight with Pimblett. That’s not the obstacle at all. Dana wants none of it, the UFC as a whole want none of it and Paddy himself neither wants or needs that grief in his life. Topuria ends his 15 minutes and he knows it.

Was chuffed to see Raul Rosas Jr shine in a successful UFC debut. Thought he looked really good here given the circumstances of his age, the big stage he’s been chucked onto and the pressure that comes with that. Looked very composed and relaxed in there for an 18 year old kid and got the first round sub.

Perfect debut really. Made all the sweeter because Jay Perrin came off as a bit of a cock during fight week to me. It was quite satisfying to see him just get schooled and finished like this. Shades of Muhammad Mokaev’s debut against Cody Durden a little bit. With the young newcomer just squashing a bang average dickhead with a bigger mouth than his mediocre skill level warrants. Good stuff. Got to put it in perspective of course. They gave him Perrin for a reason. He was 0-2 in the UFC and hadn’t looked particularly impressive. But it was a nice intro for Rosas. I quite like him so far. The fact he’s a big Robbie Lawler fan doesn’t hurt. Hopefully they don’t move him along too quick because there’s clearly potential there and at his age, what’s the rush? 

A return to form for Jairzinho Rozenstruik with the quick knockout. Nothing against Daukaus but it was nice to see big Jair back to winning ways.

23 seconds. He really needed that coming off those Blaydes and Volkov losses. I mean, it’s going nowhere. He’s not that good really and he’s found his level in the middle of the pack at Heavyweight. But I like him. Seems a nice enough guy. Wouldn’t mind seeing him and Derrick Lewis trade bombs next but I’m guessing they’re gonna try and rebook that Lewis vs Spivac fight. Not looking good at all for Daukaus. That’s 3 straight KO/TKO losses on the trot for him.

Speaking of a much needed return to the win column, Edmen Shahbazyan badly needed this win. It wasn’t anything special, Dalcha Lungiambula is pretty much the definition of ‘all look, little substance’, but Shahbazyan just needed a W at this stage. Against anyone, just to stop the rot. He’s only just turned 25, he’s hardly on the scrapheap, but he’s had a rough couple of years. Hopefully this gives him the confidence boost he needed and he can get back on track. The aura he had early on is gone but so is the pressure that comes with those ‘undefeated prospect’ expectations. I don’t see him going too far but I do feel like he’s better than his last few fights suggest. Interesting to see where they go with him now.

Curtis vs Buckley was an entertaining couple of rounds as expected. Really enjoyed this. You kind of knew how it was gonna look, neither are elite and I can’t see either of them ever making any waves at the top end of the division but they’re both explosive and usually aggressive so I had a good feeling about this one.

Boom. Solid performance overall for Curtis and he needed it coming off that lacklustre and odd showing losing to Hermansson in London last time out. This was an ideal way to rebound. I hope they keep Buckley around as well. He’s not great but he’s never dull. I’ll take a Buckley on the roster over a Sam Alvey any day.

Once again, Billy Quarantillo delivers. I think I’ve seen all his UFC fights so far and I honestly can’t recall anything but bangers or finishes win or lose. He’s brilliant. The fact he bashed up Alex Hernandez, who I can’t stand, was even better.

Badass. Wasn’t a walk in the park. Hernandez was muscling him around and giving him some issues early on. But Billy Q held up better down the stretch and just took over and overwhelmed Hernandez late in the second round. Really enjoyed this fight. Not just for the result either. It was fun to watch from start to finish. Not sure who Quarantillo gets next. I’d love to see him and Korean Zombie throw down but I read the other day that Zombie is injured now. Real shame that because the Seoul card in Feb was rumoured to be his retirement fight and that’s obviously on the backburner now. As for Quarantillo though, you can throw him in with pretty much anyone and you’re getting a good scrap out of it. If you’re not on the bandwagon yet just go on Fight Pass and watch his fight with Shane Burgos from last year. You’re welcome.

Cameron Saaiman had a very strong UFC debut. It’s unfortunate that the illegal knee kind of marred it a bit but I thought he looked promising and had a good performance overall. Got the point deducted for the knee but then rendered the judges pointless anyway. Probably a blessing because he might’ve been heading for a draw otherwise. Hopefully he gets on the London card like he was asking for and we see him against someone we’re more familiar with so we can get more of an idea about him. At 21 years old, time is on his side.

And…breathe.

Like someone else said, it was a tremendous show up until the main and co-main but my expectations weren’t especially high for those fights anyway. I was glad to see everyone who got a finish got a $50k POTN bonus at least.

Fuck Paddy. 

[neil]

Everything you said about Paddy I feel like can be said about Till as well @wandshogun09 - just that Paddy seems more protected than Till.

 

But yeah also this:

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I'm a lazy poster anyway, but I also feel like I've lost a bit of interest with UFC in particular, I think in part due to the number of shows and getting tired of the BS that the UFC is prone to do with titles etc.

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Dana hated Blachowicz vs Ankalaev so much he just decided to come up with a completely different pairing to crown a new champ, within about 30 minutes after the show finished. Madness

 

[Egg Shen]

can't blame you Neil

[Panhead]

Remember the name, La!

My boy's got some fun fights ahead of him. 

[WeeAl]

I actually had the main event a draw myself. I didn't expect it would be declared one, as judges seem to hate giving 10-8's. To my eye, Jan won rounds 1 through 3, with Ankalaev winning 4 and 5, with 5 being a 10-8. It's just draws are so rare that I didn't expect it to play out like that. Pleased the UFC are at least seeing sense though and throwing Glover back in there next month. What they should have done in the first place here - Glover I believe was up for fighting Jan last night. That was the route to go down if they absolutely had to have a title fight on last night's show. What a weird division this has turned into now. 

The Pimblett decision was a farce. An absolute farce is about the only description for it. I gave Gordon all three rounds myself, but I could see an argument for Pimblett getting round 2. That's it. A 29-28 loss was about as good as I could give him there. At the end of it I was thinking 'well, we didn't get to see him chinned, but it's still funny to see the train come off the tracks in a bang average fight, against a bang average fighter'. Then he gets the nod somehow. Then proceeds to act as if that's the only thing that could have happened. I mean, it's going to be hilarious to see how badly this moron gets fucked up by the first good fighter he comes across. Everyone he has fought so far in the UFC have been reasonable/average/competent/entry level gatekeepers/below average journeymen. That's the levels Pimblett has been working between. Even here. Jared Gordon had barely any issue with him at all and Jared Gordon is as average as you can get. In fact, in a division as strong as lightweight I would say that's over-estimating his abilities. Wand has mentioned the possibility of someone like a Drew Dober before. Drew Dober would do bad, bad things to Paddy Pimblett. . . And I would love to see it. 

Darren Till lived up to the stereotype of British fighters having absolutely no wrestling skill. I mean, this was woeful. He did well to hang in there after the beating in the first round, but that's as good as it got really for him. Our boy DDP gave Till way more than he was fit to handle, and it was beautiful. I like this Du Plessis. The perfect fun, mid range ranked fighter that every division needs. 

Topuria was a man possessed. Beat the flat earth right out of Mitchell. Lovely stuff. I mean, it was like Mitchell couldn't even see the shots coming, they were landing so hard, flush, and regularly. And Mitchell is good too. An arsehole, but he's good. Ilia totally big brothered him here. Well, well impressed. 

[wandshogun09]

23 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

Topuria was a man possessed. Beat the flat earth right out of Mitchell. 

Topuria quote from before the fight…

[Egg Shen]

50 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

I actually had the main event a draw myself.

 

On reflection I could see it too. At the time I kind of zoned and had no idea on scoring, Ankalaev clearly won 4 + 5. Round 1 was close and you'd probably give Jan 2 + 3 because of the leg kick damage. I didn't think the fight was bad, but it was never gonna be a barnburner. I like Jan Blachowicz, but he's got a bit of the Johnny Hendricks stigma attached to him now where the UFC push him as this devastating power puncher but Jan's never really been that, he's heavy handed but he's not generally a one hitter quitter type fighter, think it's given people a bit of a false sense of anticipation when he fights. As for Ankalaev, I thought he deserved some credit for winning the last two rounds after Jan had taken out both his legs beforehand, showed some resolve to come back after that, Dana clearly pissed that he gave these two the ball though and didn't run with it in terms of entertainment. The whole situation is a bit of a mess.

Had Gordon 29-28. Can't really see how you give Pimblett rounds 1 or 3 and 2 was up for debate. A stinker of a decision that's cause a shitstorm of backlash. It really is the last thing Pimblett needed after the week he's had and the sucking up to Dana on his podcast and being buried by Helwani. This was the worst type of victory he could have had 😆 The fight itself was good but nobody is going to remember that.

[wandshogun09]

This sod does my head in.

So Gordon didn’t “ring Paddy’s bell” enough to win a decision. But Paddy doesn’t have to “ring Gordon’s bell” as long as he simply walks forward and “leads the dance”. Like the tweeter says here, Gordon mightn’t have had Paddy badly rocked or dropped but he landed the cleaner or more eye catching shots, especially in that first round that two of the judges somehow scored for Pimblett. This bloke is the worst. I’ve seen people gushing about his takes in the past but he’s awful. Especially when there’s a fellow scouser involved. He can’t contain his bias. This was the guy who was predicting Darren Till would be Middleweight champ by the end of 2021, despite the fact he was coming off a layoff, a loss and had shown nothing to suggest he’d beat the Vettoris and Hermanssons of the world, much less the Adesanyas and Whittakers. But he’s from Liverpool so he’s gonna win. I get supporting your guys but you don’t have to be delusional with it. It’d be like me proclaiming Shogun is gonna wreck shop at 205 and regain UFC gold next year. I can root for him to win all I like but you’ve got to be realistic at some point. Oh and his bullshit isn’t exclusively reserved for his hometown ‘lads’ either. He was saying Islam Makhachev was “all hype” before the Oliveira fight. Complete wally. I knew he’d be defending this bollocks decision. 

[Tamura]

https://www.abcboxing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/unified-rules-mma-2019.pdf

Of course it might actually help if people actually knew the rules they claim say they win. There is no "damage" criteria in the unified rules of MMA, in fact the only time the word gets mentioned is in relation to a 10-8 round if a fighter is deemed "significantly damaged". I think it was Bas Rutten back in Pride that remarked on the absurdity of judging fights based on things like cuts, since some people have skin like leather and some people bleed if hit by a srong gust of wind. So while cuts, swelling and suchlike may be a good indicator of there having been effective striking, the idea that a fight should be judged on visible damage is a bad one

Edited December 13, 2022 by Tamura

[wandshogun09]

Yeah I hate that ‘this guy won, just look at the other guy’s face’ bollocks. By that logic, you could win 4 straight dominant rounds, get split open with one elbow in the 5th round and you should lose the decision? It’s stupid and lazy and coming from idiots who can’t be bothered to score fights properly. No surprise Paddy’s spouting that shite himself as well now.

Yeah did loads of damage didn’t he?

While I’m here, I caught little snippets of Paddy’s post-fight press conference with the media and had to turn it off because he was stuffing his horrible little smackable face with donuts or something between sentences and slopping his mouth. Is that the thing now? Annoying pricks being even more annoying by insisting on talking with a mouthful of food after an event? CM Punk did the same when he threw his little tantrum in AEW recently as well didn’t he. Just shut the fuck up and swallow your food first. I can wait.

[Egg Shen]

i don't like because the sound of people eating grates on me, but Paddy is clearly just doing that to take a shot at the people who get on him for blowing up between fights.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah and that’d be all well and good if he was really rubbing their noses in it by going out there and steamrolling opponents impressively despite his slobbish eating habits. He’s just had to be dragged across the finish line by Doug Crosby and pals to get a win over Jared Gordon 😂 

Oh and he’s a smug fucker but Luke Thomas is spot on about Topuria vs Pimblett…

 

[Egg Shen]

there'll be no further Luke Thomas slander on the forum

[wandshogun09]

Sorry to bump but I just saw this. Bryce Mitchell after the fight with Topuria saying he’s done fighting…

I’m not a big fan of him but it’d be a shame if this is it. I don’t think it will be, this was immediately after the fight so obviously emotions would be high and the disappointment and pain would be raw. If he does fight on though, this doesn’t really fill me with confidence for his future. I know that sounds harsh but one loss and he’s talking about jacking the whole sport in? Again, could’ve been just the heat of the moment though.