UFC Vegas: Cannonier vs Strickland - Dec 17 🇺🇸 🎄🎅 ❄️

[wandshogun09]

Last UFC card of the year and it’s a Sean Strickland headliner and at the bastard Apex again. Fuck off.

ESPN MAIN CARD
Jared Cannonier vs Sean Strickland 

Arman Tsarukyan vs Damir Ismagulov 

Amir Albazi vs Alessandro Costa 

Alex Caceres vs Julian Erosa 

Drew Dober vs Bobby Green 

Cody Brundage vs Michal Oleksiejczuk

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Cheyanne Vlismas vs Cory McKenna 

Jake Matthews vs Matthew Semelsberger 

Said Nurmagomedov vs Saidyokub Kakhramonov 

Hayisaer Maheshate vs Rafa Garcia 

Bryan Battle vs Rinat Fakhretdinov 

David Dvorak vs Manel Kape 

Sergey Morozov vs Journey Newson 

 

Not in love with the main event but I think that’s a pretty nice card overall. I think that’s the correct bout order but I’ll update it anyway when the inevitable pullouts and changes start. Tsarukyan vs Ismagulov is a tremendous fight and there’s a few fun matchups scattered throughout the card. Not bad. I’ve just had my fill of Strickland 5 rounders at this point. 

 

 

Jared Cannonier vs Sean Strickland is the last main event of the year and, to be honest, I’m underwhelmed by it. It’s not the worst headliner we’ve had this year but I’m really not feeling it. Think it’s mostly the Strickland factor. Just can’t be doing with him and the prospect of being subjected to a potential 5 rounds of his ‘all bark, no bite’ bullshit style of fighting just fills me with apathy. We’ll roll with it and see what happens though.

Needless to say, I’m on Team Cannonier for this one. Whoever’s fighting Strickland, I’m generally supporting them. But I kind of like Cannonier anyway. Bit of a weirdo, a bit out there and sometimes his interviews sound like they come straight out of a 1989 Ultimate Warrior promo but he’s usually decent to watch when the cage door shuts and he’s definitely preferable to the dickhead he’s fighting here. We last saw Cannonier in July, coming up short in his title shot against then champion Israel Adesanya. He managed to go the distance but he was never close to winning and it was a very lacklustre fight to watch. Before that thought, he’d stopped Derek Brunson with some of the nastiest ground and pound elbows you’ll see. He also has wins over Kelvin Gastelum, Jack Hermansson and an old Anderson Silva. Not too shabby at all. He’ll be 39 in March though so the clock is ticking. Sadly for him, I think he’s already peaked. I don’t see him getting back into title contention at this stage, much less winning the thing, I think it’s all downhill from here. I hope he wins this one though.

That’s the last time we saw Strickland and it was glorious. Maybe the most satisfying result this year overall for me. Strickland has been doing the old ‘Psycho Sean’ bit for a while now, talking like he’s some killer only to stink the place out when he actually gets in there. His main event with Hermansson in February was fucking shit. Just 25 minutes of nothing. And Hermansson isn’t usually dull so I’m dropping the blame at Strickland’s door. Fuck him. As usual he was talking all kinds of bollocks going into that fight with Alex Pereira and then got utterly schooled. He looked absolutely clueless out there, to be honest. Walking forward, chin straight up in the air, doing some weird shite with his hands and just sleepwalking towards a Kickboxing champion with a bomb of a left hand. Top tactics. What could possibly go wrong? I loved seeing him get decked. Beautiful. Hopefully it’s the start of a proper slump and losing streak. Go on, Jared!

 

Arman Tsarukyan vs Damir Ismagulov is the last ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** of the year. This is such a great fight. Two of the next generation of Lightweights squaring off and it should be a hell of a fight. I’d actually have preferred this as main event. I’d have much preferred 5 rounds of this over the actual main event. It’s a better fight and these two have way more future and upside than Cannonier and Strickland. Whatever though. It’s a cracker. Seeing fights like this really just hammers home how much depth there is at 155. The division is in safe hands.

Tsarukyan is Armenian/Russian and just turned 26 years old. His record currently stands at 18-3 and 12 finishes and, in my opinion, he should be on a 6 fight winning streak right now. He ‘lost’ a decision to Mateusz Gamrot in their main event in June but I absolutely had Tsarukyan winning that one myself. I’d stop short of using the word robbery and I’d have to rewatch it but I didn’t really see the argument for Gamrot winning that fight. It was a fantastic fight all the same but it’s a shame because the result temporarily derailed him a bit despite most people thinking he should’ve got the decision that night. Gamrot got a fight with Dariush off that win, that should’ve been Tsarukyan’s opportunity. I think he’ll get back there though. It feels inevitable. He’s still young enough and he’s got so much talent. That was clear from his UFC debut in 2019 when he was thrown straight in the deep end against Islam Makhachev. He lost on points but he was only about 22 and gave such a strong account of himself. It’d be such a cool story if Tsarukyan can climb the ladder and rematch Makhachev for the gold but obviously a lot has to happen before we get to that. And Tsarukyan has his hands full here.

Ismagulov is Russian, 31 years old and has a record of 24-1 with 13 finishes. He’s been quietly sneaking up on everyone and stacking up the wins to little fanfare but he’s a bit of a darkhorse it seems. I slept on him myself for a while but you look at his record, he’s on a 19 fight streak, is a former M-1 champ and in the UFC he’s beat Joel Alvarez, Thiago Moises, Rafael Alves and Guram Kutateladze. All very solid wins. The Kutateladze fight in June was his most recent and it was a corker. Loved that fight, a real overlooked gem that’s probably not gonna be remembered when everyone’s talking about what the best fights of the year were but it was quality. It wasn’t the FOTY or anything but it would definitely make my shortlist (if I had one) for a ‘Best Of 2022’. Ismagulov narrowly won a split decision and it was one of those 3 round fights that you wished had 2 more rounds when it was all over. Great fight, and again, just confirms the future of 155 is looking good. Hopefully these guys can start mixing with the ‘names’ of the division soon. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fantastic bit of matchmaking and I’m not mad at them pairing these rising ‘next gen’ guys off against each other. But fighting one of the names seems to be the only way to advance in the shark tank that is the Lightweight division.

 

Amir Albazi vs Alessandro Costa is a bit of a patch up job. Quite gutted about this actually. It was supposed to be Albazi vs Alex Perez originally but Perez dropped out. Then it was gonna be Albazi vs Brandon Royval and I was all over that matchup. Buzzing for it. I’ve really liked what I’ve seen of Albazi so far and Royval’s been consistently exciting to watch from the jump in the UFC. I was really looking forward to seeing how that one would’ve played out but now Royval’s just withdrew due to a broken wrist. Shame. Albazi has looked really impressive in the fights I’ve seen so far, especially in the grappling. He’s 15-1 with 13 finishes, mostly submissions and is coming off a first round sub over Francisco Figueiredo in August. He also has UFC wins over Zhalgas Zhumagulov and Malcolm Gordon. He was due a step up and either Perez or Royval would’ve been ideal. Costa’s a complete unknown names wise but he’s 12-2 with 9 finishes and comes into this fight off a 12 second knockout victory. He’s gone 5 rounds before as well so he’s got some decent experience. I rate Albazi and I hope he wins and can hopefully crack on and maybe get that Royval fight rescheduled, but this might be a risky one.

 

Alex Caceres vs Julian Erosa. This could be fun. It’s basically a battle of journeymen, these two found their level a while ago, but they’re both entertaining to watch. Caceres 19-13-0-1 now and at 34 years old, he’s already had a good innings and probably considered a bit long in the tooth for a Featherweight. There has been a couple of bright spots over the years, his 2014 submission over Sergio Pettis being the highlight. And even more recently, he strung together a 5 fight winning streak between 2019 and 2021. He last fought in March, dropping a decision to Sodiq Yusuff. Erosa’s been slightly more consistent but has still had his share of ups and downs. He’s 28-9 now but he’s coming off 3 wins. He had a wild scrap with Steven Peterson in February that I loved. Also has a quick knockout win over Nate Landwehr and a submission over Sean Woodson in another hidden gem. He’s been good value on undercards and Fight Nights in recent years and I’m expecting an enjoyable, action packed fight between these two.

 

Drew Dober vs Bobby Green is definitely a highlight on this card. Really like the sound of this. Can’t really go wrong with this. Both are usually in good fights, Dober especially has been great to watch for a long time now. And when Green’s been ‘on’, he’s been a joy to watch as well.

Dober’s 25-11-0-1 now and has had a right hot and cold career results-wise but he’s one of those guys who always brings it. And to be fair to him, over his last 11 fights he’s gone 8-3 but the 2 of the 3 losses were against Beneil Dariush and Islam Makhachev. The other loss was in a corker against Brad Riddell. He’s coming into this fight with some real momentum as well. He’s stopped Terrance McKinney and Rafael Alves in his last two fights. The McKinney fight was one of the nuttiest 3 minute fights you’ll ever see and Dober came back from the brink to stop McKinney. And the Alves fight was tremendous and got him a POTN bonus. Green’s coming off that quick loss to Makhachev in February but before that he’d beat Al Iaquinta and Nasrat Haqparast and looked great in both fights. He’s 29-13-1 now, a real veteran, but at 36 he’s no spring chicken by 155 standards. Good stuff here. Wouldn’t mind seeing the winner fight Paddy Pimblett next if Pimblett gets by Jared Gordon at 282 the week before.

 

Cody Brundage vs Michal Oleksiejczuk is a fight I’m interested in, mostly to see Oleksiejczuk back in there at 185 again. This was originally meant to be Albert Duraev against Oleksiejczuk but that’s gone tits up. And Brundage was supposed to fight Rodolfo Vieira on the Nov 19th Apex card but it fell apart on fight week. So from the ashes of two failed fight attempts, we get this. Brundage is 8-2 with 7 finishes. Lost a decision in his UFC debut but has bounced back nicely with first round finishes over Dalcha Lungiambula and Tresean Gore this year. Not bad and he’s on track but, I don’t know, haven’t been blown away. Like I say, it’s Oleksiejczuk I’m looking forward to seeing here.

He did us all a favour back in August, walloping shitehawk Sam Alvey in less than 2 minutes. As far as I know, Alvey is finally gone from the UFC now. So I guess we’ve got Oleksiejczuk to thank for driving the final nail in. He’s no world beater and he’s had his share of losses, he’s 17-5-0-1 now, but I felt like he was in the wrong weight class for nearly all of that. He always showed he had power even at 205, but he never looked in the best of shape and was carrying some fat that he could clearly shed. He lost a decision to Dustin Jacoby in March and that finally gave him the kick up the arse he needed. He made the cut to 185 for the Alvey fight and steamrolled him quick. Of course it’s only Alvey, not a win that we should get carried away over. And I still think Oleksiejczuk has a fairly low ceiling at 185. I get the feeling he’s always gonna have about a 7 minute gas tank and if you can weather his storm you’ll do well. But he’ll be exciting to watch regardless and 185 is definitely a better weight class for him.

 

Cheyanne Vlismas vs Cory McKenna is a nothing fight really but I’m kind of into it just because McKenna is likeable as fuck and I’m rooting for her. She’s coming into this fight off a Von Flue/Saint Preux choke finish over Miranda Granger in August. She also beat Kay Hansen in her UFC debut and Vanessa Demopoulos on DWCS before that. Nothing earth shattering there and she did drop a split decision to Elise Reed before the Granger sub. I’d like to see her do well but unfortunately I don’t see her going too far. She’s still only 23 and she’s training at Team Alpha Male, she’s got some things going for her. But I think she’ll struggle as she faces better competition just because of her lack of size/reach and her striking isn’t the best either. She might win this one though. Vlismas is nothing special. She’s 7-2 and coming off wins over Gloria De Paula and Mallory Martin. She got absolutely dominated in the grappling by Montserrat Conejo before that though and I think that could bode well for McKenna here because she’ll be looking to do the same thing.

 

Jake Matthews vs Matthew Semelsberger. Solid matchup here. I’ve been neither here nor there on Matthews over the years though really. He’s been very hit and miss, no real consistency. It’s crazy to think he’s still only 28 years old. It feels like he’s been on the UFC roster forever. I forgot how young he was when he debuted. But yeah, it’s been up and down. He beat Li Jingliang in a good scrap years ago, a fight that’s remembered more for Jingliang’s blatant eye gouging than anything else, but in hindsight that’s probably been Matthews’ best UFC win. He beat the empty shell of 2020 Diego Sanchez as well but that doesn’t say much. He got subbed by Sean Brady last year then came back after a year plus on the shelf to fight Andre Fialho in June. Given the layoff and Fialho having some momentum and his power, I expected that one to end badly for the Aussie but…

He wrecked Fialho. While the Jingliang fight is probably his best UFC win, I felt like this was his best performance. He looked sharper than ever, especially considering he’d been about about 16 months previously. It was like he couldn’t miss that night. Semelsberger is the type who will be up for that kind of scrap as well. He’s not great and he hasn’t mixed with even the level Matthews has operated on really, but he’s game as fuck and he does have some pop in his punches himself. He’s got 2 knockouts in 16 seconds or less in the UFC already. He doesn’t fuck about. Matthews should probably be winning this though, I think.

 

Said Nurmagomedov vs Saidyokub Kakhramonov is a bit of a sleeper for me on this card. Could be a really good one. Really shows how strong the Bantamweight division is these days when you’ve got fights of this quality and they’re still nowhere near the title mix. Nurmagomedov has looked good most of the times I’ve seen him. Aside from the blip against Barcelos a few years back, he’s been on top form. Stopped Ricardo Ramos with a spinning kick, battered Mark Striegl with ground and pound in less than a minute, subbed Cody Stamann in 47 seconds, he’s looking good. He took a decision off tough veteran Douglas Silva De Andrade in his last fight in July as well. I quite like him, although he does have a tendency to spam the fuck out of the ‘spinning shit’, to the point he becomes very predictable at times. As he moves up in levels, I can see someone making him pay for that but we’ll see. I’ve seen less of Kakhramonov but he’s looked a bit of a handful the times I have watched him. He’s 10-2 with 7 finishes, only just turned 27 years old. Submitted Trevin Jones in his UFC debut last year and absolutely dominated Ronnie Lawrence in his last outing in July. That was the eye opener for me because I quite rate Lawrence and Kakhramonov just ragged him about for pretty much the whole 3 rounds. Impressive. Especially considering he’d been out almost a year going into that one. He went the distance with Umar Nurmagomedov in PFL in 2018 as well. He lost but he was also only about 23 at the time. Said vs Said.

 

Hayisaer Maheshate vs Rafa Garcia might be worth a look. If only to see this Maheshate cat back in action. I knew sod all about him before his UFC debut in June, other than what I could find on Sherdog. He came in and absolutely starched Steve Garcia in just over a minute.

Lights out. Shades of Paul Daley faceplanting Scott Smith in Strikeforce. What a way to make your debut! Maheshate has my attention. He’s only 22 as well. Record now is 9-1 with 5 inside the distance. Rafa Garcia is 28 years old with a record of 14-3 and 9 finishes, 8 via submission. Can’t remember much about him. He signed with the UFC in 2021 and came in unbeaten at 12-0 but it hasn’t panned out too well since. He’s stayed busy, he’s already fought 5 times since he signed but he’s gone 2-3 and comes into this one off a points loss to Drakkar Klose in July. If nothing else, Garcia seems durable. He’s yet to be finished so hopefully he can stick around a bit and ask some questions of Maheshate.

 

Bryan Battle vs Rinat Fakhretdinov is a decent enough substitute fight but I’m a bit disappointed all the same. I was quite looking forward to seeing Michael Morales tangle with Fakhretdinov but Morales is out. Battle isn’t a bad replacement though, to be fair. Won TUF last summer, beat Tresean Gore and he comes into this fight fresh off a 44 second headkick knockout win over Takashi Sato in August. He’s 8-1 overall, 6 inside the distance.

Fakhretdinov there with early MMA legend and UFC 6 tournament winner Oleg Taktarov! I like him just for that alone. Oleg cornered him for his Octagon debut back in June, where Fakhretdinov won a decision off Andreas Michailidis. He’s 19-1 overall, 16 finishes. Hasn’t fought many names you’d recognise but he did spark ex UFC fighter Eric Spicely in just 55 seconds on a UAE Warriors card just before the UFC picked him up.

 

David Dvorak vs Manel Kape will be worth checking out. Little bit surprised to see Kape so far down the card, to be honest, but it’s not like he’s been setting the world alight since coming to the UFC either. Dvorak as the opponent isn’t doing much for me either really. Not that he’s a bad fighter, I just barely remember anything about him. There’s so many great fights to make at Flyweight for Kape, this isn’t one I’d have chosen but whatever. Dvorak isn’t exactly a bum. 20-4 record, 16 finishes and was on a 16 fight streak before dropping a decision to Matheus Nicolau in March. Like I say though, just very forgettable.

Kape didn’t get off to the best start in the UFC. I remember people were buzzing when he signed. He’d just won the RIZIN belt and knocked out Kai Asakura. It felt like a big deal for the UFC’s Flyweight division that he was coming in. But they chucked him straight in with Pantoja in his debut and that was that. He lost a decision there, then lost a split against Nicolau right after. He’s got himself well back on track lately though, scoring back-to-back first round stoppages over Ode Osbourne and Zhalgas Zhumagulov.

 

Sergey Morozov vs Journey Newson is just there, pure undercard filler. Might be alright but I’m not gonna pretend I give much of a bollocks. Morozov’s 18-5 with 11 finishes and his best wins are Raulian Paiva and Khalid Taha. Whenever he’s tried to go up a level he’s come unstuck. He’s been subbed by Umar Nurmagomedov and Douglas Silva De Andrade in the UFC and Movsar Evloev on a M-1 card back in 2018. There’s worse on the roster but he’s very average. Newson’s 10-3-0-1 overall and has had a right fucked up UFC career so far. He’s 1-2-0-1 on the big stage. Finally got a win in May over Fernie Garcia but I can’t say I remember much about him at all, other than the time he got slept by a Randy Costa headkick.

 

That’s another year in the books. Merry Christmas, I guess. 

Edited December 16, 2022 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Think I heard recently that Dana was phasing out the Apex next year, so this may be one of your last chances to fully take in the dull, lifeless experience that it is. Enjoy it folks.

[wandshogun09]

45 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Think I heard recently that Dana was phasing out the Apex next year

[Egg Shen]

always one:

 

 

[Egg Shen]

On 11/29/2022 at 2:20 PM, Egg Shen said:

Think I heard recently that Dana was phasing out the Apex next year, so this may be one of your last chances to fully take in the dull, lifeless experience that it is. Enjoy it folks.

I spoke too soon. Been announced that the proposed South Korean show for early next year will now take place at the Apex, joy.

Regardless, this is a little humdinger tonight. Lots of potential cracking fights on this one.

[wandshogun09]

Yep. Tsarukyan vs Ismagulov, Dober vs Green and Nurmagomedov vs Kakhramonov are the picks of the bunch for me. On top of those fights, Albazi has looked ace so far, Caceres vs Erosa should be fun, looking forward to seeing both Maheshate and Kape back in there and Oleksiejczuk will forever be in my good graces for finally flushing that orange turd. Plenty to like about this card. But especially Tsarukyan vs Ismagulov. Criminal that that’s not getting 5 rounds and main eventing this card. Pisses all over Cannonier vs Strickland.

The real main event. 

[Egg Shen]

[wandshogun09]

Start times as well. Earlier than I expected. 

[wandshogun09]

Just voted Strickland by decision. 

[Dai]

This was a very fun main card. The first half of it was a cracker. The Brundage fight was a good opener. Dober/Green was a belter. Tremendous match, which Green was looking amazing in. His hands and defence were looking real sharp, and he was easily winning the fight. Dober stayed extremely game throughout, and got rewarded when he landed his bomb.

Lets stop for a moment and discuss Alex Caceres. For a start, hes only 34, which seems impossible for me to comprehend. He feels like hes been in the UFC an eternity, and going back to his Wiki page, he has! Remember the Carlos Condit vs Nick Diaz match, which had those amazing build up episodes? That was a decade ago, and feels like a completley different generation. Our Bruce Leeroy was on that show. Not only that, he had already had 3 UFC fights the year prior, and was also on the JDS vs Cain show on Fox a few months before. Hes now 26 fights into his UFC career, and has won 6 of his last 7. Out of those 26, I doubt theres as good a KO hes done as the one on this show. Fantastic KO.

Albazi landed a massive uppercut KO, and was looking fairly comfortable up until that point. Ismagulov had no answers for the grappling of Tsarukyan. He defended them well, and could almost always get back to his feet fairly quickly if he was taken down, but he couldnt get anything off offensively, and lost fairly decisively. Main event didnt do anything for me, and was easily the worst fight on the main show.

Cruz and Felder is a bad combo to have on the comms too, purely down to Cruz. He rambles on so much, that by the time hes finished his point, whatever hes talking about (be it a takedown attempt, or scramble), the action has finished and the point he was making was disproved. Whilst thinking about how shit Cruz is, I actually started thinking about Brendan Fitzgerald. I dont think Ive ever heard a negative comment about him, ever, which shows you how good he is at his job. Usually theres at least a little negative feeling toward someone who does as much commentary as he does, but hes so good that you never hear a bad word against him.

[Egg Shen]

yeah this was good stuff.

Personally felt Strickland did enough in the main event but it was nip and tuck. Strickland needs to add more tools to his attack though. His jab is great but he needs to put more behind it. 

A big thing during this card was the commentators insistence on drumming home the importance of 'damage'. It was quite annoying how often they brought it up but in the light of Pimblett/Gorden they'd clearly been told to do so. What was also annoying about it was them discussing the difference in damage being done. @wandshogun09alluded to this is another thread, but Dominic Cruz started to ask the question was Cannonier winning the damage battle because he'd made Strickland's nose bleed in round 5. Utter rubbish, how can you possibly judge damage on that? If you are gonna judge rounds based on who has the most visible damage the sport is fucked. Some people cut easier, some people bruise easier, and some people's nose bleed easier. You can't judge anything like that.

Quick mention of Drew Dober though. One of the unsung blood & guys warriors of the UFC. I'd love to see Dober get into a spot to mix it up with Gaethje, Chandler, Poirier etc. the guy deserves it and in a fair world would be a bit of a PPV main card stay. Never in a dull fight.

on the subject of blood and guts, did anyone see the Garcia/Maheshate? Garcia had an artery severed in his head. Took 2 hours to stop the bleeding afterwards and he lost 20% of his blood. That thing deserved to be played out in a big crowd, crazy.

[Carbomb]

The damage discussion is more Just Bleed bullshit. If it were truly a factor, then every grappling specialist is fucked, because they'll either lose every decision, or they'll feel pressured into fighting outside their specialisation, risking more losses. Demian Maia would've been particularly screwed by it.

[wandshogun09]

Finally caught up on this. 

Cannonier vs Strickland was cack. Seen loads of talk about the decision and I probably had Strickland winning myself. But it was such a poor fight with so little of note happening that lot of it was hard to separate them in terms of scoring. And really, when you fight negative like these two did here, you can’t even really complain when the judging goes against you. This wasn’t Gordon vs Pimblett where one guy was clearly doing the better work, neither of these guys should’ve been confident that they won the fight when the 5th round ended.

Oh well. I can live with this one because it’s better than the alternative of watching a shit fight and then Strickland wins. It could’ve been even worse. The fight itself was awful though. Just fell into a pattern where it seemed like they were having the exact same exchange over and over again. Watching it, it felt like those lower level women’s fights where it resembles a light spar and nothing of any real consequence seems like it’s ever gonna happen so what’s even the fucking point watching it?

Tsarukyan vs Ismagulov didn’t catch fire like I’d hoped but I did enjoy the fight. It was one of those fights that I was engrossed in watching but not one I’d be in a hurry to rewatch. Ismagulov didn’t have the answers for Tsarukyan’s grappling. He did a good job defending once he was taken down, I thought he did well to survive, especially when Tsarukyan had his back for a bit later on. But he got nothing done himself and Tsarukyan won in all areas. I saw some criticism of Tsarukyan for not getting a finish or doing more damage but I thought it was as much to do with Ismagulov simply just doing a good job minimising that as anything. Tsarukyan was able to keep getting him down but Ismagulov mostly got the defensive barriers in the way of any real further damage from there and they got stuck in that game. Still way better to watch than the main event.

Thought Amir Albazi was class. I’ve been saying he’s one to keep an eye on for a while now, he had some setbacks with layoffs and stuff but he seems to be going from strength to strength now. 16-1, 5 fight win streak, unbeaten in the UFC and now finds himself ranked #7 at Flyweight with this win. Was a peach of an uppercut as well.

Showing new wrinkles to his game. He’s mostly looked a force in the grappling so far, now he’s doing shit like this? Not sure where his ceiling is but 2023 could be a big year for him. He should at least be in the mix in contender fights over the next year, if not challenging for the title itself. I saw Muhammad Mokaev is calling to fight Albazi on the London card. I’m down for that but I think that ends badly for Mokaev myself. Too much, too soon. After initially wanting to root for Mokaev, unfortunately he’s coming off as a cock himself lately so I actually wouldn’t mind seeing Albazi humble him.

That Alex Caceres headkick was a thing of beauty!

Last thing Erosa would’ve expected as it came right behind that left hand and almost on a little delay. Caceres has always had a bit of a unique style and different timing and it paid off here. I feel like Caceres is gonna be on the roster doing shit like this on Fight Night cards and undercards for another decade yet. He’s part of the furniture at this point.

Drew Dober vs Bobby Green was quality as said above. It was always gonna be good. Green was looking really sharp the first round but he seemed to be getting a bit overconfident as it went on and you can never think you’ve got it in the bag against a guy who’s proven himself as tough as Dober. Din Thomas was going on saying ‘Bobby Green is the only guy who can fight with that style with his hands down’ but that obviously backfired here. There’s a reason why that style isn’t a smart idea.

Really fun fight while it lasted. Dober’s had a hell of a year when it comes to delivering fantastic fights. The wild 3 minutes and comeback against Terrance McKinney, the barmy fight and body shot finish against Rafael Alves, now this Bobby Green fight. I hope he gets a biggish fight/name next. He deserves it. I’d fucking love to see him against Paddy in London but I’d be amazed if they actually made that fight. Dober himself said post-fight that he’d be up for it but the UFC doesn’t want it. Him calling for the Jalin Turner fight sounds good as well though. Isn’t a big name fight but it’s pretty much a guaranteed corker that one. Dober’s not looking for any easy fights.

Michal Oleksiejczuk goes 2-0 since dropping to Middleweight. Got off to a rough start with Brundage’s wrestling giving him a bit of aggro but once he found an opening it didn’t take him long to make his shots count. He had heavy hands up at 205 but now he’s got himself in proper shape and fighting guys more his actual size, that power is making more of a dent. I still don’t see him making a big splash at 185 but he’s definitely more suited there than he was at 205. Even a fight like this, if a big 205er got him in the positions Brundage did on the ground he probably wouldn’t have got back up. I liked the callout of Chris Curtis. That’s a bit of a no brainer now to me as long as Curtis goes for it. That feels like an ideal fight for the London card.

Was happy to see Cory McKenna get another win over Cheyanne Vlismas. It wasn’t very exciting to watch but McKenna has a likability about her where you want to see her do well. Vlismas going ‘so you wanna try striking this round?’ or something between rounds just made me want McKenna to grapple her into oblivion even more as well. And I’m glad she did. MMA fighters who can’t grapple and then moan because the opponent is grappling get no sympathy from me. Zero. If you just wanna strike, go into Kickboxing or even BKFC. If you’re gonna stay in MMA then either find an answer for the grapplers or get used to losing to them.

Matthew Semelsberger vs Jake Matthews was an entertaining scrap but once again confirmed that Matthews is flaky as fuck. He had one of the very best performances of his career last time out, looking sharp as a tack and knocking out Andre Fialho. Then he comes in here and gets floored by the same punch from Semelsberger in every round.

The only consistent thing about Matthews is that he’s so inconsistent. Fun fight to watch all the same but these two are going nowhere. I like Semelsberger though. He’s been good value on the prelims since the UFC signed him. Can’t recall him being involved in anything dull yet.

Said Nurmagomedov had to get through a tough opening round but found the submission in the second.

Deep choke. I’ve thought Kakhramonov looks promising himself so Said coming back from losing the first round and finishing him was impressive. I love the Bantamweight division. One of my favourite divisions to watch these days. It’ll be interesting to see who Said is paired with next. Nobody specific is popping into my head but there’s no shortage of fun fights to make.

Like Ebb said, that Garcia vs Maheshate fight was an absolute bloodbath! Fuck me.

Goes back to the discussion about damage that they kept harping on about on this show. There’s no question Rafa Garcia won this fight and I’m glad they judges got it right. But if you’re the type of lazy scoring, no attention span having div who just looks at who’s bloodier or more marked up at the end, you’d have had Maheshate taking it 30-24 or something.

Rinat Fakhretdinov won’t have won many fans with his smothering points win over Bryan Battle but he’ll probably win a fair few fights that way.

Oh and it was nice to see Manel Kape get another win and put in a really strong performance. After a dodgy start to his UFC career, he’s doing well. This is 3 wins in a row for him now. I wasn’t sure how he’d do here because he’d had a year-long layoff but he looked sharp throughout, Dvorak is tough as shit for surviving that second round especially.

Pretty good show overall to end the year. Up until the main event anyway. Last fight of the year was arse but that’s what you get when you schedule a Sean Strickland 5 rounder in the Apex. I expected nothing more from that one. The rest pretty much delivered though. 

Onto ‘23 we go. 

[David]

Finally got around to seeing (some) of this. On Strickland, he's kind of dug himself into a hole with the help of Michael "this man is a psychopath" Bisping. If Strickland wasn't so hyped up as a total killer he'd be acceptable for what he is. 

Which is a fairly decent (by MMA standards) boxer. He's not exciting, but he does most things well. It will take pretty decent fighters to beat him over three-five rounds. He's a borderline top ten to top five fighter, and will likely continue to float around that area until he eventually goes on a bit of a skid and disappears. 

I'd like to see him go in against Dricus Du Plessis next. I think we see the best of Strickland when someone presses the pace and makes him work, because when that happens he's actually a pretty decent counter-fighter.

I admit, I ran through this card pretty quick because I had a backlog of fights to watch, but yeah, that's my overall view on psychopath Sean. 

Edited December 24, 2022 by David

[WeeAl]

This was a really fun little card in the end up, despite that poor main event that sent me to sleep on more than one occasion. I was particularly pleased to see that man Drew Dober pick up another knockout win. Never dull and never avoids the tough fights. Always have time for him. 

Tsarukyan continues to look great. He's probably only coming into his prime as well. I wouldn't have a hard time picturing him beating any of those guys above him in the rankings other than the champion. Even then, he could probably take Makhachev as close (again) as anyone can. I hope he gets one of the names next and makes that jump from beating top level fighters, to beating top level star fighters. He's damn good this lad.