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UFC 288: Sterling vs Cejudo - May 6 🇺🇸


wandshogun09

Who wins?  

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nice one wand. got a good feeling about this one.

Really interested by the return of Kron Gracie. Kron is one of the few MMA fighters still active who carries a little mystique with him, the family name and who is Dad is helps but his lack interest in being in the media and all the rumors that ever followed him around makes him a fairly unique cat in this day and age. Initially I had Jourdain to smash him but who knows with a Gracie.

Dober/Frevola will probably be the fight of the night, bedlam incoming.

 

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The bookies have the main event as a coin flip. Not sure I could bet on Henry at even money, after  a three year lay off. I think the value here is Aljo, as the younger and more active current champ. 

The betters are not getting into the Kron hype for this one, Jourdain is a 2/1 fav to win. I assume Kron hasnt been spending all his time away training, so think he loses this one and looks bad doing so. 

Absolutely no idea how the Burns match goes, but hope he wins. 

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1 hour ago, Egg Shen said:

Really interested by the return of Kron Gracie.

a fairly unique cat

Oh he’s unique alright. Just take a look at his fingers and toes.

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51 minutes ago, Dai said:

I assume Kron hasnt been spending all his time away training, so think he loses this one and looks bad doing so. 

You know what else looks bad? His hands and feet.

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I’m sure you’ll enjoy your dinner and sleep well tonight. 

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Sterling vs Cejudo was a decent, close fight. I had Aljo winning 48-47 myself but, once again, Sterling’s title reign just isn’t setting the world alight is it? Clearly a very skilled fighter but he hasn’t had one truly great defence yet. There’s always an asterisk of some sort. Wasn’t a bad fight but it’s not one I’m gonna be rewatching anytime soon either. The highlight was genuinely when Merab stole O’Malley’s jacket after the fight.

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🤣 Class that. Pissed myself seeing how happy Merab looked with the jacket on. The videos of O’Malley finally realising with Merab sat on top of the cage wearing it make it even funnier. The little back and forth between Aljo and O’Malley was shite but the fight should be good, to be fair. Hopefully there’ll be no questions or controversy around that one. O’Malley won’t be coming in injured (hopefully) like TJ, or off a massive layoff like Cejudo. And he’s young, dangerous and a fresh face in the title picture. I really like that fight. Aljo is saying he’s looking at September for that fight but Dana’s saying August in Boston. And I’m guessing we’ll be seeing Merab vs Sandhagen as well. Sandhagen called for that after his last fight and there isn’t really another obvious option for Merab either. It sounded like Cejudo was leaning towards going back into retirement in his post-fight interview but we’ll see. If he fights on maybe him and Yan is the way to go? As always, never short of options at 135. Considering the layoff, I thought Cejudo fought well to be fair. But again, it doesn’t reflect that well on Aljo when he’s winning a narrow split decision over a guy who’s been out 3 years.

Belal Muhammad vs Gilbert Burns was lacklustre but I don’t think anyone was going in expecting a FOTY candidate. I’m not a fan of his style but credit where it’s due to Belal. He not only took this fight on 2 weeks notice, he’s also fresh off Ramadan and, according to a Jon Anik interview from before the fight, had barely even been training before accepting this fight. On top of that, there were pictures floating around of Belal’s ankle earlier in the week looking all swollen up. Knowing all that, it was a crazy risk taking a last minute 5 round fight against Gilbert Burns. And while it was far from fun to watch, he got the job done in pretty much a shutout on the cards. As a Burns fans, it was proper shite seeing how this played out but if you keep jumping in and fighting any fucker on any notice, you’re gonna run into losses at some point. I’ve seen some excuses thrown around today because Gilbert injured his arm or shoulder but Belal was one legged as well.

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I think a lot of the excuses are just because people don’t like Belal. I get that he’s dull but he won the fight. That’s all there is to it. The circumstances were far from ideal for either man. The short notice, the respective injuries etc. But Belal made the best of it and got the win. Deal with it. Shit fight though. The fact they made this 5 rounds yet Gaethje vs Fiziev was only a 3 rounder is criminal.

Like I said before the show though, I had a feeling it was gonna be one of those typical Belal performances where he wins but in a way that’s not gonna do him any favours as far as making his case for a title shot goes. You can just imagine the conversations that Dana and co are having backstage and at UFC headquarters about Belal. Last thing they want is to have to promote Belal in a title fight on PPV. If they can avoid giving him a title shot they will. So if Leon vs Colby goes to a decision (and let’s face it, it probably will) they’ll probably try to spin an immediate rematch out of it if it’s even remotely close. I can see them putting Belal on ice and trying to eliminate him from the race by using Shavkat. He’s their last hope now. But as it stands, like him or not, Belal vs the winner of Leon/Colby is how it should play out.

Yan Xiaonan finishing Jessica Andrade in 2 minutes was not how I saw that fight playing out at all. I never expected her to win, much less stop Andrade. And certainly not as quick as she did.

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Easily the standout performance of her career. Not really looking good for Andrade now. She’s always game but this is back-to-back fights she’s been finished in now. And in two different weight classes. Wouldn’t be surprised if they go with that all Chinese title fight now between Zhang Weili and Yan Xiaonan. I was thinking Amanda Lemos would probably get the next shot but they’ve been very slow to announce that so maybe they were waiting to see how this fight went first. Fair play to Yan though. I really didn’t give her much of a chance in this one and she won in style.

Movsar Evloev vs Diego Lopes was a really fun fight. Way more enjoyable than I expected and way more exciting than any Evloev fight I’ve seen before. Lopes really brought it and, although Evloev was able to get the takedowns, Lopes was always going for submissions and trying to make something happen so it was never dull.

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Evloev got the decision in the end and I agreed with that but Lopes’ stock definitely went up in defeat here. And considering he took the fight on very short notice, he did himself proud. I like Lopes already. Shite haircut and absolutely fucking rancid chest tattoo but you can tell he’s gonna be one of those fighters you have to tune in for. Although I did hear Anik say that Lopes is Alexa Grasso’s main grappling partner, which probably instantly makes him a heel in @Panhead’s house 😂 But yeah, he’s gonna be one to keep an eye on. Apparently Dana said Lopes is getting his show and win money.

Charles Jourdain vs Kron Gracie was a horrible way to kick off the PPV. Good performance by Jourdain, to be fair. He was faced with an awkward style and an opponent who appeared to be plucked straight from a card in 1994. He stayed patient, stayed out of danger and did what he needed to do to secure the win. Kron looked bad though. He actually seems to have gone backwards since we last saw him. There was surely an element of ring rust as well but it’s clearly more than that. He just doesn’t seem to have made any progress whatsoever in his MMA skills. I remember when he lost to Cub Swanson, he got a lot of criticism, including from other Gracies, because he got dragged into a brawl and abandoned his BJJ, the Gracie bread and butter. It looks like he’s listened and gone 100% the other way, to the point he doesn’t wanna strike at all. This is why he would’ve benefitted from staying active after the Cub loss. Maybe if he’d kept at it he’d have been able to find a healthy balance where he could strike just enough to complement his grappling. You can’t just do one or the other in 2023. That one style shit doesn’t really work anymore. Taking 3+ years out and having worked on seemingly nothing is shocking. I wouldn’t mind seeing him and Bryce matched up next but apart from that, I’m not arsed if we never see Kron again. Kind of hoping they put Jourdain on 289 now. Don’t know if he’d want that quick a turnaround but he didn’t take damage in this one and he’d probably love to get on that Canada card.

Frevola vs Dober was a fun one rounder. Wish it would’ve lasted a bit longer and I do think the ref could’ve let it go a bit. It was a heavy shot that decked him but I didn’t think Dober was really given much of a chance to fight out of it. Wasn’t a terrible stoppage or anything though. And just the fact Frevola was able to put him down like that shows how much of a dig he has on him.

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It’s been some career turnaround for Frevola. I think I mentioned it in the opening post but it wasn’t that long ago that he looked like he was on his way out of the UFC. After that 7 second KO loss against McKinney, I really think the UFC didn’t see him as anything more than cannon fodder. The fact they chucked him straight in with Valdez after that loss, who was another KO artist and undefeated, shows what their intentions were. He flattened Valdez in a barmy short fight then was thrown in with Azaitar, another KO specialist, and Frevola bashed him as well! Now he’s out here cracking the mega jaw of Dober. It’s been cool to see him bounce back. Not many would come back from getting knocked out in 7 seconds but he’s left that well in the rear view now. Loved the Paddy callout but it probably won’t happen. I’m not even sure when Paddy’s expected to fight again. There’s another London card in July, Frevola vs Pimblett would be perfect for that. But I doubt Paddy’s gonna be back by then. Last I heard he was saying he’ll “be lucky to fight this year” because of his ankle injury. Regardless, I hope Frevola gets something good.

Kennedy Nzechukwu looked good strangling Devin Clark. That choke looked nasty.

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I always forget just how big Nzechukwu is. Christ. Him saying he gets that choke all the time in training is no surprise when you look at the size of him and his long arms. Seems a good guy as well. I’ve become a bit of a fan over the last year or two. Not one of my favourites or anything but he’s grown on me ever since his couple of comeback knockouts a while back and he’s usually decent to watch. Which you can’t say about that many in the current 205 division sadly. Didn’t know about his mum passing either. Sure he said she died right around his last fight in November as well. Poor fuck. Nice to see this one worked out for him.

Khaos Williams vs Rolando Bedoya was a good scrap. First time seeing Bedoya but he fought well and I actually felt like he’d done enough to win the decision when it was over but I wasn’t scoring it closely. The one judge scoring it 30-27 Bedoya was off though. It wasn’t that clear. I did feel like he edged it but Khaos got the nod. Good fight regardless.

Virna Jandiroba pretty much schooled Marina Rodriguez. Yeah, the high hopes I once had for Marina have completely plummeted now. There’s no shame in being outgrappled by Jandiroba but Rodriguez really looked like she had nothing for all but about a minute of this fight. She had that one little spell on the feet in the last round (I think) but other than that, Jandiroba just did her thing. Credit to Jandiroba as well though. The crowd didn’t like it but I always enjoy watching her grapple.

Parker Porter vs Braxton Smith was one of those fights I was half dreading going in just because Heavyweights. And Porter never been much cop anyway. I didn’t have particularly high hopes for Smith either but I saw a few clips of his fights on Twitter and some people getting excited about his knockout power. This was a disaster of a UFC debut for him though. Not the way you wanna make a first impression on the big stage. Losing to Parker Porter is bad enough but Smith looking knackered within about 90 seconds in didn’t help matters. In fairness, I read that he’s only just joined an actual MMA gym and he is inexperienced. But at 33 years old, he’s not gonna be making massive strides at this stage. At the very least he should provide some entertaining silly slobberknockers on the Fight Nights.

Ikram Aliskerov, on the other hand, did Octagon debuting the right way. Absolutely crushed Phil Hawes in brutal fashion just 2 minutes into their fight.

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Not a great deal to take from a short fight like this but it was the ideal debut really. It never hurts to come in the door with a bang and this guy will have turned a lot of heads with this. It helps that his only loss to date is against Khamzat Chimaev and Khamzat’s saying this guy was his toughest opponent. Remains to be seen how he does from here and I’ve already got my doubts. As great as the KO itself was, he was all over the place and looking sloppy as shite before that. Throwing himself off balance and all sorts. The usual questions will have to be asked and answered but, all in all, this is what you want your first night in.

Decent show on the whole. This was the highlight though…

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Edited by wandshogun09
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Fun little main event. I had Aljo winning it too. Cejudo looked really small compared to Aljo, which played a big part in the fight. Not overly impressive, and like Wand says, something just isnt clicking with his title reign yet.

Belal/Burns was awful. It felt like it lasted for an eternity. I started fast forwarding it in R3 and it still dragged so badly. Belal has done himself absolutely no favours in getting a title shot after this. Theres no way Dana is giving him the next shot after this.

As I predicted, but again didnt bet on, Kron was the shits.

Diego Lopes was the star of the show. Tremendous heart and some good skills, especially when he was something like a 9/1 underdog. Some tense moments with some of the submissions he pulled off. Dana gave him his win money and also a 50k performance bonus, so hes done well from it. I saw the vid of Dana telling him hes going to give him the win money, which sounds amazing, but then I realised hes probably only on something silly like 5k to show an 5k to win, so not even a hand of blackjack for Dana to spend.

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Until the main and co-main this was shaping up to be a great event, the last two fights did knock the wind of my sails though. 

I zoned out a little during Sterling/Cejudo so have no real opinion on the scoring but it was close, the fight lacked any real drama though. Merab post-fight though, absolute MVP of the night, brilliant.

Belal/Burns was unfortunate and Burns was clearly hindered badly by the injury but fuck me Belal is dull to watch. He got the job done but he did the same thing over and over for 5 rounds, it worked so can't really knock it but he's dull as dishwater.

Everything prior to that was really good, some cracking stuff on the prelims.

I even enjoyed the Jourdain/Gracie fight in an odd kind of way. Mainly because it gave me throwback vibes to watching fights from the 90's, but this felt like the final nail in the coffin of that specialist old school jiu jitsu style being present in MMA, we'll probably never see a fight like it again. Gracie looked terrible though, let's not gloss over it.

 

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I know this is a bit mean, but has Triple C's head always looked so large? I know it's been a few years since we last saw him, but I don't remember him being such a sniper's dream. 

I think Belal Muhammad seems like a good dude and there's no one more deserving of a title shot at 170 now. Of course I wish his fights were a little more exciting (I thought he really took it up a notch when he finished Sean Brady last time out), but to handle Burns like that was impressive. 

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22 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

Until the main and co-main this was shaping up to be a great event, the last two fights did knock the wind of my sails though. 

I zoned out a little during Sterling/Cejudo so have no real opinion on the scoring but it was close, the fight lacked any real drama though. Merab post-fight though, absolute MVP of the night, brilliant.

Belal/Burns was unfortunate and Burns was clearly hindered badly by the injury but fuck me Belal is dull to watch. He got the job done but he did the same thing over and over for 5 rounds, it worked so can't really knock it but he's dull as dishwater.

 

 

I think this sums it up for me as well. I’d zoned out a bit by the main and wasn’t giving it my full attention. It was close but I think the right man won. Lacking any real drama is a good way to sum the fight up. 
Sterling is saying he will fight O’Malley and then is moving up to go after Volk. 

 

The co-main really was dull, I think both men being injured didn’t help but Belal hasn’t done himself any favours in making people want to see him fight for the belt. 
 

 

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3 hours ago, Bruce85 said:

Sterling is saying he will fight O’Malley and then is moving up to go after Volk. 

I’m happy about that, to be honest. We’re reaching the point now where the Aljo/Merab situation is gonna start holding things up at 135. And Volk needs new contenders at 145 anyway. Volk vs Aljo later this year wouldn’t upset me at all.

I saw Cejudo is already on about fighting Merab as well. Whether he’s serious or not who knows though? He spent what seemed like the whole 3 years he was ‘retired’ calling out fighters from about 3 different divisions and nothing happened. If he is serious then I’m really interested in that one. Cejudo vs Merab mightn’t be a barnburner but it’s a fascinating clash, I reckon. Could even see that ending up being to crown a new champ if Aljo beats O’Malley and vacates the belt to move up to 145. And if O’Malley beats Aljo, just have the winner of Cejudo vs Merab challenge him next. 

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