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

[Bruce85]

That show felt a bit flat to me, not sure if it was because of all the hype but don’t felt it live up to expectations. Main card was decent but just felt the fights didn’t really catch fire with the exception of Dustin vs BSD.

The O’Mally fight felt very one side but got knows how Vera ate the knee, it looked right on the money!

[David]

Vera was 4-1 coming into the fight last night, with those victories coming against a retiring Frankie Edgar, Rob Font, Dominick Cruz and Pedro Munhoz. He lost to the only real top contender he faced in that timeframe in Cory Sandhagen. 

Basically, Vera is ranked 5th in the division for a reason. It was a showcase fight for O'Malley, nothing more.

[sirdobbo89]

I saw absolutely zero buildup to this card so was going in blind. When you open up the main card on a morning and see the running time at almost 3 and a half hours, you know you're going to see some decisions.

The show wasn't the greatest and as I watched Saint-Denis absolutely manhandle Poirier in the first round I thought I was seeing another young lion run over an established legend of the game. Poirier's corner told him to stop pissing about with the guillotine, second round comes and he goes for a bloody guillotine and he's on his back again. I assumed it was a matter of time for our Dustin, only for him to absolutely STARCH Saint-Denis.

Unbelievable considering how dominant Saint-Denis looked in the first 6-7 minutes or whatever it was. Had me shouting at the telly and cheering did that, lovely moment. Not even a huge Dustin fan but forever a fan of watching the old guard getting it done and fair play to him, he was fighting a young bloke on a tear and he came out in top. Moment of the whole show for me.

Can't remember a lot else apart from it was lovely to see Joanne Wood leave on a win, and will be interesting seeing Robelis Despaigne moving forward, bloke KO'ed his opponent while running backwards, looks about 9 foot tall an all.

[WeeAl]

Serpico Vera had nothing for O'Malley in the end. One man has improved quite a bit since their first fight and the other is much the same fighter as he was then. Granite tough, but Vera got a bit of a pasting here. Broken orbital or something maybe? That cheek bone was a mess at the end. I'd rather see O'Malley v Merab and Topuria v Holloway next if I'm honest. 135 is way too deep to be putting on ice because O'Malley fancies dicking about. 

Cool Dusty P does it again. Back against the wall, looking like it was all going to hell in a hand basket, and he finds that extra gear that so few have. Incredible. You could see the weight fall off his shoulders in the seconds after the ref stepped in. 35 now, been in war after war, but Dustin told us there that he's a long way from done. I dunno what's happening next in this division - Islam not being booked against Gaethje threw everything up in the air - but I'm well on for Dustin against the winner of Oliveira/Tsarukyan or a third encounter with Gaethje. Benoit Saint-Denis will be back. He's only getting started. I could see him going on another smashing streak right after this. He gave Poirier as rough a night as those other guys at the sharp end of the division. The exciting fights for BSD next are endless. 

MVP Vs Holland was a real damp squib I thought, but then I wasn't expecting much different. Did nothing for me this one. 

Jack Della Maddelena showed improvement again against Gilbert Burns. Another changing of the guard type fight. It's no easy thing to stop Gilbert, and I thought this should have been stopped earlier than it was too. Calling out Shavkat as well. The balls on him. He's Jackie flat nose for a reason. 

Petr Tan displayed how difficult this division is against Song. For a man like Yan to have been on the skid that he was, when he showed here that he hadn't been slipping - the depth is incredible. Further proof as well to how difficult Merab is for anyone to handle. Yan looked sharp as a tack here. Yan Vs Figgy Smalls please. 

Jailton Almeida learned you have to make some attempts, once in a while, to actually win the fight. That first round, sure he didn't give Blaydes an inch, but fuck me. I dunno if he threw more than three strikes or ever tried to work for a sub. That KO by Blaydes was a harsh lesson for him - with these big boys, don't be fucking about. When you have someone where you want them, at least attempt to put an end to it. 

I kept to my promise from a few years ago - I forego all Kaitlyn Chookagian fights these days. 

This win over RDA is definitely one of Gamrot's better wins. So much of his record in the UFC I feel has a bit of an asterisk beside it. He's at a lofty ranking in the division with a fair bit of fairy dust. He needed something like this, where there was really no debate about it when it was over. Despite that, RDA really hurt him early, but couldn't capitalise on it. There's a bit of work for Gamrot to do yet I feel though, If he was to fight Islam, Oliveira, Gaethje, Poirier and Tsarukyan again, I don't know that he would be coming out of that better than 2-3. Which is no bloody position to be negative about, but that's the best I think it would be. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't beat any of them. He shouldn't have got the decision against Tsarukyan. He has very good wrestling but I dunno if he lives with those other men unless he progresses that wrestling into something with a serious finishing threat at the end of it. Over five rounds - the tippy top Lightweights usually find a way to get to you if you don't do so first. 

Phillips Vs Munhoz was a tonne of fun opening up the TV prelims. Phillips looked fantastic here. A litmus test for him that he passed with flying colours. He's in with all the Gremlins now at this point, but you know what? I think he'll handle it. Any amount of fun fights from here out for him. Rob Front or Jonathan Martinez would be bags of craic. 

Edited March 11 by WeeAl

[Kfogg1991]

I'm really surprised too read you guys saying you found it flat, I completely disagree and had the opposite. I think it set the bar for 300.

The main card really showed a great varieties, the debut of MVP really delivered, Dustin going for a new drinking game with take a shot every gueatine, the main event holy fuck how chito didn't get rocked is inhuman, that knee and the fucking sound of It was brutal.

The only fight that bored us was the women's fight apart from that it was a truly great night 

[Bus Surfer]

I've always been kind of indifferent on Curtis Blaydes, but he completed his face turn for me on Saturday. Almeida is without doubt a very talented grappler, but he is no fun to watch at all. Am I correct in thinking he's potentially the only person to be threatened with being stood up from mount due to complete inactivity when he fought Lewis a few months back? 

Show was good overall but yeah, I think I'd built it up a bit more in my mind. Main and Co main were both entertaining in their own ways. Really hope Merab gets his shot next and with Gaethje and Max booked for next month, Dustin could find himself walking into a title shot. 

Edited March 11 by Bus Surfer

[WeeAl]

Forgot to mention earlier, that takedown from Petr Yan in, I think, the 2nd round? That was a thing of beauty. 

[wandshogun09]

The Suga Show has been recommissioned for another series then.

One way traffic this. Chito’s tough as shit but he got battered here the whole 5 rounds. I like Chito but, after rewatching the first fight the other day, I got the feeling the first fight was heading towards looking something like this had O’Malley not got injured. I think he’s just a bad matchup for him and I think he knew it, which is why he campaigned for this rather than defend against the likes of Merab or Sandhagen. Chito’s a fun fighter but he’s always had a tendency to let big chunks of rounds slip by just waiting for that one opening to do his damage. O’Malley did a good job here of making sure those openings just never came. Chito landed some good shots here and there but on the whole he just never did enough and that allowed O’Malley to just get comfortable and let his strikes flow. How Chito ate this knee, I don’t know…

The sound it made was disgusting as well. Chito just got picked apart for 25 minutes and wasn’t really equipped to do much back. Like O’Malley or not, and I don’t, it was a strong performance. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Chito beat up as much as he was in this fight.

BUT…it’s gotta be Merab next. I don’t wanna hear anything else. It’s clear O’Malley doesn’t want that but fuck that. I’ve always believed a champion shouldn’t really get to decide who’s next. A champion should defend against whoever the next in line is. And Merab’s that guy right now. Why he wants to get ironed out by Topuria, I don’t know. But even though I think both Merab and Topuria batter him, I guess he’d rather the Topuria fight because it’s got the ready made excuse of ‘well I went up in weight’. Whereas Merab ragdolling him in his own division would be harder to live with. I’ve got very little interest in O’Malley vs Topuria right now though. I’m over this division hopping shite the champs all wanna do now. Sounds like Topuria vs Volk 2 is next at 145 anyway. If not that then Topuria vs Holloway would be class. O’Malley should be defending against Merab, end of.

Also sick of hearing about how much of a ‘star’ O’Malley is. I’m not denying he’s popular and has a fanbase. Fine. But just the fact that O’Malley and the UFC have to keep telling us he’s a star, it’s all a bit forced. The funny hair colours and pink shorts and all that feels like overcompensating because when you actually listen to him talk, there’s not much substance to it. The comparisons to Conor McGregor don’t help either. Anyone who was actually a MMA fan at the time of McGregor’s rise knows this O’Malley thing doesn’t compare. Fuck, this fight week alone it felt like Chito was actually the more popular of the two to me. I don’t know, something about it all just feels a bit desperate with O’Malley. Very good fighter and if walking around looking like a bag of Haribo is working for him then great. But I’m not really buying him as some massive star. Maybe he will be in time.

For what seems like the millionth time in his career, Dustin Poirier stole the show. What an absolute badass. I ended up picking Poirier to win after rewatching some of Benoit Saint Denis other fights before 299 over the weekend. As exciting as he is to watch, I forgot how wild and hittable he was and I fancied Dustin to catch him at some point. I also felt like too many people were counting Dustin out, and it felt like it was mostly because of the loss to Gaethje last time. But it was still a fight I was unsure of. It was always gonna be a dogfight. Benoit was giving Poirier hell in that first round and you could tell who Rogan was rooting for. He was almost cheerleading BSD at times and kept talking about Poirier getting tired and how Saint Denis was “forcing him into a war”. What? Poirier doesn’t do anything but wars. Saint Denis didn’t need to “force” him.

Yep. Poirier just outlasted him. Took everything BSD could throw at him for a round, then chinned him in the next round. Lovely stuff. Saw Poirier talking about it on Helwani’s show today and he said that when he went over to the cage after the KO he was saying to Dana “You want me to fight these young motherfuckers? This is what happens” 🤣 seems like there were some issues with Poirier and his management vs Dana and the UFC behind the scenes going into this one. There was that whole thing with the fight getting cancelled then it was suddenly back on and then one of the first things Dustin does after the knockout is to go and rub Dana’s nose in it? With all that and then the way company man and Dana’s boy Rogan kept banging on and sucking Saint Denis off and talking about Poirier being tired and stuff, it definitely had a feel to me like the UFC thought they were ‘feeding’ Dustin to BSD here and using him as a stepping stone. Poirier wasn’t having it. He really needs to lay off them guillotine attempts though! I don’t think I’ve ever seen him lock one in successfully in a fight. It’s becoming his version of when Ted DiBiase would try that fist drop from the middle rope and he missed it every single time.

23 hours ago, sirdobbo89 said:

Poirier's corner told him to stop pissing about with the guillotine, second round comes and he goes for a bloody guillotine and he's on his back again. 

Dustin actually posted this on Twitter!

11 hours ago, WeeAl said:

I'm well on for Dustin against the winner of Oliveira/Tsarukyan or a third encounter with Gaethje.

I could swear that when Dana announced that Oliveira vs Tsarukyan fight he said the winner would challenge Islam Makhachev for the gold later in the year. Obviously plans can always change and especially when it comes from Dana’s mouth. But they might not wanna have Dustin face those guys. Anything could happen. I can see a scenario where the winner of Oliveira vs Tsarukyan is hurt and Dustin swoops in and goes straight to a title fight with Makhachev. I could see Poirier vs Gaethje 3, although it seems a bit soon for that. And I could see McGregor fucking Michael Chandler over and choosing to do a 4th fight with Poirier instead. There’s a bunch of ways it can go. I’d like to see Saint Denis against Fiziev if he’s gonna be healthy soon. Or Dan Hooker maybe.

Last thing on Poirier, I loved his post-fight interview talking about why he accepted the fight…

“I took this fight because he finished his last 5 opponents. He wasn’t a name that the world really knows, he’s on his way up, but he finished his last 5 opponents and he’s dangerous. Every win on his professional career he’s finished. And he has a ‘never say die’ attitude. When I saw that and I watched some of his fights, he fought one of my friends, I said I’ve gotta take this fight because I honour this game that we do. Eddie Alvarez gave me my shot in Dallas, when he was a former champ and I was on my way up. So you gotta pay it back. Hold your position or lose it man, that’s the nature of the beast, that’s what we do.” - Dustin Poirier

Refreshing to hear a top name talk like that. The risks outweighed the rewards for him in this fight but he went in there and did a job on BSD regardless.

Thought MVP vs Holland was arse but it always felt like a coin flip to me whether it would end up being some mad video game fight or what we got. So I wasn’t surprised it went how it did. It’s the way MVP rolls. He’s in dull fights just as much as he creates highlight reels. If not more. Seems more bothered about his walkouts than anything. Seen mixed reactions to this fight since Saturday night, with some going on like it was great. I don’t get it myself. It wasn’t MVP’s worst fight, we’ve seen much worse, but it wasn’t much good either. And let’s face it, this was one of the more favourable matchups they could’ve given MVP for his debut. Doesn’t exactly bode well for his future. Guessing he’ll be on that UK show next. No clue who against. The obvious opponent has always been Wonderboy but MVP himself has said he’s not keen on that as they’re too similar and he thinks it’d be a boring fight. I think that’s spot on, to be honest.

Jack Della Maddalena passed his toughest test to date but Burns made him earn it. Burns was up 2-0 on 2 of the judges scorecards going into that last round and, although Maddalena was competitive throughout and did show flashes of real quality in the striking and some solid defensive grappling, by the time the third round was getting underway I definitely felt like he needed a finish to win the fight. He found it.

The gif really doesn’t do it justice. First of all, that sequence that started it all where he escaped back to his feet and hit that knee was beautiful. Then the follow up elbows and punches on the ground were just brutal. Way worse than the gif makes it look. Like always, I’ve seen twats calling this a lucky finish but it’s complete shite. He was always in the fight, even 0-2 down on the scorecards and when he was in bad positions, he never just accepted it. He was always trying to make something happen and when the opportunity came, he pounced all over it. If anything, I think this was a very encouraging performance from him. Calling out Shavkat was ballsy as well. I’d love to see that fight. Only negative I can find on that fight is it eliminates one of them from the title race but I wouldn’t be against seeing it. Fuck it.

I enjoyed the Petr Yan vs Song Yadong fight. It’s a shame we never got 5 rounds of it because I think an extra 2 rounds might well have tipped it from ‘very good’ into ‘great’ territory. Yan got off to a slow start like he’s been known to do in the past and Song had a strong opening round. After that first round I really thought Yan was heading for yet another loss. But he came out with more urgency and got back into the fight well in the second. I had him winning that and the last round. I think it could’ve been a better fight, it never quite caught fire like I thought it would. But I think a lot of that might’ve been down to Yan being inactive so long plus the pressure to snap that losing streak. Now he’s got that first win back out of the way, I think there’ll be more great fights to come.

Looking at the rankings, Yan’s already fought all the guys above him and I can’t see him rematching any of them just yet. So I think he’s gonna have to fight down in rank next. I’d be up for him facing the winner of Figgy vs Garbrandt myself. That’s an exciting fight either way. And I’d do Song vs Chito 2 next. The first fight is one that’s been debated and Chito’s always claimed he was robbed. With both coming off losses here, now seems as good a time as any to run it back.

Like others, I found myself quite pleased to see Curtis Blaydes get the win over Jailton Almeida. Blaydes has grown on me a bit in recent years and, while I had high hopes for Jailton initially, that fight against Derrick Lewis was rotten. This was always a really intriguing test for him because of Blaydes’ wrestling. He did well in the first round but more from a control standpoint than actually inflicting damage. It was impressive he was able to keep taking Blaydes down and control him but, because that’s all he did, Blaydes really took no punishment. By the end of that first round it kind of felt like Jailton could’ve done that all night. But it was such a one note approach and almost as soon as the second round started…

Blaydes knew exactly what he was gonna do, anticipated it and made him pay the price. Blaydes looked so bored the whole time Almeida was ragging him about in the first round, he looked genuinely pissed off as he just unloaded with all those hammerfists at the end 🤣 don’t know what the fuck Rogan was watching or why he was insisting an uppercut happened when the replays clearly showed it didn’t. Good use of Blaydes mic time in the post-fight interview though. I liked him calling out Aspinall. We all know it’s bollocks and that Aspinall should be fighting Jon Jones next but what can you do? With that not happening, Aspinall vs Blaydes 2 makes sense to me. Unfinished business.

Skimmed through the Maycee Barber vs Katlyn Cerminara fight. I didn’t completely skip it because Barber’s been alright to watch in recent fights and I thought she might be able to drag something decent out of this. But it didn’t look much good from what I saw. Like I said the other day, I feel really bad for Katlyn after hearing what she’s gone through lately. But even with that said, I’ve just got no desire to sit through her fights. For that reason I was happy to see Barber get the win at least. She’s climbing the rankings now. Jessica Andrade is fighting Marina Rodriguez at UFC 300, maybe give Barber the winner of that?

Yeah, Gamrot got his cleanest high level win here over RDA. I find him so frustrating to watch though. Clearly he’s got skills, his wrestling is relentless and he’s obviously really well conditioned. But like Al said above, he gets opponents down but there doesn’t seem to be any serious consequences to it. He was finishing fights early in his UFC run but as he’s gone up in levels and he’s facing tougher guys, he definitely seems to lack that finishing ability. RDA has clearly lost a few steps but it was nice to hear the commentators give him some praise for his longevity. The man’s granite. He had Gamrot hurt in that first round as well. Got my hopes up but it wasn’t to be. Not a clue who Gamrot fights now. The guys above him in the rankings, you’ve got Chandler still waiting on McGregor, Gaethje’s tied up with Holloway and Poirier’s his teammate at ATT so I’m not sure if they’d even fight each other. And again, I’m sure Dana said the winner of Oliveira vs Tsarukyan is getting the shot at Makhachev so that’s out. Gamrot’s best bet might be to go after the loser of one of those big fights. He’s definitely not gonna get the title shot next though.

Thought Kyler Phillips looked phenomenal in his fight. Granted, Pedro Munhoz is getting long in the tooth now and on the home stretch of his career, but I thought Phillips put on a bit of a clinic here. All that was missing was a finish but that’s probably more to do with Munhoz being crazy durable than anything else. I’ve liked what I’ve seen of Phillips in some of his previous fights but his progress had stalled a bit. This win should earn him a spot in the rankings though and I thought it was probably his overall best performance so far in the UFC. So many fun fights to make with him in the Top 15 at Bantamweight. Love the idea of a fight with Font or Martinez like WeeAl mentioned there.

Lins vs Cutelaba was better than I expected. Think I said in the opening post that Lins does nothing for me but he was fine here. Whether it was Cutelaba being such a nutcase forcing Lins to scrap or what, I quite enjoyed it as a prelim filler brawl. In fairness to Lins as well, I didn’t realise that all his previous UFC fights were either in the Apex or empty venues during COVID. Maybe actually getting to fight in front of a crowd gave him a boost.

Michel Pereira pissing straight through Oleksiejczuk in about a minute was a buzz. Although this was a darkhorse fight for me on the undercard and I was hoping it’d last a bit longer than it did. Pereira crushed him though. Those body kicks that set up the finishing choke were horrible. Love watching Pereira. Mad sod. I know he’s got his detractors and I’m not claiming he’ll ever make a dent in the title mix. But man, he’s entertaining to watch. He’s looking a beast since moving up to 185 as well. Should’ve sacked to the cut to 170 off years back.

Robelis Despaigne couldn’t have had a more impactful and memorable UFC debut.

18 bastard seconds! Yeah it was only Josh Parisian he squashed but, still, it was quite a first impression on the big stage. Obviously there’s a ton of questions to be answered and at 35 and coming from a purely striking background, his ceiling mightn’t be very high. But it’s a new Heavyweight that stands out and is actually worth talking about. We haven’t had many of them come along in recent years. At the very least, hopefully he’ll squash a few more of these fat jobbers that have been stinking up the division for years. If he was younger I’d say just feed him these no hopers for a while. But given his age and the lack of depth at Heavyweight, I reckon they’ll try to fast track him and that could backfire. Still, regardless of the opposition, the fact his last 4 fights have lasted a combined 37 seconds is insane!

Was chuffed to see Joanne Wood go out on a win. Turned out to be a decent fight as well. Not a barnburner but decent and Wood really turned it up in that last round. That late onslaught is what won her the fight in the end.

I was really hoping she’d get the finish when this landed but Moroz just about survived it. Still, it was nice to see Wood go out on a positive note. I get the feeling her retirement will stick as well. Seems like she’s more focused on family now. You could see it in her post-fight interview, Rogan asked her about the fight and she immediately just started talking about being happy her step son was in attendance.

Yeah, this card didn’t quite live up to the potential it had. I enjoyed it mostly though. It just looked like a Best Card Of The Year type thing on paper and it fell a bit short of those expectations. Wasn’t bad though and it definitely had a few real standout moments.

Onto 300!
 

Edited March 11 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

9 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

But just the fact that O’Malley and the UFC have to keep telling us he’s a star, it’s all a bit forced. The funny hair colours and pink shorts and all that feels like overcompensating because when you actually listen to him talk, there’s not much substance to it.

 

 

Agree 100% its the one thing that's abit off about O'Malley. The whole visual persona doesn't seem to be who the guy actually is. Just seems like a pretty level headed nerdy guy playing dressup. 

 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah he’s what you’d get if Millhouse cosplayed as Krusty The Clown. 

Edited March 12 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Spot on

[Egg Shen]

Dustin Poirier is now selling these

[Kfogg1991]

I cannot agree and have been saying the same for over a year now. They need to flat out stop trying to push and create a new Conor McGregor because it isn't going to happen. Conor happened because of the right time and shit. Create new star's we all love that and want them but you start talking about them being the next Conor or making those companions and instantly make so much push back and shit for the fighter. 

Conor became so big because it happened organically and naturally you fail instantly when you are pushing someone down our throats and telling us it's what we want and need. 

[wandshogun09]

I like Chito and I dislike O’Malley but this is fucking weak from Chito and Parillo.

”With no clock? Chito goes to jail for murder”. Based on fucking what exactly? 🤣 I kind of get the delusion from Chito because he’s the guy in there and I guess some fighters almost have to lie to themselves in these situations. But Parillo as the coach should be the level headed one talking sense yet all he’s got is his ‘well if this was a street fight…’ shite as a coping mechanism. 

[David]

It looks to me like Parillo, in particular, is trying to push the "we're 1-1 now, let's get that rubber match down!" schtick. It likely won't work, as Vera wasn't really deserving of a title match to begin with, but they have to try. And the whole "Chito can't be stopped" is the only angle they have, I guess?

Anyway, surely it's time for Merab, right? Has to be.