UFC Vegas: Holm vs Bueno Silva - Jul 15 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Apex LOL. With a Holly Strickla…I mean Holm headliner. The UFC are truly spoiling us…

ESPN MAIN CARD
Holly Holm vs Mayra Bueno Silva 

Jack Della Maddalena vs Bassil Hafez

Ottman Azaitar vs Francisco Prado

Albert Duraev vs Jun Yong Park 

Norma Dumont vs Chelsea Chandler

Terrance McKinney vs Nazim Sadykhov  

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Tucker Lutz vs Melsik Baghdasaryan 

Istela Nunes vs Viktoriia Dudakova 

Austin Lingo vs Melquizael Costa

Evan Elder vs Genaro Valdez 

Tyson Nam vs Azat Maksum 

Carl Deaton III vs Alexander Munoz 

Ashlee Evans-Smith vs Ailin Perez 

 

Yeah, no comment.

 

Holly Holm vs Mayra Bueno Silva then. Try to control your excitement. This is about as Apex as it gets, isn’t it? Just absolutely fucking rancid. This is gonna be the standard now as well when it comes to the Bantamweight division. Shite like this is about as good as it’s getting now Amanda Nunes has retired. These two, Pena, Pennington etc. Complete wasteland and there aren’t really any appealing matchups you can make however you mix and match.

Holm is basically the female equivalent of Sean Strickland for me now. Mrs Apex. The UFC recently signed her to a new contract for SIX MORE FIGHTS for some reason. Six more fucking duds. And no doubt most of them will be Apex headliners. For the life of me I can’t figure it out. Yeah she knocked out Ronda Rousey and ended her reign, but that was 2013. In November it’ll be a whole decade since that fight. She hasn’t had a good fight in years yet they’ve signed her to a new multi-fight deal at 41 years old? She’s definitely got some kind of dirt on Dana. Nothing else makes sense.

Bueno Silva isn’t much better to watch, to be honest. But I’ll be rooting for her just because it’s the lesser of two evils. She’s a decade younger at 31 and has a record of 10-2-1 with 8 finishes. But even then her best wins are Gillian Robertson? Wu Yanan? Oh and she’s coming into this fight off back-to-back submission wins over Stephanie Egger and Lina Lansberg. Hardly screams ‘top contender’ but she’s still ranked #10 as I type this. Which just shows you the lack of depth at 135. Got a bad feeling Holm wins this one. Just not convinced by Silva at all and Holm still usually gets wins at this level. And based on recent performances, it’ll most likely be in the most dull and boring way possible. Expect 25 minutes of Holm just holding Silva against the fence and kneeing the legs mixed with a bit of sporadic light sparring.

 

Jack Della Maddalena vs Bassil Hafez has been thrown together just 5 days out from the card. Ask and you shall receive Jack. He’s been campaigning to get a fight on this card ever since he was scratched from 290 a week before. He was originally supposed to fight Sean Brady at 290, Brady pulled out so they signed late replacement Josiah Harrell. Then Harrell was withdrawn with that scary medical failure. So now Maddalena goes from being in a featured fight on one of the biggest cards of the year and maybe the best card the promotion has ever put on…to being on the undercard of a Holly Holm fight at the Apex. In fairness, it shows the mentality of Maddalena. Crowd or no crowd, he genuinely doesn’t seem to give a fuck. He’s taken it all in his stride and just wants to fight. It makes sense. He was in Vegas anyway and had already done his training camp and was on weight. Why let that go to waste? Might as well get paid.

Maddalena has looked the business so far. The UFC roster is a right revolving door these days as we know. New faces come and go all the time. Maddalena is one of the few over the last year or so who’s really stood out. I definitely think he’s the best prospect to come out of Australia since Volkanovski arrived on the scene years ago. I know that’s high praise but I’ve got a good feeling about him. He’s 14-2 now with 13 of his wins coming inside the distance. Had a couple of setbacks right at the start of his career, went 0-2, seemingly said ‘fuck that’ and hasn’t lost since. So a 14 fight win streak and he’s now 4-0 with 4 first round finishes in the UFC. Knocked out Pete Rodriguez in his debut, stopped durable Russian Ramazan Emeev, TKO’d Danny Roberts then in his last fight he dropped and submitted Randy Brown. He’s looked quality. His boxing especially looks a level above most you see in MMA. There are still the usual questions. His cardio over a longer fight, his chin and the big one, the wrestling. Those tests are all coming soon enough. Hafez steps in for this baptism of fire. He’s 31 years old from Philadelphia and has a record of 8-3-1 with 4 finishes. The draw on his record was against current UFC fighter Jeremiah Wells back in 2017. He’s coming into this one off a knockout victory on a Cage Fury card in February.

 

Ottman Azaitar vs Francisco Prado. Not sure about this one. Azaitar’s coming off the first loss of his career here. He’s Moroccan and 13-1 with 12 finishes. 10 by knockout. A real finisher. His KO against Teemu Packalen in his UFC debut in 2019 was vicious. Completely faceplanted him. But he’s not been very active. He was out 2 years before finally making his return in November. And he got sparked by Matt Frevola in a 2 minute shootout at MSG. Always interesting to see how a previously undefeated fighter responds to their first loss. But especially when it’s a knockout artist coming off their first loss by knockout themselves. Prado’s also coming off his first loss. He’s only just turned 21 and was 11-0 before making his UFC debut, jumping in against Jamie Mullarkey on short notice in February. He lost but being so young and with the late notice, not the end of the world. So yeah a bit of intrigue to this one.

 

Albert Duraev vs Jun Yong Park isn’t exactly filling me with optimism. Duraev’s 16-4 and fought in M-1 and ACA earlier in his career before getting signed by the UFC off the back of a DWCS appearance. He’s had mixed results so far but all I remember is his last fight against Chidi Njokuani and it was rotten. To manage to drag Njokuani into a snoozer is some achievement. Obviously it takes two to have a crap fight and Chidi was pretty gun-shy as I recall. But it didn’t make me look forward to see Duraev again. I quite like Park AKA ‘The Iron Turtle’. He’s no future contender but he’s generally in entertaining fights and he’s coming off 3 wins. If Duraev gets a dud out of him as well then there’s no hope.

 

Norma Dumont vs Chelsea Chandler is a nothing happening fight and I really don’t get the point of it. It’s a Featherweight fight, despite Dana recently saying after Nunes retired that the 145 belt, and the division, would most likely be retired with Nunes. Yet here we are. I can’t see them persisting with it. There’s nobody in the pissing weight class. They’re gonna have a hard enough time trying to keep 135 going, they’ve got zero chance with 145. So these two mightn’t be long for the UFC roster.

Good ol’ Cheeks Dumont has had a well documented history of issues making weight and I’m blaming it on the bum. She’s missed weight at Bantamweight and Featherweight in the UFC because of that thing. But I’ll allow it. She’s been calling for a title shot lately and, despite doing nothing of note and the aforementioned weight misses, she’s probably not that far off a title shot just because there’s no depth. But if they are scrapping 145, I just can’t see her going back down to 135. Chandler’s 5-1 and only made her debut in October, battering Julija Stoliarenko to a first round TKO. I remember her looking decent actually but it’s obviously early days. But I also remember her looking quite big and she missed weight at 135 herself in one of her early fights. Weird spot for both because they’re in a division that mightn’t even exist by the time they meet. But I’m not sure 135 is a realistic option for either anymore.

 

Terrance McKinney vs Nazim Sadykhov is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Obviously not much to choose from on this card but this fight really stands out to me. Can’t see any way this doesn’t deliver. McKinney’s not without his flaws and he does seem to be a little bit of a front runner sometimes. If you can weather the storm, he’s not the same. But it’s easier said than done. Win or lose, there hasn’t been a dull moment from him yet in the UFC. The 7 second KO against Frevola was nuts. And although he lost, the Dober fight last year was one of the best 3 minute scraps you’ll ever see. He’s coming off an absolutely sickening flying knee KO loss in his last fight though. Ismael Bonfim put him to sleep on the Brazil PPV in January and it’s likely gonna be in the convo for Knockout Of The Year by December. And Sadykhov looks like a fun fighter if his debut against Evan Elder was anything to go by. He’s a Ray Longo fighter with a record of 8-1 and 7 finishes. He won the Elder fight by doctor stoppage due to a nasty cut and it was a really entertaining fight. Can see him and McKinney matching up really well for some fireworks.

 

Tucker Lutz vs Melsik Baghdasaryan is just there but might be alright. Just don’t remember enough about Lutz to give a bollocks. According to Sherdog he’s 12-3 with 8 finishes and coming off back-to-back losses to Pat Sabatini and Daniel Pineda. Baghdasaryan I’m slightly more familiar with. He’s Armenian with a 7-2 record and lost to Josh Culibao by submission on the Makhachev vs Volk undercard in February. I remember that being a fun one actually. Before that he was on a 7 fight win streak.

 

Istela Nunes vs Viktoriia Dudakova. Not a clue. I think it’s pretty clear what this is meant to be. And that’s a showcase for newcomer Dudakova. Nunes is 6-4 and coming off 3 consecutive losses. Her UFC stint is hanging by a thread. Proper sacrificial lamb vibes. She lost to unbeaten prospect Yazmin Jauregui last time out in December but, in fairness to her, Nunes gave it a good go and held up her end of making it exciting.

Russia’s Dudakova makes her Octagon debut here. She’s 24 years old and undefeated at 6-0 with 5 finishes, mostly submissions. She won a fight by decision on DWCS back in August last year. Before that she won the title in a promotion called Open Fighting Championship, which I’ve never heard of. Fuck knows? I don’t recognise any of the names on her record so, as is often the case these days with new signings, no idea if she’s legit or about to be exposed or what.

 

Austin Lingo vs Melquizael Costa might actually be a little bit of a darkhorse sleeper on this card. Neither are really going anywhere in a tough division like Featherweight but they’ll have some good scraps lower down the card like this one. I’ve liked a couple of the Lingo fights I’ve seen. He had a curtain jerker fight with Jacob Kilburn in 2021 which I particularly enjoyed that probably about 12 people saw. He got choked by Nate Landwehr in his last fight in March though so he’s on the rebound here. I’ve only seen Costa once and it was as a late replacement against Thiago Moises on the Brazil show in January. Tough debut, especially when you consider Moises went to the 4th round with current champ Islam Makhachev not too long ago. Costa ultimately got subbed by Moises but gave a good account of himself given the short notice. He’s 19-6 with 13 finishes. Looking forward to seeing him after a full camp this time.

 

Evan Elder vs Genaro Valdez isn’t a bad fight. I never had an opinion one way or another on Elder until his last fight but he had a corker against Nazim Sadykhov back in February. He lost by doctor stoppage due to a horrible cut on the eyebrow…

🤢 It was a real shame to see it end like that because it was a fun fight and it would’ve been nice to see it come to a natural and more satisfying conclusion. Not to mention Elder was probably winning the fight before that. He fought his arse off. With Elder and Sadykhov both on this card, I’d have liked to have seen them just do the rematch myself but whatever. Valdez should make for a good clash with him. He came into the UFC unbeaten but got knocked out by Matt Frevola in a wild one rounder in his debut. He then lost decision to Natan Levy in another entertaining fight last time out. It’s not panning out well for him. This should be decent though.

 

Tyson Nam vs Azat Maksum should be worth a look actually. Nam’s been around forever and is never really involved in anything boring. Mad to think he turns 40 this year but then you remember just how long he’s been around. This is the guy who knocked out then Bellator champ Eduardo Dantas during the Bjorn Rebney era, for fuck’s sake. That feels like a lifetime ago. He’s 21-13-1 now and got his face kicked in before getting submitted by Bruno Gustavo Silva in his last fight in March. He’s always entertaining to watch but he’s surely on his last legs now. A 40 year old Flyweight with 30+ fights is a rare thing.

Maksum makes his first UFC appearance. Didn’t know a thing about him but, looking him up, he’s 28 years old from Kazakhstan and is undefeated at 16-0 with 12 of his wins coming inside the distance. He’s been fighting mostly for the Oktagon and Brave FC promotions and has finished 5 of his last 6 opponents. Feels very much like they’re trying to use Old Man Nam as cannon fodder here, which makes me wanna see him win. Maksum is a mystery though. Who knows how good he actually is?

 

Carl Deaton III vs Alexander Munoz. Whatever. Can’t say I’m fussed about this. Looking at the pictures there, the most notable thing about this one is that Munoz appears to just be Michael Chandler in a wig. Aside from that, there’s really not much to sink your teeth into here though. Deaton’s 33 with a 17-6-0-2 record and trains at American Top Team. He made his UFC debut in February and got submitted by Joe Solecki. Munoz is also 33 with a 6-2 record and trains out of Team Alpha Male. He’s 0-2 in the UFC with losses to Nasrat Haqparast and Luis Pena but hasn’t fought since 2021. Who knows? Who cares?

 

Ashlee Evans-Smith vs Ailin Perez is the dregs. More shite from women’s 135. Except at least this is where it belongs, opening the Fight Pass stream. Not main eventing like Holm in the other Bantamweight borefest on this card. Evans-Smith hasn’t fought since 2020 and, to be honest, I didn’t even notice. I saw this fight listed and was surprised she was even still on the roster. Not sure why she is either. 6-5 record and coming off 2 losses and a near 3 year layoff. Apparently she’s been on a USADA suspension so that explains that. She’s arse. Speaking of which…

Ailin Perez there. But if you’re looking at that picture, you’ve seen all there is to see. Shaking her arse is basically Perez’s version of the Ultimate Warrior shaking the ropes. Once the bell rings, it’s not pretty. She’s 7-2 and got submitted by Stephanie Egger on the Paris card in September. If you’re losing to Ham & Egger, you’re going nowhere. She still might beat Evans-Smith though. That’s where we’re at with this clown show of a division.

 

That’ll do. 

Edited July 13, 2023 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

This is peak-Apex

[wandshogun09]

Jack Della Maddalena is trying to get a fight on this card! With his fight at 290 getting binned at the last minute, and him being in Vegas anyway, it makes sense.

Hope they find something for him. It would be a win all around really. This way, Maddalena’s training camp wouldn’t have been for nothing and also this card could really do with a boost. Seen people pushing for Kevin Holland as the opponent and making it the main event but I can’t see it myself. For one, I think everyone’s forgetting Holland’s got the Chiesa fight booked for 291 in just a few weeks. Can’t see the UFC messing with that to slot him in here. And two, even if they did make Maddalena vs Holland, they love Holly Holm too much to bump her down the card. As ridiculous as it would be, they’d probably put Maddalena vs Holland as co-main under Holm’s fight.

Don’t know why the Maddalena quote in the tweet looks all messed up there. Here’s what he said though…

Edited July 8, 2023 by wandshogun09

[David]

This is a card that I will be watching absolutely none of. Zero interest in any of the fights. 

[Egg Shen]

1 hour ago, David said:

This is a card that I will be watching absolutely none of. Zero interest in any of the fights. 

Apex...

[David]

It's an Apex card for sure. Who the hell is actually buying a ticket to see this? i wouldn't look out the window if Holly Holm was fighting on the street.

[wandshogun09]

This card look shit enough as it was. The fact it’s got to follow 290 is hilarious. 

[Egg Shen]

9 hours ago, David said:

It's an Apex card for sure. Who the hell is actually buying a ticket to see this? i wouldn't look out the window if Holly Holm was fighting on the street.

Outside of Holly Holm's hometown, nobody. That isn't the point though, if the UFC were in an arena they wouldn't present a card this poor.

[wandshogun09]

16 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

Outside of Holly Holm's hometown, nobody. 

Come on Ebb. I doubt her parents even watch anymore. Unless Holm’s buddy Bones is sorting them out with some sniff so they can stay awake. 

[Egg Shen]

Fair point

[David]

1 hour ago, Egg Shen said:

Outside of Holly Holm's hometown, nobody. That isn't the point though, if the UFC were in an arena they wouldn't present a card this poor.

As I've said before, the problem is that the UFC roster is too big, and I'd say about 60% of it nowadays consists of fighters who have no business being in the UFC. 

They stuffed their roster full of these no-names because they signed lucrative TV deals that mean they need to produce so many shows per year. So Apex shows are a necessity now, sadly. It's more of a contractual obligation than anything else, and the simple answer is to give them a miss. 

[Egg Shen]

We all know why they do them David, I wouldn't say they were a necissity though, the UFC were running just as many shows pre-pandemic. We know its a cost-cutting exercise, and we also know the UFC are bringing countless fighters in on DWCS contracts to fill these things up. They've found a little formula and unfortunately they are sticking to it.

 

[wandshogun09]

He got his wish. Finally something worth tuning in for on this card.

 

[Egg Shen]

Guess this means I have to watch now, fuck sakes.

[wandshogun09]

Just gonna record it and skip through on Sunday. Watch the stuff I actually give a bollocks about. So that should take me about half an hour tops 😂

I’ve added a bit on the Maddalena fight to the opening post now. Just guessed where it sits in the bout order for now. They’ll probably shuffle the order multiple times this week anyway like they always do.