Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted July 1, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 1, 2023 Definitely an odd one but the unknown factor gives it something I suppose. Got a feeling we’re either gonna be looking back tomorrow on this as the fight that exposed Magomedov or a big painful mistake by Strickland. Hopefully the latter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 1, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted July 1, 2023 Yeah, it has me intrigued. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members WeeAl Posted July 1, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted July 1, 2023 If Magomedov bashes Strickland up, he'll become my favourite Magomedov and all the other Magomedov's should stop using the name and donate theirs to him in honour of his service to the people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 2, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted July 2, 2023 Yeah, that's enough Apex for me. I'm done with any show unless it's got an audience from now on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted July 2, 2023 Share Posted July 2, 2023 Man, Sean Strickland is the ultimate test in his weight class. If you're not up to scratch, you're gonna get found out. When that first round finished the last thing I thought I'd see in round two was a finish in Strickland's favour. That was a proper show of mental strength. For all his out of the cage personality issues, in the cage he's tough as hell and hard to stop. His boxing is beautiful when he puts it together. He rolls well with the punches, and his volume is great for an MMA fighter. Now that Bisping has seemingly calmed down on trying to convince us he's a psychopath and a killer It's a bit easier to watch him fight. For those who don't like him, he doesn't look like he's going anywhere any time soon! Long live the Apex King, baby! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 3, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted July 3, 2023 The stat they rolled off in the pre-fight package, "He's won the most fights at the Apex in UFC history". Dear me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted July 3, 2023 Share Posted July 3, 2023 21 minutes ago, Egg Shen said: The stat they rolled off in the pre-fight package, "He's won the most fights at the Apex in UFC history". Dear me. They should create an Apex belt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 3, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted July 3, 2023 I wouldn't put it past them at this point Kevin Lee won't be getting a sniff of the thing though, what a disastrous return. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted July 3, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted July 3, 2023 2 hours ago, David said: They should create an Apex belt. Can't stand Strickland, but if he really wants to continue with the villainy, he can call himself the "Apex Predator". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted July 3, 2023 Share Posted July 3, 2023 Just now, Carbomb said: Can't stand Strickland, but if he really wants to continue with the villainy, he can call himself the "Apex Predator". I was thinking he's more like the "Apex Arsehole" personally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted July 3, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted July 3, 2023 8 minutes ago, David said: I was thinking he's more like the "Apex Arsehole" personally. Doesn't say much for any fighter who has to go through him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted July 3, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 3, 2023 Well he definitely needs wiping out regularly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted July 3, 2023 Paid Members Share Posted July 3, 2023 1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said: Well he definitely needs wiping out regularly. It's what happens when you're full of shit outside the ring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted July 3, 2023 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 3, 2023 (edited) Strick The Prick looked as surprised as anyone that he not only had a fight that wasn’t ballachingly dull…but he actually got the finish as well! What’s happening? In all seriousness, this was the second best Strickland fight I can remember ever watching. The Pereira one was the best for obvious reasons. I still don’t think he’s anything special. He’s durable and has a decent jab. And that’s enough to get you fairly far in todays Middleweight division. But fair play, he got through a rough first round here and hung in there and got the finish. Can’t really heap too much praise on it though because I just don’t know how good Magomedov is. It’s hard to properly rate the win because of that. Let’s be honest, he was giving Strickland issues early on but completely unraveled by the end of the first round. To come into a 5 round fight with only 1 round’s worth of gas is pathetic. If he had the cardio to keep doing what he was doing in the first round, I think Mr Apex would’ve been in trouble. Credit to Strickland (begrudgingly) for hanging in long enough for Abus to fade and then capitalise. But Abus fading in about 4 minutes was pretty shameful. Still don’t really get why he was put in this main event spot in the first place after one win in the UFC over Dustin Stoltzfus. Not sure who Strickland fights next. Vettori maybe? But Vettori’s coming off the loss to Cannonier. Nobody’s beating down the doors to see Strickland vs Cannonier 2. He’s making noise about getting a title shot now. Of course he’s gonna call for that and as much as a loathe him I can’t blame him for aiming high. I’d love to see Adesanya embarrass him as well. But it seems like it’s pretty much set that the winner of this Saturday’s Whittaker vs DDP fight is next in line for Izzy. And Strickland getting a title shot off wins over Imavov and Magomedov would be arse. But yeah, good fight for once. Don’t get used to it though. About 1 out of 10 Strickland fights will be watchable. So buckle up for 9 snoozers now. Back to regularly scheduled programming. Grant Dawson had maybe his best overall showing to date. Shame it came at the expense of Damir Ismagulov but what can you do? Really liked the grappling from Dawson here. That’s always been his biggest strength but he looked sharper than ever in this one to me. Heard Laura Sanko saying on commentary that this was his first full camp with ATT so maybe that’s made the difference. This was smooth as fuck… The speed in which he got that hook in and locked up the body triangle was nuts. Ismagulov never had a chance at stopping that. Dawson’s a bit of a darkhorse at 155. Putting together a nice win streak. Interested to see who he gets paired up with next. Nobody obvious is coming to mind but just having a quick look at the rankings, I wouldn’t mind seeing him against Moicano, Tsarukyan or even Dariush. Not sure what happens with Ismagulov now. He retired after the Tsarukyan loss, then was saying that this was the last fight on his contract so he wanted to fulfil that. I’d assume he retires now but fuck knows. He’s still only 32 and there are good fights to make. Against this strong grapplers though, he’s floundering. He’s clearly got solid defensive BJJ. Neither Tsarukyan or Dawson could submit him despite having a load of control time and advantageous positions. But he can’t stop those takedowns so they can still control him. Michael Morales stays undefeated. This always felt like a learning fight for him. Griffin’s not amazing but he’s experienced and tough and it felt like a fight that would get Morales some rounds in. It played out pretty much how I expected and Morales got the decision with a good but not spectacular performance. Valuable experience builder for Morales. Especially with him being so young. And he did show flashes of his potential here. I’m not as high on him yet as some but he’s doing just fine so far and still has time to improve more. Time’s on his side. Definitely worth keeping tabs on. Benoit Saint-Denis brought the Ismael Bonfim hype train to a crashing halt. Like the Kutateladze fight earlier in the night, you got the feeling this wasn’t the result the matchmakers expected. Bonfim was flying high coming off that highlight reel flying knee KO against Terrance McKinney and I think everyone, me included, kind of got caught up in that and overlooked Saint-Denis here. He wasn’t having it. Really good one rounder this was. Got off to a fast start and I think Bonfim was saying after he injured his arm blocking one of those nasty kicks in the opening exchanges. And Benoit just never let up from there. Saint-Denis is surely a lock for the Paris card in September now. Hopefully he gets a decent fight on there. Nursulton Ruziboev had quite the debut. I was disappointed when Abdul Razak Alhassan dropped out because him and Brunno Ferreira sounded like complete fireworks on paper. Needn’t have worried though. Ruziboev slotted into that role perfectly. Done in just over a minute. I didn’t realise how much bigger Ruziboev was until I saw them in the cage together but Jesus Christ. Think they said he’s 6’5”. Lot of experience as well. I’ll be looking out for his next fight. Wouldn’t mind seeing him against Alhassan now actually. Kevin Lee couldn’t have had a more disastrous Octagon return, could he? Got dropped with the first meaningful right hand thrown and choked unconscious within the first minute of the fight. Lee never even got started. Fakhretdinov might be a bit of a problem. This felt like bad news for Lee from the moment it was announced but I don’t think anyone saw it going quite like this. His last fight was boring as fuck but style-wise it had the feel of a really tough one for Lee because of Fakhretdinov’s wrestling. His striking looked on point here as well though. Nice accurate stiff jab and good power on the right. Maybe this will finally put to bed the overhyping of Kevin Lee. I’ve said it before, he’s just not anywhere near as good as a lot of fans make out or want him to be. I usually say I don’t dislike Lee, I just don’t get the belief some have in him. But honestly, after the utter shite he talked defending Dana after the wife slapping incident, I can’t say I feel sorry for him. Licked Dana’s arse and minimised domestic violence to get another shot at the UFC and where did it get him? In an unfavourable matchup that left him face down on the canvas. I don’t ever wanna hear about his potential again. He was always middle of the pack. Joanderson Brito has become a bit of an undercard/Fight Night highlight for me. Always goes for the kill. Never saw Westin Wilson before but he got fucked up… Made the classic mistake of overcommitting to the leg lock and not only left his head exposed, he also kind of trapped himself close to the cage. Brito wasted no time making him pay for that. If you skipped the prelims you missed a hell of a scrap between Elves Brener and Guram Kutateladze. Tremendous stuff and a bit of a surprising result. I’ve said a bunch of times that I rate Kutateladze and thought he could be a player at 155 if he could just stay healthy/active. And I was underwhelmed by Brener’s debut and nothing really stuck in my memory about him. So I saw this as a step down for Kutateladze and expected a nice comfortable win for him coming off a year layoff. Fuck me, Brener didn’t get that memo. He was competitive throughout and always trying but Kutateladze was putting it on him. Had Brener hurt towards the end of the first round, then this in the second round… Brener just would not fuck off though. Kept coming forward like a bleach blonde Michael Myers. Hair turned red like Ric Flair in a War Games match. By the time the third round was starting it seemed like Kutateladze was well on his way to victory. But Brener just kept coming at him despite Kutateladze bombarding him with elbows, kicks, knees from the Thai clinch. Then Brener got him with the left… And if it was a video game you‘d have seen Kutateladze’s health bar just drain down to nothing. He looked like he was feeling the pace a bit a few times anyway but that punch just seemed to melt him. Fucking brilliant fight. One of my favourites so far this year. Hopefully Kutateladze bounces back because there’s still loads of fun fights to make with him. But Brener made a fan out of me here. Well deserved FOTN. Fatty Romanov got back to winning ways in the curtain jerker but it wasn’t pretty. Really disappointed with how he’s turned out. I never saw him as some future champ or anything but he was at least quite fun to watch early on with the suplexes and stuff. He got serious and got in decent shape once, it didn’t pay off so he immediately got back on the cake and stopped giving a fuck. Built like a bowl of mashed potatoes and didn’t even bother getting his hair cut 😂 still, as bad and sloppy as he’s looked lately it was still enough to beat Ivanov and it’s still preferable to watch than a good chunk of what the rest of the division puts out. Not as bad a card overall as it looked going in, to be fair. The fact the main event wasn’t a dud was a bonus, some good performances throughout the card, couple of big finishes and that killer Brener vs Kutateladze fight. Edited July 3, 2023 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted July 3, 2023 Share Posted July 3, 2023 Just now, wandshogun09 said: I still don’t think he’s anything special. He’s durable and has a decent jab. He isn't anything special, but he does have underrated boxing I think. His head movement and ability to roll with punches is really good, and he obviously has cardio for days. He can throw those volume shots all day by the looks of it. He's a top five gatekeeper, basically. If you can't beat him, you don't deserve a crack at a top five guy. And really, that's not a bad spot to be in. He's headlining these Apex shows, getting wins, and is being paid quite well. Not bad for someone who clearly isn't going to be troubling a champion any time soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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