UFC 299: O’Malley vs Vera 2 - Mar 9 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Back to Miami and it’s a ridiculous card. This’ll probably be a long read…

PPV MAIN CARD
Sean O’Malley©️vs Marlon Vera - Bantamweight Title

Dustin Poirier vs Benoit Saint-Denis 

Kevin Holland vs Michael Venom Page

Gilbert Burns vs Jack Della Maddalena 

Petr Yan vs Song Yadong

ESPN PRELIMS 
Curtis Blaydes vs Jailton Almeida

Katlyn Cerminara vs Maycee Barber

Mateusz Gamrot vs Rafael Dos Anjos 

Pedro Munhoz vs Kyler Phillips 

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Philipe Lins vs Ion Cutelaba

Michel Pereira vs Michal Oleksiejczuk

Robelis Despaigne vs Josh Parisian 

CJ Vergara vs Assu Almabayev

Joanne Wood vs Maryna Moroz

 

Jaysus. Love this card. Pretty much top to bottom I’m interested in almost every single fight on there to some degree. I’d say a good 7 of those fights there could’ve headlined cards in their own right. Stupidly good card. Now we’ve just got to hope it all stays together for the next however many weeks it is until fight night. Glass half full etc. But yeah, as always I’ll edit when it all goes down the shitter.

 

Sean O’Malley vs Marlon Vera 2 headlines. A rematch nearly 4 years in the making. I don’t think this should’ve been the next title fight myself. Felt like there were a couple more deserving contenders in Merab Dvalishvili and Cory Sandhagen but whatever. Should be a fun fight. And I do get it. To date, Chito’s still the only man to hold a win over Suga Sean. It’s rematch I’ve wanted to see ever since the first fight ended and the way that fight played out, you knew they’d cross paths again somewhere down the road. Here we are.

They faced off back in August 2020 at UFC 252. They were co-main under the big Stipe Miocic vs Daniel Cormier trilogy decider. Mad to think that was at the Apex but we were living in crazy times with the world locked down. O’Malley was undefeated coming in and the UFC machine was well behind him already. He was one of the first names coming off DWCS to really stand out so, like with the TUF 1 crew back in 2005, Dana had a soft spot for him from the get-go. Chito was known as a tough scrapper but he’d already had 6 losses and was coming off dropping a close decision against Song Yadong. It was definitely considered a step up for O’Malley but a test I think Dana and the matchmakers expected him to pass.

All went tits up. Chito got the TKO late in the first round. My memory of this fight is hazy, I’ll probably rewatch and review it in here at some point. All I really remember is O’Malley hurt his leg somehow and then obviously I remember the finish. Chito brutalised him with nasty elbows. I’ll have to give it another look, see if there’s anything to read into it. Although a lot has happened since then and I think it’s safe to say O’Malley’s improved a fair bit over the last few years.

Yeah. If you’d asked me a few years ago if O’Malley would get this far, I’d have probably laughed. Just never saw it happening. I always had major doubts about him. I thought he’d reach the Top 5 and that’d be about his ceiling. His best win going into that first Chito fight was a shopworn Eddie Wineland. And after the Chito loss, they scaled his opposition back again. It felt like that loss spooked the UFC brass and they wanted to rebuild him. He stopped Thomas Almeida, Kris Moutinho and Raulian Paiva before they stepped him up again and threw him in with Pedro Munhoz in July 2022. That was the fight where I pretty much lost all belief in O’Malley. It ended as a No Contest in the second round after O’Malley poked Munhoz in the eye. Accidental but he didn’t look too good at all before that. I remember his fans were insisting he was destroying Munhoz before the poke but he really wasn’t. Something about that fight seemed to change the matchmakers thinking. It’s like right there they decided to stop carefully cherry picking fights for him and thought ‘alright fuck it, throw him to the wolves and see what he’s got’. The wolf was Petr Yan.

I honestly thought Sean was gonna get slaughtered here. I recall actually being quite shocked they even made this fight. Yan wasn’t far removed from being champion, had just lost a razor close decision to Aljamain Sterling and had beaten Cory Sandhagen before that in what was probably Yan’s overall best performance. Based on the levels of opposition and the fact that the only 2 times O’Malley had stepped up (Chito and Munhoz) he’d either lost or looked iffy, I thought he was fucked against Yan. Genuinely thought he must’ve pissed Dana off behind the scenes or something. But they wound up having a barnburner and O’Malley came out on top. It was close but whoever you had winning, O’Malley looked way better than I think most expected. I had to completely rethink my stance on him after that. Way surpassed what I thought he was capable of. That win earned him a crack at the gold…

At UFC 292 in August, O’Malley finally did it. He knocked out Aljo Sterling in the second round to become UFC Bantamweight champion of the world. On the undercard that same night, Chito Vera beat Pedro Munhoz on points in a decent but unspectacular fight.

The talk after the show, like always, was about who O’Malley’s first title defence would be against. I strongly felt like Merab deserved it. He’d just dominated Yan in a complete shutout, had the best case for the next shot and, as an added bonus, he had that little moment with stealing Sean’s jacket that time! If not him, then Sandhagen would’ve been more than worthy. But O’Malley seemed more into the Chito rematch. I think partly just genuinely wanting to avenge his only loss, partly that it’s probably more appealing as a PPV headliner than the others but I also think it’s because he sees it as the easiest of the 3 options.

“Before me vs Aljo, before Pedro vs Chito, I said ‘Hey, Chito goes out there and wins, I go out there and win, I’m fighting Chito for my first title defence.’ That’s what’s gonna happen next in my eyes. That’s what I want. I’m sure the UFC’s down with that. They’re in the fight business. Me vs Chito is the biggest fight in the Bantamweight division. There’s not even one that’s really close. Me vs anyone is gonna be a big fight because I’m a pretty big name. But me vs Chito is the biggest fight to make. Me vs Cory Sandhagen is out there. Me vs Merab - Merab is literally just so fucking boring. Just, it’s hard to make that business-wise. But yeah, you could make that fight eventually.”

“It’s just perfect. I feel like it’s perfect timing. After that first fight, everyone was like ‘You gotta get that rematch, you gotta get that rematch.’ And I said, ‘I’ll get that rematch when I want that, when it’s time for that rematch, I’m gonna call for it and I’ll get it.’ I could’ve gotten this rematch whenever I wanted it. Now is the right time. I don’t wanna talk him down too much, because I’ve gotta build a fight. But I’m gonna smoke this dude.” - Sean O’Malley

I get why he wants this fight but he really doesn’t seem keen on that Merab fight, does he? Problem is, if Merab beats Cejudo at 298 in February, it’s gonna be hard to deny him his shot. And Sandhagen’s no walk in the park either. If O’Malley beats Chito here, I’m fully expecting him to call for some silly fight in another division or something. No-one wants to just stay in their weight class and defend their belt anymore. And I get the feeling Sean’s gonna be bad for that if his reign goes on a bit.

Chito’s pretty much always entertaining to watch but, again, he’s ranked #6, his last win over Munhoz wasn’t exactly mind blowing and before that he got outclassed over 5 rounds by Sandhagen. If you never saw that fight, don’t let the ‘split decision’ fool you. One of the judges must’ve been drinking on the job because there’s no way you can legitimately score that fight for Chito. Before that he was on a solid run, to be fair. That 4 fight stretch of wins over Davey Grant, Frankie Edgar, Rob Font and Dominick Cruz was ace. He definitely doesn’t have the strongest case to be next in line but I don’t hate this fight at all.

Repeat or revenge and all that bollocks? I’ll have to give the first fight another watch but I’ve got a feeling O’Malley gets it done this time. I can’t remember how much of a factor the ankle injury was in the first fight but regardless, I just think O’Malley’s the more improved of the 2 and he’ll have gained so much experience and confidence from those Yan and Sterling wins. And when I say confidence I mean real confidence. It’s not like he ever seemed to lack belief in himself but there’s a big difference between that unbeaten fighter youthful arrogance where you don’t know any better and the kind of legit confidence he has now that comes with experience in big fights against elite opposition. His self belief now is actually based on something whereas I think there was an element of delusion to it all before. Chito’s always dangerous, he’s durable and he’ll be right in O’Malley’s face. You can never count a guy like that out. But I don’t know. He still has his flaws and often relies too much on stealing rounds on damage in the last minute a lot. I reckon O’Malley probably wins and then calls for an immediate trilogy decider to avoid Merab and Sandhagen.

 

Dustin Poirier vs Benoit Saint-Denis is a tremendous co-main event. 5 rounds as well. I was pleasantly surprised when this one got announced. Saint-Denis actually called out both Poirier and Justin Gaethje after his last fight but I genuinely thought he was wasting his time and that those guys would only be looking for ‘big names’ at this stage in their careers. There were rumblings of Saint-Denis headlining against Beneil Dariush on the Atlantic City card in late March but his manager said that was one option and the other was a ‘mystery opponent’ and that was the fight they were leaning towards. The ‘mystery opponent’…

Fair play to Poirier. He’s currently ranked #3 in the Lightweight division and he’s coming off that knockout loss to Gaethje. He could’ve easily held out and tried to campaign for another McGregor fight, there’s unfinished business there. Or the Gaethje rubber match or maybe even try and lure Nate Diaz back or something. I honestly thought Poirier had just reached the stage in his career where he was just gonna look for fun scraps with big names. To take a fight like this now, coming off a KO loss, against a younger, fresher, dangerous but lower ranked rising contender like Saint-Denis is ballsy.

Saint-Denis has been one of the standout new faces at 155 over the last year or so. He’s 28 years old and 13-1-0-1 with all of his wins coming inside the distance. He took a beating off Elizeu Zaleski Dos Santos in his UFC debut but has been on fire ever since, rattling off 5 straight finishes. I think I first really started taking notice of him when he bashed up Gabriel Miranda in a very enjoyable scrap on the first Paris card in 2022. Not an earth shattering win but he looked good and the home crowd reacting to him like a superstar certainly didn’t hurt. He followed that up with a blinding 2023. He derailed the hype train of Ismael Bonfim in July, submitting him in the first round with a nasty face crank. In September he returned to Paris and stopped Thiago Moises in the FOTN. Then in November, he faced Matt Frevola in Frevola’s backyard at MSG, and did this to him…

I went into that fight expecting a war, Benoit wiped him out in 90 seconds.

“I’m telling you, that Benoit Saint-Denis is next level. He’s got furnaces going in his eyes. You look into that guy’s eyes, there’s hell going on behind those eyes. He’s built for it. So him vs Dustin is very exciting. Dustin better be ready to go.” - Joe Rogan

He’s definitely got some real momentum now. He’s been great to watch. This is a huge step up though. Seeing a lot of positivity towards Saint-Denis, and rightly so. And like always, with Poirier coming off a KO loss, it’s a ‘what have you done lately’ sport and talks of declines always come with losses. But make no mistake, on paper, this is by far the toughest test of Saint-Denis’ career. On top of that, this is a 5 round fight. Benoit’s never gone past 3. We know Poirier’s up to 5 rounds. He’s won 5 round wars with Max Holloway and Dan Hooker, stopped Gaethje in the 4th round of their all time classic, has trained for multiple scheduled 5 rounders and title fights. Poirier is as tried and tested as it gets. He’s an ironman. This is Saint-Denis’ chance to really break through as a top player at 155. You beat a guy like Poirier, you’re automatically catapulted into that title mix. For Poirier, there’s less to be gained from this. It’s a risky fight for relatively low rewards. He’s ranked #3, Benoit’s at #11. So it’s not gonna do much for Dustin. If he loses, it obviously doesn’t look good. But even if he wins, people will probably just say Benoit got exposed or whatever. Gotta respect Poirier taking this fight at this stage of his career. Should be an absolute dogfight.

 

Kevin Holland vs Michael Venom Page then. Here we go. The long talked about, long awaited UFC debut of MVP is finally upon us. This move was now or never really, wasn’t it? MVP’s about to turn 37 in April. After years in Bellator and dabbling in Boxing and Bare Knuckle, once he became a free agent and started courting offers from the UFC and PFL, I think it was pretty clear that wherever he ended up, it would probably be the last big contract of his career. So he had to choose wisely. He’s gone with the UFC.

I’ve made no secret that I’m not his biggest fan. He’s undeniably had some incredible moments in the cage and delivered some crazy knockouts. But he’s bored me shitless just as much. I feel like he gets overrated because of the flashy shit, ‘viral’ finishes and wacky showmanship but when he’s been bad to watch he’s been really bad to watch. All that said, I’m glad he chose the UFC. As much as I’d have been interested in that Cedric Doumbe fight PFL were teasing, that’s one fight. I feel like there’s more for him to do in the UFC and if he didn’t come over now, it most likely never would’ve happened. He’s coming off a fucking gruesome leg kick finish over Goiti Yamauchi in his last fight in Bellator…

I mean, fuck me 🤢 look at the knee! That will have been a year ago, almost to the day, by the time he steps into the Octagon here. Before that he’d lost to Mike Perry in BKFC in a close fight but he got roughed up pretty good in the last round. Before that he got shut down and outwrestled by Logan Storley to a decision loss in his lone shot at Bellator gold. He’s 21-2 overall now. He’s had some spectacular finishes but even his best wins over the likes of Douglas Lima and Paul Daley, they were pretty shit to watch. I just don’t know. Good addition to the roster regardless. He’ll ruffle some feathers and his style is unique enough that it’ll make for some interesting matchups.

There was talk initially this fight with Holland was being targeted for UFC 297 in Canada in January. There was a video Dana put out and it was on the board behind him. That card could’ve really done with a fight like this but they never got it done in time. So it’s landed here instead.

Kevin Holland welcomes him aboard. I can certainly see the appeal of this pairing. Holland can be very entertaining and he goes for the finish every chance he gets. But, and I don’t wanna piss on anyone’s chips here, I could just as easily see this being a nothing happening taunt-off. Holland loves to talk shit in there, sometimes at the expense of actually putting out offence. And MVP has a tendency to lay back and try to set traps and if the opponent doesn’t bite, it’s rotten stuff. That’s definitely a scenario I could see playing out here but I really hope not. If they’re both up for it then this could be fantastic. It’s one of those weird ones. My expectations range wildly from one extreme to the other. It’s either gonna be a mad highlight reel or 15 minutes of Venom piss-arsing about while Holland gives him a stern talking to. The combination of MVP’s inactivity plus him maybe feeling the pressure of wanting to deliver in his Octagon debut, I fear it’s gonna be the latter. At least they’re not feeding him a gimme though. I guess, given his age, they don’t really have the luxury of wrapping him in cotton wool and trying to build him up.

 

Gilbert Burns vs Jack Della Maddalena is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** on this card. But honestly, there’s a bunch I could’ve chosen. Something about this one for me though. Burns is ranked #4 in the Welterweight division as I type this. Maddalena is ranked #11. So this is a huge opportunity for Maddalena but it’s also a big jump in levels for him. Burns is by far the toughest test the Aussie will have faced so far. We’ll see if he can rise to the occasion. Kind of wish this was headlining a card so we could get 5 rounds but I can’t complain. It adds serious depth to this card.

Gilbert Burns is class. Doesn’t surprise me one bit that he’s taken this fight. He’s one of those guys who never seems content to just sit on his ranking and angle for names or favourable matchups. He’ll fight any fucker. Short notice, unappealing style fights, big names, up and comers, he’s up for anything. At 37 years old, you’d think he’d be trying to be more selective now and try to maximise his chances of getting one last run at a title shot by taking the easiest route possible. But he seems to genuinely just love to test himself against all comers. He’s a throwback to simpler times in MMA in a way. He’s obviously looking to get paid but I think he’s in it for the love of the game as much as anything. He got his title shot against Kamaru Usman in 2021, lost and then took on a tricky Wonderboy as his rebound fight. Who does that? He was the first top guy to give Khamzat Chimaev an opportunity and he gave him a proper battle. Even his last fight, he jumped in against Belal Muhammad, who’s hard to look good against. The fight was crap and Gilbert lost but he’s one of those guys where setbacks seem to just bounce off him. Now he’s stepping in with another dangerous prospect…

The Welterweight division has seen a mini influx of fresh potential contenders emerge over the last couple of years. The standouts for me have been Shavkat Rakhmonov, Ian Garry and Jack Della Maddalena. And they’ve all been progressing at a similar kind of rate. Shavkat’s further ahead but they’re all getting up there in the rankings now. Maddalena really stood out for me right from his UFC debut in early 2022. In his first 4 trips to the Octagon he breezed through Pete Rodriguez, Ramazan Emeev, Danny Roberts and Randy Brown. All finishes, all inside a round. Barely broke a sweat, showed some really nice boxing for MMA and did it with a calmness and laid backness that reminded me of Mark Hunt. The hype has cooled off a tad recently though. He got taken to a split decision by UFC newcomer Bassil Hafez in July, which was a bit surprising. But Hafez was a last minute replacement and you never know how that can mess things up. Then in September he won another split against Kevin Holland. I definitely had him winning but going to back-to-back close decisions after previously blasting through the competition, it’s gonna take a bit of the shine off the hot prospect talk, isn’t it? I still think there’s way better to come from him but this is a baptism of fire here. Burns has mixed at the highest levels and Maddalena hasn’t touched that level yet. We also haven’t seen much of Della’s grappling yet and Burns could certainly put that to the test. Apparently, Maddalena’s been training his grappling with BJJ black-belt and ADCC/Polaris medalist Craig Jones so there’s that. But I’m not sure how much time they’ve actually spent on the mats together. Can’t wait for this one.

 

Petr Yan vs Song Yadong is a belter. This was actually originally pencilled in as the main event of the planned Shanghai card in December but Yan got injured, the event got moved to the Apex and Song ended up in a lacklustre matchup with Chris Gutierrez instead. Well happy they’ve managed to get the fight on now. Again though, like a few of these fights on this card, it’s a shame we’re not getting it as a 5 rounder. 

Yan’s got his work cut out at this point. He’s still ranked #5 but his stock has taken a massive hit in recent times. In late 2021 he was the interim Bantamweight champion and coming off probably the best performance of his career to date, beating Cory Sandhagen in an incredible fight. He’d already beat Jose Aldo, Urijah Faber and John Dodson before that and his only recent blemish was his mind boggling illegal knee against Aljo in their first fight, which got him disqualified. His 2022-23 has been miserable though. He’s lost his last 3 fights in a row now. And although 2 of them were mega close decisions (Aljo rematch and O’Malley) that many felt he won, they’re still officially losses. His last fight against Merab though, there was zero debate there. He lost every round. And that was last March. So a whole year on the shelf for him. What a fall. When he was champ, there was talk about him in the pound-for-pound rankings and all sorts. I think that was premature myself but that’s how good he looked. He’ll have just turned 31 by the time this fight happens. Hardly on the scrapheap. And like I said, it was only the Merab loss that was clear cut. That 0-3 scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story really. But it could be a case now where the self doubts are creeping in. They’re not exactly doing him any favours here either…

This snazzy little bastard awaits. Song just turned 26 in December, he’s 21-7-1-1 and has won 5 of his last 6 with the only loss being a doctor stoppage against Cory Sandhagen due to a really bad gash on his eyebrow. He’s knocked out Julio Arce, Marlon Moraes, Ricky Simon and he has a 2020 decision win over Chito Vera. He dominated Chris Gutierrez in his last fight in December. Just 5 rounds of one way traffic. But it wasn’t much good to watch. Can’t really criticise Song too much because he won clearly and it’s not like he’s typically in dull fights. But he was so obviously levels above Gutierrez that it felt like he really should’ve been able to get him out of there. Oh well. He did call out Yan in his post-fight interview. Apparently Yan tweeted the yawn 🥱 emoji and Song didn’t appreciate that.

”Your last fight too bro. SHIT…LOOK SHIT!” - Song Yadong

That creased me. The broken English combined with the usually laid back and placid Song looking legit pissed off just added to it. He then took to Twitter and doubled down on the callout…

At that point this was a no brainer for the matchmakers. I’ve said a bunch of times I was really hoping we’d see Yan welcome Figgy to the Bantamweight division, and I still hope we get to see that fight at some stage. But this’ll do nicely for now. It’s really a must win for Yan though. He’s got to find a way to stop the rot. If we knew for a fact that they were both coming into this fight at the top of their game, I’d favour Yan in a heartbeat. But with the year layoff and the pressure on him now to get a win, I think it could make this a tougher fight on him than it would be otherwise. And Song’s no joke in his own right. Plus he’s younger and has been 5 rounds twice since Yan last saw action. Cracking fight.

 

Curtis Blaydes vs Jailton Almeida was supposed to headline the São Paulo card in November but Blaydes pulled out and Jailton beat Derrick Lewis instead. Quite happy they’ve rebooked it. Not that I’m expecting a killer fight out of it or anything but it’s definitely an intriguing one and it feels like the test we need to see for Almeida at this point.

Almeida has looked like one of the more promising of the new Heavyweights we’ve seen in a while. Although that fight with Lewis in November was shite, there were some positives to take from it. He got 5 rounds in, he dominated, he didn’t take any damage etc. But man, any buzz there was around him seemed to evaporate overnight after that performance. I’m convinced he must’ve been carrying an injury or something because, on paper, Lewis is tailor-made for Almeida’s style. Yet Almeida repeatedly took him down and did nothing. We’ve seen he’s got good ground and pound and a strong submission game in previous fights, and we’ve seen the Beast wilt against guys like that before. But Almeida just rode out the clock and seemed to forget what he’s good at. He got a lot of criticism for the way he fought but it was one fight. And we can’t forget he still won an absolute landslide. There’ll be better to come. But following that with a fight against Blaydes here, it’s a recipe for another frustrating watch. We haven’t seen Blaydes since he got walloped by Sergei Pavlovich last April. Who knows how he’s gonna look here? But he’s a very interesting matchup for Jailton here. He’s got that power in his hands plus Jailton mightn’t be able to just fall back on his grappling because of Blaydes’ wrestling background. He might be forced to strike more in this one, or maybe Blaydes goes the takedown route and we haven’t seen Almeida on his back. Not expecting a show stealer but it’s definitely a fight I’m looking forward to watching play out.

 

Katlyn Cerminara vs Maycee Barber. Yep. It’s Katlyn Chookagian under a new name. She got married. Although I prefer to think she’s just rebranded. Like when Hermes rebranded to Evri, presumably because of their dogshit reputation as Hermes. That’s what I’m running with here. Chooky’s trying to make us forget all those snoozers by going by an alias. Nah, seriously, good for her. Hopefully the marriage goes swimmingly. But I can’t deny, I could’ve lived happily ever after if she’d decided never to return to MMA. She last fought in October 2022, losing a decision to Manon Fiorot in a fight I must’ve blocked out because I have no recollection of it.

Another one of these please, Maycee. That was Barber’s last fight against Amanda Ribas in June. I went in with no real expectations but they overdelivered. Probably the best fight I’ve seen out of either of them. Barber’s kind of won me over. I felt like she got a bit overhyped early in her career, mostly because she came in young and I think people just assumed her being so young = big time prospect. But she’s doing OK. 13-2 now, on a 5 fight winning streak and her last loss was to current champ Alexa Grasso. Not too shabby. Between her unexpected slugfest with Ribas and the fact she’s had a pop at Pena a few times, yeah she’s grown on me. If she batters Katlyn Evri here then I’ll be a fully fledged fan.

 

Mateusz Gamrot vs Rafael Dos Anjos, again, nuts seeing a fight like this on the prelims. This is another fight that could’ve easily headlined a Fight Night and nobody would complain. RDA just continues to keep taking these tough fights. He turns 40 in October and he’s still going fairly strong. Crazy the longevity he’s had, especially what you look at his track record and the names on his record. Win or lose, he’s never shied away from a hard fight. He’s 32-15 now and has gone 1-2 in his last 3 fights. But even then, he was giving Fiziev a very competitive fight before Fiziev got to him in the last round. And he went a solid 5 rounds in defeat against Vicente Luque in his last fight in August. He’s not peak RDA anymore. The guy who ripped the title off a young Anthony Pettis is gone. But he’s certainly not shot. Gamrot’s a funny one though. Undeniably a skilled fighter but, for whatever reason, he can’t seem to just get a straightforward win in the UFC. His last 3 wins all have asterisks clouding them. A dodgy decision over Arman Tsarukyan, another iffy decision over Jalin Turner and the Fiziev win last time came after Fiziev blew his knee out. Plus there was the loss to Dariush in there. He could really do with a clear cut, controversy free win here. And ideally a finish. But I can’t root against RDA so I hope that doesn’t happen.

 

Pedro Munhoz vs Kyler Phillips is a cool little pairing for the prelims. Didn’t even clock that this had been booked and it obviously got overshadowed by all the other stuff on this card. But I like this. Munhoz has seen better days at this point. He’s still game and willing to fight whoever but results haven’t been going his way for a while now. He’s had his moments over the years, beat Rob Font, chinned Cody Garbrandt, went 1-1 in tremendous underrated battles with Jimmie Rivera, had good competitive fights with Frankie Edgar and even Aljo Sterling. He’s better than his recent record suggests. But facts are, he’s gone 2-5-0-1 in his last 8 fights. Not good. And as a 37 year old Bantamweight, there’s obviously more of his career in the rear view than ahead of him at this point. Phillips is the opposite. He’s 28 years old and probably just entering his prime. He’s an all action type, exciting to watch and I actually think he could be a bit of a darkhorse at 135 if he can stay active and build momentum. He actually had a win over Song Yadong in 2021 that not many seem to remember now. And he’s coming into this fight off a win over Raoni Barcelos in August. It’s another one of those Bantamweight fights that sneaks up with little fanfare but I can see it being quality.

 

Philipe Lins vs Ion Cutelaba is a late addition to a card that really didn’t need it. These two were supposed to tangle on an Apex card back in October but Lins dropped out on the day of the show for some reason I can’t remember, nor be arsed to go back and check. It’s OK but it’s not grabbing me really. Definitely doesn’t help that it’s on a stacked card like this surrounded by so many better fights. Cutelaba might make it watchable but Lins is shite from the little I recall of him. He’s 17-5 and coming off 3 wins but, for whatever reason, he’s just one of those names I see on a card and groan. He’s been in the UFC for a few years now and previously fought in Bellator and PFL but he’s just instantly forgettable for me. Hopefully Cutelaba can drag something worthwhile out of this. He’s not great himself but one thing he’s not is boring. He stopped Tanner Boser in a round last time out, snapping a 3 fight losing skid. Hoping he twats Lins here, and quick preferably. The less he’s on my screen the better.

 

Michel Pereira vs Michal Oleksiejczuk is ace. Another potentially stupid fun fight that I had no idea was booked. Pereira’s had quite a bit of criticism over the years for being too inconsistent and too concerned with getting his flashy shit in. But in fairness to him, he seems to have found a healthy balance over the course of his UFC run. He’s on a 6 fight winning streak now and has had some really good performances in there. He took another step in the right direction in his last fight as well, finally moving up to Middleweight after struggling to hit 170 for years. When you see pictures of him out of camp, it’s unbelievable he ever made 170. He looked every bit of a strong 185er when he bulldozed Andre Petroski in just over a minute in October. And Oleksiejczuk had a similar experience but he dropped down to 185 from 205. He’s never gonna be a world beater in any weight class but 205 was never optimal for him. He’s coming off a first round TKO win over Chidi Njokuani in a wild back and forth slobberknocker. This’ll be mayhem for however long it lasts. 

 

Robelis Despaigne vs Josh Parisian is a fight I initially looked at and thought ‘ugh, low level Heavyweights’ but with just a little bit of homework on this Despaigne chap, I’m intrigued. He’s Cuban and he’s undefeated so far at 4-0 with 4 first round knockouts. And get this, his last 3 fights lasted just 12 seconds, 3 seconds and 4 seconds! The fuck? OK, it’ll have been against scrubs but knocking any man out in 3 seconds is impressive. He’s 35 years old already so no spring chicken. But at Heavyweight, that’s not a disaster. He’s also 6’7” and reportedly has the longest reach in UFC history at 87 inches…

A big boy. If all that isn’t enough to pique your interest, he also won the Olympic bronze medal in Taekwondo at the 2012 Games in London. I’m sold. Obviously very early days and there’s gonna be big questions on his grappling. But who cares? This is a Heavyweight that actually gives us something to talk about. He’s a monster of a man with Olympic credentials and has knocked his last 3 opponents out in a combined 19 seconds! There aren’t enough of these freakish Heavyweights these days. I’m in. So you just know fatty Parisian is gonna spoil the fun before we’ve even got the party hats and jelly and ice cream out. Parisian’s cack. He’s 34 years old, 15-7 and coming off 2 consecutive losses. He’s never beat anyone good and got subbed in a round by Martin Buday last time. So this could tell us a little or a lot about Despaigne. If he sparks Parisian, yeah not overly impressive. Unless he beats his personal best and flattens him in 2 seconds or something. If he loses though, it’s a wrap. He’ll never amount to anything.

 

CJ Vergara vs Assu Almabayev is a fight that will likely get zero attention on a card like this, and understandably so, but it’s yet another solid piece of matchmaking. The depth on this card is insane. This isn’t mind blowing or anything but for the Fight Pass stream? It’s good shit. Vergara’s 12-4-1 and coming off wins over Daniel Lacerda and Vinicius Salvador. If you never saw the Lacerda fight last March get on it. Seriously, one of the best and nuttiest under the radar fights of 2023 by far. Just a round and a half of pure chaos. Almabayev is from Kazakhstan and he’s 18-2 with 12 finishes. Only seen his UFC debut so far but he looked good overwhelming Ode Osbourne and submitting him. He was making big claims in his post-fight interview, predicting he’d be champ by 2025. Doubt it but I like the confidence.

 

Joanne Wood vs Maryna Moroz 2 then. A rematch nobody was asking for but we’ll go with it. I saw something recently that Wood had posted on Instagram about this fight with the caption ‘Last one, best one!’ So I’m taking from that, this might be her last fight. It’s probably time, to be fair. Always liked her but it just hasn’t really panned out for her in the UFC and she’s 38 years old now. Gotta stop sometime. These two first clashed in April 2015 on a Fight Night card in Poland. It was actually on the undercard of the Cro Cop vs Gonzaga rematch. Mirko’s revenge! Wood was coming off TUF at the time and was one of the more liked contestants, Moroz was 5-0 and making her UFC debut.

Lasted 90 seconds and Moroz got her with the armbar. Remember being really deflated by that. At the time I still had some hopes Wood might be able to make a proper run at the title. Just wasn’t to be. She got close to a title shot and at one point she was actually next in line to get a crack at Shevchenko but, as I recall, there was gonna be a delay so she opted to stay active and take another fight. Then she got bashed up by Jennifer Maia and never got back in contention again. Let’s face it, she was never winning the title anyway. She beat Luana Carolina on points in her last fight but lost 3 on the bounce prior to that. Moroz has lost her last 2 and got subbed in a round by Karine Silva in her last fight in August. Hopefully ‘Dr Kneevil’ at least gets to avenge that loss in 2015 and go out on a win.

 

Aaaand breathe…

Edited March 10 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Now, this is a PPV. Look at this run: 

Thurs March 7th - PFL Paris

Fri March 8th - Joshua/Ngannou

Sat March 9th - UFC 299

[wandshogun09]

Never even realised AJ vs Ngannou was on the Friday. Weird. Insane few days for combat sports though yeah.

[Egg Shen]

Yeah, Friday for some reason. Happy with that though.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah probably be a bit too much with it all on the Saturday. 

[Kfogg1991]

Holy hell that's a unbelievable weekend I am too excited for the Francis Vs AJ fight and this card is outrageous. Honestly I would say it's just as packed as UFC 300 even without the main event for the latter which is now being rumoured at being main evented by Connor Vs chandler which makes so much sense but I guess we will see very soon 

[WeeAl]

Great post Wand, no surprise there, but with such a strong card it made for a real fun read. 👍

[wandshogun09]

They’ve updated the bout order. Blaydes vs Almeida demoted to the prelims, Yan vs Song gets promoted to main card opener. As it should be.

[Egg Shen]

MVP kitted out

[Dai]

5 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

They’ve updated the bout order. Blaydes vs Almeida demoted to the prelims, Yan vs Song gets promoted to main card opener. As it should be.

Great write up Wand! Whats going on with Pereira? A fairly well known name, on a 6 fight win streak, and slumming it on the early prelims when there wont be anyone in the building? Has he pissed off Uncle Dana?

[Egg Shen]

Probably just an indication of how strong the card is. That's a great fight too.

[Bruce85]

5 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

They’ve updated the bout order. Blaydes vs Almeida demoted to the prelims, Yan vs Song gets promoted to main card opener. As it should be.

A bit surprised about that as I’ve seen Aspinall calling for the winner of that fight. The UFC clearly aren’t giving him Jones or Stipe so you think they might try and build up that fight

[wandshogun09]

I guess with it being on TV rather than PPV it’s gonna reach more eyeballs. Not that I think they had that in mind when they changed the bout order. Aspinall’s on about a card in Manchester in the summer I think so the winner of this could still be an option if they’re not too banged up. 

[David]

Seeing this main event just reminds me of how fucking stupid Aljamain was for taking that O'Malley fight when he did. Barely three months removed from a five-round battle with Cejudo, and he gets pressured by the UFC to step in again? 

He has said more than once that it actually takes him over two months to get down to 135lbs, and I know people were saying, "Well, he was already there, so that should make it easier," but it doesn't. He weighed in at 135lbs, but he was up by a fair bit come fight night, and then he would have had to go from that fight with Cejudo straight into another weight-management program and a training camp.

Absolute fucking madness. 

On top of that, he must have known that this was his only run. He was absolutely never getting a rematch or another fight for that strap. Not a fucking chance.

So yeah, that pissed me off. Meanwhile, O'Malley gets to chill for six months, then call his own fight against someone who's ranked 6th or whatever, completely ignoring the top contenders because "they don't make business sense."

What the fuck does he know about what makes good business? He's another one of these fucking inbred-looking goons who think because he can throw hands that he's a businessman? 

I hope Chito sparks him good and proper. And if he doesn't, I hope he's actually forced to fight Merab. I'd love to see his narrow backside get rag-dolled all over the cage.

[wandshogun09]

1 hour ago, David said:

I'd love to see his narrow backside get rag-dolled