Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted May 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted May 27, 2023 (edited) We’ve got fans in attendance! Off to Jacksonville, Florida with this beauty… ABC MAIN CARD Josh Emmett vs Ilia Topuria Amanda Ribas vs Maycee Barber Justin Tafa vs Austen Lane David Onama vs Gabriel Santos Brendan Allen vs Bruno Silva ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Neil Magny vs Phil Rowe Randy Brown vs Wellington Turman Mateusz Rebecki vs Loik Radzhabov Tabatha Ricci vs Gillian Robertson Zhalgas Zhumagulov vs Joshua Van Trevor Peek vs Jose Mariscal Jamall Emmers vs Jack Jenkins Cody Brundage vs Sedriques Dumas That’s more fucking like it! I really like this card. Obviously the main event stands out but even lower down the prelims there’s some really cool fights throughout this card. It’s full of fighters who are typically crowd pleasers. So it’s a good thing they’ve actually got a crowd to please then! Bout order isn’t confirmed yet. I think it’s mostly right for now but, as always, I’ll update it as we go. Josh Emmett vs Ilia Topuria is a cracking main event. Well happy with it. I’ve got a strong feeling they’re not going 5 rounds but it’s cool that they’ve got those extra rounds if they need them. The timing of this booking does feel a little bit like the matchmakers were thinking ‘out with the old, in with the new’ though. But I guess that’s the nature of combat sports sometimes and the fight itself should be a good watch. You’ve got to think Emmett’s probably approaching the end of his career now. He’s 38 years old, which is pretty long in the tooth for a Featherweight. It’s not like he’s been on terrible form recently. Doesn’t look shot or anything. He was on a 5 fight win streak before his last fight with wins over Calvin Kattar, Dan Ige, Shane Burgos and Michael Johnson in there. But he fell short in his interim title fight against Yair Rodriguez in February and got completely outclassed and submitted in 2 rounds. I don’t know if that was just a bad matchup for Emmett style-wise, a case of him slowing down, a case of Yair just having a fantastic night or a mixture of everything. Emmett’s a tough guy and has heavy hands. He’s always dangerous. But I don’t know, there aren’t many fighters at 155 or below, who are pushing 40 and competing and doing well at this kind of level. It does feel like he’s on borrowed time. We’ll see but this feels like a bit of strategic booking on the UFC’s part to kind of push Emmett out the door and get the shiny, new and more advanced upgrade in. Big fan of Topuria. Had a good feeling about him pretty much since his debut. He’s 26 years old, so 12 years younger than Emmett, born in Germany but of Georgian and Spanish heritage and he’s undefeated at 13-0 with 12 finishes. I’d seen nothing of him prior to his UFC signing but I did go back and catch some clips and highlights later. He mostly fought in Europe early on, had a dabble in Cage Warriors and eventually got a couple of quick wins in the BRAVE promotion before the UFC came calling. He made his Octagon debut on short notice in October 2020, beating Youssef Zalal on points. Not a mind blowing win but I remember being impressed by his performance given the short notice, especially his grappling. From there he absolutely wrecked Damon Jackson in a round with his boxing. Shut down the awkward Ryan Hall, figured him out and brutally stopped him in a round. Then he ate a nasty headkick from Jai Herbert and returned fire and sparked him out cold in London. Then came his last fight at UFC 282 in December. A clash of two legitimate unbeaten prospects with Bryce Mitchell… And Topuria took that boy to school. Seriously, I thought this was a tricky fight to predict going in but the way Topuria handled him made the outcome seem so obvious I almost felt foolish for even giving Bryce a chance. Everyone knew Topuria would have the advantage in the striking and he battered Bryce there as expected. But what I think opened a lot of eyes was the way he was able to also rag Bryce about in the grappling and finish him with a submission. The grappling is usually Bryce’s playground but Topuria just wasn’t having it. He beat him everywhere. Look at Bryce’s face there in that pic above. He not only looked beat up but completely bewildered in there. He was immediately talking about retiring after, which was surprising but it shows what a number that beating did on him. Maybe mentally more than physically. So yeah, I rate Topuria. Not saying he’s unbeatable or anything but he’s probably the most promising guy on the rise at 145 these days. Looks a beast and, so far, there’s no obvious holes in his game. The one thing we haven’t seen is him being really pushed in a longer fight. So I’d kind of like to see this go into the 4th and 5th rounds to see how he looks there. I’ve got no reason to think he’s got dodgy cardio but he’s got to have some weakness, hasn’t he? Even Superman had his kryptonite. Should be good. It wasn’t really the fight I was hoping for or expecting for Topuria. Of course, there was a ton of talk of him fighting Paddy Pimblett given their run-ins and all the back and forth talk between them. But Paddy’s injured and, let’s be honest, there was no way that fight was gonna happen anyway. Neither Paddy or Dana want any of that. Shame because it would’ve been the massacre Paddy’s had coming to him for years. I did see rumours of Topuria vs Brian Ortega as well, which would’ve been class. Oh well. On paper, Emmett should provide a test here. He’s been 5 rounds, he’s fought some of the best, he’s always in shape, hits hard etc. He’s got enough of a wrestling background that he shouldn’t be a pushover in the grappling and enough of a dig on him that Topuria can’t afford to get reckless on the feet either. It’s an interesting one but it’s a test I think Topuria should pass. Amanda Ribas vs Maycee Barber is whatever. Not a bad fight and I like Ribas so I’m a little bit invested and hoping she wins. But purely as a fight I’m not really expecting much from it. Ribas is 12-3 now and coming off a bit of an uninspiring points win over Viviane Araujo at UFC 285 in March. She lost a split decision to Katlyn Chookagian before that but did manage to drag ol’ Chookles to a FOTN, which is a moral victory and a minor miracle in itself. She does have wins over Mackenzie Dern, Paige VanZant and Virna Jandiroba as well but she’s been quite inconsistent lately and seems to have hit her ceiling. She’s decent but hasn’t really improved in recent years. As for Barber, she’s been hyped up in the past as some big time prospect but I’m not really convinced. She’s alright but nothing special from what I’ve seen. She’s 25 years old, 12-2 and coming off an iffy decision win over Andrea Lee in March. She’s got some so-so wins over the likes of Jessica Eye, Miranda Maverick etc. But those are her best wins which doesn’t scream ‘hot prospect’ does it? She also got boxed up over 3 rounds by current champ Alexa Grasso a couple of years ago. I don’t know. Maybe I’m being harsh and this’ll be better than I’m making it sound. Justin Tafa vs Austen Lane is your obligatory low level Heavyweight fight this time. In fairness though, I don’t mind watching Tafa. He’s no great shakes but he’s at least got the good grace to be entertaining. Which is more than can be said for most of the shitehawks that populate the division. He’s 6-3 and he’s never gonna amount to anything but he’s definitely not boring. His split decision against Carlos Felipe in 2021 was ace. Proper sloppy brawl but stupidly enjoyable to watch. It’s one of them fights you might see on Wikipedia or something and you’d never give it a watch because it’s a couple of nothing happening Heavyweight lumps. But it’s great fun. He made short work of Parker Porter at UFC 284 in Perth in his last fight… Shouldn’t have really been anywhere near a PPV main card in 2023 and probably wouldn’t have been if it wasn’t in Australia. But at least Tafa made it short and sweet to give the Aussie crowd something to cheer about. I’d never heard of Austen Lane but apparently he’s a former NFL player, 35 years old and 12-3 with 12 finishes in MMA. He stopped ex UFC fighter Juan Adams in the 4th round of their Fury FC title fight in 2021 and scored a first round TKO on DWCS in September to get a UFC contract. He did lose to fellow NFL player turned MMA fighter Greg Hardy on a previous DWCS appearance in 2018 though. So that doesn’t fill me with too much optimism. Hopefully he’s a better representative of the NFL in MMA than that sack of shite was. David Onama vs Gabriel Santos is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** on this card. If you’ve seen Onama fight before, it goes without saying why I’ve highlighted him. He’s only fought in the UFC four times now and has gone 2-2 but there hasn’t been a dull moment yet. He lost a decision to Mason Jones in his debut but he took that on short notice. He finished Gabriel Benitez and Garrett Armfield after that but it was his last fight that really cemented him as ‘must see’ viewing for me. Him and Nate Landwehr had an absolutely batshit fight on the Chito vs Cruz undercard in August. Seriously one of my favourite fights of 2022. Anyone who saw it knows but because it didn’t feature big ‘names’, fights like that often get forgotten after a few months. He lost a majority decision but it was one of those mad fights where it didn’t really matter who won and lost. Both came out of that fight with their stock raised. Santos is 26 years old with a record of 10-1 and 7 finishes and a former LFA champion. I’ve only seen him fight once. He debuted on the London card in March and lost a split decision to Lerone Murphy. His first loss but, to be fair, I remember being impressed by him. I think I actually had him winning but it was close and he’d stepped in on short notice. I just remember thinking he looked like he’d be one to keep an eye on so I’m interested to see him not only after a full training camp here, but also against a beast like Onama. Love this matchmaking. Brendan Allen vs Bruno Silva could well steal the show. Really like the sound of this. Allen hasn’t had the most consistent run in the UFC but he’s definitely got skills, he’s great to watch and I’ve always had the feeling watching him that if he could put it all together, he had real potential. He’s still only 27 and he’s already 21-5 with 17 finishes. Former LFA champ and submitted Kevin Holland in his UFC debut which I don’t think many remember. But I think he first got on my radar with his forgotten banger against Kyle Daukaus in June 2020. That was a hell of a fight that never really got the love it deserved, in my opinion, probably because it happened the same night Dustin Poirier and Dan Hooker went out and knocked lumps out of each other for 5 rounds. He’s had his share of setbacks and somehow suffered a TKO loss to Featherfist Strickland along the way but he’s back on track now. He comes into this fight off 4 straight wins including submissions over Sam Alvey and Krzysztof Jotko, which basically made me a fan for life. He played a big part in getting that pair of insufferable dullards kicked off the roster so he’s forever in my good books now. Then in his last fight in February… He submitted 3rd degree BJJ black-belt Andre Muniz in his first UFC main event. Granted it was only made headliner because the original one fell apart at the last minute but whatever. Talk about making the most of an opportunity. It’s a shame really that he wasn’t given a bigger fight or a higher billing here coming off that win. But in terms of just a fun matchup, this is a good one. Silva is just a hard bastard who likes a scrap. He’s 23-8 with 20 knockouts and is fresh off a first round stoppage over the usually durable Brad Tavares in April. He’s also the only man to have taken Alex Pereira the distance so far in MMA. Heavy handed, brutal ground and pound, can take a punch. He’s never gonna be a contender but he’s a handful. And as much as I’m thinking Allen is just better overall, he has been put away a couple of times already. By less dangerous strikers than Silva. Interesting fight and a much different kind of risk for Allen here than the likes of Muniz, Jotko and Alvey posed. I like it. Neil Magny vs Phil Rowe isn’t a fight that immediately jumps off the page but it might be decent. I kind of feel bad for Magny these days. He’s basically become the ultimate gatekeeper at 170 and it means he just keeps getting used as a stepping stone. I think people forget he’s actually had some very solid wins of his own over the years. You look back over his record and he’s beat the likes of Robbie Lawler, Carlos Condit, Johny Hendricks, Kelvin Gastelum, Li Jingliang and Hector Lombard. Even within the last couple of years he’s beat Geoff Neal and Daniel Rodriguez. He’s no pushover at all. But he’ll fight any fucker and with that comes mixed results. He got rolled right over by Gilbert Burns and subbed in a round in his last fight in January. He got fed to Shavkat last year as well. Eventually it’s gonna catch up to him but for now I think he’s still a good barometer for up and comers. I’m not quite sure where Rowe fits into that but that’s the point of this kind of fight, I guess. He’s stopped his last 3 opponents and beat up Niko Price last time out. He’s been pretty good to watch from what I recall but he’s also missed weight in 2 out of his last 3 fights and this is a significant step up. Randy Brown vs Wellington Turman is just there really but I’d like to see Brown get back to winning ways here. He’s one of those guys who I always feel should be doing a bit better than he is. I mean, he’s done OK. Wins over Francisco Trinaldo, Bryan Barberena, Mickey Gall, Khaos Williams, Warlley Alves etc. But given his skills and physical gifts for a Welterweight, you’d think he’d have done better than a 16-5 record. To be fair, he was on a decent little run before running into Jack Della Maddalena in February. But Maddalena looks like he’s gonna be a problem for a lot of guys. I really thought Brown would provide a good test for him but JDM squashed him in 2 minutes. This is a much more winnable fight for Brown. Never rated Turman. He’s 18-6 and his best wins are Sam Alvey and Misha Cirkunov. No reason for Brown to be losing to this ham and egger. Mateusz Rebecki vs Loik Radzhabov is a fight I don’t really know what to make of. They both recently made their UFC debuts and that’s all I’ve seen of either. And I had completely opposite experiences watching both. Rebecki is Polish, 17-1 and bored me shitless in his smothering decision win over Nick Fiore in January. Maybe there’s better to come but first impressions weren’t the best. Radzhabov, on the other hand, had a cracking little hidden gem of a fight against Esteban Ribovics on the Jones vs Gane undercard in March. Radzhabov trains with Gilbert Burns and was originally slated to appear on the new season of TUF but reportedly got scratched to make room for one of Conor’s boys. So I was happy to see him get the win in his first Octagon appearance. Hopefully he can drag something more watchable out of Rebecki here. Tabatha Ricci vs Gillian Robertson is a good little fight in the Strawweight division actually. ‘Baby Shark’ vs ‘Savage’. I don’t see either making a splash in the title picture but they’re both decent to watch, both go for the finish and I think they’re pretty well matched. Ricci is Brazilian, 28 years old and 8-1 with 4 finishes. The one loss being against Manon Fiorot in a fight Ricci took on short notice and was comically outsized in. Since then she’s rattled off 3 wins and just subbed Jessica Penne at UFC 285 in March. Robertson is Canadian, also 28 and she’s 12-7 with 10 finishes. Not the best win/loss ratio but she’s aggressive and she’s good with the submissions and decent with ground and pound. It’s a fight that’ll probably be dismissed like a lot of the women’s fights are these days, often justifiably, but in this case I think they match up well and should have a fun fight for what it is. Zhalgas Zhumagulov vs Joshua Van. Hopefully Zhalgas actually gets to fight this time. Poor prick’s had no luck in the UFC. He was all set to fight Nate Maness at UFC 288 in May but Maness pulled out. Then he was supposed to fight newcomer Felipe Bunes on the Vettori vs Cannonier card the week before this but Bunes dropped out as well. Seems no-one wants to tangle with the new and improved Zhalgas 2.0. Hilarious to me how fans love him now just because he’s got himself a funny barnet. He’s been on the roster 3 years and nobody gave a shite until now. In truth though, he’s a decent fighter beyond the comical Beatles meets Billy Jack Haynes hairdo. You wouldn’t think it to look at his record though. He’s 14-8 overall and 1-5 in the UFC! It’s slightly misleading though, in fairness. A couple of the losses were against Albazi and Kape, no shame there. And his last two fights were close split decisions that really could’ve gone either way. His last fight with Charles Johnson was one of the weirdest, stop-start, foul-filled shitshows ever as well. Nothing is straightforward for Zhalgas. I’m glad to see they’ve given him another chance. Hopefully this one goes ahead. Don’t know anything about this Van lad but he doesn’t sound like a bad signing at all. He’s only 21 years old and he’s 7-1 with 7 finishes. All his fights so far have come under the Fury FC banner, he was scheduled to fight on DWCS in August but got the call for this instead. Trevor Peek vs Jose Mariscal. No real opinion on this one way or another. Peek was originally supposed to fight Victor Martinez here. Martinez is out, Mariscal is in. Peek’s a funny one. He’s undefeated with an 8-0-0-1 record and got a first round stoppage against Erick Gonzalez in his UFC debut in February. But I don’t know. It’s a bit weird to criticise a fighter on that kind of form but I’m just going off the UFC debut because that’s all I’ve seen of him. And while he got the first round KO and was anything but boring, he still somehow looked bad in the process 🤣 he looked sloppy as shite and Gonzalez was dragging him about while Peek flailed punches like a toddler throwing a tantrum. He was fortunate enough to were a couple of his wild punches connected and that was that. He got away with it but he’s gonna get found out badly when he fights a striker of any real skill and substance. Mariscal jumps in on short notice here. Looking him up on Sherdog, he’s 30 years old and 13-6-0-1 with 9 finishes. Looking at his record, the standout win is a split decision over Pat Sabatini back in 2018. He’s also got losses to Bryce Mitchell and Gregor Gillespie (remember him?) on his record, as well as a couple of other current UFC fighters. He’s coming into this one off the back of 3 straight TKO wins though. Jamall Emmers vs Jack Jenkins might actually be a bit of a darkhorse fight. Emmers has had a bit of a strange career. He’s got a respectable 19-6 record, took Giga Chikadze to a split decision in 2020 and actually has a win over Cory Sandhagen on a LFA card back in 2017. He’s nothing amazing but he’s clearly got some ability. His spells of inactivity has kind of fucked him though. He lost to Pat Sabatini in 2021 and was out nearly 2 years after that. But he came back in February and completely derailed Khusein Askhabov’s hype train in Askhabov’s first UFC appearance. The guy was 23-0 coming in but there’d been serious doubts on the quality of his opposition. Emmers didn’t waste any time exposing him. Jenkins is Aussie, 11-2 with 8 finishes and beat Don Shainis on points in his debut at UFC 284 in Feb. I went into that fight with zero expectations, had never seen either before, but I enjoyed the shit out of it. Maybe a rewatch wouldn’t be so flattering, maybe it was the crowd being so hot for the home fighter Jenkins that made it. But I remember really liking that fight, and Jenkins in particular. Cody Brundage vs Sedriques Dumas is a late switch up. It was originally supposed to be Punahele Soriano against Dumas but Soriano withdrew. Shame because I like him and Dumas was a very winnable fight for him. Anyway, Brundage is in now. And it’s the same scenario. I just wanna see Dumas get chinned. He’s only fought in the UFC once and already he’s been revealed as a right cretin. Before his debut some dirt was dug up and, while I can’t remember the full list of crimes, I do recall the domestic violence one where he battered the mother of his kid. He’s basically mini Greg Hardy minus the NFL clout. He was also apparently demanding to be paid for media interviews before his UFC debut as well. Hadn’t even set foot in the Octagon yet and already expecting things even champions and top contenders don’t get. He then proceeded to get submitted by Josh Fremd right out the gate 🤣 Brundage should be able to do similar. He’s nothing special and he’s coming off a couple of losses himself but he’s shown some decent submission and ground and pound abilities in the past so I’m hoping he gets this twat down and goes to town on him. The quicker Dumas gets sent packing the better for me. Fuck these wifebeating shitbags. See you in Florida 🏝️ Edited June 24, 2023 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted May 29, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted May 29, 2023 what exactly is going on with Neil Magny's hair? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 17, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 17, 2023 This card’s just a week out now. It’s had a bunch of changes but hopefully what’s there now stays intact. - Punahele Soriano dropped out of the Dumas fight. Cody Brundage steps in on about a week’s notice. - Gregory Rodrigues vs Denis Tiuliulin has been scrapped from this card and pushed back to UFC 292 in August. - David Onama vs Gabriel Santos has been bumped up from the prelims to the main card. Where it should’ve been all along. - ZHALGAS has been added. - Victor Martinez pulled out of the Trevor Peek fight. Peek now faces newcomer Jose Mariscal. Oh and it’s an 4:30pm start time for us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted June 23, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 23, 2023 Our boy doesn't look well: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 24, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 24, 2023 Because no fight week can go by without a fight or two getting binned, the Tatsuro Taira vs Kleydson Rodrigues fight is off. Rodrigues missed weight the fight got cancelled. Bit gutted, to be honest. That was probably the fight I was most looking forward to on the prelims. Oh well, still a very good card and don’t forget it’s a nice early start time for us. From what I’m reading it’s… Prelims - 4:30pm. Main card - 8pm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted June 24, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 24, 2023 Fucking typical, decent start time, a fight card with a crowd and ive arranged to go out on the piss. Tomorrow job for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted June 25, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 25, 2023 Despite Topuria clearly winning that fight, it was exciting throughout as Emmett always carries that one shot, fight ending power. Ilia looked great here. The win the division needed. That was the only fight I got to see from the show though as I forgot it was an early start and because of the change in start time Sky didn't series link it. Hopefully catch some of the rest on the repeat if there's some stuff worth revisiting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted June 25, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 25, 2023 I'm thinking that, at some point down the line, I'd like to see an intra-Caucasus fight of Topuria vs. Tsarukyan, if that's possible. They both bring it, so I reckon a fight like that would be worth watching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 25, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 25, 2023 (edited) That was a fantastic show pretty much top to bottom. One of the best of the year so far. Easily the best Fight Night. The UK friendly air time didn’t hurt but there was probably 5 or 6 legit bangers on this card, a couple I wasn’t expecting much from, and the emergence of a much needed fresh challenger at Featherweight in the main event. Ilia Topuria is the real deal. Tremendous performance from him. Answered a few questions, most notably the cardio one. There were a bunch of times I thought he was gonna get the finish but going the distance was actually probably better for him in this case. Getting a solid 5 rounds in, at a high pace, against a tough fucker who doesn’t go away easily like Emmett is experience you can’t buy or teach. And he needed that before hitting that truly elite level at Featherweight. Emmett was trying right to the end and there was a spell early in the last round where I had this gut feeling he might just land a bomb and undo all Topuria’s good work. But he couldn’t find the sweet spot and Topuria just outclassed him. Fantastic performance. The boxing is gonna be the talking point but the leg kicks were paying off as well and the few times they mixed it up on the ground he looked great there too. I think I touched on it in the preview but there really doesn’t seem to be any glaring weaknesses in his game. Nobody’s unbeatable of course but there aren’t many at 145 who will beat Topuria on the kind of form he was in last night. There’s only 2 guys I’m not confident he beats and he’s name dropped them both last night… 145 is about to get very interesting. You obviously can’t guarantee anything in MMA but assuming Volkanovski beats Yair at 290 in a couple of weeks, I think it’s a no brainer at this point to go with Volk vs Topuria for the strap next. Fuck it. Who’s got a better case for the title shot than Topuria right now? It’s a shame that Sydney card is in September because that’s probably gonna be too quick of a turnaround but Volk vs Topuria makes sense. Only thing that could scupper that, and it’s unlikely, is if Yair somehow beats Volk. Then we’d surely get an immediate rematch. Topuria vs Holloway in Spain sounds incredible as well but 1) it’s that same old thing again of Max possibly just eliminating a fresh contender like he just did with Arnold Allen. And 2) I don’t even know if they’re planning on a Spain card this year. Regardless, Topuria’s rightly being talked about in those circles now. It doesn’t make any sense for his next fight not to be against either Volk/Yair or Max. He’s arrived. As for Emmett, bless him, this just felt like the end of him as a top player. I know he’s never been champ and wasn’t ever gonna be with the likes of Volk and Max about. But he’s been in and around that mix for a bit now. Something about last night just felt like the final nail in any chance he might’ve had to get back in the convo though. This was the kind of beating you don’t want at any time in your career. Much less at 38 years old. I’m sure he’ll fight on a bit longer and he’ll have his moments. But it’s hard to see him fully coming back from this loss at this stage in the game. When I saw he’d taken his gloves off when Cormier came to interview him I was expecting him to retire there and then. 4 hours ago, WeeAl said: That was the only fight I got to see from the show though as I forgot it was an early start and because of the change in start time Sky didn't series link it. Hopefully catch some of the rest on the repeat if there's some stuff worth revisiting. If you’ve got the BT Sport app, the full shows are usually up on there fairly quickly. Usually by Sunday morning/afternoon they’re up. I’d definitely recommend giving a few of these fights a look. Card was great fun. 3 hours ago, Carbomb said: I'm thinking that, at some point down the line, I'd like to see an intra-Caucasus fight of Topuria vs. Tsarukyan, if that's possible. They both bring it, so I reckon a fight like that would be worth watching. Topuria vs Tsarukyan is definitely one for the future. Could see it possibly happening somewhere down the road. Topuria’s already fought at 155 as well and he’s only 26 now. You’d imagine that as he approaches 30 he’ll naturally move up in weight as the cut to 145 gets harder. Tsarukyan’s only 26 as well so plenty of time for their paths to cross. To think there was all that talk of Topuria vs Pimblett last year. Of course, those who’ve watched Paddy long enough know what’s what and wanted to see that fight for sadistic reasons. Unfortunately the UFC brass must’ve known how that one would’ve gone as well, which is why they stayed the fuck away from it. It could’ve been made towards the end of last year but we’ll never see it now. The window has closed. Topuria’s moved on to better shit and by the time he does eventually and inevitably move up to 155, I suspect Paddy will have already been badly exposed by someone else anyway. Their careers are on completely different trajectories. Shame we never got to see it though. Would’ve been an absolute massacre. Maycee Barber vs Amanda Ribas was way better than I thought it would be. Best fight I’ve seen out of either of them. It looked like a weak co-main event going in, and it still was on paper, but it delivered on the night. Only bad thing was Ribas got fucked up. Poor sod was stood there hoping she might’ve won the decision in a fight she got brutally stopped in. 😞 Barber battered her. I like Ribas but she’s gonna keep running into these beatings because her striking defence is pretty much nonexistent. That combined with her aggression offensively made for a fun fight to watch because Barber was happy to meet her head on. But from very early on, Ribas was bloodied up and it just felt like it was gonna end badly for her. Barber’s growing on me. I was indifferent to her for the longest time but fights like this help and she was having a pop at Julianna Pena earlier in the week so she’s alright with me now! The Heavyweight fight was over before it got started. Might’ve been for the best actually. We might’ve been spared a typically rotten HW plodfest that would’ve dragged the card down. Felt bad for Justin Tafa though. Travelled from fucking Australia only to get his eye nearly gouged out seconds into the fight. It was a bad one as well. Couldn’t believe how long it took them to officially stop the fight. Just look at how bad it is, Tafa was saying he couldn’t see and it was getting worse with each passing minute. What was there to think about? You couldn’t let him fight with his eye in that state. Sucks for both. Obviously for Tafa but this wouldn’t have been how Austen Lane would’ve wanted to make his UFC debut either, is it? Tafa’s calling for it to be called a DQ win and I get his frustration but unless it was clearly intentional (it wasn’t, looked like a clumsy mistake) you’re not gonna get it overturned. David Onama vs Gabriel Santos was my ‘one to watch’ for a reason and they didn’t disappoint. If you’ve been regularly watching the cards over the last year or so, you know what you’re getting from Onama by now. Win or lose, never in a boring fight. And Santos looked great in his short notice debut against Lerone Murphy in London, and arguably should’ve got the decision. So my hopes were high for this one and Santos again was looking like a real problem in the first round. He was tagging Onama in the boxing exchanges and threatening with submissions whenever they hit the mat. By the time the first round ended I thought Onama was in for a long night. Second round… Could’ve done without the Adesanya rip-off celebration but what a finish! Onama’s class. He’s really stood out for me as must see amongst the constant revolving door of fighters joining and leaving the roster. I hope they keep Santos around as well. He’s 0-2 in the UFC now but that really doesn’t do him justice. Brendan Allen kicked off the main card the right way with a first round finish over Bruno Silva. Bear in mind Alex Pereira didn’t put this guy away over 3 rounds and here’s Allen dropping and strangling him inside 5 minutes. That’s what impressed me most, that he was able to knock Silva down before sinking in the choke. I think most looked at this as almost a pure grappler vs striker match, I know I did, but Allen was more than comfortable to mix it up on the feet and, while he was eating more digs than he’d have liked, he got the better of it in the end. Really seems like Allen’s turned a corner recently. That’s 5 wins in a row now, 4 finishes, subbed BJJ black-belt Muniz last time, now this. Liked the callout of Cannonier. Good stuff. Give him his purple shorts 🤣 Didn’t enjoy Neil Magny vs Phil Rowe much. Typical workmanlike performance from Magny and it wasn’t much fun to watch but he clearly won this one. Rowe had looked decent beating lower level guys before this but Magny just proved a step too far and shut him down for the points win. Shows Magny is still a legit test for guys coming up. You’ve still got to have something about you to beat him. Nice return to winning ways for Randy Brown. Little bit surprised he wasn’t able to get Turman out of there, never rated him, but coming off that crushing loss to Jack Maddalena, I guess Brown just needed a W here. Turman did better than I expected, to be fair. Didn’t even clock that this was his Welterweight debut, definitely looked better then at 185 but I do think it’s a fight Brown should’ve been winning more decisively. Didn’t know what to expect from the Rebecki vs Radzhabov fight but it turned out alright. Rebecki bored me shitless in his debut and Radzhabov had a cracking fight in his debut. So I was going in hoping Radzhabov would drag Rebecki into more of a scrap but Rebecki didn’t need any help. He messed Radzhabov up. Beautiful stuff. Broke him down with the leg kicks, on both legs, got the better of the grappling exchanges, then when Radzhabov never had a leg to stand on, Rebecki finished him with a big left. He looked decent all around here. Seems fairly likeable as well. Hopefully he fights someone we’re more familiar with next time. Hard to gauge how good he is when you haven’t seen much of his opponents. Tabatha Ricci had a solid enough showing but I thought Gillian Robertson looked off. Neither are world beaters but Robertson is usually a lot more aggressive than she was here and I think the fight suffered for it because Ricci wasn’t forced to do anything and was basically able to just coast most of it. Not the fight I expected, to be honest. If it had been more of a grappling based fight it’d have probably been better to watch because that’s both their strong suit. Too much weak striking for me. Joshua Van had an impressive debut. The floppy Pimblett haircut didn’t work for Zhalgas after all and yet again he loses by split decision. Not sure how one of the judges scored it for him, I thought it was a pretty cut and dry 29-28 for Van myself. But it was an entertaining, action packed fight and I thought Van looked really good. Only 21 years old as well. You could see as it went on, Zhalgas was struggling with the pace Van was bringing. Don’t know if that was just a case of youth or the fact Zhalgas had a few fights fall through and cut weight a bunch of times before this one actually made it to the cage. Probably a bit of both but for Van to step in late like this and put on a performance like that, beating a tough and durable guy like Zhalgas in his debut, he could have a bright future. Flyweight continues to add depth. I don’t know if any of it made it onto the BT coverage but if you missed it, Mariscal vs Peek was an absolutely batshit scrap. Wasn’t pretty at all, it was messy and ugly as fuck. But I can’t pretend I wasn’t swept up in the madness. I’d only seen Peek’s UFC debut before this, and not only had I never seen Mariscal, he was jumping in on late notice here. Despite that, his conditioning held up better which is pretty embarrassing if you’re Peek and had a full camp. But I think it’s just because Peek throws fucking everything at 100% and empties the tank. I mentioned it in the opening post, he’s not very good. He won’t go far and, sure enough, here he was losing to a late substitute. But I’m guessing they’ll be keeping him around if he keeps having silly slobberknockers like this. All the ‘purists’ and keyboard Greg Jacksons won’t have liked this but it was a change of pace and it definitely wasn’t boring. Felt like a throwback to an undercard brawl from about 2009. Jack Jenkins vs Jamall Emmers was a good fight marred by dodgy scoring. I’ll stop short of declaring it an outright robbery because I wasn’t paying close enough attention to score it properly but I was definitely surprised when Jenkins got the nod. At this point maybe I shouldn’t be surprised but, from what I saw, I was fully expecting Emmers to get his hand raised. Like I said, it was an enjoyable fight aside from that but the judging is all anyone was talking about when it was over. Short notice or not, Cody Brundage should be ashamed of himself for letting a ham and egger like Sedriques Dumas into the win column. Really seemed like Brundage thought all he had to do was show up and the win was in the bag. The commentators even said as much, saying Brundage said in the pre-show fighter meetings that “there’s not many guys I’d fight on a week’s notice but Dumas is one of them”. Completely underestimated him then fought like an idiot basically handing away top position left and right with those failed guillotine attempts. I still think Dumas is shite. Brundage was just somehow worse. But yeah, top notch show all in all that was. And we’re back at the Apex for a Strickland 5 rounder next week… Edited June 25, 2023 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfogg1991 Posted June 25, 2023 Share Posted June 25, 2023 Yeah this turned out to be pretty good overall, it started with decision city but picked up I don't know if I'm slightly in the minority here but yeah sometimes eye pokes happen however the replays literally shows his hand and fingers fully extended and ended with fingers deep as fuck into both of his eyes. Justin is fucking lucky it only got so bad in just one of his eyes but with this occasion his Profesional/ufc level opponent did something so reckless and dangerous inside the first minute leading to a no contest and now Justin has a serious injury and 0 vision even after more than 5 minutes and doesn't get paid for it as it went that way. He handled it so fucking calm and fantastic only for the prick that did it nearly going at it with Justin's corner men. The post press conference didn't have Dana at all which for a live event is odd meaning we didn't get a update or anything on the situation so I really do hope they look after Justin after that brutal outcome. The main event was absolutely fantastic man Ilia Is a complete warrior and a fresh and exciting new contender in that division. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dai Posted June 27, 2023 Share Posted June 27, 2023 Agree with wand, this was a lovely little main card. Topuria looked really good, and it will be very intersting to see him next against a top class opponent. I thought the corner of Emmett was absolutely awful in between every round. He was clearly getting outclassed from minute one of the fight, and they just kept saying 'you're in this fight' to him over and over. No plan B, nothing, and he just kept getting battered round after round. Is he a well known corner guy, or has Emmett done what a lot of older fighters do, and train himself and then just get some yes men in his corner for the fight? Cracker of a co main too, both girls brought it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted June 27, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted June 27, 2023 6 hours ago, Dai said: I thought the corner of Emmett was absolutely awful in between every round. He was clearly getting outclassed from minute one of the fight, and they just kept saying 'you're in this fight' to him over and over. No plan B, nothing, and he just kept getting battered round after round. Is he a well known corner guy, or has Emmett done what a lot of older fighters do, and train himself and then just get some yes men in his corner for the fight? Emmett’s a Team Alpha Male guy. I know Danny Castillo (former UFC/WEC fighter, gave prime Tony Ferguson a close fight in 2014) was in his corner but I can’t remember who else was or who was saying what. I did think they could’ve pulled him out in the later rounds but Emmett’s ‘punchers chance’ is probably why they didn’t. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted June 27, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted June 27, 2023 On 6/25/2023 at 10:16 PM, Kfogg1991 said: I don't know if I'm slightly in the minority here but yeah sometimes eye pokes happen however the replays literally shows his hand and fingers fully extended and ended with fingers deep as fuck into both of his eyes. Justin is fucking lucky it only got so bad in just one of his eyes but with this occasion his Profesional/ufc level opponent did something so reckless and dangerous inside the first minute leading to a no contest and now Justin has a serious injury and 0 vision even after more than 5 minutes and doesn't get paid for it as it went that way. Its an unfortunate part of the game. When you are in that kind of position its just instinctive put your extend your fingers. There's only so much you can do to police it. Just a shit and unavoidable aspect of the sport. Peek/Mariscal is probably my no. 1 fight of the year, just chaos in the best possible way. I'm a fan of both for life after that. Tremendous show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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