UFC Vegas: Allen vs Curtis 2 - Apr 6 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

You knew we wouldn’t stray from the Apex for too long. Last stop before UFC 300!

ESPN MAIN CARD
Brendan Allen vs Chris Curtis 

Alexander Hernandez vs Damon Jackson

Morgan Charriere vs Chepe Mariscal

Ignacio Bahamondes vs Christos Giagos

Trevor Peek vs Charlie Campbell  

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Court McGee vs Alex Morono 

Lukasz Brzeski vs Valter Walker

Norma Dumont vs Germaine De Randamie

Pedro Falcao vs Victor Hugo

Jean Matsumoto vs Dan Argueta

Cesar Almeida vs Dylan Budka  

Melissa Mullins vs Nora Cornolle  

 

Not the best and I know you’re all as sick of the Apex as me but like most of these cards, there is some stuff that should be worth checking in for on the Sunday morning. It’ll do to pass a week before UFC 300 anyway.

 

Brendan Allen vs Chris Curtis 2 is main eventing this one. The rematch. It was originally supposed to be Allen against Marvin Vettori but Vettori pulled out a few weeks out. In steps Curtis. Not the strongest main event but not a bad substitute. Completely forgot these two fought before, to be honest.

It went down in December 2021 on a Fight Night headlined by Jose Aldo vs Rob Font. And funnily enough, Curtis stepped in for that one on short notice as well! It wasn’t ideal circumstances for either man really, Allen had two opponents drop out before finally getting in the cage with Curtis. I can’t remember much of the fight but Curtis wound up getting a TKO stoppage in the second round.

Curtis has had a patchy run of results since these two first fought. He’s gone 3-2-0-1 in his last 6 fights. He won a split decision over Marc-Andre Barriault in his last fight at UFC 297 in January. Can’t remember a lot about that one. Before that him and Nassourdine Imavov went to a No Contest due to a clash of heads. Gotta say fair play to him for jumping in here on short notice. He’s already beat and finished Allen so in that sense he doesn’t have a ton to gain from this. But looking at it from a rankings perspective, Allen has got himself into a good spot now and is ranked #6 at Middleweight currently. So I guess it’s worth the gamble for Curtis. And it’s a fight he knows he can win because he’s done it before.

Brendan Allen hasn’t lost since that first Curtis fight. He’s won his last 6 fights in a row now, and finished 5 of them by submission. I’m still not 100% convinced or sure where his ceiling is, I don’t see him troubling the very top guys at 185, but he’s easily in the best form of his career right now. I remember saying a while back that I felt like he was a bit of a darkhorse at 185 but I never really expected him to put it all together and string the wins together like he has recently. His lack of consistency was what was holding him back. But he’s doing good at the moment. He’s coming off a submission win over Paul Craig in their main event back in November. Really strong performance from him that was. Before that he’d submitted Bruno Silva and Andre Muniz. Even going back to his UFC debut in 2019, he subbed Kevin Holland. He’s been dangerous for some time but, I don’t know, I still don’t see him going much higher than he is right now. He’s after redemption here.

Good fight. Not sure what to expect really and the late switch with Curtis stepping in for Vettori makes it a bit more interesting. Going off both guys recent form, you’d fancy Allen to get the win and even the score here. But Curtis is kind of coming in with the pressure off because of the late notice. If he wins he’s 2-0 over Allen and shoots up the rankings. If he loses, well he took it on short notice. On the flipside, Allen’s gone from fighting a higher ranked Vettori to a lower ranked Curtis, so it doesn’t do anything for him rankings-wise. It’s gonna be more of a step sideways than forwards. But no doubt he’ll be motivated to avenge that loss in 2021. And a win just adds to his streak and momentum. Even though it won’t do much for his rank, it still strengthens his case in the title mix if he can kind of cancel out his most recent defeat. I quite like this fight, to be fair.

 

Alexander Hernandez vs Damon Jackson should be decent at worst and has the potential to be really fun. I’ve made no secret I don’t like Hernandez. Just never taken to him at all. But I don’t recall ever watching a fight of his and being bored. He’s never gonna amount to much now. He’s 14-7 and 1-3 in his last 4. And at 31, it’s not like he’s some young wet behind the ears prospect who’s got loads of time and room to develop. He is what he is at this point in his career. But he’s a weird one. He’s had his moments. Mad to look back at his record and remember he actually knocked out Beneil Dariush in 42 seconds! That was 2018 though and it seems his career already peaked then. He did beat Jim Miller last year as well though, and that’s been Miller’s only loss during his late Indian Summer win streak. Like I said, he has his moments. I’ll be rooting for Jackson though. He’s grown on me a bit over time. He’s 35 years old and 22-6-1-1. He’s going nowhere but he always comes to scrap and he’s another one who, win or lose, I don’t recall ever being bored by. He’s coming off back-to-back losses here so I’d like to see him snap that losing skid and if he can do it at Hernandez’s expense, even better.

 

Morgan Charriere vs Chepe Mariscal is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** this time. Wasn’t exactly spoiled for choice on this card but this one stands out to me. From the little I’ve seen and know about both, I have pretty high hopes for this fight.

Morgan ‘The Last Pirate’ Charriere is French, 28 years old and has a record of 19-9-1 with 14 wins inside the distance. He made his Octagon debut on the Paris card in September and he absolutely bossed it, finishing Manolo Zecchini with nasty body kicks in the first round. It was pretty much the perfect UFC debut, especially in front of a hot home crowd. Not sure where his ceiling is and he’s obviously had a bunch of losses already. But on that night at least, he looked the business. I remember @Egg Shen mentioning before that fight that Charriere is apparently a bit of a big deal in France and has a bit of that influencer thing going on. His fanbase is only gonna keep growing if he can keep putting in performances like that on the big stage. He previously fought in Cage Warriors and briefly held their Featherweight title. Looking back over his record, he went 5 rounds with Soren Bak in 2019 and lost a majority decision. Bak previously beat Paddy Pimblett and is still the last man to officially beat Paddy, although we all know Jared Gordon got shafted. Charriere also submitted current fellow French UFC fighter William Gomis back in 2016. He’s up against Chepe Mariscal here…

Yeah, Chepe’s doing alright in life, isn’t he? He fights out of Elevation Fight Team, he’s 31 years old and has a record of 15-6-0-1 with 10 of his wins not requiring judges. He fought in Combate Global and LFA before making his UFC debut in June last year. And he had an absolutely batshit battle with Trevor Peek. If you’re at a loose end and fancy watching a goofy slugfest, you’ll enjoy that one. It was more Peek making it ugly, Chepe was clearly the better technically of the two and he won the decision. Fun one though. He followed that up with a win over Jack Jenkins at UFC 293 in September due to an arm injury. It wasn’t as wild as the Peek fight but it was exciting while it lasted. Looking forward to this one. I realise I’m probably jinxing it now but even just based on the little I’ve seen of both, I can’t see this not delivering.

 

Ignacio Bahamondes vs Christos Giagos could be fun. I quickly became a bit of a fan of Bahamondes early in his UFC run. Not that I expect him to necessarily rise to the top of the rankings or anything but he’s been exciting to watch pretty much from the get-go in his UFC stint. He lost by split decision against John Makdessi in a cracking fight in his debut then rebounded in his next fight with this…

Beautiful! Not quite as breathtaking as Edson Barboza’s KO of Terry Etim but shades of it. He’s from Chile, 26 years old and 14-5 with 10 finishes. He’s coming off a decision loss against Ludovit Klein in August so I’m hoping he can get back to winning ways here. Giagos is usually down for a scrap too so I could see this being a belter actually. He’s 20-11, has lost 3 of his last 4 and was stopped in those 3 losses. He’s the type of opponent that Bahamondes really needs to be beating and I think he will, but it should be good fun while it lasts.

 

Trevor Peek vs Charlie Campbell might be worth a look. Peek is really not very good but he’s one of them mad throwback fighters who just swings like a caveman. Seriously, he looks like he’s been plucked straight from a UFC undercard in 2002. If you never saw his UFC debut against Chepe Mariscal and you fancy watching a silly, untechnical slobberknocker then, yeah, I’m recommending it again, twice in the same thread! It’s not pretty but it’s highly entertaining. He came back in October and took a decision off Mohammad Yahya on the UFC 294 prelims, which I think I might’ve missed actually. He’s 9-1-0-1 now with 8 knockouts. He’s not gonna go far but matched up right there’s definitely fun to be had with him. He could be very useful in livening up these Apex cards actually. He’s up against this fella…

Roadwarrior Charlie here. ‘The Cannibal’. He’s 28 years old and a Longo-Weidman fighter out of New York. He’s got a record of 8-2 with 6 by KO/TKO. He got knocked out by Chris Duncan on DWCS in 2022 but came back with a first round KO of his own on a Cage Fury card and then made his UFC debut back in September and stopped Alex Reyes in a round. Seen very limited footage of both but from what I have seen and looking at their records, this feels like it has the recipe for a proper wild scrap.

 

Court McGee vs Alex Morono might be alright but I’m not really feeling it. I think McGee is about ready to finish up. He turns 40 at the end of this year and he’s been looking like he’s on borrowed time in his last couple of fights. He’s never been a contender but he was always kind of known for being tough and durable. In his first 30 or so fights, he only ever got finished once. Contrast that with now and he’s just been knocked out in the first round in back-to-back fights. Not looking good. Morono’s nothing special but, despite him looking like the blank CAF template on the video games, he can scrap a bit. He took a bit of a battering off Joaquin Buckley in his last fight and he’s been stopped a few times himself over the years. He’s got wins over Tim Means, Matthew Semelsberger and a washed up Donald Cerrone. That’s about as good as it’s got for him. I think this is a pretty fair matchup actually for where both guys are at in their careers. But if Court gets stopped again here, man, it’s probably time to do something else.

 

Lukasz Brzeski vs Valter Walker has my interest. If you didn’t know, Valter Walker is the younger brother of Johnny Walker. Although in that pic above, he looks more like Rob Van Dam to me 🤣

I emphasise ‘younger brother’ because I definitely can’t say ‘little brother’. Big Valter is 6’6” and most likely cuts to make 265lbs. He’s only 26 years old and he’s undefeated at 11-0 with 7 finishes. He actually went into the 4th round in his last fight in Titan FC last June, and got the stoppage. I think the UFC signed him after that and I remember he was originally supposed to debut against Jake Collier sometime last year but it got delayed. Now he’s facing Poland’s Brzeski who’s 8-4-1-1 and coming off 3 straight losses and got brutally knocked out in his last fight. Think it’s clear they’re trying to set Walker up with a bit of a showcase for his debut but I’m fine with that as his intro to the big stage. Quite looking forward to seeing Walker, to be honest. Even if he turns out to be not that good, at least he might bring some of that Walker weirdness to the Heavyweight division.

 

Norma Dumont vs Germaine De Randamie yeah this is probably gonna be arse. In good and bad ways. The bad - it’s womens Bantamweight. Pretty much enough said, right? The division has gradually been getting worse and worse over the last few years and Amanda Nunes retiring has basically killed it dead. The good - 

Sandra Buttock is back! Sir Mix-A-Lot’s favourite fighter. I cannot lie and you other brothers can’t deny. Yeah, that’s where the positives end though sadly. Dumont’s fights are generally awful to watch. Although saying that, her making Chelsea Chandler literally sprint away from her in her last fight in July was one of the funniest mid-fight moments in recent memory. To be fair, if there’s any intrigue at all to this, it’s to see how De Randamie looks in her Octagon return. It’s been a while. The fact she’s in the Reebok kit in the pic above tells you how long she’s been gone. She turns 40 just weeks after this fight and she’s been inactive since October 2020 because she had a baby but that’s a long old layoff in your late 30s. I didn’t think she’d be back, to be honest. And she did leave us on a positive note…

That was her last fight. She submitted annoying gobshite Julianna Pena in the third round. Probably the most hilarious loss of Pena’s one hit wonder career. That was as pure a striker vs grappler matchup as you were getting in 2020 and Pena was the grappler. Yet she got subbed by a Dutch Kickboxer who’d never submitted anyone before 🤣 in fairness to GDR, she hasn’t had a bad career. It looks better in hindsight really. Obviously the bulk of her combat sports career was spent in Kickboxing, where she went 46-0 apparently. In MMA she’s 10-4 but has wins over former champs Pena and Holly Holm and also has a win over current champ Raquel Pennington. I remember her having moments in the rematch with Nunes in 2019 as well, despite losing clearly on the scorecards. And of course, it’s forgotten now but she briefly held UFC gold when she became the first womens 145 champ, before being stripped of it for turning down a fight with Cyborg. Can’t see her doing much now at 40 and this fight is most likely gonna be shite but I’m curious to see how she looks against Norma Dumptruck.

 

Pedro Falcao vs Victor Hugo. I don’t know. This was originally gonna be Hugo against Alateng Heili, which I only had slightly more idea on. Now Heili is out, not a clue. Never seen either fight before. Falcao’s stepping in on just a few days notice, he’s 31 years old, fights out of the once great Nova Uniao camp in Brazil and he’s 16-3 with 11 finishes. He’s won his last 5 fights and finished 4 of them. Hugo’s also 31 and has a record of 24-4 with 17 finishes. He’s coming into his UFC debut on a 13 fight winning streak and a kneebar finish on DWCS in October. Sherdog has his nickname listed as just ‘Striker’ yet most of his finishes have been by submission. Brazilian logic for you 😂 Reminds me of when a young Vitor Belfort used to iron fuckers out and then be hoisted up on his cornermen’s shoulders chanting “JIU-JITSU! JIU-JITSU! JIU-JITSU!” Makes sense.

 

Jean Matsumoto vs Dan Argueta. Don’t have a clue on this. Never seen Matsumoto but on paper he sounds like a solid signing. He’s Brazilian, 24 years old and undefeated at 14-0. He won a decision on DWCS in September and fought in LFA before that. Argueta also fought in LFA and was their Bantamweight champ for a minute. He’s 30 years old with a 9-2-1 record and has had one of the weirdest starts to a UFC run I can remember. He was unbeaten when he signed, lost a decision to Damon Jackson in his debut, won a decision against Nick Aguirre…then had 2 straight No Contests! I’m sure there’s other examples but I can’t recall one off the top of my head where someone’s had back-to-back NCs. The first one he ‘subbed’ Ronnie Lawrence but it got overturned because Lawrence apparently didn’t tap. Then he lost a decision to Miles Johns only for Johns to get popped for PEDs, so that one also got overturned. Proper shambles. Wonder if Argueta can go for the hat-trick here and get a third straight NC?

 

Cesar Almeida vs Dylan Budka. Fuck knows? Both are making their UFC debuts and I’ve never seen either guy fight before. Almeida was actually supposed to have his debut late last year against Christian Leroy Duncan but pulled out injured. So here we are. He’s 36 years old and only 4-0 in MMA. A late starter for MMA but he’s an experienced and seasoned striker.

He went 47-8-1-1 as a Kickboxer, won 27 by knockout, fought in GLORY and actually went 1-2 in a trilogy with Alex Pereira. He’s long in the tooth to be learning MMA now and fuck knows what his ground game is like, if it even exists! His first 3 fights in MMA were all quick knockouts, although he did go the distance and win on points in his last fight on DWCS in August. We’ll see. Budka is stepping in on late notice, replacing Josh Fremd. He’s 24 years old and 7-2 with just 3 finishes. Like seemingly every new signing these days, he’s from DWCS as well. He won by decision on there back in September. Not much more to say about this but I was looking forward to Almeida’s debut last year so hopefully he makes it to the cage this time.

 

Melissa Mullins vs Nora Cornolle is jerking the curtain. Haven’t seen enough of either to give a bollox. Mullins went by Melissa Dixon for her UFC debut in October but Marcel Dorff has her as Mullins now so I guess she got married? She’s 32 years old and from Coventry, so close enough to Brum that I’ve kind of gotta root for her unless she turns out to be a twat. She’s undefeated at 6-0 and beat Irina Alekseeva on points in her first Octagon appearance. She had a decent performance from what I recall. Cornolle is French, 34 years old and 7-1 with 6 finishes. She made her UFC debut on the Paris card in September and beat Joselyne Edwards on points. All 3 judges scored it for Cornolle but I remember a lot of negative reaction to the decision. Barely remember the fight, nor do I really care, but the French crowd booed the decision despite the home fighter getting her hand raised. Speaks volumes really.

 

 

Norma Dumont fight week!

Edited April 6 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Yep, like this one. Lots of crowd pleasers on this.

 

Edited March 26 by Egg Shen

[wandshogun09]

They’ve shuffled the bout order.

I think it’s better now. Moving Dumont vs GDR down from the co-main to the prelims is probably a wise move. Nice to see they’ve promoted my ‘one to watch’ Charriere vs Mariscal to the main card along with Valter Walker’s debut. Looking at this card again now after the shuffle, all 6 fights on the main card interest me to some degree now. Which I don’t say often when it comes to these Apex cards. 8pm prelims start time doesn’t hurt either. 

[wandshogun09]

The Joshua Van fight’s off.

[Egg Shen]

The Apex ladies and gentlemen:

 

 

[Egg Shen]

 

[Carbomb]

Aw, he doesn't look like MMA's Walton Goggins any more

[wandshogun09]

What a shambles this has turned out to be. Four fighters missed weight. All them fucking Easter eggs, I suppose. 

• Alex Hernandez missed weight for the co-main. He’s being fined 20% but the fight is going ahead at a Catchweight.

• Cynthia Calvillo also missed weight. Her fight with Piera Rodriguez has been scrapped. Gotta think Calvillo is a goner now. She was already on a 5 fight losing streak, then comes in 3lbs over the Strawweight limit? Not good.

• Both Melissa Mullins and Nora Cornolle came in 2lbs or so heavy for their fight against each other. It’s going ahead at a Catchweight.

• Alateng Heili dropped out of his scheduled fight against Victor Hugo a few days ago. Octagon newcomer Pedro Falcao steps in.

• The card’s been reshuffled. The Lukasz Brzeski vs Valter Walker fight has been demoted back down to the prelims for some reason and they’re going with a 5 fight main card.

Hopefully that’s it now and all this goes ahead as planned. This is the latest bout order. Didn’t realise this card had an early start time for us either. 8pm prelims isn’t bad.

[Dai]

Surely its just a case of 20% just not being that much of a deterent? Just like the guy in the co main; hes essentially spending probably $10k to have a weight advantage and not have to cut the really hard last couple of pounds. By doing so he drastically increases his chance of winning and getting his win bonus. You know for a fact that these lower level fighters are terrified of pulling out of a fight and pissing off Dana. Seems like a very good risk/reward.

[Egg Shen]

Pros and cons to it, by missing weight they make themselves ineligible for a bonus, and that's a fair chunk of money (usually considerably more than their purse). Continued weight misses probably lead to you getting cut too. 

I quite like the idea of them being docked a point before the fight starts as well as the loss of money.

[wandshogun09]

[wandshogun09]

Again, slow as fuck getting around to this. Between real life shit going on and spending a fair old chunk of the spare time I did have this week watching WrestleMania, this wasn’t high on my list of priorities. Just finally caught up.

Allen vs Curtis 2 turned out to be a very entertaining fight, once again marred by talk about the judging after.

I’ll be honest, I had Curtis winning myself. Wouldn’t call it a flat out robbery like a lot of people are but I felt like he won 3 of the 5 rounds (although I can’t remember which now). I’d have to rewatch, maybe Allen winning 48-47 wouldn’t be an outrageous scorecard. But I felt like Curtis got a raw deal here. And the one judge scoring it 49-46 Allen must’ve been smoking crack because what the fuck? Like I said though, it’s a shame all that shite has detracted from what was a really enjoyable fight.

I said in one of the recent event threads that the Fight Night main events had really been a bit shit so far this year but this was a welcome change from that. And for all my moaning about it in the past, this was actually a Middleweight main event at the Apex that was an exception to the rule compared to the usual dross we get served up.

Allen calling out DDP and Strickland post-fight seems like a waste of time. He’s definitely not getting the next title shot and I can’t see Strickland being interested in rematching him at the minute either. Looking at the rankings, Allen’s at #6 now but he’s been very fortunate to get the win here and I really can’t see his climb up the rankings going much further at all. The logical next fight for him is surely either rebooking that Vettori fight that was supposed to go down on this card, or maybe do Allen vs Cannonier. Those two are ranked just above Allen currently at #4 and #5 so either of them would make sense. Not sure what should be next for Curtis. Wouldn’t mind seeing Allen vs Curtis 3 when Allen inevitably gets derailed and sent back on his way down the ladder a few rungs. They’re 1-1 now and this was close enough, debatable enough and exciting enough to warrant a trilogy decider somewhere down the road, I reckon.

Was well happy to see Damon Jackson and his new Turkey bought hairline get the win over twat face Alex Hernandez. Very satisfying. It was a gruelling, competitive fight but one I felt like Jackson won. I wouldn’t have had a huge problem if Hernandez got the nod, it really could’ve gone either way. But again, how the one judge had it 30-27 Hernandez baffled me. Was he sat cageside with dark glasses, a white stick and a golden retriever?

Had a feeling that Chepe Mariscal vs Morgan Charriere fight was gonna be a fun one and they absolutely didn’t disappoint! There’s a reason I had this highlighted as my ‘one to watch’ even when it was on the prelims. Cracking fight. Was actually pleasantly surprised these two got FOTN. Well deserved, in my opinion, but in situations like this where it’s a choice between a fun main event and a banger prelim, they tend to favour the higher billed fight. I fully expected Allen and Curtis to get the bonus but I’m glad these guys got it. In the short time they’ve both been on the roster, they’ve already cemented themselves for me as ‘must see’ fighters. Not saying either are future champions, or even title contenders, but they’re gonna be can't miss viewing regardless and they’re both great additions to the Featherweight division. Shame this fight was wasted on the Apex. Imagine this in front of a Mexican or French crowd?

Ignacio Bahamondes delivered big time with the only finish on the main card…

Been saying for a while that he’s always worth tuning in to watch. Such an entertaining fighter. If I could choose his next fight, Daniel Zellhuber on the Sphere card for Mexican Independence Day wouldn’t upset me. Almost a guaranteed banger.

Charlie Campbell and Trevor Peek had a fun scrap in the main card opener. Solid performance from Campbell, thought he looked quite sharp here and was clearly the better fighter of the two technically. But what Peek lacks in technique he almost makes up for in toughness. Campbell probably would’ve got the stoppage against most opponents at this kind of level but Peek is granite durable, almost to a fault. Very enjoyable fight.

Alex Morono vs Court McGee just kind of came and went. Didn’t look like the worst fight ever but I didn’t really get into it. Felt like a prelim plucked from a card a decade ago. Just didn’t grab me. Morono won, which seemed like about the result you’d expect in 2024. Saw some talk that McGee should’ve won but I didn’t really take enough notice to keep track of it. McGee just looks done, to be fair. This was his third straight loss on the bounce and he turns 40 this year. Inspirational story with beating heroin addiction and stuff but it’s probably time to start thinking about an exit strategy from MMA.

The Lukasz Brzeski vs Valter Walker fight temporarily cured my insomnia last night when I first tried to watch most of this show. Literally sent me to sleep. I skimmed through it today and thought it was the drizzling shits.

I feel like we got catfished here. Not that I ever expected Valter to take the UFC by storm and rule the Heavyweight division. But he at least looked exciting in the clips I’d seen when he got signed and he seemed to have some of the same wonderful Walker weirdness his brother has. Which is something that the Heavyweight ranks can always do with, in my opinion. He just looked fucking awful though. Genuinely terrible. Mad thing is I thought Brzeski looked even worse somehow. I had Walker winning but it wasn’t pretty and, to be honest, it was such a shitty fight I felt like neither deserved to be called a winner. Can’t wait to not watch both of their next fights.

Norma Cheeks fight was predictably shit. Never expected anything more from this. Dumont gets the W though and moves to #9 in the rankings. Somehow Germaine De Randamie was still ranked going into this fight, despite being inactive for well over 3 years before this fight. That’s the Bantamweight division in 2024 for you! A dull points win over a 40 year old who hasn’t fought in 3+ years gets you a Top 10 spot. Not sure what’s next for either of these two. Maybe Dumont can fight Miesha Tate or something? Although I fear that’s got ‘Apex headliner’ written all over it.

Nice win for Jean Matsumoto in his Octagon debut…

It’s just not happening for Dan Argueta in the UFC though. He came into the UFC undefeated and has gone 0-2-0-2 since. Came into this one off back-to-back No Contests and was giving Matsumoto all he could handle throughout the first and second rounds. Put a frantic pace on him and was wrestling the bollocks off him. Only for Matsumoto to lock in the guillotine and get the tap with literally one second left in the round!

Cesar Almeida got there in the end and it was a nasty finish from him but it wasn’t the most convincing or promising performance for his UFC debut. He was obviously the way better striker and he did manage to keep getting back to his feet when he was taken down. But Budka controlling him so much and taking him down a bunch of times doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence for when he comes up against better opposition. Maybe I’m being harsh. He made the transition from Kickboxing to MMA late and, in fairness, this wasn’t the ideal style opponent for his debut but he got the job done regardless. Calling out Weidman after was a bit surprising. Again, not the best of styles to face if you don’t wanna be repeatedly taken down. Or poked in the eyes.

Wasn’t paying a lot of attention to it but Nora Cornolle wrecked Melissa Mullins in the Fight Pass opener.

Christ. From the bits I was half watching and listening to it seemed like Mullins was doing alright in the first round but that knee to the body just turned it around and all I can say is Mullins was lucky those headkicks landed with the foot instead of the shin, otherwise she’d have been napping on the canvas. Don’t see either amounting to much really and them both missing weight for this fight won’t do them any favours. But it was a good finish.

 

Mixed bag of a show really but having a couple of fights as entertaining as Allen vs Curtis 2 and Mariscal vs Charriere is better than we usually get on these Apex cards, isn’t it? Few stinkers like Dumont vs GDR and Valter Walker’s fight dragged it down unfortunately but there were a couple of fights and finishes that made me not totally regret giving it a look.

Onto 300 we go!