UFC London: Aspinall vs Tybura - Jul 22 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[wandshogun09]

Back in the Big Smoke…

ESPN MAIN CARD 
Tom Aspinall vs Marcin Tybura 

Molly McCann vs Julija Stoliarenko 

Nathaniel Wood vs Andre Fili 

Andre Muniz vs Paul Craig 

Jai Herbert vs Fares Ziam 

Lerone Murphy vs Josh Culibao 

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS 
Davey Grant vs Daniel Marcos 

Danny Roberts vs Jonny Parsons

Marc Diakiese vs Joel Alvarez 

Michael Parkin vs Jamal Pogues 

Bryan Barberena vs Makhmud Muradov 

Ketlen Vieira vs Pannie Kianzad 

Chris Duncan vs Yanal Ashmouz 

Bruna Brasil vs Shauna Bannon 

Jafel Filho vs Daniel Barez  

 

Seen people shitting all over this card but I honestly think it’s mostly that bollocks co-main that’s dragging this one down. It’s an obvious few steps down from the last couple of London cards but it was never gonna be as loaded up as 286. As a Fight Night this isn’t that bad. Some fun matchups on there. I think some of the negativity is stemming from the extortionate ticket prices as well though and that’s absolutely justified. For a mediocre Fight Night card like this, the money they’re charging is silly. But if idiots are willing to keep paying through the nose? If they put this on Box Office (and they might) it’ll really be taking the piss. Won’t surprise me though.

 

 

Tom Aspinall vs Marcin Tybura headlines London this time. Not a bad main event for a Fight Night in fairness. But I must admit I was slightly underwhelmed when it was announced. I don’t know what I expected for Aspinall next but it wasn’t this. Tybura’s not a bad fighter, it just feels like a step backwards from Aspinall’s last couple of opponents. But what do I know? It’s probably a wise move given Big Tom’s layoff.

The last we saw of Aspinall was the Curtis Blaydes fight on the London card last July. He’d just walked through and submitted Alexander Volkov in his previous fight and there was starting to be some serious buzz around him. So him topping the bill against Blaydes felt big. It felt like the fight that would really test Aspinall and give us some answers on his true potential and where he stood in the division. But just 15 seconds into the fight, Aspinall blew his knee out and it was done and dusted.

A complete freak injury but what a letdown and anti-climax it was. Especially being the main event. It was a bit of a flat show as it was so the headliner ending like that was just the shits. It’s been a long road to recovery but, finally, almost a year to the day later he’s back. Hopefully he’s ready and fully fit now. Knee injuries can be a slippery slope. But Aspinall seems like the type who will have done the right things to give himself the best possible chance of a full recovery. One of, or maybe the most promising rising contender in the Heavyweight division. There isn’t much to get excited about when it comes to the big lads but Aspinall is one of the few who actually seems to have the tools to really do something. And while he’s no shit talker or quote machine, he’s got a certain charm and likability and he can talk well. He’s 12-3 now but only really has one legitimate loss, which came in his 4th pro fight in BAMMA back in 2015. The other ‘losses’ were a DQ for a downward elbow and the Blaydes injury. He’s only just turned 30 as well. Assuming the knee isn’t an issue going forward, he could have a very bright future ahead of him.

Poland’s Tybura is 37 years old now and has been on the UFC roster since 2016. Nothing flashy or particularly memorable about him. Not that exciting to watch, not the type of fighter who fans clamour to talk about or see. But he’s a solid enough middle of the pack Heavyweight. Not elite level but better than your average fat slug of a brawler lower down the ranks. He’s got a record of 24-7 with 15 finishes and over the years he’s beat Andrei Arlovski, Stefan Struve, Sergey Spivac, Ben Rothwell, Walt Harris, Alexandr Romanov and Blagoy Ivanov. He also bashed up Greg Hardy which didn’t upset me one bit. He’s gone 5 rounds with Werdum, fought and lost to Volkov and Lewis etc. He’s knocked around a bit and he’s experienced.

Not sure what to think about this. Usually I’d fancy Aspinall to win a fight like this comfortably but the year on the shelf throws a wrinkle into it. It’s not like he’s just had a year out to train and work his game. The bulk of that time away will have been spent recovering from surgery and then slowly rehabbing and testing that repaired knee until he got the green light to go 100% in training. I’d still favour Aspinall but I actually think there’s a chance Tybura might have some banana skin potential here. He’s not great but he’s no bum either and you know he’s gonna see this as his big opportunity to finally crack into that upper level. Best possible outcome here would be if Aspinall’s able to just blast through Tybura and get that first fight back out of the way. Then he can crack on with another camp and get the ball properly rolling again. Pick up where he left off before the injury. Tybura’s not typically a guy who gets steamrolled but he has been stopped a few times before. Hopefully Aspinall gets him out of there and bags a big fight later in the year.

 

Molly McCann vs Julija Stoliarenko co-main event. Vomit. Fight Night or not, UK card or not, this is an awful fight for such high billing. You know what they’re going for as well. After McCann got schooled and got her shoulder almost ripped apart by Erin Blanchfield last time out, they’re trying to get her back in the win column with a weak opponent here. It’s all going nowhere though. She’s just not that good. She got those couple of spinning elbow knockouts on the last couple of London cards and started getting some unwarranted hype. But those wins were against shite opposition. Going from that to Blanchfield was a massive leap in levels that was always gonna end in tears. So now they’re scaling her back again. Thing is, as poor as Stoliarenko is, I actually wouldn’t be shocked if she hands the Meatball another loss here. She’s not much good. She’s 10-7-2 and has lost 4 of her last 5. But she’s got a bunch of submissions on her record and that’s Molly’s weakest area. I’d love to see her armbar the fuck out of Molly in London. Would be hilarious and would fully kill off any kind of attempt to re-establish that silly hype train. Either way though, this is a proper scraping the barrel fight for a co-headliner of anything.

 

Nathaniel Wood vs Andre Fili should be fun. There’s been a fair bit of back and forth between Wood and Lerone Murphy in recent months. And with both on the same card here, I was hoping/expecting that they’d book that one for this card. Would be a good UK vs UK domestic battle. But I guess the matchmakers didn’t fancy pitting two Brits against each other. Oh well, this Fili fight will do. I don’t recall a boring fight from either yet. Fili was once considered to be one of the more promising prospects out of Team Alpha Male but it hasn’t worked out. He’s been consistently in exciting fights but results-wise he’s been a bit all over the place. He’s coming into this one off a split decision win over Bill Algeo but I think he’s heading back to the L column here.

Wood’s had his own ups and downs but he seems to be on the right track now. Former Cage Warriors champion and was thought to have huge potential when he signed with the UFC in 2018 but he hit a couple of stumbling blocks along the way. A couple of losses and some injuries really slowed his progress but since moving up to Featherweight last year things seem to be picking up. He’s beat the two Charles’ - Rosa and Jourdain - since moving up to 145 and he’s looked a handful. Probably should’ve sacked the weight cut to 135 off a few fights sooner but better late than never. Should be good.

 

Andre Muniz vs Paul Craig is one of those fights that could be an awesome grappling battle, a horizontal war, but there’s just as much chance they have too much respect for each other’s ground games and opt to have a subpar striking match instead. I hope it’s more the former and they both come in wanting to prove who’s the better grappler. Could be a hell of a fight if they go that route. They both need a win here. Muniz surprisingly got subbed by Brendan Allen in his last fight and Craig got stopped in a round by Johnny Walker. That kind of makes me think they’ll both have the same idea and try to win a crap striking match but we’ll see. This is Craig’s Middleweight debut as well so it’ll be interesting to see how he looks down at 185. 

 

Jai Herbert vs Fares Ziam is alright. Just filler really but it’s an OK fight. Herbert is decent to watch. Just that right mix of being a good striker offensively but kind of vulnerable defensively, so it usually makes for a fairly exciting fight. He came in as the Cage Warriors champ but has had mixed results in the UFC and got off to a rough start. He’s gone 2-3-1 since signing. Like I say though, can’t remember him ever being dull to watch. Even the Ilia Topuria fight, which he lost by brutal knockout, he hit Topuria with a massive headkick earlier in the fight which I still don’t know how Topuria survived.

He’s had his moments. He’s a Midlands fighter so I’d naturally like to see him do well but he’s been up and down so far. Bit hazy on Ziam but he’s French, 26 years old and has a record of 13-4. Hasn’t done much of note really but he did beat Michal Figlak on the Paris card in September. Figlak was being talked about as a solid prospect going into that one and Ziam shut that talk down on Figlak’s first night in. Not a bad little matchup, I suppose.

 

Lerone Murphy vs Josh Culibao is a good piece of matchmaking. Again though, I don’t really get why they didn’t go with that Murphy vs Nathaniel Wood fight that seemed to be picking up some steam with their back and forths on social media. Whatever. I like this fight. Murphy has been maybe the most unsung of the UK fighters on the roster but it didn’t really help his cause that he had a few spells of being fairly inactive. Reminds me of the route Arnold Allen took in a way. Where he’s clearly got skills but it’s just gonna take that one big performance or signature win over an established name to really put him on the map. He turns 32 the day of this card and he’s undefeated at 12-0-1. The only ‘blemish’ being a split draw against Zubaira Tukhugov in 2019. He’s won 4 on the trot since and beat Gabriel Santos on points on the last London show in March. Culibao’s Filipino/Aussie, 29 years old and 11-1-1 in his MMA career. His only loss is to Jalin Turner up at 155. At Featherweight he’s unbeaten. Submitted Melsik Baghdasaryan in his last fight at UFC 284 in Perth in February.

 

Davey Grant vs Daniel Marcos is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** for London. It’s mostly down to Grant but Marcos appears to be a scrapper who’s cut from similar cloth as well. Got a good feeling about this one. You pretty much know exactly what you’re getting when you see Davey Grant’s name on a card at this point.

Win or lose, this fucker’s regularly in bangers. Not sure how long he can keep fighting the way he does. He’s 37 now, which is no spring chicken for a Bantamweight. But then again he did have all that time on the shelf a few years back so maybe that’s extended his career a bit at the back end. He’s made up for lost time putting miles on the clock since though. Seriously, since he came back from the layoffs in 2020, watch any of his fights. He’s must see. In his last 6 fights he’s got either a FOTN or POTN bonus. The losses were two absolute corkers against Chito Vera and Adrian Yanez and in his last fight he submitted and retired Raphael Assuncao with an inverted triangle choke of all things! He’s fucking ace. Seems a proper good guy as well. Liked him ever since he was on that Rousey vs Tate season of TUF a decade ago. Comes across as the soundest bloke you could meet. Marcos is from Peru and is undefeated at 14-0 with 8 knockouts. Only seen his UFC debut so far, he stopped Saimon Oliveira on the Brazil show in January and I just remember it being a really good fight and Marcos looking like he’d be great to watch going forward. If that was typical of how he usually fights then he should match up for some fireworks with Grant and we’re in for a treat.

 

Danny Roberts vs Jonny Parsons is whatever. Might be worth a look. Roberts is alright but at 35 he’s floundering now. He’s 18-7 and coming off back-to-back losses to granite old gatekeeper Francisco Trinaldo and one of the brightest prospects on the roster Jack Della Maddalena. He’s losing to guys at both ends of the spectrum. And Parsons was actually signed a good while back. I vaguely remember previewing a fight ages ago where he was supposed to debut but it fell apart. So this is his delayed debut. He’s 31 years old, 7-3 with 5 knockouts and last fought on DWCS in September 2021 where he won by split decision. Looking down his record, he actually has a 34 second KO win over Shonie Carter back in 2015 as well! Rooting for this prick’s downfall for that.

 

Marc Diakiese vs Joel Alvarez sounds like a decent fight on paper. Only thing is these days you don’t know what you’re getting from Diakiese. He’s turned into more of a wrestler than he used to be and, while it’s definitely commendable that he’s clearly worked on that area and is trying to round out his overall skillset, it’s made for some very dull fights along the way. I just think he hasn’t quite found the balance between using wrestling to compliment his striking rather than replace it. Regardless he’s coming off a decision loss to Michael Johnson in his last fight in December so he’s on the rebound now.

Alvarez is a fighter I really thought might be a bit of a darkhorse in the Lightweight division not so long ago. Before Topuria came along, I thought this guy might be Spain’s most promising up and comer. It’s been derailed though. He was 19-2 with all his wins coming inside the distance going into his last fight. Hadn’t beat a who’s who but he was just starting to climb a little bit and had just stopped Thiago Moises in a round. Then he ran into Arman Tsarukyan, got battered to a bloody pulp, and hasn’t fought since. That was February 2022. So we’re looking at nearly 18 months on the shelf now. He’s still only 30, it’s not the end of the world. But hopefully he can bounce back. This could be the show stealer if they’re both up for it and wanna mix it up. But I’ve got a feeling Diakiese is gonna go all in on the wrestling again here, so fuck knows.

 

Michael Parkin vs Jamal Pogues then. Heavyweights. What a treat. Although in fairness I’ll give Parkin a chance. This is his UFC debut and he’s 6-0, all finishes. He won his last fight by first round submission on DWCS last August. We’ll see how he does before I lump him in with the rest of them. He’s only 27 apparently and from Sunderland. Pogues is 10-3 and won a decision in his UFC debut against Josh Parisian in February in a fucking awful fight. So that was a nice first impression. Hopefully Parkin chins him. Just got no time for these big boring lummoxes.

 

Bryan Barberena vs Makhmud Muradov could be quality. Barberena’s just a blood and guts type brawler. Great to watch. His fights with Matt Brown and Robbie Lawler last year were not only fucking tremendous, they were two big wins for ‘Bam Bam’. Unquestionably the best wins of his career. So it was a bit of a shame to see him just get grappled into oblivion and submitted by Rafael Dos Anjos and Gunnar Nelson in back-to-back fights following those wins. He jumped in against Gunnar on short notice as well. As admirable as it was, it felt like a bad idea at the time and the way it played out backed that up. Coming off the RDA loss, to jump in with another grappler was a bad move. That he had the balls to try it sums him up though. He’ll fight anyone. Muradov’s looking to get back on track himself here. He came in a few years ago with some buzz around him because he was Floyd Mayweather’s first MMA fighter. And Muradov was backing it up early on. He won his first 3 fights in the UFC, including one of the most devastating one punch knockouts ever against Trevor Smith in 2019. He’s lost his last two now though, to Gerald Meerschaert and Caio Borralho. One thing we know is Barberena’s gonna bring it. So Muradov is gonna have to earn his way back into the win column here.

 

Ketlen Vieira vs Pannie Kianzad. Shite. Just shite. Again though, this is the new era of women’s Bantamweight. It wasn’t the deepest talent pool anyway but Nunes retiring has left behind a complete wasteland of former victims and no hopers. We’re at the point now where stuff like this is genuinely a possible title eliminator. Vieira is ranked #4, Kianzad is ranked #7. There’s a couple of women who are most likely getting the title fight first but these two aren’t far off and that says it all about the state of 135 currently. I thought Vieira might actually go on to be decent at one time, briefly, but whether it was that big layoff with the knee injury or whether she was always cack, she’s been rotten to watch these last few years. Even her bigger name wins over Holly Holm and Miesha Tate, she did it in such a boring and unimpressive way it didn’t feel like it boosted her stock whatsoever. Now she’s coming off a split decision loss to Raquel Pennington in January that I’ve already completely forgotten. Kianzad’s Iranian, 16-6 and coming off a big win over Lina Lansberg. She’s also got wins over those titans of the women’s game - Bethe Correia, Sijara Eubanks and Jessica Rose Clark. Quite a streak. Goldberg would be proud. Load of wank. 135 needs flushing.

 

Chris Duncan vs Yanal Ashmouz is a bit of an interesting one. Duncan’s Scottish, 10-1 with 8 finishes. Ashmouz is Israeli and undefeated at 7-0 with 6 finishes. Both made their UFC debuts on the Edwards vs Usman 3 undercard in London in March and made very different first impressions on me. Duncan won a split decision over Omar Morales and didn’t look particularly impressive. Instantly forgettable fight. Ashmouz though…

Just blitzed poor Sam Patterson in a little over a minute. Wrecked him quick. Hard to take too much from that because it was over so fast but it was some debut. Hopefully we get to see more of what he’s about here. Duncan as well. Hopefully there’s more to him than his uninspiring win over no hoper Morales. If Ashmouz’s debut is anything to go by, Duncan is gonna have to fight fire with fire here so it might bring out the best of him.

 

Bruna Brasil vs Shauna Bannon is just there. It isn’t exactly grabbing me but it might be worth a look for Bannon’s debut. Bruna Brasil certainly didn’t get off to the best start in her first Octagon appearance in April. She got battered and stopped by Denise Gomes. She’s 8-3-1 now. But yeah, I’m not expecting much but I’ll give Shauna Bannon’s debut a chance.

She’s Irish and trains under ex UFC fighter Paddy ‘The Hooligan’ Holohan. Forgot about him but I quite liked him. Anyway, Bannon’s undefeated at 5-0 so far and she’s won belts at both Flyweight and Strawweight in a promotion called Cage Legacy whatever that’s worth. She’s also fought for Invicta. We’ll see.

 

Jafel Filho vs Daniel Barez. Don’t know. Only seen Filho once and it was his UFC debut on the last London card. He was matched up with Muhammad Mokaev that night and was obviously being brought in as cannon fodder. He got submitted late in the fight but didn’t disgrace himself and he did give Mokaev a bit of a scare with this horrible looking kneebar…

😬 Nasty stuff. I was almost watching that through my fingers just waiting for the leg to snap in half. Filho’s 14-3 with 13 finishes and was on a 5 fight winning streak before that Mokaev loss. He takes on UFC newcomer Daniel Barez here. He’s Spanish, 34 years old and has a record of 16-5 and 13 finishes. He lost a split decision to Carlos Hernandez on DWCS back in 2021 and got submitted by Manel Kape way back in 2014. Not much else out there on him. 

 

Apples and pears. 

Edited July 21, 2023 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Felt a bit slow coming together this one, but it's turned out decent. UK shows feel like Bellator Ireland shows now though where there's a crew of homegrown fighters that just seem to have random fights with no real consequence everytime the show comes over.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah it’s just a case of ‘get a load of UK fighters on there’ and plugging gaps. It’s OK but out of the last few London cards this is the one that feels closest to being a bit Apexy to me.

I’m really sick of them just bumming the O2 now as well. I get that they like the venue and London has become basically their hub over here and a destination where people can travel from the rest of the UK and even other parts of Europe. But fuck me. I think they’ve forgot that there are other cities here.

Here’s the list of cards they’ve held in this part of the world…

- UFC 286: Leon Edwards vs Kamaru Usman 3 - Mar 2023 - O2 London 

- Fight Night: Tom Aspinall vs Curtis Blaydes - Jul 2022 - O2 London

- Fight Night: Tom Aspinall vs Alexander Volkov - Mar 2022 - O2 London 

- Fight Night: Darren Till vs Jorge Masvidal - Mar 2019 - O2 London 

- Fight Night: Wonderboy Thompson vs Darren Till - May 2018 - Liverpool 

- Fight Night: Fabricio Werdum vs Alexander Volkov - Mar 2018 - O2 London 

- Fight Night: Gunnar Nelson vs Santiago Ponzinibbio - Jul 2017 - Glasgow

- Fight Night: Jimi Manuwa vs Corey Anderson - Mar 2017 - O2 London 

- Fight Night: Gegard Mousasi vs Uriah Hall 2 - Nov 2016 - Belfast 

- UFC 204: Michael Bisping vs Dan Henderson 2 - Oct 2016 - Manchester 

- Fight Night: Anderson Silva vs Michael Bisping - Feb 2016 - O2 London 

- Fight Night: Paddy Holohan vs Louis Smolka - Oct 2015 - Dublin 

- Fight Night: Michael Bisping vs Thales Leites - Jul 2015 - Glasgow 

- Fight Night: Conor McGregor vs Diego Brandao - Jul 2014 - Dublin 

- Fight Night: Alexander Gustafsson vs Jimi Manuwa - Mar 2014 - O2 London 

- Fight Night: Lyoto Machida vs Mark Munoz - Oct 2013 - Manchester 

- Fight Night: Renan Barao vs Michael McDonald - Feb 2013 - Wembley Arena London 

- Fight Night: Stefan Struve vs Stipe Miocic - Sep 2012 - Nottingham 

- UFC 138: Chris Leben vs Mark Munoz - Nov 2011 - Birmingham 

- UFC 120: Michael Bisping vs Yoshihiro Akiyama - Oct 2010 - O2 London 

- UFC 205: Randy Couture vs Brandon Vera - Nov 2009 - Manchester 

- UFC 95: Diego Sanchez vs Joe Stevenson - Feb 2009 - O2 London 

- UFC 93: Rich Franklin vs Dan Henderson - Jan 2009 - Dublin 

- UFC 89: Michael Bisping vs Chris Leben - Oct 2008 - Birmingham 

- UFC 85: Matt Hughes vs Thiago Alves - Jun 2008 - O2 London 

- UFC 80: BJ Penn vs Joe Stevenson - Jan 2008 - Newcastle 

- UFC 75: Rampage Jackson vs Dan Henderson - Sep 2007 - O2 London 

- UFC 72: Rich Franklin vs Yushin Okami - Jun 2007 - Belfast 

- UFC 70: Mirko Cro Cop vs Gabriel Gonzaga - Apr 2007 - Manchester 

- UFC 38: Matt Hughes vs Carlos Newton 2 - Jul 2002 - Royal Albert Hall London 

Forgot about a lot of them. You see where it changed though. London was always gonna get the most shows, that’s to be expected, but the fact they haven’t been to another city in over 5 years now is a joke. Even just looking back over some of these cards and the cards that surrounded them, it struck me just how many different places they used to go. Brazil would get a couple of shows a year, Canada was a regular thing, Japan would get a show or two a year. Then there’d be Mexico, Australia, China, Germany, Sweden, Poland and so on. I forgot they even went to the Netherlands, Philippines, Croatia etc. Can’t believe the last Dublin show was 2015 as well! I guess all the Bellator cards there made me think it was more recent.

They used to go everywhere. Now they’ve got 2 Mexican champions and a Mexican interim champ and can’t even be arsed to go to Mexico. Even the Mexican Independence Day card in September is gonna be in fucking Vegas 😂 They never had Penn or Holloway headline a show in Hawaii when they were champs. Never did anything anywhere in Africa when they had all three of Ngannou, Adesanya and Usman as champs. They never had Khabib defend his belt in Russia when he was dominating, although Abu Dhabi obviously became a second home to him and Makhachev. I get the boring business reasons why they generally stick to the same handful of places these days but purely as a spectator it was a cool time that feels like it’s never coming back. 

But yeah. That was my long winded way of saying I wish they’d at least mix it up a bit over here. Fucking hell man. Even now with Leon as champ they don’t come back to Birmingham. You know, his actual hometown! Even here, this Aspinall card, his big return from injury, wouldn’t it have made more sense to do it in Manchester? It’s like they think everyone in the UK is from London. 

[Jesse]

It's one of the reasons my viewership has really waned over the years, to the point I read more of your write-ups than I watch of the events. Maybe it works out better in the short-term on a P&L sheet but it leads to the UFC so rarely feeling like a special event, that if I can't be arsed watching one that's fine because the next 10 will all feel the same.

[Egg Shen]

Yeah the moves into different markets always gives it a slightly different feel, usually audience generated but it make a massive difference. 

With the UK, I wonder if the o2 has some kind of UK exclusive deal at the moment? Wouldnt surprise me.

So yeah, basically the Apex ruined everything.

[David]

The UFC now has zero interest in actually growing the fanbase. The deal with ESPN basically killed any need for that off completely. It's gone from a live event and PPV business to primarily a television and PPV business. 

As things stand, they get paid the exact same amount of money from ESPN regardless of if they stage a show at the Apex, or in an arena in Brazil. It would appear the profit to be made from selling tickets in somewhere such as Brazil isn't worth the workload and outlay nowadays.

Dana has been cruising along on neutral since his pals sold the company if we're honest, and apart from a few key events each year when the stars align, the UFC is pretty sub-par.

Most of the promotion is done by the fighters themselves. The company always did relatively little by way of actual promotion of fighters, unless a superstar was dumped on their lap like McGregor, GSP or Lesnar, but they've taken it to a new low even by their own standards. Dana now goes out of his way to actively bash his own champions and the very people he's supposed to be promoting. He's more focused on the bullshit nonsense of the slap league.

Says it all really.

[wandshogun09]

14 minutes ago, David said:

Dana has been cruising along on neutral since his pals sold the company if we're honest, and apart from a few key events each year when the stars align, the UFC is pretty sub-par.

Definitely a big dollop of this. It’s felt like the UFC has been gradually getting a bit more shite each year since the Fertittas sold up. Not that they were perfect but I think it’s clear that they were the ones steering the ship and Dana was mostly just a front man and a mouthpiece. We knew that anyway but with them gone, it reminds me of when Vince Russo went to WCW and everyone realised he was fucking useless without Vince McMahon looking over his shoulder and taking his one good idea out of 30 and binning the rest.

The best decision Dana White ever made in his fucking life was going to that school reunion and rekindling his friendship with the Fertittas. If he’d decided to stay in with his Pot Noodle and Babestation that night then he’d still be teaching middle aged housewives boxercise in Boston. 

[Bruce85]

Not much buzz for this event giving its this weekend. Not the best card we have had on these shores lately but it’s not too bad. Looking forward to seeing how Tom looks on his return. Given the state of the HW division he can’t be many wins from a title shot.

I assume it’s not on box office? I’ve not seen it advertised anywhere. 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Bruce85

[David]

Not the biggest names on the card, I agree, but when you look over who's there you know that it's very likely going to be worth watching. Not many fighters there that I'd classify as boring.

[wandshogun09]

Big Tom busting out some Polish in the face-off wasn’t what I expected.

 

[wandshogun09]

This doesn’t sound good for Joel Alvarez. Especially as Diakiese has become more of a wrestler in recent fights. 

 

[Carbomb]

And it's risky business for him if it's kept standing against Diakiese too.

[Egg Shen]

But isn't Joel Alavarez a grappler? He has 16 submissions in 19 wins, he probably wants to be taken down.

[wandshogun09]

He does have a strong submission game so that is probably why he doesn’t focus so much on takedown defence. It’s a risky game to play though as you get to a certain level. He found that out in brutal fashion in the Tsarukyan fight last time. Obviously Diakiese is nowhere near the level of grappler Tsarukyan is but it’s still one of those things where what if the submission just doesn’t come? Judges are mostly gonna score rounds for the guy in top position, regardless of what’s actually happening. I don’t know. Diakiese is more of a striker who’s starting to grapple more so maybe he’s the one at risk more here if he’s got too comfortable shooting for takedowns.

Wasn’t really feeling this card much at all but as it’s got closer I’m liking it a little bit more. I’m interested in the main event to see how Aspinall looks, co-main’s shite but obviously hoping Meatball Molly picks up another loss, you’ve got Paul Craig’s debut at 185, hopefully Nathaniel Wood and Lerone Murphy get wins and set up their fight that’s been brewing, Grant vs Marcos is probably your show stealer, forgot all about Barberena vs Muradov but that’s a good fight for the prelims, second look at Ashmouz after a wild quick finish in his debut. There’s actually a fair bit to like there. 

[wandshogun09]