UFC Vegas: Dern vs Hill - May 20 🇺🇸

[Egg Shen]

Jay Ellis is a legend of the fight game.

[wandshogun09]

Well this was way more enjoyable than it had any right to be. It’s cards like this that make me keep tuning into these Apex cards. You just never know when one of these cards is gonna overdeliver. It doesn’t happen often, most of the time the cards that look shite are shite. This was one of those rare occasions when it just clicked for some reason.

Mackenzie Dern had maybe her best performance to date in the UFC, in my opinion. Although I’m not sure how much of that was her or the fact that Hill looks about done. I found the fight much more entertaining to watch than I expected it to be though.

When you’re the striker and you’re getting beat up by Mackenzie Dern on the feet, you know it’s not going well. If Hill had a shot to win this fight, it was in the striking. So to see her getting busted up there was a bad sign. It was a fun fight to watch but I just don’t see where Hill goes from here. 38 years old with a 15-13 record and now she’s getting dropped and getting her eye swollen shut by a grappler. Had to laugh at Dern getting another stripe on her black-belt for failing to sub Angela Hill and mostly striking with her. I did like Dern’s callout of Rose Namajunas though. I think that could be a cracking fight. Don’t know what Rose is doing though. We haven’t seen her since that fucking horrific fight with Esparza a year ago.

Anthony Hernandez sent Edmen Shahbazyan back to the L column. At 25 years old, I don’t wanna write Shahbazyan off but it’s looking like this is all there is. He starts well but just doesn’t hold up well if the other guy doesn’t go away and keeps pressuring. It’s not even like Hernandez is outstanding at anything himself. He’s just a tough guy with a good engine who keeps coming forward. That was enough for Shahbazyan to wilt here. From about halfway through the first round he looked done. Not good. Hard to believe Shahbazyan was once thought to be one of the better prospects in the game. Those days are long gone. He’s now 1-4 in his last 5 and looked like shit in all the losses.

Wasn’t a fan of the Godinez vs Ducote fight. The only fight on the main card that I didn’t like. Happy to see Loopy win but it wasn’t the best. I’ve said before, while it’s admirable that Loopy is up for stepping in on short notice a lot, I’m not sure it’s a good idea long term. Even here, she got the W and I thought she won every round just about but I felt like she could’ve made this a lot more clear cut and maybe got the finish with a full camp. Her wrestling is her strength yet she chose to stand for most of the fight here and I reckon it was probably because she didn’t feel like the cardio was on point with the short notice. I’d like to see her give herself a bit more prep time for her next fight. But then again, she’s probably getting paid peanuts so I do understand why she wants to stay active.

You just knew Buckley vs Fialho wasn’t gonna require judges. As soon as it was announced you knew it was gonna be an explosive fight and it didn’t take long for the heavy leather to start flying. I just didn’t know which way it was gonna go. Buckley answered that question Cro Cop style…

Fialho’s floundering now. Shame because he’s a very exciting fighter to watch but that ‘live by the sword’ style of fighting has a short shelf life. This was his third straight loss and he’s been stopped brutally in all of them. Think they might just cut him loose now but you never know. Even if they don’t, it’s hard to see him coming back from this. Had to laugh at Buckley going straight Booker T vs Hulk Hogan at the end accidentally dropping the N bomb.

Carlos Diego Ferreira kicked off the main card with a bang. Fucking bomb of a right hand put Michael Johnson in dream land.

Christ. Decent fight before that as well. Their best days are behind them both but it felt like a well matched fight going in. Bittersweet really. Sad seeing MJ get put out in that kind of brutal fashion. He’s gonna go down as one of the most inconsistent fighters in UFC history when it’s all said and done. His win and loss columns over the years make no sense. I was happy to see Ferreira come back with a win and spectacular finish though. It’s been a while since he tasted victory and he seems a good guy. He’s not going on some big run at this stage but he’s clearly still got some good fights to offer. Him and Jim Miller would be fun before they both retire.

Slava Claus with the KO!

Really pleased to see this. His last couple of fights couldn’t have gone any worse. His complete lack of grappling was exposed badly to the point I thought every opponent going forward would just wrestle the arse off him. But Maheshate opted to stand with him and that turned out to be a mistake. Sadly, this will probably just reinforce the gameplan for whoever Slav’s next opponent is to just wrestle him. He’s clearly dangerous on the feet, why risk it when he’s got no ground game?

Chuffed to see Karolina Kowalkiewicz bag another win. Thought it was her best performance in a while. Obviously Demopoulos isn’t the strongest of opponents but you can see Kowalkiewicz gradually regaining confidence with each fight now since that horrible stretch of losses a few years back. She looked pretty good here. It’s all low level stuff and, at 37, I’m not expecting her to go on a run at the belt or anything. But seeing her put together a 3 fight win streak, after being on a 5 fight losing streak previously, has been nice.

Gilbert Urbina looked good. Absolutely battered Orion Cosce here. Cosce said something after the first round about his rib and Urbina pounced on it in the second round…

Nasty. Cosce didn’t look great in the fight himself. He’d missed weight coming in and looked a bit softer than I remember him so maybe he was carrying an injury anyway. That combined with Urbina coming in firing on all cylinders just spelled trouble for Orion here. Liked what we saw of Urbina. Looked great physically and I liked his aggression. Hopefully he stays more active now. I think I said in the opening post about the big gaps between his fights. Hoping we see him back soon. You’d think he’d wanna build on the momentum of this win.

Chase Hooper vs the can crusher wasn’t much to write home about but I was happy to see Chase get back in the win column in his fresh start at 155. Hate to be all doom and gloom but I still see it ending in tears though. I hope he proves me wrong because I like him but he just doesn’t look ready. Obviously ‘UFC level’ is a bollocks phrase in this day and age because they hire any old shite just to fill up all these cards now. Chase will do alright against this level but that’s about it. Despite him being young, I don’t see him massively improving to where he’s doing well much higher than this level. Tough kid and he’s got some skills but his striking is bad, his defence is woeful and I think he’s gonna end up taking a lot of punishment in fights in the future. Hope I’m wrong.

Natalia Silva continues to look impressive. Made short work of Victoria Leonardo here.

Love her. Not sure where her ceiling is but that’s 3 strong performances and 2 finishes for her in a row since her UFC debut now. Leonardo seemed to want nothing to do with it after the first couple of flurries. They need to get Silva off the prelims. Too early to say how good she actually is. The level of opposition hasn’t been the best. But she deserves better than to be stuck on the Fight Pass stream. No reason she shouldn’t be on the main card on these Apex shows at least. 

So yeah, much better card than it looked going in. Aside from Nascimento vs Latifi and to a lesser extent Loopy vs Ducote, I really enjoyed pretty much everything I saw on this one. 

Edited May 21, 2023 by wandshogun09

[Dai]

Yeah, with the exception of the 3 round womens fight, the main card was a little belter.

Dern looked fantastic, and Hill looked really outclassed. Dern just seemed way more powerful and dangerous. He cardio was really good too, as I was expecting her to gas out after how intense she was in R1. Didnt happen though. That knee was brutal. One thing that cant be discounted was how tough Hill was; it seemed at several points she was going to get finished, but she managed to survive everything Dern had to throw at her.

This fight was like his Josh Emmett loss, where he actually looks very good right up until he gets sparked out. This fight pretty much sums up his career, looking great one moment and then on his arse the next.

As you said Wand, that Buckley KO was about as Cro Cop as you can get. Identical. The back of the head bouncing off the mat was disgustingly brutal too.

[Zebra Kid Mark]

I never thought Dern would make her way to a title shot as I thought she was a one trick pony, however, after last night, I think she is one top 5 win away from getting a shot at the champ, the UFC obviously love her so I think she only needs one win to get a shot. I actually think if her next fight was for the title I don't think that would be the most crazy thing the UFC have done. 
 

Fantastic show from start to finish, I skipped the Godinez vs Ducote fight on the main card and it sounds like that was the right call, every other fight pretty much delivered. 

Coscoe looked great on Dana White's contender series, it just hasn't worked out for him or his brother in the UFC, I guess I fell for the DWCS hype packages before their fights.

Chase Hooper is so fun to watch and I will always cheer for him but he is not good at all, any fighter who loses to him should get cut. He is easy to hit but hard to put away. If you are getting out struck by Chase Hooper you should quit the sport.

[wandshogun09]

1 hour ago, Dai said:

Dern looked fantastic, and Hill looked really outclassed. Dern just seemed way more powerful and dangerous. He cardio was really good too, as I was expecting her to gas out after how intense she was in R1. Didnt happen though.

Yeah, she’s noticeably improved her overall conditioning. She’s come a long way from her early days of missing weight. Ever since she came back from having her baby, she’s really turned a corner on that. And the cardio has got better even just over her last few fights. I remember her fading quite badly in the 4th and 5th round against Marina Rodriguez in 2021. Her next 5 rounder against Yan Xiaonan was a year later and she held up much better late and I had it a draw but they scored it for Yan. Now here she’s dominating down the stretch. There’s been a steady improvement with each fight in that regard. Fair play.

49 minutes ago, Zebra Kid Mark said:

I never thought Dern would make her way to a title shot as I thought she was a one trick pony, however, after last night, I think she is one top 5 win away from getting a shot at the champ, the UFC obviously love her so I think she only needs one win to get a shot. I actually think if her next fight was for the title I don't think that would be the most crazy thing the UFC have done. 

It wouldn’t shock me if they fast tracked her into a title shot. As good as she looked here, she is still 2-2 in her last 4 but when has that stopped the UFC? Zhang is fighting Amanda Lemos in August though so if Dern was gonna be next, she’s looking at sitting out until late in the year unless someone drops out. Dern vs Namajunas in the meantime would be good but I’m not sure Rose even goes for that. Doesn’t seem like she’s in any hurry to come back. 

Edited May 21, 2023 by wandshogun09