Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 14 Paid Members Share Posted January 14 (edited) Another Apex card, another Middleweight main event… ESPN MAIN CARDJack Hermansson vs Joe Pyfer Dan Ige vs Andre Fili Ihor Potieria vs Robert Bryczek Brad Tavares vs Gregory Rodrigues Michael Johnson vs Darrius Flowers Rodolfo Vieira vs Armen Petrosyan ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMSTrevin Giles vs Carlos Prates Bolaji Oki vs Timothy Cuamba Loma Lookboonmee vs Bruna Brasil Devin Clark vs Marcin Prachnio Jeremiah Wells vs Max Griffin Zac Pauga vs Bogdan Guskov Hyder Amil vs Fernie Garcia Daniel Marcos vs Aoriqileng Standard Apex stuff really. Although I think it’s a shade better than the first couple of Apex cards this year. On paper and at the moment anyway. Fully aware half these fights could drop off the card at a moments notice. There is just enough decent stuff on this one to make it worthwhile though. Few fights dragging it down but that’s what the fast forward button is for, right? Jack Hermansson vs Joe Pyfer sits atop this one. Not a bad fight but, yeah, I don’t know what the UFC’s obsession is with having Middleweights headline these Apex shows. We all shit on the Apex but if there’s any use for them, it’s surely to give great fights a taste of main event spotlight that wouldn’t otherwise get it. They’ve got divisions like Lightweight, Featherweight, Flyweight and especially Bantamweight that have some incredible talent that rarely or never get a look in when it comes to headlining even these Fight Nights. Then when someone from those divisions gets put in a title fight and no-one but the hardcores care, people go ‘well they don’t draw’. It wouldn’t hurt if they were presented as main event worthy once in a while. Yet these Apex shows are just an endless stream of mediocre Middleweight fights and Holly Holm duds. Whatever, we’ll crack on. Like I said, this isn’t a bad fight. We’ve obviously had a lot worse. We haven’t seen Jack Hermansson for a while now. He last fought in December 2022 and he got stopped that night by Roman Dolidze with a nasty calf slicer/ground and pound combo for the TKO. He was scheduled to headline the Apex (see, again) against Brendan Allen in June but ended up withdrawing due to injury. At 35 years old, far from ideal. Last thing he needed at this stage in his career was to lose a whole year sitting on the sidelines. I like Joker Jack but, to be honest, he’s been on the downswing for a few years now. Looking back, the peak period of his career was 2018-19 when he finished Thales Leites, Gerald Meerschaert and David Branch and then scored what’s most likely gonna go down as the biggest win of his career when he took a decision off Jacare Souza in their main event in April 2019. He’s had his moments since then. Decent wins over Kelvin Gastelum, Edmen Shahbazyan and Chris Curtis. But always mixed in with losses. Since that Jacare win, he’s gone 3-4 in his next 7 fights and alternated between losses and wins all the way. If we’re going off that run of form, he’s coming off a loss now so he should win this one. But 35 years old, a year of inactivity and coming off a shaky run of results? It’s not looking great is it? Joe Pyfer’s one of the UFC’s new golden boys. You know every now and then a fighter gets signed and for whatever reason you just know they’re kind of Dana and the matchmakers boy? Pyfer’s one of those ‘chosen ones’ it seems. He’s 27 years old and 12-2 with 11 finishes. To be fair, he’s been decent to watch so far. Aggressive and packs a punch. But I know it’s harsh, I just find myself wanting to see him fail. It feels like the UFC are kind of forcing him down our throats a bit. All I can think is that it’s because he came off DWCS and they desperately wanna create a star off there. Not Pyfer’s fault but I just can’t help wanting to see plans get fucked up. The matchmakers gave him a complete squash match in Alen Amedovski for his UFC debut and Pyfer predictably walked through him. In fairness though, it’s not like they’ve been protecting him since. They’ve given him 50-odd fight veteran Gerald Meerschaert and KO machine Abdul Razak Alhassan in his last 2 fights. Dangerous fights and he finished both. So it’s hardly like they’re giving him the Pimblett treatment. I think we know what the motives behind this matchmaking are though. Feeding the old lions to the young lions is a tactic as old as time in combat sports. I get it. It just feels a bit shitty to me though. Hermansson is currently ranked #10, Pyfer’s not ranked yet. They obviously want Pyfer to get into the rankings so they’ve looked at those rankings and selectively picked the guy who’s 35, on dodgy form and coming off a year plus layoff and an injury. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t count Hermansson out. We don’t really know enough about Pyfer yet and Hermansson’s experienced enough and crafty enough to at least ask some questions of him, if not more. In that sense, I’ve got no problem with the matchup. And it’ll be Pyfer’s first 5 rounder so there’s that. Ah, it’s solid enough I guess. Hopefully the time on the shelf doesn’t affect Hermansson too much and we at least get a good fight out of it. Dan Ige vs Andre Fili wasn’t the original plan. It was supposed to be Ige against Lerone Murphy but Murphy’s dropped out just a few weeks before the show. Disappointing. Seems like Murphy is just destined to fizzle out. Fili is a great replacement though. Might even be a better actual fight now. He’s had very mixed results in his UFC career and, at 33 years old now, he’s what he is at this point. But he’s pretty much always entertaining to watch. He’s coming into this one off a quick knockout win over Lucas Almeida at UFC 296 in December… Lovely stuff. Ige is a tough guy, never been quite good enough to make a run at title contention but he’s been knocking around and has mixed with some of the best. He’s lost most of the times he’s stepped up a level but he does have a win (albeit a razor close split decision) over Edson Barboza and he’s gone 5 rounds with Calvin Kattar. He’s coming into this fight off a decision loss to Bryce Mitchell in September that I recall being a bit lacklustre but he beat Nate Landwehr and sparked Damon Jackson prior to that. He was having a good 2023 before he ran into Flat Earth Bryce. Ihor Potieria vs Robert Bryczek is a late switch up. Was originally supposed to be Bryczek against Albert Duraev but Duraev pulled out with about a week to go. Can’t say I'm upset about it, to be honest. This is a big improvement. Duraev’s a dullard. Potieria’s nothing amazing but he’s been way more exciting to watch in the UFC so far. He’s Ukrainian, 27 years old and has a record of 19-5 with 15 finishes. He’s not doing well results-wise in the UFC but he hasn’t been boring. He had a crazy slobberknocker against Rodolfo Bellato in his last fight in December where he was destroying Bellato then somehow found himself on the wrong side of a wild comeback stoppage. Seriously, one of the unsung gems from last year that fight was. I even decided to stop moaning about Potieria chinning Shogun in Shogun’s retirement fight after that fight because it was so good. Never seen Bryczek fight. This’ll be his UFC debut, he’s Polish, 33 years old and 17-5 with 12 inside the distance. He’s been fighting for the Oktagon promotion recently and has won his last 5 fights. Brad Tavares vs Gregory Rodrigues is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Shouldn’t come as a surprise. Rodrigues is a UKFF favourite and Tavares is pretty much the ideal dance partner for him to have another barmy scrap with. If this fight feels like it should’ve happened already it’s probably because they were scheduled to throw down on the Brazil PPV last January. Unfortunately Tavares picked up an injury but I’m glad they’ve managed to book it again. Really fun fight on paper. Tavares is a tough sod. It’s easy to forget just how long he’s been around. He was on the Chuck vs Tito season of TUF back in 2010, for fuck’s sake! 14 years in the UFC. A look down Tavares’ record and you’ll see some right blasts from the past. He knocked out murdering fuck Phil Baroni, beat Tom Watson (who I forgot even existed), there’s Nate Marquardt, Tim Boetsch. That’s how long Tavares has been knocking about. On top of that he went 3 rounds with Yoel Romero and 5 rounds with Israel Adesanya. He’s no contender but he’s no joke either. He’s coming into this fight off a decision win over a washed up Chris Weidman. Gotta root for ‘Robocop’ here though. Like Tavares, he’s never gonna make a dent in the rankings or the title mix but he’s been one of my favourite additions to the roster over the last few years. Exciting to watch in the cage, likeable as fuck out of the cage. He’s ace. Him against Gerald Meerschaert would be the ultimate babyface battle but one that would tear this little section of the UKFF apart. The Apex version of Hogan vs Warrior. Who would you root for? Rodrigues is a scrapper. His fights with the Iron Turtle and Julian Marquez were the ones that made me a fan. Just mad slobberknockers and Greg got the KO in both. His gruesome battle with Chidi Njokuani was insane though. Chidi putting a gash that looked like a third eye in the middle of Rodrigues’ forehead, only for Greg to come back and TKO him was mental and, if you weren’t already a fan of him, that fight would’ve done the trick. He had a mixed bag of a 2023. Got ironed out by Brunno Ferreira in January but rallied back and battered Denis Tiuliulin in August. High hopes for this one. Having watched Rodrigues the last few years and watching Tavares for even longer, I can’t really see anything but a wild brawl coming from this. Michael Johnson vs Darrius Flowers is whatever. Who the fuck even knows with old MJ anymore? One of the absolute strangest careers and runs of form ever. He’s 21-19 now. I mean, Jesus Christ. But then you look down his record and he’s got wins over the likes of Tony Ferguson, Dustin Poirier, Edson Barboza and Joe Lauzon. Then you look over at the loss column and he’s lost to guys like Darren Elkins, Stevie Ray (not the Harlem Heat one, fruit booty) and Jamie Mullarkey. He also went toe to toe with Gaethje in a war, landed some big shots on Khabib etc. There were times when, on a good night, Johnson genuinely seemed to have the potential to become a player at 155. He was what people claimed Kevin Lee was when it comes to unfulfilled potential. I don’t know what it is. Whether it was a mental thing or a lack of discipline or dedication or what. But he just never managed to put everything together and find consistency. He turns 38 this year and he just got wiped out by Carlos Diego Ferreira in his last fight. One of the nastiest knockouts of 2023. Shit 😬 just a horrific KO. Even Ferreira looked like he felt bad about it. Flashbacks to Rocky holding Apollo’s lifeless head in his hands after Drago deaded him. It’s at that point now where people around him are gonna have to have that uncomfortable conversation with him. He’s lost 6 of his last 8 fights and that KO was scary. Can’t say I’m too familiar with Darrius Flowers but he’s the much younger and fresher man at 29 years old and 12-6-1. He made his UFC debut in July and got subbed by Jake Matthews but in fairness he’d jumped in on late notice for that one and I vaguely recall it being a decent fight. Rodolfo Vieira vs Armen Petrosyan was originally supposed to go down on the São Paulo card back in November but Petrosyan fell sick during the show and the fight got scrapped last minute. Like literally while the event was in progress. Not a bad fight but it’s not really grabbing me. Vieira came into the UFC with a bit of hype on him due to his grappling credentials. He’s a BJJ black-belt with medals coming out of his arse, 4 time BJJ world champion etc. He made the jump to MMA in 2017, was only 5-0 when the UFC snapped him up and he got a couple of submissions in his first two Octagon appearances. Hasn’t really panned out since though. He’s gone 2-2 in his last 4 and surprisingly got subbed himself by Anthony Hernandez in his first defeat. He’s not terrible but I think he just made the switch to MMA a bit late. He’s 34 now so his skillset is pretty much what it is. He’s not gonna be making massive strides in his striking and stuff at this stage. And Petrosyan, I don’t know. He’s 9-2 with 6 knockouts and has notable wins over Gregory Rodrigues and Christian Leroy Duncan. But I haven’t been blown away by him. I’m sure I had him losing the Rodrigues fight and that CLD fight wasn’t great. We’ll see. Hopefully this one goes ahead this time. Trevin Giles vs Carlos Prates. Not a clue. Just don’t know what to make of Giles. He actually looked like a decent prospect at one point. Came into the UFC undefeated and already had wins over Brendan Allen and Ryan Spann at that time. But it’s been a very hot and cold UFC run. Well mostly cold. He’s gone 6-5 in the UFC, got a decision win over Roman Dolidze in 2021 but not much else of note. We last saw him at UFC 291 in July, getting guillotined in a minute by Gabriel Bonfim. Prates makes his first walk to the Octagon here. He’s Brazilian, 30 years old and has a record of 17-6, 15 inside the distance. Nothing outstanding on his record but he’s coming off a TKO win on DWCS in August. Bolaji Oki vs Timothy Cuamba is a last minute card change. Was supposed to be Oki against Damir Hadzovic but Hadzovic dropped out just days before the card. UFC debut for both. Bolaji ‘The Zulu Warrior’ Oki is from Belgium, 28 years old and he’s 8-1 with 6 finishes. The only loss was a decision in his MMA debut back in 2018 and he’s coming off a quick TKO win on DWCS in August. I’ve been seeing a few positive comments about him on Twitter recently so I thought I’d give his DWCS fight a look. I don’t know enough about his opponent there to really rate the win but it was definitely a strong performance and I loved the finishing flurry. Cormier on commentary was praising him for consistently attacking the body rather than headhunting and it did stand out. You don’t see it enough in MMA but Oki did a great job with it here. The gif doesn’t show all of it but he hurt him to the body before that and went back to it, mixing it in with head shots and knees. It was a short fight, less than 3 minutes, but I liked what I saw and just like that I’m now looking forward to his UFC debut. Cuamba steps in on very short notice but he did just fight as recently as the 2nd Feb for a promotion called Tuff-N-Uff, which he won by second round TKO. So if nothing else he should be coming in sharp, with his confidence high and close to the weight already. He trains out of Xtreme Couture, he’s 8-1 with 4 finishes and he’s on a 5 fight winning streak. That’s about all there is out there on him. Loma Lookboonmee vs Bruna Brasil is nothing to write home about but it’ll probably be inoffensive enough prelim filler. Neither are going anywhere really but, for her spot on the cards, I do quite enjoy watching Loma. She turns 28 just before this fight, she’s 8-3 in MMA and she also had a bunch of Muay Thai fights and some Boxing fights. In MMA though, I just don’t think she’s ever gonna be well rounded enough to make a proper run of it. Although saying that, she did win by submission in her last fight. Her first UFC finish after 6 straight decisions. Bruna Brasil’s 30 with a 9-3-1 record. Got chinned by Denise Gomes in her UFC debut but rebounded with a decision over Shauna Bannon on the last London card in July. Not gonna pretend I’m really invested in this but I’d like to see Loma win. Devin Clark vs Marcin Prachnio isn’t doing it for me at all. Just another nothing happening fight in what feels like a steadily declining 205 division. Clark’s 14-8 and got strangled by Kennedy Nzechukwu in his last fight in May. He’s been in the UFC since 2016 (8 fucking years!) and his best wins are probably Alonzo Menifield and William Knight. Says it all really. Every time he’s stepped up from that level, he’s lost. And Prachnio is shite. He’s 16-7 and somehow got a win over Khalil Rountree in 2021 but has done fuck all else. I’m blaming that squarely on Rountree’s inconsistency back then. Prachnio went 1-1 last year. He outpointed William Knight in one of the worst fights of 2023. Just a terrible fight where honestly nobody deserved to be called a winner. Then he got ragged about and choked by Vitor Petrino in July. Jeremiah Wells vs Max Griffin is alright. Not buzzing for it or anything and both are probably close to finishing up now but it’s not a bad fight for an Apex card. My memory is a bit fuzzy on Wells but I vaguely remember him being fairly heavy handed. Looking at his record he’s got a couple of KOs over Warlley Alves and Court McGee in the UFC so I guess that’s where that memory comes from. He’s 37 now though and just got choked out by Carlston Harris in his last fight. To be fair, Wells was winning before Harris rallied in the last round with the come from behind sub, but a loss is a loss. And Griffin’s 38 and coming off a points loss to young prospect Michael Morales. He’s 19-10 now. Hard to see him lasting much longer but who knows these days? Zac Pauga vs Bogdan Guskov. Not expecting much from this. There’s just not much to it. Pauga’s 35 years old with a 6-2 record, only 1 finish. Yeah. So far in the UFC he’s been sparked by Mo Usman in the TUF finals, ‘won’ a fucking horrificly bad fight against Jordan Wright then lost a decision to Modestas Bukauskas. Guskov made his UFC debut on the Paris card in September and got done in a round by Volkan Oezdemir. I might give him another chance though. He’s 14-3 with all 14 wins coming inside the distance. We’ll see how he looks here. If he can’t beat a big slug like Pauga then the future doesn’t look too bright. Hyder Amil vs Fernie Garcia is another late change. Amil was all set to fight Melsik Baghdasaryan but that went tits up. Garcia steps in on about a week’s notice. Risky one for him because he’s already gone winless at 0-3 since signing with the UFC. I guess he’s jumped in here to try to score some brownie points with the gaffers but definitely a risk. Amil’s making his Octagon debut. He’s undefeated at 8-0 with 5 finishes, coming off a win on DWCS in August and fought in Bellator and LFA before that. Daniel Marcos vs Aoriqileng has the makings of an absolute belter. Although I was massively disappointed in Marcos vs Davey Grant in July. I really expected that to be a show stealer based on Grant’s track record and Marcos’ entertaining UFC debut fight against Saimon Oliveira. But for whatever reason, it just never clicked. Don’t know how you have a boring fight with Grant but Marcos somehow managed it. His debut was such a fun fight though, I’m thinking maybe something was off with Marcos in the Grant fight. Hopefully he’s back on form here. He’s still undefeated at 15-0, it was just the fight itself didn’t catch fire like most people expected. It happens. Aoriqileng is always exciting to watch though so, on paper, this should be a great way to kick off the card. Not the best record at 25-10 but I don’t care. He made a fan of me in his barnburner UFC debut against Jeff Molina and, win or lose, I don’t recall a dull moment since. Back to the bastard Apex we go... Edited February 9 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 27 Author Paid Members Share Posted January 27 Updated the opening post and re-done the poll for this. Lerone Murphy’s out of the Dan Ige co-main on this card. ‘Touchy’ Fili’s stepping in. Cracking substitute but, fuck me, seems like Murphy’s just never gonna get going at this point, doesn’t it? It’s been the slowest of burns with him anyway for one reason or another. He finally bags a co-main event against a decent name, finally seems to be making a bit of progress, and this happens? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 6 Paid Members Share Posted February 6 Robert Bryczek seems a nasty man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 8 Paid Members Share Posted February 8 UFC have put out this hour long sitdown with Pyfer. I watched it and you cant help but feel Pyfer is going to fall apart physically or emotionally at any second. Not sure he gets past Hermansson, Pyfer goes all in, if this goes past the opening round 5 we are into the unknown really. Intriguing fight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 8 Author Paid Members Share Posted February 8 He definitely seems a bit emotional here. Never really taken much notice of Pyfer outside what he’s actually done bell to bell but, yeah, seems like a bit of a wally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeverYield Posted February 8 Share Posted February 8 Imagine going into one that much about a punch machine. 😭 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 10 Author Paid Members Share Posted February 10 (edited) On 2/8/2024 at 6:17 AM, Egg Shen said: Not sure he gets past Hermansson, Pyfer goes all in, if this goes past the opening round 5 we are into the unknown really. Intriguing fight. I’ve gone with Pyfer in the poll, got a feeling he might catch a rusty Hermansson early. But yeah, very unsure about Pyfer and if it goes long then he’s in uncharted territory. Looking back over his record he’s only gone 3 rounds once, and that was his second pro fight which would’ve been at a much lower level. Aside from that, he’s never gone past the second round in his 13 other fights. If it wasn’t for the fact Hermansson is coming off a year plus layoff and an injury, I’d probably favour him, but I’m not sure how he’s gonna look tonight. Picking Pyfer but I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up like Magny vs Malott, with the ‘stepping stone’ messing up plans for the ‘prospect’. Edited February 10 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 10 Paid Members Share Posted February 10 I sacked it off last week, but Apex or not i'll be watching this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panhead Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 Yeah I'm quite looking forward to the main card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 13 Paid Members Share Posted February 13 Brilliant performance from Hermansson, stayed calm and took what Pyfer had to offer and slowly took over. Think Pyfer realised after round 2 that there's levels to the game. Wonder how Dana's feeling? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 13 Author Paid Members Share Posted February 13 (edited) Mixed bag of a show this. Only just got around to it today. Some good stuff scattered throughout but other parts of it made me thankful that I never watched live and that I had the benefit of the fast forward button. Enjoyed the main event though. Happy to see Jack Hermansson come out on top. Gotta admit as well, I was also pleased to see Pyfer humbled a bit. I said before I felt like the UFC machine was pushing him as more than he was but I thought he also came across as a bit of a knob in the run up to this fight with some of his interviews and stuff. So it was quite satisfying to me seeing Hermansson outwork him like a true veteran. I said going in I thought the layoff, especially at 35 and coming off an injury, was gonna hinder Hermansson and tip the odds in Pyfer’s favour but I needn’t have worried. Felt like Hermansson showed he was a different class over the course of the 5 rounds. Pyfer started strong like I think everyone expected he would. But Hermansson weathered the early storm and, to be honest, by the middle rounds Pyfer just looked like a guy who came in expecting an early blowout. When that KO punch never came he started looking a bit frazzled and lost. And in contrast, Hermansson looked like a guy who fully expected to have to get through a rough patch early, and he held up and took over down the stretch. He just kept chipping away at him with low kicks and a solid jab (the one in the gif above really bothered Pyfer) and by the later rounds he had Pyfer shooting for takedowns and failing. Then got his own takedown in the 5th. Just a really solid all around performance from Hermansson. Pyfer was going for power and looked puzzled when Hermansson was still there after a couple of rounds. I’m sure he’ll still have his bright moments but I was quite happy to see Joker Jack old man him here. Liked Hermansson’s post-fight interview as well. Pushed for a fight in Sweden, campaigned to get MMA legalised in Norway and the Nassourdine Imavov callout makes sense. No doubt that’s a 5 round Apex headliner coming our way soon. Pyfer was about to start making excuses with the “I’ve been doing a lot of media” shite though. Yeah, bit of a twat this Rowdy Roddy Pyfer. And again, you can tell UFC management have a boner for him. Why were they even interviewing him anyway? They don’t usually interview the loser on these Apex cards. Unless it’s some mad FOTY contender or controversial decision. This was neither yet they still gave him the mic. Dan Ige smoking Andre Fili in 2 minutes wasn’t really how I expected that one to go. Hell of a KO… Honestly thought this was probably gonna go the distance and be a bit of a war. But Ige just walloped him. No coming back from that. Didn’t even realise they were friends and had been training together until Ige said it in his post-fight interview. Ige is a funny one. I remember when his nickname used to be ‘Dynamite’ and I didn’t think it really fit him because, while he was always decent to watch, almost every time I saw him he’d go to decisions. Then he dropped the ‘Dynamite’ and went with ‘50K’ as a nickname. And his knockouts of Damon Jackson and now Andre Fili over the last year or so have been about as highlight reel worthy and devastating as it gets. Not sure who’s next for him but I wouldn’t mind seeing Ige vs Arnold Allen. Whack that on a UK card and I don’t think you’ll hear any complaints. Potieria vs Bryczek had its moments but it didn’t really hold my attention. Don’t know whether the late opponent change was the major factor or what, but it felt like one of those last minute thrown together fights that could’ve been so much better if they’d both trained a full camp specifically for each other. Enjoyed this though… What the fuck was that? 🤣 Decent win for Potieria, especially on late notice, over a guy it seemed like many had high hopes for. Still think there’ll be fun fights to be had with both guys but this one just felt disjointed and never fully got going for me. Again, probably because it was thrown together late in the day. Chuffed to see Robocop Rodrigues once again bring the heat. One of those guys you can chuck in there with pretty much anybody and win, lose or draw you’ll get a good scrap out of it. Nasty finish that. Wasn’t pretty but got the job done. Love Rodrigues. He’s got to be one of the most consistently exciting fighters on the roster right now. I’ve never seen any of his pre-UFC stuff but just looking back over his record, he’s fought 8 times in the UFC so far and I remember 7 of them being wild slobberknockers. Only one I recall being a bit lacklustre was the Petrosyan fight and I might be remembering that wrong. He’s quality. More than just a slugger as well. He’s got a solid ground game when he needs it/chooses to use it. There’s a fight between Gerald Meerschaert and Bryan Barberena coming up in March. I feel like Rodrigues vs the winner of that is a no brainer. Great fight either way, although him against our Gerald would be bittersweet as a big fan of both. Nice to see Michael Johnson get back in the win column but you know how this story goes. His record is all over the place. He’ll probably lose 3 in a row now then spark a top contender. He makes no sense to me 🤣 no real opinion on this fight. Still don’t feel like I know enough about Darrius Flowers to really rate MJ’s win. But yeah, nice to see him win and especially seeing him bounce back from that KO loss against Ferreira last time, because that was a BAD one. Rodolfo Vieira breezed through Armen Petrosyan. I wasn’t expecting much from this fight, to be honest. It was short and sweet though and I was pleasantly surprised. While the other areas of his game aren’t the best, obviously when he can get his grappling going he’s gonna do well against pretty much anyone in the 185 division. He’s not gonna go any further than this really, I just think he made the switch to MMA a tad late and his skillset now is basically it for him. Good stuff here though. Petrosyan had fuck all for him. Carlos Prates couldn’t have asked for a better ending to his UFC debut. What a shot! That came after a strong opening round from Trevin Giles as well. Thought Giles was looking better than he has in a while in that first round. Only to get brutally flattened in the second. Felt like Prates kind of saved the show with this KO, or at least brought it back to life. Because there was a 4 fight stretch in the middle of the prelims that made the flow of the card feel like a proper slog. Griffin vs Wells was inoffensive enough. Clark vs Prachnio I skimmed through because life’s too short. Lookboonmee fight didn’t look much good but I was happy to see her get another win. And Bolaji Oki’s debut, which I was really looking forward to, fell a bit flat for me. Wasn’t terrible, just wasn’t what I hoped. But in fairness, his original opponent withdrew really late in the day and Cuamba was thrown in there. Not ideal for either guy so this probably wasn’t a fair reflection on either of them. These fights all went the distance, which isn’t a negative in itself. But these 4 fights just didn’t click for me and I don’t think the Apex atmosphere (or lack thereof) helped at all. Elsewhere, Bogdan Guskov washed the bad taste of his UFC debut away with a crushing first round knockout… Christ! Looked like a KO off the video games. Pauga looked like a crash test dummy. Poundland Anthony Smith done alright. The debut of Hyder Amil might well have been the highlight of the entire card for me, not even just the prelims. Really liked what we saw of him. Showed some vulnerability early on when Garcia cracked him and had his back but he recovered, broke Garcia down beautifully then got the stoppage in the second round… Really exciting fight and made an instant positive first impression on me. Can tell he’s gonna be fun to follow. Seemed a bit of an annoying ‘bro dude bro’ type in his post-fight interview, and then I saw that bollock Jake Shields in his corner so that checks out. But bell-to-bell, he was ace here. Can’t see him staying undefeated too much longer but if this was typical of him then he’s gonna be a can’t miss fighter on any card he appears on. There was no FOTN bonus awarded, which I feel was a bit harsh on these guys. Especially considering Garcia stepped in on short notice and it was a late opponent switch for Amil. They deserved something extra. Amil never even got a POTN bonus. Unfortunate how the Daniel Marcos vs Aoriqileng curtain jerker ended. Was really enjoying it for the round and a bit it lasted then they traded bollock kicks and Aori came off worse and couldn’t continue. No Contest. Shite but the right call. I’d like to see these two matched up again. Not necessarily an immediate rematch but I’d be up for seeing it again. This was alright on the whole. Some fights dragged it down a bit but, for an Apex card, it wasn’t bad. Onto 298. FINALLY, the first card of 2024 worth getting legitimately excited about! Edited February 13 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce85 Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Yeah it was another alright showing, show good stuff, some dross. Like I said in the last apex thread, I don’t mind them, we just get so many with mixed fights that it’s becoming a big of a slog. Some of those fights in front of a crowd would have really brought them to life. Think Wand said it in his opening post but the main went the same way as the Magny/Mallot fight from the last card. Jack just had a bit too much experience about him and managed to get through the early storm and Pyfer looked a bit lost and deflated when Jack was still in the fight at round 3. That jab was really causing him issues! Ah well, 298 is in sight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 14 Paid Members Share Posted February 14 (edited) I thought Potieiria looked really good on Sat. he's becoming a bit of a cult hero for me. He's got a ceiling no doubt but he'll do some wild shit during a fight and is making for some fun fights. Edited February 14 by Egg Shen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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